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| Shahid Afridi |
According to Geo News, announcing his retirement, Afridi said it was hard for him to play under a cricket board, which pays no respect to senior players.
“I cannot work with the people who find it difficult to tolerate statements in favour of cricket,” Geo News quoted Afridi, as saying.
"It is nothing short of an hounour for me that Pakistan played world cup semifinal under my captaincy," he added.
The former captain and coach Waqar fell out during the tour of West Indies earlier this month.
Afridi told the PCB that he was upset with Waqar's role after which the selectors removed him from captaincy and handed over the ODI responsibilities to middle-order bastman Misbah-ul-Haq.
The PCB’s move to remove Afridi from captaincy was criticised by many former Pakistani cricketers.
Former skipper Wasim Akram came down hard on the PCB, saying the board has committed a blunder by sacking Afridi and handing over the day captaincy to Misbah, who according to him, has no future.
Akram said Afridi had bought glory to the country against all odds, particularly after the spot-fixing row involving three top players- Mohammed Asif, Mohammed Amir and Salman Butt.
The flamboyant cricketer has played 325 ODIs scoring 6695 at an average of 23.49. Afridi’s astounding strike rate of 113.82 in the ODIs is representative of his explosive batting style. He also holds the record of the fastest ODI century in just 37 balls. He has also bagged 315 wickets at an average of 34.22.
The all rounder has played 43 T20s and 27 Tests and scored 683 and 1716 runs respectively in the two formats of the game.
Ijaz Butt faces biggest challenge in Afridi's defiance
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| Ijaz Butt & Shahid Afridi |
Shahid Afridi's stunning retirement to protest his sacking as Pakistan's ODI captain could be the toughest test of PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt's tenure so far but he is unlikely to go back on his decision.
"At the end of the day Butt is a tough nut to crack and he has shown he can withstand media, public and government pressure," a PCB official said.
"But what he has to decide is whether to make Afridi an example or ease him back into the team and heal the wounds. Eventually it all boils down to how soon this controversy dies down in Pakistan cricket," he added.
Afridi took everyone by surprise last night when he announced, he was retiring from international cricket as he could not play under the present board set up which didn't respect players and had some "disgraceful" people.
Afridi's decision to retire came few days after Butt had sacked him as captain of the national one-day team before the series against Ireland and replaced him with Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq who led the team to a 2-0 series win over Ireland.
The board gave no official reason for removing Afridi especially after he led the team to the World Cup semi-finals and also to a series win in the West Indies although unofficially it was confirmed that Butt acted on a report from manager Intikhab Alam from the West Indies.
The word is that a report was sought from the manager after reported differences between the captain and head coach, Waqar Younis on many issues including selection of teams and Intikhab informed the board that Afridi was at fault in the entire episode.