Azhar Ali has agreed to continue as Pakistan’s ODI captain after a request by him to resign, over the presence of Mohammad Amir at the training camp in Lahore for the national team, was rejected by the PCB.
“Azhar Ali met the chairman PCB [Shaharyar Khan]. He tendered his resignation. The chairman didn’t accept his resignation, Azhar Ali agreed and he will continue as captain,” the PCB said in a statement.
Azhar, along with Mohammad Hafeez, had refused to join the camp earlier, but had finally relented following a meeting with Shaharyar Khan. Azhar had agreed to join the camp, but had said he would need time to decide on his role as captain.
Amir is in the selection mix for the first time after his five-year ban for spot-fixing in the 2010 Lord’s Test. He was one of the 26 probables named for Pakistan’s pre-season conditioning camp. Azhar and Hafeez were originally scheduled to join the camp after completing domestic matches, but they did not do so. Azhar went on to state that he would not attend the camp “as long as Amir is there”. After their meeting with Khan, though, the PCB chairman had said: “I do respect their concerns but some of them, I told them, are not acceptable. So they understood and confirmed that they are on the same page with us.”