ISLAMABAD: Former head coach Waqar Younis has singled out Shahid Afridi for the side's run of Twenty20 defeats against England, New Zealand, in the Asia Cup and World T20.
In the report on his two-year tenure as Pakistan coach, Waqar blamed Afridi's poor form, captaincy and attitude for the national team's recent poor run.
Waqar, in his report, had said that green-shirts lost to New Zealand and in Asia Cup and T20 World Cup due to poor captaincy. "Afridi was not performing with bat, ball or captaincy but I was not listened to. Meeting was held after the NZ T20 series where the boys emphasized that they felt confused with what the captain was telling them to do," deccanchronicle.com quoted the report as saying.
"Afridi was so fixated on his own performance that he did not execute any game plan or use the right players at the right time. His sudden decisions on changing the batting order or field placements did not help the team," Waqar wrote.
He said Afridi appeared to be under so much pressure, it really reflected poorly on the team. "The whole team morale was down because they all felt the pressure from the captain. No matter how many times I talk to the players, it is the captain who has to lead the boys on the field and execute plans," he said.
Speaking about the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and selection matters in the report, he said just before the World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand, he attended the selection meeting in Karachi along with then captain Misbah ul Haq.
"We had a long and fruitful meeting on several players. As I arrived back in Lahore, a completely different team was announced which I was not happy with, also after dropping Younis Khan from one series, he was suddenly put back into the team because of media pressure," Waqar said.
On Umar Akmal, Waqar described him as an indisciplined player. "Akmal was asked by Haroon Rasheed (former chief selector) to come the next day for fitness test to join the team in Sri Lanka for ODIs. Instead he chose to catch a flight to Caribbean for a lucrative league without informing anyone."
"Few months later, when he was caught in the Hyderabad incident or misbehaving with his domestic team coach, at all times he managed to retain his place in the team. Is this what criteria we are setting for selection of new players," Waqar wrote in his report.
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