Former coach Waqar Younis has backed Mohammad Hafeez's appointment as Pakistan's new Twenty20 captain and his elevation to the post of vice-captain in Test and ODI teams.
Published: May 15, 2012, 12:45 PM (IST)
Edited: May 15, 2012, 12:45 PM (IST)
Waqar Youinis also backed the selectors decision to drop experienced Wahab Riaz from all three formats of the game for the Sri Lanka tour © AFP
Karachi: May 15, 2012
Former coach Waqar Younis has backed Mohammad Hafeez‘s appointment as Pakistan’s new Twenty20 captain and his elevation to the post of vice-captain in Test and ODI teams.
Waqar, who remained with the national team until September last year before resigning due to personal and health reasons, said the Pakistan Cricket Board had taken a wise decision by reposing faith in Hafeez.
“Hafeez is an experienced cricketer and I think it’s a good move to give him the captaincy first in the shortest format. It would have been unwise to throw him into the deep end and give him the captaincy in the longer formats,” Waqar said.
“He is a fine choice, the right choice and I wish him well and I hope that he will be successful,” he told told the pakpassion.net.
Waqar also advised all cricketers with captaincy aspirations to put them aside and give their full support to Hafeez who will began his international stint as captain with two Twenty20 matches against Sri Lanka in early June.
“I hope that Hafeez gets the support of all the players in the team and the squad, particularly the senior players. I sincerely hope that the guys who were thinking about becoming captain or hoping that they would be chosen as captain, stop thinking about the issue of captaincy and instead get behind Hafeez and support him for the sake of Pakistan cricket,” he said.
“Hafeez has always provided good support to captains that he has played under and now he deserves the support of his teammates,” Waqar said.
The former skipper also backed the selectors decision to drop experienced Wahab Riaz from all three formats of the game for the Sri Lanka tour.
“When I was the coach, he (Wahab) struggled at times. His problems were with his bowling action and also at times due to his attitude,” stated Waqar.
Waqar, who took 789 international wickets, said that the PCB and selectors need to show patience while introducing the concept of separate squads for all three formats of the game.
“You have to make changes for each format. The problems is that in the history of Pakistan cricket if something goes wrong they rush into making drastic changes and destroy the whole system.
“If the policy of three separate teams does not work immediately, I would urge the selectors not to scrap the idea, stick with it and give it some more time to work,” he said. (PTI)
