Replacing Shahid Afridi with Misbah-ul-haq for leading the side in the World Cup would be a disastrous move, former player Moin Khan warned Pakistan Cricket Board today.
"Changing the captain and giving Misbah-ul-Haq this responsibility so close to the World Cup would have negative effects on the team," former captain Moin Khan said.
Suspense remains on who will be captain as PCB has delayed the decision to announce the skipper till February 4.
"Why this delay? It means the board still wants to assess the performance of the team in the remaining matches of the one-day series in New Zealand or else it would have named Afridi to lead the team," former Test player Basit Ali said.
But despite the uncertainty Afridi has made it clear there were no differences because of the captaincy race between him and Misbah.
"I have no issues with Misbah. He is a great team player and human being. It really does not matter who is made the captain now but the important thing is we support each other and play as a team in the World Cup," the flamboyant all-rounder, who has been leading the one-day squad since late 2009, said.He said that he had never run after the captaincy in his career. "If that was the case I would never have given up the Test captaincy after the first Test against Australia at Lords last year. I have never run after the captaincy but if this responsibility has been given to me then I have tried my best to fulfill it diligently," he said.
Afridi said he and Misbah get along well and the latter had supported him a lot as captain with his superb performances on the field. "His calm and cool temperament and batting has been a big plus point for the team and he is giving 100 percent to the team."
Misbah also threw his weight behind Afridi after the fourth one-day in Napier in which he scored an unbeaten 93 runs. The Test captain pointed out that Afridi had been doing a good job as the captain of the one-day team and had gelled the players well together.
"I think Shahid has done a great job as captain and he has kept the team together and every player is contributing and wants to do well," Misbah said.
Misbah also said that the important thing is that whoever is the captain, the team needs to perform as a combined unit in the World Cup. "It is a big event and our team has to fire on all cylinders in the competition. People have lot of expectations from us and we can’t let them down," he said.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, February 03, 2011, 15:06