KARACHI:The ghosts of captaincy have once again come back to haunt Pakistan cricket team with some players and officials raising questions over the behaviour and attitude of current skipper Shahid Afridi.Well placed sources aware of developments in Pakistan cricket have said that Afridi retained the captaincy for the one-day series in New Zealand just by a whisker. “They were serious deliberations within the board on retaining him as captain after getting some negative reports about his behaviour and attitude after the T20 series in New Zealand,” one source disclosed.”Right now there is a 50-50 split within the board and in the team management on whether Afridi should be allowed to captain the team in the World Cup or this responsibility should pass to Misbah-ul-Haq,” the source said. He said there were different reasons for Afridi losing favour with the establishment. One of them was growing complaints from fellow players and team and board officials that he was too friendly with the media.
“The second complaint was that he was too over bearing and was making some players uncomfortable and unhappy with his attitude. Plus the crucial issue of his own performances have also come under the scanner,” another source said.He said that team manager Intikhab Alam and coach Waqar Younis had conveyed to the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt after the one-day series in the UAE against South Africa that some players were not feeling comfortable playing under Afridi.”That is the reason why Ijaz Butt called him for a meeting in Lahore recently in which he was told in clear terms to change his attitude and pull himself up,” the source added. The PCB has announced Afridi as captain for the ODIs in New Zealand but has stopped short of announcing him as World Cup captain although the tournament begins from February 19 while the series in New Zealand ends on February 5th.”This is because Butt is still uncertain about what to do,” the source said. He said that the selectors were keen to also name the World Cup squad this week but it was put off because of the captaincy issue. “There is a possibility now that the board might announce the World Cup squad on January 19th but wait until the series is over in New Zealand before announcing the captain for the World Cup – Nation
