Pakistan cricket continues to remain in news. And it continues to be surrounded
by controversies. After losing the ODI series 5-0, the news filtered in that the
chief of selectors, Iqbal Qasim has put in his papers. This means that
the Pakistani cricket board will now look to hunt for a suitable replacement.
Earlier, only three months ago, the previous head of selectors, Abdul Qadir
had also resigned from his post, paving way for Qasim to take over.
Earlier, the chief selector had accepted moral responsibility for the same.
Qasim said that he had had two alternatives in front of him. One was to stick
around and try to overcome the defeats, and the other was to quit. He had gone
in for the second option. Unfortunately for him, the Pakistanis had been blanked
in the Test matches as well, to make it eight games in a row.
However, this was not all the bad news that the Pakistani cricket faced over
the weekend. The fifth and the final game of the series at Perth also saw Khalid Latif being manhandled by a spectator who had come into the playing arena,
and could have caused serious damage. Latif had early scored a duck while batting.
Apart from that, the biggest piece of news that came in from the tour was the
Shahid Afridi has been banned by the ICC for two games. And his offence
was a rather shocking bite into the ball! Afridi was shown biting into the white
coloured ball in the last ten overs of the Australian innings, and was found
to be illegally altering the ball. In times where the ball tampering has raised
its ugly head again in terms of allegations and counter-allegations, the least
one could have expected a Pakistani captain to do was to understand the intricacies
and the repercussions of his action.
With Afridi banned for two games, it now remains to be seen who will captain
the Pakistan side next Friday for the T20I game against Australia. Already,
Mohammad Yousuf is reportedly upset over resting him for the final game
and may not be ready to take over, whereas Younis Khan had quit the captaincy
only recently in a huff. With Afridi out, there is Shoaib Malik who could
be an option, but his place in the side is not tenable either, which means that
the side could have a totally new captain. This could include the likes of Salman
Butt or Kamran Akmal!
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