Shahid Khan Afridi Has Been Removed As ODI Team Captain By PCB

KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has removed Shahid Khan Afridi as one-day International captain for the upcoming series against Ireland.

Chairman of the board Ijaz Butt told in a media conference in Islamabad that senior batsman Misbah-ul-Haq would lead the team in the two one-day matches against Ireland held on May 28 and 30.

"Afridi has been retained as a player in the one-day squad but the captaincy has gone to Misbah," Ijaz Butt said without explaining the reason behind for this decision.

Recently Pakistan won the ODI series against West Indies under the captaincy of Afridi by 3-2 win in the Caribbean.

He has been leading the T20 and ODI sides since early 2010.

Ijaz Butt plans to remove Afirdi as captain before World Cup and want Misbah to be leading captain but due to the support of all Pakistanis he failed to do that but at last he did it now.

Well what I said Afridi is the best captain ever seen !!

Mohsin Hassan Khan - Pakistan Chief Selector - announced To Resign From Post

Mohsin Hassan Khan the selector of Pakistan cricket team has threatened to resign from his post after a confrontation with fellow selector over the 15-man squad for the Test series against West Indies.

The chief selector has already given a notice to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and wants it to solve the issue before Wednesday afternoon. Khan assured that if the PCB fails to do it within the stipulated time then he will tender his resignation.

Mohsin Khan is actually a former Test cricketer who was appointed as the chief selector ahead of 2010 Twenty20 World Cup said, “I will make an important decision regarding my future tomorrow [Wednesday]. There have been issues over the selection of this squad and they need to be resolved. I have told the board about it.”

However, Khan refused to point out any particular player who he feels should have been in the squad but the bone of contention is believed to be the sudden exclusion of Adnan Akmal from the squad.

Akmal, who actually made his Test debut against South Africa in 2010, was also part of the Test side that toured New Zealand. The youngster despite of his radiant performance found himself sacked from the national side.

It is vague who was behind axing of Akmal as Mohsin seems to favour him. Only Chairman of PCB Ijaz Butthas the power to overrule the decision made by the chief selector but he has a very cordial relationship with Mohsin Khan.

Akmal’s exclusion has started a debate and many former selectors have criticised this decision.

“After his brilliant wicket-keeping in New Zealand where he took eight catches in a Test last year, Adnan deserved a place in the Test team. It is total injustice against a youngster. I don’t know what type of rebuilding they [selectors] talk about when they eliminated a deserving youngster,” said former chief selector Iqbal Qasim.

Adnan Akmal was called in to the Pakistan side as a replacement for his elder brother Kamran Akmal, who was going through a rough patch with the gloves. However, in Adnan’s absence, Mohammad Salman will make his Test debut.

The 29-year-old wicket keeper made his One Day International debut during the limited-over series against West Indies recently. He was impressive behind the stumps but it was a completely different story with the bat as he could only muster 3 runs from 2 innings.

Jayasuriya Is Going To Captain As Ruhuna in SL-T20-PL

Six national captains, including four from Sri Lanka are Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardane, Kumar Sangakkara and T. M. Dilshan, will lead seven Provincial teams in the upcoming Sri Lanka T20-Premier League (SL-T20-PL) Tournament.

The seventh captain will definitely be former Sri Lanka vice-captain, Chaminda Vaas. The Sri Lanka T20 Premier League will mark almost 35 international cricketing stars and will be the first of its kind in Sri Lanka.

The organizers of this event, Somerert Entertainment Ventures (SEV) have found a window for the tournament which is sandwiched between Sri Lanka's tour of England and Australia's tour of Sri Lanka.

The event will start on July 15th and will go on for 18 days. Twenty four hotly contested matches, including the two semi-finals and the final, will be played at the R. Premadasa Stadium. There will be two matches on certain days.

Dashing opener T. M. Dilshan will lead Basnahira while Kumar Sangakkara (Kandurata), Mahela Jayawardane (Wayamba), Sanath Jayasuriya (Ruhuna) and Chaminda Vaas (Uva) will be the other captains.

Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi (Nagenahira) and New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori (Uthura) have been chosen to lead two provinces that were isolated from the game for ages due to the civil war.

Five overseas players could be registered to a provincial team but only four will be allowed to play in a match. Sri Lankan national selectors and cricket authorities have decided to blood as many youngsters and almost 70 Sri Lankan cricketers will be registered in the seven team tournament.

Almost all Pakistani national cricketers will be invited to play in the SLPL. Factually, Sri Lanka was Pakistan's adopted home in the 2011 Cricket World Cup accomplished last month as they played all their first round matches in Sri Lanka.

Besides that, Chris Gayle and the Bravo cousins (Dwayne and Darren) from West Indies, Pathan brothers (Irfan and Yousuf) from India, Herschelle Gibbs, David Warner and Shaun Tait will be seen in action on Sri Lankan soil.

The accessibility of retired great Muttiah Muralitharan is not yet confirmed but some unconfirmed sources exposed that he is keen to play in the series.

Milind Rege, the tournament manager of the 2011 cricket World Cup will be in charge of all cricketing issues of the tournament. Rege is a former Ranji Trophy captain for Mumbai and recently retired from TATA corporation as a managing committee member.