Sohaib is PCB’s top, long-term choice for captaincy

KARACHI: With Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi set to retire after World Cup 2015 Pakistan will need to find a new captain to lead them in One-day Internationals.
Misbah is likely to stay on Pakistan’s Test skipper while Afridi should retain Twenty20 International captaincy.
It’s the ODI leadership that will be up for grabs post World Cup 2015.
There might be no obvious choice to replace Misbah as Pakistan captain but the country’s cricket authorities have short-listed at least four candidates for the job.
Big-hitting batsman Sohaib Maqsood remains the number one choice as PCB chiefs believe that he has most of the ingredients required in a long-term captain.
“The Board wants to appoint an educated guy as captain. He has to be youngish and should command respect as a player,” a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told ‘The News’.
“The Board knows that there isn’t any player who fulfills all these requirements but the one player who does come close is Sohaib Maqsood.”
Another captaincy choice is Fawad Alam.
The prolific left-hander might have been ignored for World Cup duty by the national selectors but the Board is of the view that Fawad has the guts and leadership qualities to assume the role of Pakistan captain in the future.
“The Board respects all decisions made by the selection committee but it doesn’t mean that Fawad’s axing has ended his captaincy hopes. The Board is still of the view that the player is capable of leading the team and thus remains one of the various available options,” the official said.
Then there is Umar Amin, the youngster who was unable to cement his place in the national team despite getting a series of opportunities.
“Umar Amin is a talented youngster and remains on the PCB radar,” the official said.
Another surprise choice is Azhar Ali, the reliable Test batsman who is generally not considered to be ODI material.
“The Board sees Azhar Ali has a decent choice for log-term captaincy possibly both in Tests and ODIs once Misbah also quits the longest format of the game,” the official said.
Initially, PCB has planned to install Shahid Afridi as ODI captain for a year. The idea was to have a young player as vice-captain who would take over as captain from Afridi sometimes next year.
“By announcing his retirement without even discussing it with the Board, Afridi shot himself in the foot. It was almost set that he (Afridi) will be appointed as Pakistan’s ODI captain for around a one-year period after the World Cup. The decision even had the blessings of (PCB chairman) Shaharyar Khan,” the official said.
He added that Afridi’s sudden announcement came as an unpleasant surprise for the Board and allowed the player’s critics within the PCB to prevail as far as the captaincy issue was concerned.
“The thing is that within the Board there was support for Afridi and there was also some opposition. His (Afridi’s) supporters were silenced after the retirement announcement as it didn’t go too well with Board’s higher-ups and it was decided that Afridi was too much of a loose cannon to be entrusted with the job of captaincy even on a temporary basis,” the official said.