‘Out-of-favour’ Afridi, Kaneria to lead Karachi teams in National T20 Championship

Karachi, August 26(ANI): Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, who has retired from international cricket, will be seen in action in National Twenty20 Championship next month.

Afridi will lead his home team, Karachi Dolphins, in the T20 Championship, while Karachi Zebra squads will be led by out-of-favour spinner Danish Kaneria.

“Basically, the big picture is that Afridi and Kaneria are out of favour with the board [PCB], and yet they have been named to lead the Karachi teams, which were finalised by the chief selector [Mohsin Khan],” the Daily Times quoted a former Test player, as saying.

However, a Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) source said that while the selection committee was confined to announcing the squads, the naming of captains was the prerogative of the KCCA executive council.

Both Afridi and Kaneria are presently out of favour with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for different reasons.

While Kaneria is not being cleared by the PCB’s Integrity Committee, which insists that he must prove he has been cleared by the Essex police in the spot-fixing investigations last year in England, Afridi has clashed with the establishment since being removed as captain of the national one-day team in late May.

The board’s decision to remove Afridi as captain led to his retirement from international cricket in protest, following which he was forced to go to court against the PCB. He eventually paid a fine of 4.5 million rupees to the board for breaching the code of conduct. (ANI)