Former players speak up on Younis Khan's ouster

Karachi: After Younis Khan's salvo fired at former players for not speaking out on his axing from the national one-day squad, some of them have decided to speak up and said the senior batsman deserved better treatment and more respect from the cricket authorities.

"I don't know what is wrong with the Pakistan Cricket Board. How can you treat a senior player and former captain like Younis in this way," Pakistan's former skipper Muhammad Yousuf told PTI.

"Even if the selectors had decided they didn't want Younis in the one-day squad as they want to plan for the future what stopped them from talking to him about it," Yousuf said.

"I can understand why Younis is upset as I was treated in similar fashion by the selectors. But I recall when Younis was captain he wanted to drop me for a match and he had the courtesy to talk to me about it and keep me in the loop," Yousuf recalled.

The former captain said the board had to realize the damage the image of Pakistan cricket suffered with such controversies.

"Even now I would ask them to call Younis and speak to him about the issue. Show him some respect. Whether he should be in the team or not is another question," he added.

Pakistan's former chief selector and head coach, Mohsin Khan agreed with Yousuf.

"I worked closely with the Pakistan team as chief selector and then coach and I can tell you there isn't a more committed cricketer than Younis. It is said they decided to sideline him in this manner," said Mohsin.

"There should be no ego problems with discussing future plans with seniors like Younis and keeping them in the loop after all they have served Pakistan cricket with distinction for years now," he added.

Mohsin said it was a debatable issue whether Younis should have been dropped or not. "But the manner in which they did was not right. He has every right to be upset with the situation. And with the World Cup coming up I would not like my senior player to be in this state of mind," he said.

Pakistan's former Test batsman Basit Ali said Younis like all other senior players was a sensitive person and he deserved better treatment.

"Till the last moment I got the feeling he was in the ODI squad because of the World Cup preparations. His exclusion was a bit surprising but I would have taken him into confidence on the issue. He is a person who is willing to sacrifice for younger players and for the team."

Former test captain turned commentator, Rameez Raja said the selectors had to take a decision at some stage but he would be happy if such controversies didn't come out of Pakistan cricket.

"It is not a good situation and maybe it could have been avoided with a little bit better handling of things," he told Geo News channel.