Pakistan coach Waqar Younis and manager Intikhab Alam criticised former captain Shahid Afridi as “immature and unwilling to listen,” according to tour reports leaked to the media Tuesday. “As captain I feel he is still very immature, has poor discipline, lacks game plan and is unwilling to listen to others’ opinion or advice,” wrote Waqar of the West Indies tour where Afridi led the team to a 3-2 win in May. Afridi last month publicly accused Waqar of “undue meddling” in team selection. After Afridi announced his retirement last week, the PCB suspended his central contract and revoked permission for him to play abroad.
In his report, Waqar said coaching staff had failed to improve Afridi’s behaviour, saying that “sometimes his volatile and immature nature have proved detrimental and led to unfortunate outcome of the game losses”. Waqar said Afridi created a fuss during the fourth and fifth one-day match on the West Indies tour. “Afridi came into the meetings with a decisive mindset and was refusing to discuss the playing 11 options for the team and behaved very inappropriately and walked out of the meeting,” wrote Waqar in his report. “Afridi’s attitude and unwillingness to sort out matters led to a very uncomfortable dressing room environment which affected the players’ performance, resulting in the last two losses of the series.” Alam, who said he tried his “best to defuse the situation”, said Afridi walked out of the room and blamed Waqar for being a “little harsh and arrogant which creates problems”.
