Sohail asks Afridi not to give confusing statements

Sat, Sep 11 10 04:57 PM

Karachi, Sep 11 (PTI) Pakistan''s former Test captain Aamir Sohail has advised the current ODI and Twenty20 skipper Shahid Afridi not to give confusing and contradictory statements in the media. "These statements are creating confusion and more problems for Pakistan cricket," Sohail said. The former chief selector also said if Afridi wanted his team to succeed he would have to be impartial while selecting the playing eleven. "He will have to keep aside his personal equations with the players while selecting the team," Sohail added. Sohail said it was unworthy of a captain to give a statement that everyone in the team should mind his own business. "What kind of a statement is this? This is not right. Afridi has to be very careful while speaking in the media," he said. Apparently, Sohail and some other former players are not happy with the way Afridi has been targeting some former players, criticising them for being negative and hence, creating problems for the team. Afridi also said on Geo News that the selectors and team management could only pick and play those players who have done well in domestic cricket. "We can''t go and bring players from Australia or South Africa. We can only select players from our domestic season," he said. Afridi seems to be unhappy with selection process. ''Dawn'' newspaper reported that he was at loggerheads with the team management over selection of three veteran players Shoaib Akhtar, Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Yousuf for the limited over games. The newspaper said that Pakistan coaches Waqar Younis, Ijaz Ahmed and others strongly opposed the selection of three veterans for the five-match one-day international series against England. They contended that Shoaib, Razzaq and Yousuf were clearly over the hill and put up a flop show in the two Twenty20 games against England last week to harm the teams graph in the shortest version of the game. They also blamed Afridi for selecting the ODI squad arbitrarily, without consulting the team management or the coaches, which is resulting in Pakistan''s poor show in the limited over contests. However, the newspaper added that Afridi stuck to his guns during the showdown and asked the team management and the coaches to back the squad rather than spoiling the dressing room atmosphere, especially after the spot-fixing row, which he said had dented the players'' morale to a great extent. PTI COR CM

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