Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi on Thursday opened up about the recent changes in the leadership of the national cricket team.
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In a statement, Shahid Afridi lamented his removal and removal of some other players as captain of the national cricket team. He expressed his desire for his son-in-law Shaheen Shah Afridi to focus on cricket instead of captaincy.
Shahid Afridi said that he advised Shaheen Afridi to focus on his own game instead of accepting captaincy of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Lahore Qalandars, but the left-arm pacer didn’t take his advice into account.
Shahid Afridi said that he always tried to keep Shaheen away from captaincy. He said that his and many other captains’ tenure ended at a bad note.
Shahid Afridi’s remarks come a few days after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) reinstated Babar Azam as Pakistan cricket team’s captain for T20I and one-day internationals (ODIs) just days before the five-match T20I series against New Zealand. Pakistan is hosting New Zealand and the first match of the series will be played on April 18.
The PCB said in a statement that replacing Shaheen with Babar was a “strategic move” and it reflected the board’s will to safeguard players’ longevity, especially the fast bowlers.
In November last year, the PCB had appointed Shaheen as the team’s T20 skipper after accepting Babar’s resignation from the post. Babar’s decision to resign from the captaincy was triggered by Pakistan cricket team’s poor performance in the 2023 Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup.
Expressing his views about the team’s captaincy, Shahid Afridi once again reiterated his support for Mohammad Rizwan and recalled that he had in fact advised the previous PCB chairman to appoint the wicket-keeper batter as the team’s skipper for the white-ball format.
