Ever since the Oval debacle, Pakistani cricket could never seemed to be coming out of the crisis.
After the shocking exit of the former champions from the World Cup, a strong reaction from the public was expected. This reaction, which initially was anger, changed to grievance after mysterious death of Bob Woolmer.
However the way senior players in the team, specially the captain and the vice captain have reacted in the face of whole situation, I would like to say, they both were short of character. Although we used to get hints earlier as well, but we had to continue some how due lack of options.
Here I would like to talk about the recent refusal of Younis Khan from the captaincy. This was absolutely characterless of him, the biggest sufferer was obviously Pakistani cricket. Someone once said that if you give power to a (mentally) poor man, he wont really be able to handle it. This was exactly the case with Younis Khan. Few years back when Muhammad Yousaf was the Vice Captain, Younis Khan wasn’t even sure about his place in the team. Out of the blue Imran Khan said in some interview that he supports Younis Khan for the captaincy, and within next few months Younis was made vice captain.
BBCUrdu raised concerns about Younis’s character earlier when he resigned from captaincy before Champion’s Trophy.
And now again Younis has refused to stand for his country making public reaction an excuse for it. He must be thinking that Pakistan doesn’t really have any other option except him, and PCB will try to negotiate with him. This way his stature would remain high if he is unsuccessful in near future.
Two days back when I read a poll question on BBCUrdu asking should Younis Khan accept the captaincy, immediately I voted for ‘NO’ because of the feelings I’m jolting down here. Turns out, majority doesn’t want him to be a captain anyway.
I am of the opinion that Younis Khan should not be included in test team as well. He should go and play county cricket for the rest of his career. Pakistani nation will accept to lose with a young team, they wont accept a player thinking the world revolves around him.
I would like to end up with what Imran Khan has to say about him now.
Former captain Imran Khan said Younis Khan’s refusal to lead the national side has left Pakistan cricket in crisis following the team’s first-round elimination from the World Cup.
Younis was asked by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to take over the job after Inzamam-ul-Haq stepped down and retired from one-day internationals last month.
But Younis felt the job was too stressful, especially in the wake of the hostile reception given to the players after the Caribbean debacle.
“I don’t understand it. If he didn’t want to be captain he should not accepted the vice-captaincy for the last two years,” Imran told Reuters on Tuesday.
“His refusal has led to a crisis.”
“It is useless trying to convince Younis to lead the team if he does not want to do it. But what he did was wrong,” said Imran.
Source: Reuters UK
