Afridi won’t lead Pakistan in future: PCB

World Cup captain Shahid Afridi will not lead Pakistan in future, Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butt said on Thursday. Butt reiterated to Geo Super television that it was his constitutional right to appoint the captain before every single series, even though last week the ICC recommended to the PCB that Butt lose the privilege to improve the team.
“As far as I am concerned, he is not a captain material for the PCB anymore,” Butt said. “He has done well in the past; he’s been a good cricketer for Pakistan. There’s no doubt about it.”
Afridi, one of Pakistan’s greatest limited-overs players, was dumped as captain by Butt in May after beating West Indies in the Caribbean. That prompted his international retirement and an outburst against Butt and the PCB for making captaincy an issue this year.
Afridi took the PCB to court to reissue his clearance to play overseas and dropped the case after agreeing to meet Butt, plead guilty to misconduct and a fine of 4.5 million rupees ($52,000). Afridi got his clearance and is representing Hampshire in the English county Twenty20 championship.
Butt said a former provincial governor and former prime minister rang him to urge clearance be given to Afridi but he said he did not feel pressured.
“Governor Sindh rang up, talked to me for one hour… Nawaz Sharif rang me,” Butt said.
Butt said he told Sharif that if Afridi wanted to become a politician like 1992 World Cup-winning captain Imran Khan, he should go into politics.
“I told him (Sharif), ‘Have a heart, this is not a political issue, this is something different.’ We are not part of politics.”
Butt said at least 15 to 20 other politicians contacted him but he told everyone that if Afridi wanted to get clearance, he had to follow the process. “If this is not followed, I will definitely not budge whatever the pressure might be,” Butt said.
Afridi has said he will reconsider retirement from Pakistan only if the present setup of the PCB is changed.
However, Butt said the PCB has not received Afridi’s resignation from international cricket.
“He has not given us his retirement decision,” Butt said. “As per the code of conduct, he has to send a resignation to the PCB.
“He is no more on our contract… after the completion of the tour (of West Indies), he is no more the captain (and) that he knows.”
Team manager Intikhab Alam and coach Waqar Younis criticised Afridi in their tour report of West Indies, in which Pakistan won the one-day series 3-2, losing the last two ODIs. Butt also blamed Afridi for losing the last two games.
“I will only say that in my opinion, which may be considered by some people wrong, he (Afridi) is responsible for losses in the fourth and fifth one-dayers,” Butt said.




Keywords:World Cup captain, PCB ,Shahid Afridi ,Governor Sindh , Pakistan Cricket Board chief, Ijaz Butt,Geo Super television,Team manager Intikhab Alam ,coach Waqar Younis