In a recent development, former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Zaka Ashraf has come out in defense of his decision to remove Babar Azam as captain following the team’s disappointing campaign in the ODI World Cup held in India. Ashraf’s decision to replace Azam with Mohammad Rizwan as the white-ball captain has been met with criticism, especially from former captain Shahid Afridi.
Afridi has claimed that he never advised Ashraf to appoint Rizwan as captain and had actually suggested making Shaheen Shah Afridi the white-ball captain instead. However, Ashraf has denied these claims, stating that Afridi never made such a suggestion to him.
Ashraf explained that the decision to remove Azam as captain was based on the board’s assessment that leading in all formats was adding pressure on him and affecting his performance. He clarified that the board felt it was time to try someone else in the white-ball formats after Azam had been given ample time in those formats over the last three years.
Babar Azam, who was recently re-appointed as the white-ball skipper, decided to step down as captain in all formats after the World Cup. According to Ashraf, Azam made this decision on his own, stating that if he couldn’t captain in all formats, he didn’t want to be captain at all. The board respected his decision and appointed Shan Masood as the Test skipper.
Ashraf also criticized the decision to remove Shaheen Shah Afridi as the T20 skipper after just one full series, calling it unfair. He questioned why Azam was given so much time as captain while Shaheen was not given a fair chance.
Zaka Ashraf served as the PCB’s interim management committee head from June 2023 to January 2024 before resigning amid controversies regarding his decision-making processes.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
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