Shahid Afridi
Shahid Afridi has been named Captain of the Pakistan team for the World Cup which is now only 14 days away.
There was a lot of conflict involved as to who would be captaining the side for the global tournament; Pakistan has had a rough past few years in the game of cricket. With spot fixing allegations to drugs found on players at airports, they’ve done it all and fortunately also been through it all.
However, some semblance of peace between the players was seen in the ongoing Pakistan New Zealand series. They have looked relatively strong but not as strong as what they were for the T20 Cup that much is for certain. With the amount of drama that has unfolded for them in their team as well as their country it is quite natural to assume they will not be in their best and most penetrating form for the ICC World Cup.
Out of the 14 participating nations, Pakistan was the only country that hadn’t decided on their captain for the team. There was confusion between Afridi who is the current ODI captain and Misbah-ul-Haq who is the Test team captain for Pakistan.
Apparently the reason for the confusion was that many had concerns about Afridi’s captaining abilities especially for an event as important as this one. Many think he is not a good choice but many agree to disagree and then there are the fans who think that there would be no one better than him to lead the side. To a certain extent you would have to agree to what the fans think since with the chaos in the present Pakistan Team, Afridi even though he is loose cannon is arguably the most experienced and mentally prepared to take his team forward. To make matters simpler the fact that Pakistan won the series against New Zealand convincingly under his supervision must have titled the odds in his favour.
Then there are those who would dispute that Younis Khan would have been a better choice for a captain considering he was the one who took Pakistan to the T20 victory, however the decision has been made, Shahid Afridi is Captain and Misbah-ul-Haq is Vice Captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team.
Pakistan has a few aces up their sleeve for the World Cup the two most important being Abdul Razzaq and Ahmed Shehzad if these two do well for the side then Pakistan will be back in the game for sure irrespective of who is captain but for Afridi’s sake let’s hope he ends up with the boom that he is known for.
Tags: Captain, Cricket, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Misbah-ul- Haq, ODI Series, Pakistan, Pakistan Cricket Team, Shahid Afridi, World Cup
