Afridi vs Waqar: Infighting in Pakistan team

After their early exit from the Asia Cup, there seems to be more bad news for Pakistan cricket fans with reports of ‘infighting’ within the national team.

As per PTI, captain Shahid Afridi and Pakistan’s national coach Waqar Younis are at loggerheads and attempts are being made by Pakistan Cricket Board to sort out the differences ahead of the crucial ICC World T20 in India.

Chief selector Haroon Rasheed announced the revised World T20 squad on Monday,  but insiders in the board say all is not well even as Pakistan prepares to leave for India on Tuesday night.

"The board Chairman, Shaharyar Khan will be meeting with Afridi in Lahore later today while he has had a detailed meeting with Waqar," one well-informed source told PTI.

"Waqar, when he met with the Chairman, expressed his displeasure over the working of the national selectors and also voiced some complaints about Afridi," the source added.

"The Chairman will now also speak to Afridi about what Waqar had to say about the reasons for the team's recent poor performances, more recently in the Asia Cup," he stated.

Another source said Afridi was miffed with the way the chief selector and Waqar had discussed the recall of tainted cricketer Salman Butt to the national T20 squad while keeping him out of the picture.

"He is not happy that the return of Butt was discussed without his knowledge and later when the board spoke to him he made it clear if former Pakistan captain was recalled he would not like to play," the source said.

Butt is desperately trying to make a comeback into the national side after completing a five-year ban for spot-fixing last September.

The former captain had scored heavily in the national one-day championship.

The source said Waqar was not happy when Afridi missed two practice sessions even though they were optional in the Asia Cup and over some selection matters in the playing eleven.

"On the other hand the biggest complaint against Waqar is that he is overworking the players with his training schedule and does not allow them to relax," he said.

Both Waqar and Afridi have had issues in the past over team selection during the 2011 series against the West Indies which had led to sacking of the latter as national limited-overs captain.

Image: Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi (left) and coach Waqar Younis.