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.
Excerpts of their reports were published in a daily newspaper, fuelling a public slanging match between the star player, who announced his retirement last week, and Pakistani cricket management.
“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, which forced the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to serve him with a show-cause notice. It then replaced him as captain.
In protest, Afridi announced his retirement from international cricket last week, saying he would not play under the current PCB set-up headed by chairman Ijaz Butt.
The PCB said Afridi violated the players’ code of conduct. It suspended his central contract and revoked permission for him to play abroad, preventing him from playing for Hampshire in England.
The PCB then formed a three-man committee and summoned Afridi to appear on June 8. His lawyer has said he will not attend.
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”.
The Afridi controversy has again rocked Pakistan cricket, still reeling from the aftermath of a spot-fixing scandal which ended in lengthy bans on Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer.
mature to ijaz butt or waqar younus hain ye waqar g b na abhi tk khud ko star smjhty hain jaisy 10 saal phly thy
Waqar and Intikhab have done a splendid job in bring some discipline to a predominantly wild bunch and getting results out of hem. Afridi suffers from more than one mental deficiency. The manner and timing of all his dismissals during the last year or so confirm that he is neither sound of judgement nor a leaner. Waqar is justified in feeling frustrated if his advice has been ignored each time because it is unlikely Afridi will not have been advised to show commonsense and responsibility in the middle. His contributions are massively over rated; in 5 matches in the WI, his batting average is around 12 and only 2 wickets in the whole tour. That is what is called a passenger. Above all, anyone who things he is above rules should never be allowed to represent the country! We are again the laughing stock in the international media on cricket matters.
intikhab alam himself has said that even waqar's behaviour created problems for the team sometimes.. if afridi is asking for the rights than he is not at fault. he has to run the team in the groung so he must be allowed to pick the playing 11. afridi has said that he is answerable to the nation if the team loses. but when he is not allowed to select the playing 11 of his own will than what he could do. certainly than he would be frustrated!!
leave afridi alone!
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