The Pakistan Cricket Board has stripped Shahid Afridi as captain of the one-day internationals team for the forthcoming series against Ireland. Chairman of the board Ijaz Butt told a media conference in Islamabad that senior batsman Misbah-ul-Haq would lead the team in the two one-day matches against Ireland on May 28 and 30.
Marsh, Smith dig Australia out of a hole in Pakistan Test
Afridi, who led Pakistan to their first one-day series win since late 2008 with victory over New Zealand on Thursday, will have Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq as his deputy.
Pakistan might have halted Australia's 34-game winning streak in the World Cup in Colombo on Saturday but captain Shahid Afridi was angry with his own "irresponsible" batting effort in the game.
Pakistan's former captain Javed Miandad has blasted the national team and made it clear that the current T20 captain Shahid Afridi didn't deserve a place in the side. "How can you have a player who no one knows how he will perform. Afridi's place in the team was over few years back," Miandad told 'Aaj' channel. The Pakistan great added, "How can you expect to win or improve your cricket when a player who stopped being a reliable performer some years ago is still playing in the national team. He is captain." Miandad said that he can only see Pakistan cricket going downwards as the domestic circuit is not producing quality talent since it's full of nepotism and favoritism. "You still have parchi (slip) system in domestic cricket even at district level. It only looks good on surface but in reality it is not producing quality players." Miandad said the board was the one who was responsible for all appointments.
Flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi will not be included in the 15-member national squad for the ICC Champions Trophy, to be held in England in June, sources claimed in Karachi on Friday.
The Pakistan all-rounder was banned for four ODIs for bringing the game into disrepute.
Pakistan's disgraced cricketer Salman Butt has tendered a personal apology to his former captain Shahid Afridi when they crossed paths at the national cricket academy in Lahore.
Hampshire has denied signing swashbuckling Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi for the remaining part of the Friends Provident Twenty20 championship. 'Shahid won't be joining us,' Hampshire manager Giles White told BBC Radio. White said that his team is already packed, and it would be difficult to accommodate Afridi in the side for the quarter-final tie against Warwickshire.
Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi will come out next year with his autobiography in which he opens up about his "rivalries and alliances", particularly those with India, as well as his infatuation with the military and his take on politics. "Shahid Afridi: An Autobiography", written with journalist Wajahat S Khan, is an account of one of modern-day cricket's most controversial and high-achieving practitioners, who in 1996, as a 16-year-old, hammered a record-breaking 37-ball century. Afridi also holds the distinction of having hit the most number of sixes in the history of ODI cricket and most wickets (97) and most player-of-the match awards in T20 Internationals.
Former Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson feels Shoaib Malik should have replaced Shahid Afridi as skipper of the national cricket team instead of Salman Butt.
Pakistan's flamboyant batsman said he would not be targeting any particular bowler but would concentrate on scoring the maximum off loose deliveries.
Pakistan's flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi could be retained for the three ODIs in India if he strikes form in the two T20 International matches to be held in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.
Finn Allen equalled the world record for most sixes in a T20 International as he smashed 16 sixes to propel New Zealand to a thumping 45-run victory against Pakistan in the third T20 International.
Flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi will appear before a six-member inquiry committee on Friday to explain his ball-biting antic in Perth, while captain Mohammad Yousuf and coach Intikhab Alam would depose with their versions of the team's comprehensive rout in Australia.
A scheduled press conference by flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi, which had set the rumour mills working overtime, has been called off after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) advised him not to address the media.
The two join captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Shoaib Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq as the highest paid performers
Pakistan have included the all-rounder in a 16-man squad for their final three ODIs against England.
Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi hailed New Zealand batsman Corey Anderson, who broke his long-standing record for the fastest one-day century - but admitted he had never heard of him before
The national team manager Intikhab Alam has blamed captain Shahid Afridi for Pakistan cricket team's recent poor performances, including at the World Twenty20 in India. The report states that Afridi was involved in 'needless controversies' during the World T20. In the five-page report submitted to the PCB and fact-finding committee of the PCB, Alam said that the team failed to sustain the stress and the pressure associated with the world event. "The recent Asia Cup and the ICC World T20 have made it evident that we have critical gaps both in batting and bowling and our fielding keeps on leaking runs, thus releasing pressure. In bowling, with the exception of Muhammad Amir, we do not have a bowler who can win us matches. "Our death bowling also is way below par. And the same goes with our batting line-up, where we do not have reliable pinch hitters and the top and power hitter to clinch us games," Alam wrote in his report, leaked to media.
Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya hit fifties to rally India in the rain-hit Asia Cup match in Pallekele on Saturday.
Images from Friday's World Cup match between Pakistan and Bangladesh, at Lord's.
He is looking forward to Pakistan touring India later this year, but flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi feels the resumption of bilateral cricket ties between the two countries can be a complete success only if the Indians also visit his nation.
Flamboyant Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has turned down an offer from Australian state side Tasmania as he wants to concentrate on the coming series against New Zealand, followed by tour of the Down Under.
The all-rounder also feels that the Indian team also has the advantage of playing at home ground and with crowd support.
India's stand-in captain said if not for the start given by the dashing Pakistan opener, the fifth ODI would have been closer.
Afridi, a former Pakistan captain, said his country's drab show took away all the excitement from what was expected to be a high-voltage Group B encounter.
It was not a very happy homecoming for Shahid Afridi after Pakistan's Asia Cup triumph as he got into a scuffle with a fan at the airport, claiming that he reacted angrily only when his three-year-old daughter was pushed to the ground by eager admirers.
Babar Azam's public expression of his unhappiness at being asked to bat at number three in T20 Internationals indicates that all is not well
India captain Rohit Sharma says he wouldn't mind playing Tests against Pakistan at a neutral venue as it would be a "great contest" against the "superb bowling line-up" of the arch-rivals.
The spot-fixing scandal happened in August 2010 during Pakistan's tour of England and then captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were banned by the ICC for their involvement.
Former Indian batter Gautam Gambhir slammed compatriot Virat Kohli for his poor shot selection during India's high-octane clash against arch-rival Pakistan.
Rohit Sharma, while facing left-arm throwdown specialist Nuwan Seneviratne, got hit on his left thumb by a delivery that lifted from the back of a good length area.
Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi on Tuesday denied undermining the authority of VVS Laxman, his captain at Deccan Chargers, but maintained that the Indian lacks aggression.
Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Anurag Thakur, on Wednesday, criticised embattled Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi for saying that 'a lot of people from Kashmir' had come to support his team during the World Twenty20 match against New Zealand in Mohali.
All-rounder Shahid Afridi took five wickets while Younis Khan and Imran Farhat both hit half-centuries as Pakistan beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in the day-night international in Sharjah on Friday.
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