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KARACHI: Moin Khan said on Monday that there should be no doubts that Misbah-ul-Haq will be the captain of the Pakistani cricket team during the 2015 World Cup as per an earlier announcement made by Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Shahryar M. Khan, DawnNews reported.
Chief selector-cum-Pakistan team manager, Khan, also said that mercurial all-rounder Shahid Afridi had not expressed his desire to become the captain of the national cricket team and added that too much should not be expected from a team that was undergoing reconstruction.
The national team manager claimed there were no divisions within the team and that the players were happy with the team management.
Former cricketer Wasim Akram has also backed Misbah as captain for the coming edition of the cricket World Cup.
Speculations with regard to the national cricket team's captaincy became ripe following Misbah's decision to step down from the team for the third One Day International against Australia in Abu Dhabi.
Shahid Khan Afridi led the team in Misbah's absence.
The move had prompted the PCB to issue a statement to clarify the situation which said that Misbah had stepped down from his position for just that one particular match.
Pakistan suffered a whitewash at the hands of the Australians in the three-match ODI series which was played in the United Arab Emirates.
Captain of the Pakistani team, Afridi, during the post match conference had stated that he was ready for the role of the national team's captain if the board wanted him there.
Afridi had further asked the board to clarify the situation with regard to captaincy of the national side.
After being routed 3-0 in the one-day series Pakistan now plays a two-match Test series against the same opponents starting in Dubai from October 22.
Following the matches against Australia, Pakistan will play three tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches against New Zealand, with the first test starting on Nov 9.
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On DawnNews
Comments (34) Closed
Oct 14, 2014 12:39am
Undergoing reconsruction??
this team is perfecting self destruction and last one day is a good example. Instead of focusing on improvement in batting all the focus has been on captaincy. Do the aussies seem bothered about absence of clarke or are they issuing clarifications as to who will captain their team in world cup?
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Oct 14, 2014 12:54am
"The national team manager claimed there were no divisions within the team and that the players were happy with the team management."
Not many will believe this statement.
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Oct 14, 2014 01:05am
Umm. Has anyone asked Misbah? Coz seems like he doesn't really want to?
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Oct 14, 2014 01:16am
Afridi should thanks his stars even if he is retained as player.Based on his performance he doesn't deserve to be in team.Afridi has become eye sore to Pakistan cricket team supporters.381 matches is enough for him,he was not worth for playing half that game.
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Oct 14, 2014 01:21am
Either of the two would be "outstanding" captains .... I mean not playing and guiding from outside as rested captains
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Oct 14, 2014 01:26am
When the captain himself is so unsure and lacking confidence, one can guess how the team is going to perform at WC.
First round exit on the cards "again"!
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Oct 14, 2014 01:37am
@Mariam
I don't think we have any other option but to make Misbah the captain. I don't know why Afridi made that statement. Afridi as correctly pointed out in the article is "mercurial" and should not lead the side.
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Oct 14, 2014 01:55am
If Misbah remains captain Pakistan chances of reaching the 2nd stage in the WC will be low. There will be slogans of go Misbah go in all the WC matches where Pakistan plays. You will hear slogans in the matches against New Zealand also.
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Oct 14, 2014 02:42am
Misbah bad choice as a captain, please remind me of a single match which Pakistan won because of his proactive captaincy or his outstanding batting display--in fact his batting during semi-final of the last world Cup final and in the T2o final in South Africa must not be forgotten, Pakistan lost was because of him --does the Board care about the future of cricket in Pakistan, very soon Pakistan Cricket team will completely loose its popularity like in squash and field hockey. Rebuilding a team takes a long time and is not an easy task, already much time has been waisted and World Cup is just in few months--under the present circumstances team Pakistan will perform very poorly in World Cup.
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Oct 14, 2014 02:46am
I don't understand, Afridi mentioned in the post match. Conference that he is ready to take the roll of captain if board ask him to do - Moin Khan is saying that Afridi did not shoe the desire to become of the captan of the national side???
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Oct 14, 2014 02:48am
He should hv been the couch of Pak team by now
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Oct 14, 2014 03:22am
Chairman , Selectors ,Coaches , and others have given enough of their best need well deserved rest to refresh. Highly talented/potential players are best suited to achieve defeat. It is now the time to Privatize cricket so that we get rid of the khalifas.
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Oct 14, 2014 03:26am
"Too much should not be expected of the team" says Moin. PCB should fire him and let his man Afridi follow him too. Pakistan will suffer even more if Moin stays. And before he leaves, he must answer that what made him believe that Umar Amin is better than Younis Khan.
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Oct 14, 2014 03:47am
I think kicking Afridi out is impossible. As his presence is enough in a team. Misbah should be retained as captain but must also be given some rest here and there. He is literally been playing way too much cricket. He has fatigue issues. And as far as the team goes, well we need to wait for our youngsters to come through. A line up that reads A. Shahzad, Sarfaraz, Shafiq, Misbah, U Akmal and Afridi should be enough on Australian pitches. All we need is a permanent allrounder like bhatti, or anwar or hamad azam. and two strong fast bowlers. And Babar is a good spinner.
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Oct 14, 2014 04:04am
Moin Khan should be fired immediately. The selection committee is responsible for all this mess. For the last one year Moin khan is chief Selector and unable to select good team.
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Oct 14, 2014 04:54am
We should get rid of Misbah and current team management and the Negative attitude. We will loose some but then will build the team. Do not want to see cricket what we see as Hockey in Pakistan......
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Oct 14, 2014 05:36am
Don't think either Misbah or Afradi deserve to be captain. Frankly speaking Afradi does not even needs to be in the team at all. Selectors should look for players who consistently perform rather than those who wait for miracle to happen.
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Oct 14, 2014 08:50am
The 'legends' Moin, Waqar and Mushtaq are not doing any good so far, where as Lehmann, the unknown led Aus to victory with so many debutants - Aus were by far less experienced than Pakistan. It is the cricket structure of Aus that allows them to compete even without their experienced players.
Misbah is too old for the this game, Afridi should eb there temporarily and then the leadership should be given to Sarfaraz, provided he is not out of the team for one of the Akmals.
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Oct 14, 2014 09:16am
Make 12th man as the Captain of the team....:)
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Oct 14, 2014 11:43am
how dumb is this Moin Khan, he himseld doesnt deserve to be the cheif of pcb and look how he is being proud to announc ehtat this loser captain Misbah will be the captain for WC2015, now this is what you call dictatorship Mr Moin Khan.
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Oct 14, 2014 04:47pm
if Mr Misbah wants to go please let him go. And why can't we see other players as leader, why always the 2nd name comes as Afridi, his last few records are even below average, Can't we excuse all these players and go with new leader, a Young one, Fawad Alam or even sarfaraz is performing. Pak Cricket requires OXYGEN not Carbon dioxide. Thanks
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Oct 14, 2014 05:33pm
What a serious joke?
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Oct 14, 2014 06:22pm
I 100% agree with ALY. This is not about captaincy. Wrong focus again. I did like the selection of batsmen in the 3rd ODI, keep in mind Clarke isn't there, Mitch wasn't bowling in the 3rd ODI.
The team lost a sitter due to their performance out there. Afridi as a captain didn't perform, didn't lead by example at all.
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Oct 14, 2014 11:26pm
Its been undergoing reconstruction for 15 years. They don't seem to ever get tired of saying that. Different faces same excuses!!!
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Oct 15, 2014 09:55am
@kirther just to remind you we were losing by 50+ runs and it was misbah who took us that close not your duckridis. 25fifties out of 39 in which pak won whats that?
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Oct 15, 2014 09:58am
@Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad
I never understood your question marks...they seem to keep popping up every third comment by you. Are you asking others if the issue at hand is a joke? Or are you telling us that it is indeed a joke, with the question mark being added as a "joke"?
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Oct 15, 2014 10:07am
Team undergoing reconstruction??? It this the right time to do this when world cup is few months away? Why didnt we start working on "reconstruction" 4 years ago when we lost world cup semi-final???
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Oct 15, 2014 10:14am
The best solution for Pakistan team would be to"rest" Moin, Misbah and Afridi. Even if we lose in quarter finals of the World Cup, we will go down fighting.
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Oct 15, 2014 11:18am
I believe the team Management should seriously consider to bring Younish Khan & M. Hafeez to the side. As our team is lacking some experience in batting line up, so both of these players possess a lot of experience against strong bowling attacks.
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Oct 15, 2014 11:45am
Thanks Moin Bhai for leting us know in advance, we will not waste our time to watch and hope for Pakistan to perform dignified game.
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Oct 15, 2014 12:26pm
Bye bye world cup hopes
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Oct 15, 2014 03:43pm
undergoing reconstruction for G-d knows how many decades
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Oct 15, 2014 03:45pm
Afridi was a better choice over Misbah.
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Oct 16, 2014 01:08am
Then you can kiss World Cup goodbye.
We have to start a citizen's campaign to get rid of all the "untouchables" - team coach, managers, selectors, who have no shame and refuse to take the responsibility for our losses. We need to throw out all the rotten apples that are entrenched and have no idea of how they are robbing us of dreams - a chance to win something in the sport we all love.
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