After Shahid Afridi’s amazing whirlwind beauty of an innings against New Zealand today, I am feeling more upbeat on Shahid Afridi than ever. Rumour has it that others are too and he may be finally named as Pakistan’s team captain for the 2011 ICC World Cup Cricket.
With 22 days left to the tournament, every other team except Pakistan has announced their captain. Not a distinction that one would want. So, the sooner we name a captain, the better. More than anyone else, the team needs to know so that they can wrap their mind around the idea of whoever it is.
The two leading contenders are Misbah-ul-Haq (who leads the Pakistan Test team) and Shahid Afridi (who is leading the Pakistan one-day team). I am rooting for Shahid Afridi despite some real bad behavior from him in the past. Not just because he is the more exciting player, but also because he is more experienced, because he is temperamentally more attuned to the one-day format, but most importantly because he leads aggressively, plays to win, and put all he has in trying to win.
Till a few hours ago I was rather agnostic between the two and could have voted for either of them (Misbah did have a good Test series as captain). But right now I see Shahid Afridi’s innings and attitude today and compare it with Misbah’s batting and strategy in the second Test match against New Zealand (which he let slide), and comparing the two I know exactly who I will go with – Shahid Afridi.
Who would you go with?
Some comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– “lol what are other choices?? :P”
– “ya is gud but younas better dan him . . . . nd mishba no way.”
– “GOOD”
– “yes after todays performance ( 61 in 19 balls )….he is the right choice.”
– “yes he is the best choice. n good to know that few players r in good touch”
– “Now need to declare the name of the leader afridi is the best choice bcz if change the leader before the world cup its not good for whole team spirit”
AFRIDI IS THE FIRST AND LAST CHOICE FOR THE PAKISTAN , IF THEY WANT TO WIN THE WORLD CUP.
Misbah. Shahid will be wasted if made a captain. He gets carried away easily. His performance will decline and also after one loss everyone will start pointing fingers and our khan saheb will leave the place. And the quest will go on, which is not desirable
i dont see why it is a difficult decision to make. afridi has been handed the helm for some time now and to change at the end is riddiculous. he has been reckless but he has been for all his career. he was given the captaincy because he was the best choice. we saw the maturity in him in the t20 which we won and also in the asia cup when he was captain. since then he has been given captaincy series by series. tht is unfair to me. and i think he has matured considerably. results hav not been in his favour but he has gathered the team in the most difficult times. the way he handles the players has been seen on the pitch by most of us. if there is one guy who can unite us it is him. misbah has done well in the test arena. a huge come back from being out of the game. but he his demeanour is laid back. and it has worked for him to save us from humiliating defeats in tests but what we need is the self believe and motivation we saw today. to go out there and fight and win. something i think afridi can give us.
The question is not whether Afridi is a better choice for the captaincy, but whether it makes sense to change the captain at such a late stage. If the PCB was not convinced Afridi was the best choice, then they should have replaced him earlier. Now they should stick to him for the world cup and make it clear to all the players that he is the captain till the world cup, and no intrigues or politicking against him will be tolerated period.