Pakistan cricket continues to embroil itself in self inflicted problems, just when the fans begin to take a sigh of relief thinking that the discords within the team have been settled or repercussions of the latest scandal are over, the players and the management brew a new problem out of nowhere.
In the latest episode of Pakistan cricket’s never ending soap opera ” Shahid Afridi has announced retirement from international cricket after he was stripped off from captaincy of Pakistan’s Odi team.
The root cause of the current crisis was an altercation between Waqar Younis and Afridi during the Caribbean tour, it was reported that Waqar Younis and the team management were dominating the tour selection committee and marginalized the Captain for which which Afridi rightfully protested in front of the media upon his return from the tour. He was immediately issued a warning, later on Afridi withdrew himself from the Irish tour due to his father’s illness but when PCB stripped him of the Odi captaincy he announced his retirement.
To a sane mind it would seem highly strange that how a simple issue of difference of opinion between the management and the captain got so out of control that first the management had to strip a sitting captain of his job for issuing a harmless statement in the media and as a result the captain who also happens to be Pakistan’s ” MVP” in the limited overs format for quite some time had to announce his retirement from international cricket citing his inability to play under current management.
Recently the SriLankan team went through a lot of changes nobody announced their retirement, the English team removed Collingwood from Captaincy of their T20 team. The Australian made Ricky Ponting to step down from captaincy, The WICB removed Gayle not only from captaincy but also from the team. If the rest of the world can undergo these changes smoothly why is that Cricket Pakistan can’t deal with these issues like simple managerial routines?
In my opinion the arguments within Pakistan cricket are never based on principles they always stem from power struggle, the desire for power and control stems from corruption which is rampant in Pakistan cricket. Every body wants the Lions share, the management by controlling the team and using the players as puppets and the captains want the Lions share since they have to bite the bullet after every unsuccessful tournament.
Why Ijaz But wanted to reward Misbah by making him the captain of Pakistan’s Odi team? Was it because he single handedly lost the WC semi final? Or for losing a test and drawing a test series against a team which can’t beat even a decent club side in Pakistan? Why Waqar Younis wants to control the team selection his main job is coaching he is not the selector he doesn’t lead the team on the field he is not ultimately responsible for the team’s performance in front of the media?
The reason is simple, given his role in corruption in the past and his decision to step down of the coaching job under Nasim Ashraf when he was told that he won’t travel with the team and will only work in the academy, tells us a lot why he wants to take control of the team.
I have never been a huge fan of Afridi as I have always considered him one of the players who have always been involved in power struggle and even though I think that he was wronged in the current situation but I think like his predecessors he was destined to be treated the same way. The one thing which disgusts me the most about Afridi and his fans is that they always play the regional card when things don’t go their way, I would have been more sympathetic to him if he had exposed the management and the coach or the so called Lahore Lobby, but I guess his hands are also dirty so he can’t speak the truth and can only play dirty politics.
By making jingoistic statements in the press Afridi has lost a lot of vital support, most of the Ex players who were very vocal for him are now criticizing him, I don’t mind his criticism of Mohammad Ilyass but he also hit out at players forming a group against him within the team which in my opinion wasn’t the right thing to do, even if he makes a come back he won’t be able to mend his relations with the players.
Under the current Government we won’t see Ijaz Butt getting removed from the office and even if he gets removed he will leave behind an orgainzation which has become inherently corrupt. No captain will survive under the current administration unless he agrees to act like a puppet.
Pakistan cricket is on the verge of getting completely destroyed, the current team is extremely limited in talent we haven’t developed any new players and are destroying the career of the existing stars one by one, and this is all happening because of vested interests and wide spread corruption in PCB.
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