Afridi an ‘absolutely clueless’ captain: Team Manager

ESPNCricinfo: Shahid Afridi has been branded an “absolutely clueless” captain in a report submitted by Pakistan team manager Intikhab Alam in the wake of the team’s poor World T20 and Asia Cup campaigns.

The document by Intikhab, which follows an equally scathing report by coach Waqar Younis, covers the back-to-back T20 tournaments where Pakistan managed just three wins out of eight matches – with one of those victories coming against UAE – and they exited the World T20 at the Super 10s stage following defeats against India, New Zealand and Australia.

The five-page report, a copy of which has been obtained by ESPNcricinfo, is hugely critical of Afridi’s on-field tactics and off-field leadership, the lack of skills in all departments of the squad and how they became involved in “needless controversies” during the World T20 although he said that the coaching and support staff performed their duties “most diligently”.

“These very same reasons continued to be Team Pakistan’s bugbear, but since this was a global tournament with the top-most competing for honours, the magnitude of the stress, and the pressure was even more pronounced,” Intikhab wrote.

“The recent Asia Cup and the ICC World T20 have made it evident that we have critical gaps both in batting and bowling, and our fielding keeps on leaking runs, thus releasing pressure. In bowling, with the exception of Mohammad Amir, we do not have a bowler who can win us matches. Our death bowling also is way below par. And the same goes with our batting line-up, where we do not have reliable pinch hitters and the top and power hitter to clinch us games.”

“To cap it all, the tournament was being held in India, where the team was under multiple scanners at the same time, pushing the stress and anxiety levels very high,” Intikhab said. “Much to our chagrin [added to the above reasons], was a captain in his farewell event after a career spanning nearly 20 years, yet absolutely clueless in terms of on-field tactics and off-field leadership.”

Afridi’s captaincy was a regular topic of debate throughout the two tournaments. His decision-making came under scrutiny when Pakistan controversially dropped Wahab Riaz in favour of Anwar for the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh. Then there was the surprising move when Afridi promoted himself to No. 3 in the World T20 match against India at the expense of Mohammad Hafeez, who had made 64 off 42 balls in the previous match against Bangladesh, with Afridi subsequently scratching around for 8 off 14 deliveries.

Pakistan won their opening game of the World T20 against Bangladesh comprehensively, and regained some confidence after a poor showing in the Asia Cup, when they posted 201 to set up a 55-run victory at Eden Gardens. However, in the high-octane atmosphere against India they fell to a six-wicket defeat and were then comfortably beaten by New Zealand and Australia.