In a shocking revelation, former captain Younis Khan has named Shahid Afridi as the man culprit behind the 2009 revolt against his captaincy.
Younis, who recently stepped down as the national cricket team's batting coach after a disagreement with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), made these revelations during a TV interview – a rare sight for cricket fans as he usually avoids media space.
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Khan appeared at ARY’s program 11th Hour where he spoke openly about the recent incident at the PCB, the 2009 revolt and his take on match-fixing in Pakistan cricket.
Referring to the episode, the 2009 World T20 Champion said he believed that Shahid Khan Afridi might not be the man instigator of the revolt, but he took advantage of the situation and took the matter to the then PCB chairman Ijaz Butt to get him sacked.
The incident is from the 2009 Champions Trophy in South Africa where more than ten cricketers, including Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Saeed Ajmal, Kamran Akmal, Rana Naved ul Hasan, and Umar Akmal, had conspired to remove Younis from the captaincy. Rather than speaking to Khan or the team manager about their reservations, they went behind the captain’s back and complained to the PCB chairman.
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Younis believed that the revolt was not about his style of captaincy or strong attitude. According to him, Afridi did so because he wanted the captaincy for himself.
“If the players had problems with me they could have spoken to me. They claimed that they didn't want me removed as captain but just wanted the cricket board to speak to me to change my attitude,” Younis told Badami.
“Then how is it that when the player (s) met with the then PCB Chairman, Ejaz Butt one senior player, and apparently Afridi demanded the captain be changed. To me it was about captaincy ambitions,” said the highest Test run-getter for Pakistan.
He said that although players had taken an oath on the Holy Quran, they later spilt the beans on the proceedings. Ironically, the conspiring group had borrowed the Holy Quran from Younis himself through Umar Akmal.
“Umar came to me and said he wanted to recite some soorah before an important match. Later, players used the same Holy book to take an oath against revealing anything that was discussed in the ‘meeting.’