KARACHI - Pakistan cricket captain Shahid Khan Afridi has said that after the West Indian tour, more youngsters would be given opportunities on the tour to Zimbabwe.
“All the seniors cannot be replaced at once but a blend of youth and experience would be taken along. Young cricketers performed very well in the World Cup and after the West Indies series, more youngsters will be included in the team for the Zimbabwe tour,” Afridi said during a ceremony arranged in his honour by the Sports Journalists Association of Sindh (SJAS).
“When I took over the captaincy my priority was to improve the image of the Pakistan cricket and with the support of the Chairman Ijaz Butt efforts are afoot to make the team a world class unit again”, added Afridi. While praising the performance of Asad Shafiq and Wahab Riaz, the captain defended the selection of Ahmed Shehzad for the West Indies tour, saying that the opening batsman had a good series before the World Cup and was still very young and would hopefully perform well in the Caribbean.
On a question regarding Abdul Razzaq’s claim of not being utilised properly during the mega event, the captain said that all the players were used accordingly and Razzaq should show patience. Shahid Afridi categorically turned down the possibility of returning to Test cricket admitting that he does not posses the temperament for the longest version of the game. “I don’t have the temperament to play Test cricket. There are quite a few good youngsters in the domestic circuit who can acquire a place in the test side,” said Afridi.
The president of the Sports Journalists’ Association of Sindh (SJAS) Rashid Ali Siddiqui, Senior Vice President Syed Nasar Iqbal, Vice presidents Syed Yahya Hussaini, Tariq Aslam, General Secretary Ubaid-ur-Rehman Awan, Finance Secretary Shahid Ali Khan, Managing Committee members Mohammad Asif Khan, Abdul Ghaffar, Imtiaz Naranja, Irshad Ali, Mohammad Asghar, Emmad A Hameed, Zubair Nazeer Khan and Zahid Ghaffar were present on the occasion and they presented a shield to Shahid Afridi.
