Shahid Afridi May Never See the Pakistan Captain Role Again, Says PCB Chief

In the words of the Pakistan Cricket Board chief, the flamboyant all rounder may have wished away his own captaincy ambitions. Will Shahid Afridi then stick to his retirement plan?

Shahid Afridi

In a sensational twist, Shahid Afridi announced his retirement from Pakistan cricket following his being sacked as the Pakistan ODI captain and replaced by the Pakistan Test captain, Misbah ul Haq. Afridi blasted the Pakistan Cricket Board taking on Ijaz Butt and claiming that he would not contemplate coming out of retirement until Butt was removed from his post.

However, the PCB have maintained that they have enough against Afridi to keep him away from the Pakistan captaincy post. Butt reiterated that as much when he spoke to a television channel. In fact Butt claimed that Afridi cannot forget about regaining the role of the Pakistan captain any time in the future.

While Afridi had appealed high and low ever since he was called for a disciplinary committee and lost his captaincy and even dragged the PCB to court, Butt felt that Afridi had politicized the issue enough to warrant keeping him out of the position. Cricket related issues were turned political with Afridi appealing for others of influence to intervene in the matter and Butt felt that was unbecoming of someone who had held the post.

However, Butt himself is under tremendous pressure with reports of his own sacking imminent for sometime now. The manner in which the spot fixing scandal went down in England was not one of Pakistan cricket’s finest hours and it put Butt in a tough spot even as he was already facing a tough time trying to bring cricket back to Pakistan. With the Pakistan Task Team recommending that the PCB downscale the role of the chairman, there is undoubtedly great deal of pressure on the PCB chief to retain his own post.

His take then on Shahid Afridi must be seen as a way of saving his own skin over what has been a rather murky business that has sidelined Pakistan cricket once more. With Afridi challenging Butt head on, Butt is perhaps appealing to strengthen his case by taking Afridi down on his weakness. Afridi has been a trouble child as he has been in the thick of trouble crated by his peers. On this occasion though, when Afridi wanted Waqar Younis silenced over his so called interference, he did not count on losing the captaincy.

Now the PCB chief blaming Afridi for the distraction that saw Pakistan lose the final two matches of the three ODI series against the West Indies, Butt is taking Afridi on, given that there has been speculation on whether Afridi himself will reconsider putting his name up once more selection after making his retirement public in rather strong terms. Undoubtedly this is not the last one has heard from either men. What is tough though is the fact that neither the former Pakistan captain nor the present PCB chief has seen it fit not to wash their dirty laundry in public, ignorant of the damage this fall out is doing on an already troubled Pakistan cricket turf.As matters usually pan out, never say never is usually apt for Pakistan cricket.