Afridi rues squashed plans for rebuilding team

KARACHI: Four months after guiding Pakistan into the World Cup semifinals, Shahid Afridi finds himself away from international cricket following a bitter fall-out with the country’s cricket chiefs.
But his status as a ‘retired’ cricketer at the age of 31 when Afridi is at the peak of his international career doesn’t really bother him. What troubles him more is the fact that his dispute with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has “ruined all plans that were aimed at raising a strong national team for the future”.
Afridi said on Monday that together with other senior players including Misbah-ul-Haq — the current Pakistan captain — he had chalked out post-World Cup plans to put the national team on the right track.
Speaking to reporters here at a local hotel on the sidelines of a promotional event, Afridi also made it clear that he wasn’t responsible for Pakistan’s losses in their last two One-day Internationals against the West Indies early this summer.
“Our team has been hit hard by this controversy,” said the star allrounder. “All of us including Misbah (ul Haq) and (Mohammad) Hafeez sat down and devised strategies for the team. We made a lot of planning for future but it was all ruined because of what happened afterwards,” he said.
Afridi, one of the most feared allrounders in international cricket, retired after falling out with the PCB in the aftermath of the ODI series against West Indies last May.
After the series which Pakistan won 3-2, Afridi hinted at disharmony within the national team management. Irked by his comments, the PCB opted to replace him as Pakistan captain. In response, Afridi announced his retirement and declared that he will never play under the current PCB set-up because it didn’t treat players with due respect.
Later, the PCB suspended his central contract and revoked all NOCs granted to the player to play professional cricket abroad. Afridi sued the Board which agreed to restore his NOC following an out-of-court settlement last month. Afridi was fined Rs4.5 million for several breaches of discipline.
Just when it seemed that the dispute was over, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt reignited the controversy by blaming Afridi for the defeats against West Indies in the last two ODIs during a TV interview last month. But Afridi has rejected Butt’s claims.
“Everybody knows after the tour report was filed by the team manager as to who was involved in team selection. I was not even involved in selection because I walked away from team meetings to mark my protest and the coach and manager picked the playing elevens (for the last two ODIs),” said Afridi.
“I was a hero for them after World Cup and suddenly I became zero,” he lamented.
Afridi made it clear that he won’t take a u-turn on his decision to stay away from international cricket till the time the Ijaz Butt-led set-up was running the sport in Pakistan.
“Pakistan is my identity and my country is always been my first priority. I will definitely return if people want me to return but I can’t play with hypocrites around who are very dangerous people.
“I am not the man who takes u-turns and I will wait for thing to become better before making a comeback.”
Afridi hailed national selectors for blooding youngsters in the national team for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe but was quick to add that they should have shown more faith in a number of rookies who have been sidelined without being given a fair chance.
“It is good to include youngsters,” he said before adding: “But players like Ahmed Shahzad, Hammad Azam and Usman Salahuddin who have shown potential should get more chances. The policy to give insufficient chance to youngsters is not understandable.”
Afridi will be leaving for England on Wednesday (tomorrow) to feature in Hampshire’s Friends Life t20 quarterfinal against Somerset at The Rose Bowl on August 7. He will return home on August 8 and will play in a few local events to be held during the holy month of Ramadan.
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Shahid Afridi... ‘I was a hero for them after World Cup and suddenly I became zero’