Shahid Afridi slams PCB, hints at favouritism towards skipper Babar Azam: ‘A captain never got so many chances’

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi took a dig at Babar Azam for his poor captaincy records and hinted at favouritism towards him by the Pakistan Cricket Board. Babar has been under the scanners after Pakistan suffered an early exit from the T20 World Cup as they suffered defeats to the USA and India in the group stage and failed to qualify for the Super 8 stage. PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi also suggested the board will make big changes to the system and referred it as ‘major surgery’.

Earlier last year, Babar relinquished his captaincy after the team’s poor show in the ODI World Cup as Shaheen Afridi took over the charge as the T20I skipper. However, the left-arm paceman didn’t get a long rope and was sacked after just one series. However, Naqvi reinstated Babar as Pakistan’s white-ball captain, replacing Shaheen Shah Afridi before the T20 World Cup.

Shahid Afridi, who is currently in England playing World Championship of Legends 2024, said that no other Pakistan captain received a longer rope like Babar, who has already led Pakistan in multiple World Cups and Asia Cups but has not won any ICC trophy.

“They should take a decision on the captain or the coach and then give them time. As far as Babar is concerned, we have also captained a lot and a captain never got so many chances. As soon as the World Cup is over, often the captain used to be the first one who got the blame. 2-3 World Cup, 2-3 Asia Cups, he has got enough opportunities,” Afridi said in a video which went viral on social media.

Meanwhile, PCB has sacked former Test players Wahab Riaz and Abdul Razzaq from its selection committee in the wake of the team’s disastrous T20 World Cup campaign last month.

Wahab and Razzaq were a part of a committee, which had no chairman and included the national team captain, head coach and a data analyst.

Afridi slammed PCB for sacking only Riaz and Razzaq as part of the surgery that Naqvi previously talked about.

“I got to know that only Abdul Razzaq and Wahab Riaz have been sacked from the selection committee. I don’t understand this surgery. If the selection committee is of 6-7 people then why only these two have been removed?” Afridi added.