Yet Another Retirement!

I'm a big fan of Afridi's leg spin but not of his captaincy. When ever he made a blunder, it was at the biggest stage: T20 semi final against Australia, when he miscalculated the overs and ended up giving Ajmal the 20th over instead of the two fast bowlers he had at his disposal, and World Cup 2011 semi final when he did not take the Powerplay even though he was on strike with Misbah, and the required rate was 8 and a half for the last 10-odd overs.

Afridi Retires Yet Again

Since he announced his latest retirement yesterday, I can't help thinking that he had problems with Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar in the last few series. He kept insisting in the media that they weren't fit enough, and he unceremoniously ousted Yousuf from the ODI team early in his tenure. His biggest flaw was that he was involved in the rebellion against Younis Khan (along with the Punjabi Lobby he's blaming now), so if he talks of mistreatment of senior players, I say, in the end he got what he dished out for others.

He's definitely going to be back, but supposing he isn't, what other options does Pakistan have? Misbah won't be around for much longer so after him it looks like Malik would be back (after all it was Afridi who kicked him out). I can forget Misbah's batting in the semi, but not Captain Malik's grouping methods. So for the next ODI captain, my vote goes to M. Hafeez. In Tests, only Umer Gul has a permanent place, he's not the brightest, but he's the only senior along with Younis and Kamran Akmal (the latter I hope doesn't play Test cricket ever again). The other options are Hafeez and Ajmal both of whom surprisingly, considering their performances in the last two years, haven't been regulars in the playing XI.

Lets hope Ijaz Butt gets the sack this time. After all, Afridi has more fans than the rest of the team put together.