 Shahid Afridi has been appointed as the captain of the Pakistan side which
will play in the ICC World T20 this year in the West Indies. Pakistan is the defending
champions in the ICC World T20 after having lifted the trophy under the captaincy
of Younis Khan last year, by beating Sri Lanka in the finals of the tournament.
this appointment ends weeks of speculation about who will captain the side after
the Pakistani cricket board had penalised or banned some cricketers for their
misdemeanour on their tour of Australia.
Earlier, the Pakistani selectors had announced a 15-member side to tour West
Indies for the ICC World T20. However, at the behest of the PCB, the selectors
had not announced who will lead the side. The chief of the selectors, Mohsin
Khan had then said that it was not the ideal situation but given the circumstances,
there was no other option that the selectors had. He had also added that he
had spoken to PCB chief Ejaz Butt and explained it to him that it was
necessary for the selectors to choose the captain first and then discuss with
him what was the team needed.
After this, the PCB seemed to be deliberating on who the captain would be.
There were many options that PCB had including the likes of Salman Butt, Mohammad
Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq and even Kamran Akmal. With Hafeez named the captain of
the Pakistan A side, it looked like the captaincy was going his way, especially
when it was thought that the PCB was not happy with Afridi's attitude and did
not want him to take up the reigns. Afridi has already been accused of pitch
tampering in the past and now, it was a more serious ball-tampering allegation
that was levied on him. He had been banned for two international games by the
ICC and the PCB had levied a penalty of Rs.3 million on them.
Afridi said, "It's a challenge for me and I accept it. We are going to
the West Indies with only one aim and that is to defend our title". Shahid Afridi also said that the absence of Naved-ul-hasan Rana, Shoaib Malik and
the injured Sohail Tanvir was unfortunate given that they were quality
players and had played under him. Afridi then led the Pakistan team against
the Pakistan A side but could not prevent his side from losing the game by seven
wickets and with two overs to spare. Afridi did not bat or bowl in the game.
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