ISLAMABAD, July 8, (Agencies): World Cup captain Shahid Afridi will not lead Pakistan in future, Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butt said on Thursday.
Butt reiterated to Geo Super television that it was his constitutional right to appoint the captain before every single series, even though last week the ICC recommended to the PCB that Butt lose the privilege to improve the team.
“As far as I am concerned he is not a captain material for the PCB anymore,” Butt said. “(As a player) he has done well in the past, he’s been a good cricketer for Pakistan, there’s no doubt about it.”
Afridi, one of Pakistan’s greatest limited-overs players, was dumped as captain by Butt in May after beating West Indies in the Caribbean. That prompted his international retirement and an outburst against Butt and the PCB for making captaincy an issue this year.
Afridi took the PCB to court to reissue his clearance to play overseas, and dropped the case after agreeing to meet Butt, plead guilty to misconduct and a fine of 4.5 million rupees ($52,000). Afridi got his clearance and is representing Hampshire in the English county Twenty20 championship.
Butt said a former provincial governor and former prime minister rang him to urge clearance be given to Afridi, but he said he did not feel pressured.
“Governor Sindh rang up, talked to me for one hour ... Nawaz Sharif rang me,” Butt said.
Butt said he told Sharif that if Afridi wanted to become a politician like 1992 World Cup-winning captain Imran Khan, he should go into politics.
“I told him (Sharif), ‘Have a heart, this is not a political issue, this is something different.’ We are not part of politics.”
Butt said at least 15 to 20 other politicians contacted him, but he told everyone that if Afridi wanted to get clearance he had to follow the process. “If this is not followed I will definitely not budge whatever the pressure might be,” Butt said.
Afridi has said he will reconsider retirement from Pakistan only if the present setup of the PCB is changed.
However, Butt said the PCB has not received Afridi’s resignation from international cricket. “He has not given us his retirement decision,” Butt said. “As per the code of conduct he has to send a resignation to the PCB.
Meanwhile, Butt has said India rejected a proposal to share revenue from a possible series between the arch rivals on the grounds that India will play host.
“We hope the series will be revived and we told them we are ready to play in India but revenue should be shared 50-50, but they did not accept the proposal,” Butt said in an interview broadcast late Thursday.
India cancelled a series with Pakistan after Islamist gunmen went on the rampage in Mumbai in November 2008, killing 166 people in attacks that India and the United States blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Pakistan is slated to tour India next February and March in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Future Tour Programme, subject to clearance from both governments.
An ICC Task Team has also called for a revival of cricket between India and Pakistan, saying its absence is felt by millions of fans across the world.
“We had a detailed discussion with them (the Indian board) in Hong Kong last month and hope that something will come out soon,” said Butt.
“Naturally, compared to what we earn when we play any other top country, we earn much more if we play India. But we have to sort out details, but what they say is basically a one-sided affair,” said Butt.
Butt said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had backed an Indian tour to Pakistan while hosting his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani at the World Cup semi-final between the two countries in India last March.
India, however, remains extremely concerned about security in Pakistan, where bomb and suicide attacks have killed around 4,500 people in the last four years and where the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in March 2009.
India last toured Pakistan for the Asia Cup in 2008.