LAHORE: Former Interim Chief Selector Shahid Afridi has clearly stated that PCB was quite interested in extending his tenure as the head of the selection committee.

In an exclusive interview with a local media news channel, Shahid Afridi said that he could not extend his tenure due to his prior commitments.

"PCB was interested in extending my tenure as Chief Selector of the Pakistan Cricket Team, but I have charity and other commitments too. However, I want to work for the development of U19 cricketers in future," said Shahid Afridi. In addition, Afridi criticized the recent appointment of Shan Masood as vice-captain of the ODI squad against New Zealand and stated.

"Shan Masood should not have been named as vice-captain of the ODI squad. Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should have taken captain or chief selector under confidence; he was neither under consideration by me nor by Babar Azam for the first two ODI's against New Zealand," said Afridi.

"Shan Masood cannot be named as captain or vice-captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team based on his performances for Derbyshire," he maintained.

On a question related to three formats three captains, former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said, "I believe that Babar Azam has a lot of room for improvement in his captaincy. I am not in favour of having three different captains for the different game formats, and instead suggest naming one captain for ODI and Test cricket and a separate captain for T20s."

With these statements given by Shahid Afridi, it is clear that it was not him or Babar Azam but it was the chairman of the PCB Management Committee, Najam Sethi, who decided singlehandedly to make Shan Masood vice-captain of the ODI squad against NewZealand.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 21 2023

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.