Afridi criticises Pakistan coach meddling

KARACHI: Pakistan one-day captain Shahid Afridion Sunday criticised coach Waqar Younis for interference in team selection, saying that he would take up the matter with the country's cricket chief. 

Pakistani media last week reported that Afridi and Waqar did not get on during the 3-2 one-day series win against the West Indies. 

Afridi, not happy with selection matters, on his return home early on Sunday lashed out at Waqar. 

"Although the differences with the coach are not such which could not be solved... I must say that everyone should do his job and need not interfere in other's work," Afridi told reporters. 

Afridi said he will soon meet Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt to take up the matter before giving further details to the media. 

With a relatively young string, Pakistan won the first three matches comfortably before going down in the last two matches against the West Indies who were also depleted by the non-selection of senior players like Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaaul. 

Afridi regretted his team lost a good chance to win all the matches. 

"We should have clean sweeped the West Indies but the defeat in the last two matches left a bad taste in the mouth, we flopped in batting and that's why I must say we need a batting coach," said Afridi, who admitted he was also below par in the series. 

"I played average cricket because I was tired after the World Cup and only played the series on the advice of some friends and former players."

Kaneria’s case going nowhere

The case of discarded Test leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, which is under the investigation of The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) integrity committee, is going nowhere with the board officials changing their statement time and time again.

A few days back Kaneria publicly stated that he is being neglected by the PCB and felt let down by the cold shoulder he has received from the people sitting at the helm of affairs.

According to the player, he had tried to contact the board officials for nearly two months. But he failed to get any sort of response, which forced him to appeal to President Asif Ali Zardari — the patron in chief of the board — to provide him justice.

According to sources, his appeal prompted the PCB to write a letter to Kaneria on May 4, asking him to send a clearance letter of the Essex Cricket County (ECC). But, ‘The News’ has learnt that the player had already submitted the ECC, Essex Police and International Cricket Council’s (ICC) clearance letters last year, which were sent to Chief Operating Officer (COO) Subhan Ahmed and Director Cricket Operations (International) Zakir Khan.

After enjoying less fruitful meeting with board’s integrity committee, Kaneria tried to involve his lawyer in the case but was strictly ordered by the PCB not to do so and was further asked to submit his trial’s tape in early March.

He tried to get the required tape through his lawyer Steve Haurigan. But according to the player and his lawyer, the request was rejected. Few days later, the player told the PCB through a mail that the Police officials said that they cannot provide the tape or any recorded statement, as the prosecution was still on with his county teammate Mervyn Westfield. The letter was received by the Subhan on March 9. On the same day, Subhan changed his stance and ordered the player to contact PCB chairman Ijaz Butt.

It has also been learnt that the player finally got the chance to have any contact with the board officials after nearly six weeks, when last Sunday his call was received by Ijaz Butt, who told the player that he should satisfy the board’s integrity committee. It is interesting to note that Butt is the head of the integrity committee.

Meanwhile, PCB’s legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi said in an interview that it is an integrity issue for the board. He added that the committee is not just made up of board members or cricketers, it has an ex-judge of the Supreme Court on it and in their opinion, Kaneria had not satisfied them so he has not been cleared

In one of the letters issued by the board, it has been mentioned that the bowler is under the charge of ‘conspire to commit fraud by abuse of position’, which has not gone down well with player and his legal team, who are pondering to take further step over the charge labeled over Kaneria.

After being released by Essex, the 31-year-old received an offer from Surrey Cricket Country. But after being mysteriously dropped from Pakistan team for the tour of Abu Dhabi against South Africa, Surrey drew back their offer and told the player they were unsure of what has been going on in Pakistan.

Afridi fumes over Waqar role

KARACHI: A perfect storm is brewing in Pakistan cricket as Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis are on a collision course after developing serious differences during the recently-concluded One-day International series against the West Indies.

Afridi, Pakistan’s limited-overs captain, is so extremely displeased with the way the team’s coach is running the team’s affairs that he is planning to meet Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, to inform him about his grievances against Waqar.

Sources close to Afridi revealed that the allrounder is ‘considering his options’ and will take a final decision after meeting with Butt in Lahore sometime next week.

Afridi is returning home from the Caribbean on Sunday (today).

Waqar, Pakistan’s coach, wants to be the one calling all the shots and that has really irked Afridi, said a source.

The former Test pacer, according to the sources, is also at loggerheads with Mohsin Khan, Pakistan’s chief selector. Mohsin has been hinting that Waqar overrules the squads picked by the national selection committee.

Mohsin even threatened to resign after his recommendations were overruled by the PCB while announcing Pakistan’s 15-man Test squad for this month’s series against the West Indies.

In the Caribbean last week, Afridi’s relations with Waqar almost reached breaking point when the coach insisted that he will pick the playing elevens. Afridi mulled over the option of missing the last two One-day Internationals but was later convinced by other team officials to carry on.

“Once he is back home, Afridi will seek a meeting with Ijaz Butt and inform him about the problems he is having with the coach,” said a source.