KARACHI: Pakistan’s ODI captain Shahid Afridi is likely to be retained as the skipper for the World Cup 2011 after Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ijaz Butt held discussions with the team management in New Zealand and also with the board’s Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmed in Lahore.
According to well-informed sources in the board, all indications show that all-rounder Afridi will lead the side during the mega event staring from Feb 19, to be held jointly by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The sources said that Ijaz held a half an hour discussion with the PCB chief operating officer today following his extensive talks with the team management in New Zealand this week.
“After getting all the feedback and suggestions, the PCB chief knows that it would be a risky move to change the ODI captain at this stage and it would be better to continue with Afridi,” the sources said.
They also added that while Ijaz and some other board officials had lost faith in Afridi over his attitude and repeated violations of the board instructions in recent months, the feedback from the players and the management had tilted the balance in the all-rounder’s favour.
According to sources, the senior players in the touring side in New Zealand including Shoaib Akhtar, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Kamran Akmal were backing Afridi and wanted him to continue as the World Cup captain.
“The PCB chairman has a difficult decision to make because he has to ensure there are no issues or conflicts within the team just before the World Cup,” the sources added.
The PCB chief is likely to announce the World Cup captain this week after some more deliberations in New Zealand.
Sources even indicated that Ijaz was facing pressure from the top over the captaincy issue.
“Most of the major sponsors who have invested lot of money in the tournament in Pakistan have already prepared their campaigns with Afridi as captain in their commercials and are concerned about any late change in the leadership, said a inside source at the PCB.
“These companies are also lobbying within the government to ensure that the Pakistan board does not change Afridi as captain for the World Cup.”
The PCB has come in for severe criticism from a number of former players for delaying in naming the captain for the mega-event since Pakistan remains the only one of the fourteen competing teams not to have named the captain as yet.—Agencies
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