Boom Boom Afridi to retire from ODI's

KARACHI: Pakistan’s former captain Shahid Khan Afridi is going to announce his retirement from One Day International after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sacked him as skipper earlier in the week.

Sources told The Sports Encounter on Saturday that Shahid Khan Afridi is really dis-hearted on the way the PCB has dealt with him on his media leakages about his differences with head coach Waqar Younis.

The PCB, on Thursday, sacked Shahid Afridi as captain of the Pakistan’s One Day Internationals team and replaced him with Misbah-ul-Haq.

The Sports Encounter had reported on Tuesday that either Misbah-ul-Haq, the Test captain, or all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez was likely to replace Boom Boom Afridi as ODI captain in Ireland.

The decision was made for Pakistan’s upcoming two-match ODI series against Ireland where veteran top-order batsman Younus Khan will also join the team.

Boom Boom Afridi, who is in the United States for his father illness, is still part of the team as a regular player, but PCB chairman Ijaz Butt had told media that his place in the team is not cemented and he will have to prove his abilities. Misbah-ul-Haq, who is leading Pakistan in the two-match Test series in West Indies, will lead the team in Ireland, the PCB chairman added.

It is important to mention here that some media groups had earlier claimed that Shahid Afridi had talked to Ijaz Butt and during the conversation he was able to resolve all out-standing issues including his media outburst. They also claimed that the PCB chief had given Afridi captaincy assurance.

However, on Wednesday, Ijaz Butt told local media that Afridi wasn’t given any assurance of captaincy showing a state of anger in the top cricket board authorities after Afridi had told media about his differences with head coach Waqar Younis.

Following his remarks in the media, which wasn’t the first instance, the PCB had slapped Afridi with a notice demanding reasons for his media outburst.

Following his media outburst, Afridi rapidly lost support in the cricket board for not abiding by the board rules and continuing to talk to media despite several warnings by Ijaz Butt, PCB chairman, and other top authorities.

Pakistan are having a tough schedule as after returning from West Indies, they are due to play two ODIs in Ireland and then they will be touring Zimbabwe in August but before that most of the stars will be in action in the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) for which the PCB has issued NOCs to Shahid Khan Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal.