Stani Army

Misbah Ul-Haq recently voiced his displeasure at being ignored for the tour of England, and with Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf out of the picture, are the older players deliberately being shunned as the Pakistan team looks to the future?

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 Shahid? What is he hiding?

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