KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has said that he has put the controversy that led to his temporary retirement behind him and now focus solely on playing for his country. Afridi had announced his 'conditional' retirement from international cricket in May.
"Whatever has happened, it is the time to play cricket," Afridi said in a report carried by Cricinfo.com website on Thursday."I don't want to talk about this anymore. It is all over and I am here to play cricket now."
Pakistan will take on Sri Lanka in the first of five match One-day Internationals (ODIs) series which goes into action at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday afternoon.
Afridi came out of retirement after Zaka Ashraf, replaced Ijaz Butt as the PCB chairman. Ashraf met with Afridi a few days after taking over and the allrounder was subsequently included in the one-day squad for the five-match series against Sri Lanka in the UAE.
"I missed playing for Pakistan, definitely," Afridi said. "Playing for Pakistan is my first priority. I just missed two tours, but Alhamdulillah, I am back in the team. I really missed playing cricket for my country. It was my goal to be back in the team."
Asked whether he was concerned about playing for current captain Misbah-ul-Haq, Afridi said he didn't expect it to be a problem as he had played under plenty of captains over the course of his career. "I think I have played under a lot of captains, like around 11 or 12 captains, so it is not really a big issue.
"The main thing is playing for Pakistan, performing for Pakistan. I think Misbah is doing a great job. He really helped me in the World Cup in 2011. So I am here to help him," he said.
He was looking forward to returning to the field and taking on Sri Lanka.
"I am very confident. There are a lot of expectations for me back home from the fans, but I am very confident. I think my best performances had been here in the UAE. Against Sri Lanka, my expectation is to perform even better. "
"In my opinion, the combination that we have is very strong. The team is good. Batting, bowling and our combination is very good," he concluded.
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