Karta Dharta of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is also king. How skillfully they use the same press release over and over once more, just change the name, otherwise the headlines don’t even change.
Shaheen has taken the captaincy crown from Shah Afridi and once once more placed it on the head of Babar Azam, who was removed a few months ago following saying that the additional burden of captaincy was having a negative impact on the batting. The skill that is in batting is not visible in captaincy.
Shaheen Shah Afridi, on whom fate has been so kind that he got the captaincy when, according to him, his milk teeth had not fallen. The captaincy of Lahore Qalandars did not pave the way as much as Babar Azam’s former chairman Zaka Ashraf did.
The crown of leadership was supposed to come on Mohammad Rizwan’s head, but his relationship with Shahid Afridi made him the captain. However, Shahid Afridi today is the representative of the circle that does not only make captains in his organization but also makes them wherever he wants.
The board dismissed Shaheen Afridi in beautiful words and according to tradition added his wish that he also wanted the same.
The board cited the fast bowler’s fitness as the reason, but left-handed bowler Shaheen Afridi attributes captaincy as a source of fitness.
Fast bowlers captain
Fast bowlers are rarely captained. At present Pat Cummins is the only captain of the Test playing nations of Australia. In the past, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev, Courtney Walsh, Shaun Pollock and Bob Willis have been good captains of their teams and have excelled in captaincy along with fast bowling.
It is also a fact that fast bowlers in other countries might not become captains but in Pakistan, fast bowlers have become captains more than any other country.
Pakistan’s first fast bowler captain was Fazal Mehmood, he was the captain for a short period i.e. ten matches. At that time, cricket was probably not so much. They won their first series once morest the West Indies, but defeats once morest Australia and India saw them off.
Pakistan avoided making a fast bowler captain for twenty years following him. Perhaps the reason for this is that Pakistan did not produce any good fast bowler for ten years. In the absence of fast bowlers, the team considered spinners as their main asset.
The second fastest bowler in Pakistan’s history was captain Imran Khan who became the captain in 1982 as a result of a coup once morest the then captain Javed Miandad when the fledgling Sri Lankan team was touring Pakistan.
Imran Khan is considered as the most successful and powerful captain of Pakistan who used to select his own team. He used to meet any official of the board and did not attend any meeting.
Before each visit, he would send the names of his team members to the board for travel documents. Such was his influence that many Test debuts were made without the board’s knowledge. Ejaz, Aamir Malik, Zakir Khan were the players whom Imran himself gave a Test cap to. The board officials were completely clueless.
If you look at the statistics of Imran Khan, they do not look so special. He led in 48 Test matches and won only 14 and lost eight while leading in 139 ODIs in which he won 77 and lost 57.
But Imran Khan’s achievement was that he got the team used to winning and won tough matches where defeat was certain. His fighting style and consistency made him a unique captain. He had become the idol of his team. Many players copied his style. The World Cup win immortalized him and made him a historical giant.
This section contains related reference points (Related Nodes field).
Pakistan’s third captain was Wasim Akram, whose captaincy career was a collection of events. Match-fixing and differences among players made his captaincy controversial. He was a great fast bowler but the lamp of his greatness was dimmed by his captaincy. In 25 matches, they won 12 Test matches, but out of the eight matches they lost, some more might have been won.
Wasim Akram captained 109 matches in one-day cricket and won 66 to his credit, but his absence in many important matches deprived him of becoming a great captain. He has never been able to adequately respond to the team’s retreat in the 1999 World Cup finals. He was left out of the team on several occasions when he was badly needed.
Waqar Younis was the fourth fast bowler captain of Pakistan, he captained in 17 matches and also won ten matches. He captained 62 ODIs and won 37, but his captaincy was also full of controversy and a disastrous performance in the 2002 World Cup ended his career. Waqar Younis was unacquainted with the essence of captaincy but became the captain because he was the ladle of the former chairman.
Shaheen Shah Afridi was the last captain under whose leadership Pakistan played five matches and defeat in four forced him out prematurely before the henna came off his hands.
Does captaincy affect bowling?
It is very difficult to say that captaincy affects fast bowling but fast bowlers are generally considered to have an aggressive attitude which tends to be weak in friendly relations with the opposing team as well as their teammates.
Although Pete Cummins has disproved this, other fast bowlers have had problems with captains in the past, from umpires to players.
As fast bowling is a tough and laborious field in which mental strength is very important along with physical effort. Therefore, fast bowlers remain cold in other fields than bowling. His traditional coolness affects his captaincy.
Babar Azam takes part in a practice session ahead of the ODI World Cup match once morest England in Kolkata on November 9, 2023 (AFP/Dabyangshu Sarkar)
If he concentrates more on captaincy, he gets less time for bowling. In Pakistani cricket, captaincy proves to be a thorn in the side due to conflicts and mutual disputes. In such a case, if the fast bowler is the captain, there is a decline in performance. Among the captains of the past, only Imran Khan’s era was golden, most of the other eras remained a collection of bitter memories.
PCB has failed to explain the dismissal of Shaheen Shah Afridi on what performance was reinstated when Babar Azam was removed for bad captaincy?
Fast bowlers have been winning many victories for the Pakistan team in the past and captained the team as well, but the board has been a bit too quick to remove Shaheen Shah Afridi as a change of captaincy following just five matches is not a wise decision. does not come
Shaheen Shah must be lamenting his fate as the New Zealand national team is coming to Pakistan to play five T20 matches in a few days. And it doesn’t include any top players.
Pakistan will surely clean sweep but Babar Azam will celebrate the victory.
Note: This article is based on the personal opinion of the blogger, with which Independent Urdu does not necessarily agree.
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2024-07-05 20:23:16