Ilyas, Salman lash out at Afridi

Former cricketers disparage all-rounder’s conduct .

KARACHI:

It seems Shahid Afridi’s speaking out against the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Waqar Younis has opened a can of worms with selector Mohammad Ilyas and banned opener Salman Butt passing scathing remarks on the all-rounder’s conduct.

Afridi’s rift with Ilyas, who was served a show-cause for his part in the argument, has been an open secret but gathered force after the former captain’s comment about the ‘Punjab and Lahore lobby’ in his retirement speech made on Geo News.

However, on an Express News talk-show, Ilyas and Butt were highly critical of Afridi, with the selector revealing that he had refused to include the all-rounder for the series against New Zealand which prompted Afridi to make wild allegations against him.

“I refused to sign off on his name on a previous tour and he is holding that against me,” said an incensed Ilyas. “But I will not stoop to his level. Afridi alleges that he isn’t consulted on selection matters, but the selectors are not required to do so. We do welcome his input but we can’t be forced to include his favourites in the squad.

“I was the one who convinced the other selectors that as captain he should have at least 20 per cent say in team selection. His accusation of lack of consultation on selection matters is a lie. He has interfered in selection by insisting on the inclusion of his three favourite cricketers.”

PCB overlooked Afridi’s misdemeanors

Interestingly, Ilyas, a former Test opener, has himself faced accusations by Afridi of giving preferential treatment to his son-in-law Imran Farhat when it comes to team selection, which the selector vehemently denies.

Ilyas added that despite the all-rounder’s penchant for courting controversy, the PCB had overlooked his past misdemeanors by giving him the captaincy but he rewarded the faith reposed in him by announcing his retirement from Test cricket when the team most needed him.

“He scuffed up the pitch in Faisalabad, he has had heavy fines imposed on him, but we still appointed him captain, and then he goes and leaves a sinking ship when he suddenly announced his retirement from Tests,” said Ilyas.

‘Superior to others’

Salman, also present on the show, disparaged Afridi’s unpredictable temperament and his ‘tendency to see himself as superior to others’.

“After the first Test against Australia last summer, Afridi, true to his unpredictable nature, decided to quit out of the blue,” said Salman. “If he felt that he didn’t have the ability to play Tests he shouldn’t have accepted the captaincy in the first place. But having done so, he should have kept the country’s interest paramount.”

Salman, who has been the centre of controversy, having been banned by the International Cricket Council for being involved in spot-fixing, and currently faces criminal charges on conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, went on to say that as sport gives the country a good name such controversies must not be allowed to fester, as it hurts Pakistan’s image.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2011.