One person that seems to have come out smelling of roses from all the troubles of the recent past is Shahid Afridi. Stanis may remember that last October, Afridi had a meeting with the Chairman of the PCB and rumours began spreading that plans were afoot for Afridi to take over as captain in all three formats. Afridi denied this at the time and insisted that he would never go against the then reluctant captain, Younis Khan, and that the meeting was purely in regards to preparation for the World Twenty20, which he was about to lead the team into.

Shahid Afridi: Power hungry megalomaniac or innocent patriot?

Fast forward seven or so months and Shahid Afridi is now Pakistan’s Test, ODI and Twenty20 captain with Younis and Yousuf nowhere to be seen and Misbah completely ignored. Coincidence? You decide. Consider the fact that prior to Afridi’s meeting with Butt last October, Younis had handed in his resignation and it was not accepted by the Chairman both at the PCB offices and later in the car. It seems strange that such obvious support of Younis by the Chairman has waned and become muted.

Certainly Afridi’s lame excuse in his recent statement in regards to the exclusion of Younis from the squad did little to allay the suspicion: “I wanted Younis to be in the team but, besides the issue of his recent form, there was also a bit of a disciplinary issue with Younis”.  The funny thing is that you can take that quote and swap the name ‘Younis’ for a number of Pakistani players. In fact, you could put ‘Afridi’ in there too and it would fit. Making excuses Shaihd? What is he hiding?

“It would be great for us because he is really a good captain and we enjoy playing under him”. Afridi’s view on Younis, October 2009.

“I wanted Younis to be in the team but, besides the issue of his recent form, there was also a bit of a disciplinary issue with Younis”. Afridi, now captain, on Younis, June 2010.

So, did Afridi and Ijaz Butt etch out plans last October in which the older players would be eased out of the national side and the captaincy given to Afridi so he could take a newer, younger team forward? One gets the impression that the board began feeling that the older members of the squad were more difficult to handle. It was evident that whenever there was a squad issue, players would generally go to one of the senior players which created divisions and factions, leading to the undermining of authority, be it that of the captain, coach or the administration of the PCB. With the current state of affairs, the PCB are basically telling us that it was the older players that were the real trouble makers.

“When so many people with varying temperaments are thrown together for several weeks or months on a tour, things of course cannot always be trouble-free”. Shahid Afridi October 2009.

More recent evidence to support this is when it came to light that many of the selectors were not consulted in regards to the make-up of the squad currently in England. From the statements made, it is obvious that some of these selectors supported the inclusion of Younis Khan. Was this the reason they were not consulted?

“I have certain ideas about grooming some of the younger players and building a solid team for 2010″. Afridi October 2009, when asked about his Twenty20 captaincy ideas.

Looking forward, it will probably be easy for the board to ignore Misbah by using the excuse of his bad form. They will rely on Younis to always be in a huff, making their job of excluding him easier. The problem will come when Mohammed Yousuf decides to come out of his retirement, something which he intends to do for the series in the UAE against South Africa beginning in October. The real intentions of the PCB will be realised then. They are probably hoping that one of the youngsters steps into the void and cements his position in the team so there are no spots available and the argument ends there.

Whether what is happening is a bad thing, I’m not sure, because it means that Pakistan cricket is moving forward. The problems arise when one man, Afridi in this case, realises the power he has, and so abuses it, or his team mates begin to harbour resentment towards him because of it.

The good thing is that Test game is much slower paced than Twenty20 and will give Afridi time to think over any decisions and confer with other players. He would also be able to get the input of the coaching staff during drinks breaks, at the end of sessions and at the close of play.

Apart from Afridi, who else is there as possible Test captain? The only other likely candidate, Younis Khan, is still serving his indefinite ban and is waiting on his appeal to be heard. This hearing will definitely not come in time for for him to be considered for the ODI captaincy as his appeal has been adjourned until the 29th of this month with the Asia Cup captain to be named on the 25th. Chances are that the Asia cup captain will probably be Afridi, and this, along with Younis’ ban and Afridi’s desire to return to the Test side, may have made the decision to keep him as Test captain merely a formality. With Afridi’s request in the media of a quick resolution to the damaging allegations surrounding the Pakistan team, he is beginning to sound the part of captain at least.

As a player, I think his return to the Test scene will give us a much more potent and balanced side. The argument is that his batting is not up to Test standard but I have argued in the past that he could make our Test side on his abilities with the ball alone. Also, those critics will probably be surprised to learn that his Test average is a more than respectable 37.40, with 5 centuries in 46 innings. In the recent past we have struggled for the breakthrough and his attacking variety of spin would be perfect for such a situation. We have also had problems getting past 300 runs as a team and the option of Afridi’s spin could then give us the option of dropping Saeed Ajmal/Danish Kaneria for an extra batsmen.

I think he will make the Test side on merit, and be given the cataincy because there simply is no other choice. Nevertheless, with the likes of Shoaib Malik out of the way, he has a chance to develop into a good Test captain with a young team and two new coaches that are right behind him.

Though the openers did very well against Bangladesh, they became unstuck against Australia, who look like a force to be reckoned with having got their selection right this time around. Salman Butt played a nice knock in the first game but, and there’s always a but with Salman, he let himself down when it really mattered. It’s fine to do well against Bangladesh but his poor innings against Australia, a game in which Butt-er fingers also dropped catch, has made his Bangladesh innings pretty much insignificant in my eyes. The question mark is still there; will Butt deliver with the bat when it’s really needed? I’ve certainly given up on him ever improving his fielding. I just feel Imran Nazir should be here in his place, as Mohammad Hafeez could quite easily have played the consolidatory role Butt is probably in the line-up for. Added to his batting, Nazir is also one of our best fielders.

Captain Shahid Afridi also needs to step up his game. Not only has his batting and bowling been poor, but so has his captaincy. Clapping the Salman Butt dropped catch is just not good enough. Imran khan would have stared at Butt until he disintegrated into the ground beneath him. These are grown men; there is no place for these niceties. Watch an Australia drop a catch and watch the reaction of the captain and bowler, and you could bet they won’t be clapping their hands.

Afridi also made a mistake by persisting with both Sami and Hafeez when they were leaking runs. I think Mohammad Asif needs to come in for Mohammad Sami, and be given his four overs up-front in which he could use the new ball to give us some high-class seam bowling. I was not sure why Abdul Razzaq was not bowling. It may be a personal choice of Razzaq’s so we cannot criticise the captain for that although it was Razzaq’s bowling that dragged us up off the floor in the last Twenty20 World Cup with some crucial wickets. Afridi needs to realise fast that he cannot rigidly stick to a game plan. Captains must be ready to adapt to conditions and any developments in play.

As we look forward to the rest of the tournament, the Australian game showed that Pakistan still have this inferiority complex when playing any western nation team. They need to change their mentality and play like Champions. They need to show that this Cup is theirs and that they are the best team in Twenty20 cricket not by luck, but on merit.

The last mention must go to Mohammad Aamer, who continues to be the shining light of Pakistan cricket. For an 18-year old to bowl a maiden 5-wicket last over in a World Cup game against arguably the strongest team, is not only a first, but probably a last. And it could only be a Pakistani kid couldn’t it?

Actually, sorry Aamer, I changed my mind. The last mention must go to Shane Watson, who is a living example that you do not have to have manners, be a decent person or be mature to be a cricketer. There is no place in cricket for swearing Shane. The “F… off” you directed at Saeed Ajmal was not only quite clearly visible, but also audible. Grow up Shane.

Yes, Pakistan managed to win something eventually but this win must not paper over the cracks like wins such as this have done so in the past. The management, coaching and captaincy issues still remain, not to mention the fact that we still are yet to find a settled opening pair and a reliable middle order.

Abdul Razzaq: Single handedly stopped the run of Pakistan’s 10 straight losses in all forms

What was obvious in both Twenty20s was that they followed a pattern which has become synonymous with Pakistan’s recent performances in that they found themselves in winning positions only to relinquish their hold on the game. But for the brilliance of Abdul Razzaq in the second Twenty20, this pattern would have continued for eleven straight games. Once again, it would be easy to use this as an excuse that only a few tweaks are needed here and there but you don’t lose ten games in a row if your problems are small and easily fixed.

One interesting call which came from the guys at MTJAG, was to make Abdul Razzaq captain. Before you dismiss it, consider the fact that none of our current candidates are obviously suitable and the problems we have had in bringing back the same old faces to take over as captain in the past. Would a new face in the role be a better option? Certainly, he seems respected among the players and is increasingly becoming a vital cog in the Pakistan team since his return from the ICL. It was his call-up to the World Twenty20 team which coincided with Pakistan’s up-turn and eventually lead to us being crowned World Champions. Could Razzaq be the perfect candidate to build a new team around? Many of you may have noticed his reaction after he bludgeoned the ball for six to take Pakistan home in the second Twenty20. It was the reaction of a determined and hungry man as his after-match comments clearly showed: “I was telling Fawad we should win this one. I was saying ‘you can, you will’ and we did”. Certainly, we could do with more of that attitude from all of our players.

Shoaib Malik also showed some intelligent batting although his bowling has a lot to be desired. It’s frustrating that Malik does not show this with his bat regularly enough. Someone else that also impressed and took his chances unlike in the past, was Fawad Alam. If we are to go with the ‘out with the old and in with the new’ route, then guys like him

A West Ham United flag (background) draped over the stands in Dubai

will be an integral part of the rebuilding process. With only six members of the World Cup winning squad out in Dubai, and the suspension of annual player contracts, it is clear that no one is certain of their places. With the Twenty20 World Cup around the corner, Pakistan needs to reorganise quickly if we are to defend our crown as Twenty20 World Champions.

Finally, I’d just like to send a shout out to the West Ham fans that watched the games out in Dubai and were spotted in the stands with their West Ham flags and banners. Come on you Irons!

Since our last look at the captaincy issue, Misbah, a potential contender, has been out of favour in the team so therefore cannot be considered this time around. This leaves Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan; the words spoilt for choice don’t exactly spring to mind. Any left-field suggestions are welcome. It would be interesting to see who would win a captaincy vote amongst the players. Maybe that would be the way to go in order to mend the different factions and cliques that have emerged within the team.

Since Inzamam retired, no one has managed to hold the role for any significant period of time for one reason or the other. I think whoever is chosen now, as long as he is chosen carefully, they need to stick with him for a reasonable period of time so that even if he does start off badly, he has the chance to improve.

Shoaib Malik: if he is to be believed, has "no interest" in captaining Pakistan, & Inzamam retires: difficult shoes to fill

I’m certain the next captain will also be working with a new coach as it is looking increasingly likely that Intikhab’s time is up. This aspect should be taken into consideration also and the new captain should be given a fair chance to work with the new coach in implementing ideas.

The decision of keeping one captain for all forms will also have to be made. If that is the case, which one of the contenders would get into the side in every format? So, do we excuse Afridi, give Yousuf a longer go, forgive Younis or has Malik’s time now come?

Captains take a bite. Maybe there was something wrong with the Australian food?

Afridi was being touted for captain in the Test and ODI formats and I would not have minded. He made a good case with his recent performances and showed signs of maturity but his actions here have got me wondering if he really has matured. Yes, every team probably does it Shahid, but I doubt they use their teeth and make it so blatantly obvious. He may as well have gone up to umpire Asoka De Silva and asked to use his dentures. And when quizzed on Pakistani television, why on earth did he come out with the excuse that he was smelling the ball? He would have even been better off saying that he was starving because of the poor Australian cuisine.

Afridi has history of course. In a game against England, he walked onto the middle of the pitch and preceded to do a few pirouettes to scuff up the track with his spikes. Highly subtle once again. Yet maybe he should have used his spikes on the ball this time by stepping on it as it obviously legal as it worked for Stuart Broad in the recent match against South Africa where he got away with it.

Stuart Broad, sinking his spikes into the ball & doing "nothing wrong"

And the difference between what Broad and Afridi did? Nothing. So why did he get away with it? Well it’s obvious, Broad is an Englishman. Broad knew what he was doing and as soon as the allegations emerged, the English PR machine went into overdrive with Broad being “astonished” by the allegations, Strauss calling them “malicious” and Cook being angry since they’d done “nothing wrong”. At the time, Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Simon Wilde of The Sunday Times had suggested that the outcome would have been far different if the bowler who did it was from Pakistan. It is clear this difference they spoke of is being shown to some extent in how Afridi’s actions were dealt with. If you look at the effect it has on the ball, surely metal spikes are worse than the enamel that teeth are made of? But I guess in the eyes of the ICC, a Pakistani is worse than an Englishman too.

What Afridi did was wrong and embarrassing, but that and what Broad did shows why it continues to pay to be from certain countries. Just ask Sulieman Benn who was suspended after an incident with Mitchell Johnson and the saint that is Brad Haddin. Haddin, who instigated the clash, and Johnson who clearly makes physical contact with Benn first (at 3 minutes 55 secs), were only fined a fraction of their match fees, whereas Benn was banned, after the match referee had finished analysing his findings. That match referee was Broad’s daddy Chris, by the way. If you don’t want to call it racism, then call it whatever you will, but what it is, is obvious.

And whilst mentioning the run out between Salman Butt and Mohammad Yousuf in the 1st innings of the 3rd Test, he writes:

“This move has the potential to replicate either a brilliant attacking masterpiece by Sehwag or the chaos of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Salman Butt gesturing at each other after having failed to complete an easy single”

Inzamam Ian? You mean Yousuf right? Concentrate now, criticise one Pakistani at a time. This disease is similar to the one Tiny Greig was showing symptoms of during the ICL when he kept referring to the Lahore Badshahs as ‘Pakistan’. Very professional I must say. O the burden of ignorance!

Result! My stock’s risen and I didn't even play!

As Pakistan supporters, we’re all frustrated and upset by the meek manner in which our team has surrendered to an Australian side that runs more on mental toughness than it does cricketing skill. Yet, to blame Mohammad Yousuf’s captaincy for the situation our team currently finds itself in is quite unfair. Dr Abbasi has been an outspoken supporter of Younis Khan as captain in the past and maybe his overly harsh criticism of Yousuf this time has something to do with this.

Yousuf has taken over at a difficult time with very little captaincy experience. We mustn’t forget that it was Younis who chickened out of the tours to New Zealand and Australia. Maybe he knew that staying in the background while Pakistan lose in Australia would make him look a better captain. Sadly, through the eyes of some it has.

It is extremely difficult to set fields or captain when your players cannot do the basics in the field or their job with the bat. A captain is only as good as his players. Until the last innings, Ponting hadn’t done much, he even made the mistake of batting first in the 2nd Test, but he’s soon going to find himself as the winning captain in a 3-0 series whitewash. Why? Because he could rely on his players. Yousuf, on the other hand, had nothing to fall back on. Nobody questioned Yousuf’s captaincy in New Zealand. Nobody questioned Yousuf’s captaincy in the 1st innings of the second Test. The difference was that the players were performing to some degree. Yet what of the roles of the coaching staff in this? Any blame Yousuf is deserving of must surely be shared by Intikhab Alam and Waqar Younis who don’t strike me as the finest examples of human intelligence.

For Dr Abbasi to say “nothing has been more dismal than the captaincy of Mohammad Yousuf” is blatantly incorrect. If any are to blame more than Yousuf, then it’s those that have dropped catches, Dr Abbasi’s namesake in particular, and those that haven’t scored well. It isn’t Yousuf’s captaincy that has played Ponting’s batsmen into “glorious form” as Dr Abbasi says, it’s those men. Had we taken just our catches, Yousuf would look a genius right now. But what does a captain do when he’s captaining a bunch of clowns?

Mohammad Yousuf: Took over in difficult circumstances & let down by team

Dr Abbasi was also critical of Yousuf for the fields our bowlers bowled to and the manner in which they bowled. Don’t our bowlers have a mind of their own? Don’t they know where to bowl? Bowlers can demand changes to fields, you see others teams bowlers doing it so why couldn’t ours? A simple question to ask is if we were to take Yousuf out of the side and put in another captain would we have been in a much better position right now? Well, the manner in which we batted and fielded, I doubt it. How can anyone attribute most blame to Yousuf’s captaincy then?

I think what fuelled Dr Abbasi’s disgust even more was listening to the Australian commentators such as Shane Warne, Richi Benaud and Mark Taylor; men that Dr Abbasi refers to as “some of the greatest Australian minds”. I did speak about the dangers of listening to these commentators on a previous post as their blatant biasness would leave many Pakistan supporters’ judgment skewed and end up filing them with rage. Mark Taylor isn’t the best friend of Pakistan as anyone who had listened to him in the wake of Bob Woolmer’s death and the Lahore attacks would know. Richie Benaud is someone who makes sly and cocky statements and really should tone down his cockiness in his old age as it is not a way to go for someone who doesn’t have long to go. As for the great Shane Warne, is it his womanising, match fixing or illegal substance taking greatness which makes his opinion so valid? Also, there were reasons why he was never made Australian captain.

Many people may still believe that Younis is a better captain than Yousuf, and in some ways, I’ll probably agree. But to criticise him this much for our current situation is very unfair. But whatever his downfalls, at least Yousuf hasn’t run off yet like a certain someone. Mohammad Yousuf may not be the greatest captain in the world, but this decent man certainly doesn’t deserve to be shamed like this.

Waqar Younis, may soon have more to juggle

Added to this is the fact that Pakistan already have a bowling coach in Aaqib Javed, current assistant to Intikhab. There’s been no mention thus far of Aaqib taking a break for the Australian series so what is it that he will be doing if Waqar is going to be bowling coach?

Stani Army were not the biggest supporters of Intikhab’s appointment as it seemed very much an old-school, backward step after the good work done by the late Bob Woolmer and former coach Geoff Lawson. The recent series in New Zealand must have raised concerns over the coaching attributes of Intikhab as a number of catches were put down by the Pakistan players. Having said that, Waqar was not the best of fielders in his time so having him as fielding coach too, seems a bit bizarre. May be ‘fielding coach’ was put in to his title so that people would not ask why we needed both Waqar and Aaqib as bowling coaches, but I don’t think it has worked.

Intikhab Alam & Aaqib Javed, current coach and assistant

It’s interesting that Waqar’s previous coaching stint with the International side was during Bob Woolmer’s time as coach. This must have worked in Waqar’s favour this time around as he was certain to have picked up valuable skills from someone who was regarded as one of the top coaches in the world.

Young apprentice mimics his master

If Waqar does take over, it will be a very popular choice among both the Pakistan players and supporters. It will go some way in lifting some of the recent doom and gloom from the captaincy fiasco. Should Waqar come in and choose his assistant(s) carefully, we could have what may turn out to be a very successful appointment.