Former Pakistan cricket captain Shahid Afridi, who is locked in a dispute with the Pakistan Cricket Board, has admitted breaching its code of conduct, an official said Wednesday.
The 31-year-old all-rounder abruptly announced his retirement from international cricket on Monday following a spat with coach Waqar Younis, accusing the leadership of the PCB of mistreating him. In response the PCB on Tuesday suspended his central contract, revoked his no-objection certificates, which he officially needs to play abroad, and stopped his contract payment. He was required to explain within seven days why he levelled allegations against the PCB, whose spokesman Nadeem Sarwar said that Afridi had accepted multiple breaches of the code of conduct. “Yes, we have received his reply to the show cause notice in which he has accepted that he violated the code of conduct he signed with the Board,” Sarwar said.
“The next course of action will be decided soon.” After Afridi’s public accusation against Waqar of undue meddling in team selection, the PCB replaced him as one-day captain with Misbah-ul-Haq for a two-match series against Ireland. Afridi withdrew from the Ireland matches to attend his ailing father in the United States. The all-rounder is currently in England to play in the Twenty20 league for Hampshire, but did not take the field Wednesday after the England and Wales Cricket Board ruled him ineligible following the PCB withdrawing permission. Earlier Wednesday the dashing batsman and leg-spinner appealed to Pakistan’s President Asif Zardari to intervene.