The Pakistan Cricket Board on Thursday managed to remove Shahid Afridi from captaincy following his media outburst against team management and handed over the leadership to Test captain Misbahul Haq.
Afridi captained the team to the World Cup semi-finals where they lost to India and recently also guided them to a 3-2 win over a depleted West Indies in the ODI series in the Caribbean.
Misbah now after completing his Test assignment against the West Indies will lead the team in two one-day matches against Ireland later this month.
The PCB chairman met chief selector Mohsin Khan on Wednesday to finalise the team and the captain and after reviewing the overall performance of Afridi and his behaviour, he was sacked. Now Afridi will play as an ordinary player in the team under Misbah. But how would he perform in the side would be a big question because as sources close to the teams said, he has done more damage to the team than any other player.
Reports from the dressing room said that it was Afridi who got sacked Shoaib Malik from not only captaincy but also from the team, developed differences between Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhter, removed Younus Khan and despite his poor batting performance he maintained a place in the team.
“Afridi has been retained as a player in the one-day squad but the captaincy has gone to Misbah,” PCB chairman Ijaz Butt said while going into the details of the decision.
Afridi miffed the PCB bosses with his statement on his return from the Caribbean early this month and told the media that he was not happy with people interfering in his work.
Although the all-rounder didn’t name the interferer but media reports said he had developed differences with head coach Waqar Younis over team selection issues.
The PCB issued a notice to Afridi to explain his conduct as he had violated the players’ code of conduct with his statement on team affairs.
Butt made it clear Afridi had never been given any assurances regarding the captaincy. He pointed out that the present policy of the board was to appoint captain on a series-to-series basis. Afridi had struggled with bat and ball in the one-day series in the West Indies but has been leading the national team in limited overs cricket since early 2010 while Misbah has been Test captain since last year.
The national selectors have made no changes in the Test squad playing in the West Indies at present but included Afridi and senior batsman Younus Khan in the side for the Ireland matches.
Younus had returned home before the first Test in the West Indies due to the death of his elder brother.
Pakistan squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (Captain), Younis Khan, Taufiq Umar, Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Salman,Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Tanvir Ahmed, Hammad Azam.
