STICK WITH AFRIDI AS T20 CAPTAIN: RAMIZ
KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja wants the country"s cricket chiefs to stop looking beyond Shahid Afridi as their skipper for the ICC World Twenty20, saying that the experienced allrounder is the best man to lead the national team"s title campaign in the Caribbean.
Ramiz told "The News" in an interview on Monday that Afridi has the credentials to be a successful captain, adding that he can in fact be installed as Pakistan"s skipper for all three formats.
"I"ll go with Afridi as captain," said Ramiz, who played 57 Tests for Pakistan, scoring 2883 runs besides piling up 5841 runs from 198 One-day Internationals. "In fact, I"ll recommend Afridi for all three formats.
"They should talk him out of (Test) retirement and make him the captain because he is the one man capable of being a successful captain." There have been reports in recent times that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is reluctant to stick with Afridi as the Twenty20 captain after the allrounder was punished for ball-tampering in the final One-day International against Australia earlier this year. Afridi was caught by TV cameras biting the ball and was later banned for two Twenty20 Internationals by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
"If that"s the reason to overlook him (Afridi) as captain then I don"t agree with it," said Ramiz. "He has been punished already. In any case, I think ball-tampering is no big deal. It"s only that Afridi did it in a silly manner, probably in the pressure of the moment."
Pakistan have been considering to give the captaincy to Shoaib Malik or senior allrounder Abdul Razzaq but Ramiz believes it won"t be a wise move. "Afridi remains our best choice. He has proved himself as an aggressive captain. He is also an ideal Twenty20 player. He should be retained as captain."
Ramiz, 47, said that Pakistan shouldn"t revert to Malik, who was sacked as captain early last year. "I personally believe that Its Afridi"s chance. It"s his time. He can handle the pressure. He was the best player of the World Twenty20 final last year. The only thing that he needs is to relax as captain. Once he does that, I"m sure he can get the best out of our team."
Pakistan are to defend their World Twenty20 title in the West Indies where the ICC World Twenty championship will explode into action from April 30. Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, had described Afridi as the "automatic choice" to lead Pakistan in the tournament last month.
However, he has recently changed his mind and made it clear that the allrounder is no more seen by him as an automatic choice to captain Pakistan in the Caribbean. A decision on the team"s captaincy is expected to be taken within the next few days.
