Controversies surrounding the Pakistan Cricket team seem to be a never-ending affair. Things couldn’t have been worse for them as there have been reports of a rift between head coach Waqar Younis and skipper Shahid Afridi, as well as the differences between the top officials of the country's cricket board.
After crashing out of the Asia Cup, Afridi faced severe criticism from all quarters and former Pakistani greats blamed him for the debacle. However, PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan had stated that the flamboyant all-rounder would be retained as captain for the all-important tournament in India.
According to the reports, head coach Waqar was disappointed with the working of the national selectors, as well as Afridi’s. The legendary fast bowler was reportedly disappointed with the skipper as the latter skipped two practice sessions during the recently concluded Asia Cup. He also was not happy with few selection matters.
Afridi unhappy about Salman Butt’s probable return
On the other hand, Afridi was extremely unhappy with the prospect of former tainted skipper Salman Butt’s probable return to the World T20 squad. Well, that issue was sorted later when Butt wasn’t picked for the squad.
According to reports, Afridi for his part was not happy with the way the chief selector and Waqar had discussed the recall of Salman Butt to the national T20 squad while keeping him out of the picture.
"He is not happy that the return of Butt was discussed without his knowledge and later when the board spoke to him he made it clear if former Pakistan captain was recalled he would not like to play," the source said.
Butt clamoured for a return to the squad after completing a five-year ban for spot-fixing last September. He made his case stronger by scoring heavily in the national one-day championship. There is a complaint against Waqar too that he is overworking the players with his training schedule and doesn’t allow them to relax.
The current skipper and the coach have had their differences in the past too. In 2011, when Pakistan visited West Indies, Waqar and Afridi had differences over team selection and the incident led to the Pakistan Cricket Board eventually removing the latter as the national ODI and T20 captain.
Incidents like these are not new to the Pakistan cricket team. Things like these have occurred in the past too. It’s detrimental for the team morale as Pakistan desperately need their team to perform collectively to have any chance of replicating the success of 2009.
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