Stani Army

Blind support for Afridi will only encourage bad behaviour

Fans of Shahid Afridi are beginning to portray him as a hero, someone that has sacrificed himself to get rid of the big problem in Pakistan cricket today, Mr Ijaz Butt the chairman. The question is, was Afridi really motivated by getting rid of Butt or has it always been about Afridi and his bitterness over being removed as ODI captain?

When Afridi was removed as captain, Butt stated that he had good reasons to do so and would reveal them in due course. It seems now, from statements made by coach Waqar Younis and manager Intikhab Alam that the reasons were to do with Afridi’s attitude and behaviour both on and off the field. Afridi responded to his sacking  as captain by announcing his conditional retirement, the condition being that the current Pakistan board be removed. His reason for retiring was that he had been humiliated by them. Losing the captaincy for reasons not made public is hardly a humiliation. Supporters of Afridi should remember that it was in fact just him losing the captaincy and that he wasn’t banned from playing and representing his country, and was in fact in the squad for the two ODIs against Ireland. Afridi chose to abandon his country on his own accord. It is why his later excuse that he’d play under any captain doesn’t quite wash.

Of course he did not quit immediately after being stripped of the leadership. He chose to sit out the Irish games using the reason that his father was ill. The problem was that he then turned up a few days later in England, ready to take up his county stint with Hampshire. In Afridi’s head his plan seemed to be going well, that is until the PCB decided to suspend his contract and revoke his No-Objection Certificate (NOC) after he announced his retirement on television with a few scathing remarks towards the board and coach. The revoking of the NOC caused Afridi to run home to Pakistan with his tail between his legs begging for it to be reauthorised. As soon as his NOC was revoked, all of a sudden he was ready to admit breaking the code of conduct and was keen to participate in any other action from the board, whereas before, he couldn’t care less.

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The outspoken Afridi pays the price

Shahid Afridi has been removed as ODI captain for the upcoming one-day series against Ireland.

The 31-year-old helped guide Pakistan to the semi-finals of the World Cup earlier this year and was also in charge durin the recent 3-2 series victory over the West Indies, but has now been replaced by Misbah-ul-Haq, who will lead the side for the two games against Ireland in Belfast later this month.

“Afridi has been retained as a player in the one-day squad but the captaincy has gone to Misbah” the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt said.

Afridi recently spoke out against the PCB and accused them of interfering with his role as captain of the 50-over side during the recent series win in the Caribbean.

Pakistan’s governing body then responded disputing the accusation, and while they refused to give a reason for Afridi leaving the role, they maintained that it was PCB policy to monitor the role of captain on a “series by series basis”.

Afridi stepped down from the test side last summer and returned home following the conclusion of the series against the West Indies.

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With an emphatic win over Ireland, Pakistan do not now have to worry about run rates becoming a factor in qualification for the semi-finals.

Batting first, it was a weird kind of innings with Pakistan always threatening to charge but not quite getting away. Credit must go to the Irish bowlers, in particular big Boyd Rankin who gave a measly 11 runs off his four overs.

Kamran Akmal had another brilliant game both with the bat and with the gloves. With his 57 off 51 balls, it was the perfect innings for the batsmen coming in at the other end to have a go. Afridis 24 off just 13 balls was probably the other valuable innings because of his strike rate.

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Pakistan set the tournament alight with a brilliant victory over a very good New Zealand side.

The game marked the return of Abdul Razzaq to the international side and his breakthrough early in the New Zealand innings was vital in what was to follow and thus cannot be underestimated. He had a good day with the ball (2 for 17) although he didn’t get going with the bat; still not being able to play spinners the poor sod.

The star of the show was obviously Umar Gul with his record breaking figures of 5 for 6. It was the first time anyone has taken a 5-for in International Twenty20. Amazingly, he was on a hat-trick twice but never managed to convert either. In his interview after, he spoke of working on the yorkers and slower balls with coach Aqib Javed and said that he watched videos of Waqar and Wasim and boy did it show. Those figures will take some beating, and the fact that he is also number 3 and 7 on the Twenty20 best figures list, shows it wasn’t just luck.

Afridi was once again mesmeric with the ball and took, in our opinion, the best catch of the tournament so far.

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Pakistan came unstuck in their first game of the super 8 stage. The difference between the two teams was the manner in which each began their innings.

Pakistan’s pace men were guilty once again of giving the opposition and lightning start. Instead of going for glory, they need to bowl economically and not put pressure on their team mates. They should have been intelligent enough to realise the wicket taking role of our spinners in this tournament and thus complimented them by bowling tight and creating pressure. The Sri Lankan pace men, though slower, bowled excellent line and length and put our batsmen under pressure, causing wickets to fall. It made the difference in the end.

Though Gul did take two wickets, this was later in the innings when the ball was older. He should recognise this and bowl accordingly i.e. conservative new-ball first spell, attacking old-ball second. We must give credit to Aamer who showed the more experienced men how to bowl. With Razzaq back in contention

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With Pakistan searching for a home to host Australia next year, the minnows of Ireland and Scotland are emerging as favourites. It has been banded about that one of the reasons for this is that it would help the minnows get more competitive cricket. Pakistan has done a lot for smaller nations in the past (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh) and still is with Afghanistan and China, but the simple reason that the PCB would go for Ireland or Scotland to host their matches is cost.

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