Younis Khan to blame for Pakistan's Problems
The crisis that the Pakistan cricket team has gone through in recent times, that has seen them change the captaincy 5 or even more times, is not new.
Such problems have existed for almost 3 decades. Maybe even more but I don't know much about era prior to the 80s.
Waqar Younis has termed the current ego clashes in the dressing room as the worst crisis to hit Pakistan cricket in over 3 decades.
I beg to differ.
Waqar has probably forgotten the rebellion he led against Wasim Akram in 1993-94.
Even before that there were 2 rebellions against Javed Miandad; first in 1981-82 when senior players refused to play under him and it resulted in Imran Khan getting the captaincy.
A decade later, after Imran retired, Javed Miandad faced similar circumstances with this time the junior players like Wasim, Waqar, Saleem Malik, Rameez Raja and others refused to play under Miandad.
Wasim Akram got the captaincy then in 1993-94 and soon after a couple of tours the entire team rebelled against him.
The decade after that saw Pakistan change captains faster than people change their clothes with all senior players getting a stint.
Saleem Malik, Rameez Raja, Aamer Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Moin Khan, Waqar Younis and Rashid Latif - all of them! - captained the side during this time with Wasim Akram regaining it 3 times during the period.
The first stable captain that Pakistan got after Imran Khan was Inzamam ul Haq, whose stint lasted almost 4 years.
The two common things about both the stints was that Imran and Inzamam had teams with players of their choices.
Both were dictators of different kinds; most importantly both had the respect of all the players.
Younis Khan was a stable vice captain under Inzamam and he was expected to take over once Inzamam hung up the boots.
However, when that happened after a troubled World Cup campaign in 2007, Younis Khan not only turned the captaincy down, he ditched Pakistan and refused to even play.
For me that is when the problems started.
The PCB named Shoaib Malik the captain and with several senior players like Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, and Abdul Razzaq in the team, it was never going to be pretty.
The senior players never wanted to play under a junior captain, particularly Malik who was not even a regular test player at the time.
Had Younis Khan accepted the captaincy after the 2007 World Cup, Pakistan could have avoided all the problems that it has faced over the last few years.
Younis was well respected; he had filled in for Inzamam on several occasions and demonstrated good authority; he was the leader that everyone had accepted.
And most probably he would have still been captain today.
Younis Khan eventually took over as captain when the PCB finally succumbed to player power and removed Malik from the post.
As expected, Younis had a tremendous start to his captaincy stint. He managed a triple century in his first test after being named captain, and soon after he led Pakistan to the World T20 title in 2009.
What more could Pakistan have asked for - a new captain, a committed team, and a world trophy.
But Younis Khan once again decided to create problems by announcing his retirement from T20 cricket, resulting in Shahid Afridi taking over the captaincy of the format.
And soon after that, the entire team for reasons best known to them, decided that they had had enough of Younis Khan as captain.
The man had just led the nation to a world cup triumph and now after a few losses the team didn't want him as their leader.
Younis Khan is such a troubled personality that I don't think it was the team's fault.
He's refused captaincy more than once; he's retired after managing to unite the team and winning a world trophy; who knows what he was up to when the players lost faith in him!
Mohammad Yousuf's stint after that is well documented in the form of PCB committee meeting recordings and court cases and what not.
And finally Pakistan had gone to the man who was always a natural leader - Shahid Afridi.
But even he decided to retire from test cricket.
Many blame Ijaz Butt for the problems that Pakistan are facing; many have blamed Nasim Ashraf; while some former players are now blaming Shahid Afridi.
What about Younis Khan who has ditched the team more than once?
The one man who could have marshalled Pakistan's players over the last 3 years just didn't have it in him to maintain his authority.
He was weak!
Had he put his hand up in the first place and taken charge, Pakistan would not have had 5 different captains since 2007.
They would have had one and probably the best one possible.
I blame Younis Khan for the all the problems that Pakistan have faced in recent times!
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I see your point. But you can't blame a "weak" person for being "weak". Who decided to entrust him such an important role? Why didn't they see this coming? Having said that, hindsight is 20-20. I could have never told 4 years ago that he'll turn out to be such a sensitive and unstable person.
Your observation that both Imran and Inzi were dictators is an interesting one. Who could be our next dictator? I say Umar Akmal in 2020!
Totally disagreed after reading the title, but as i read the article it started to make sense. I however think that we can not continue like this in the future. We either have dictators or upheavel (where else have we experienced this ?)
To get out of this rut we need a strong board (wishfull thinking !) and as a nation we have to except a period of rebuilding with patience.
Having said that please tell me why is younis khan not in the team let alone the captain ?
Younis Khan was not weak. He was very strong to actually leave the captaincy after becoming a national hero. The team under him had started revolting against him. And he was man enough to keep his integrity in place.
Shahid Afridi took up the captaincy of the Test team because PCB wanted him to be captain in all three formats. Then he took the easy way out by playing without responsibility.
Younis was asked to come back to the team only if he bowed down to PCB and accept his mistake. But because he is a man of honour he first asked media to be present during the court hearings and wouldn't plead to PCB to take him back, as he is much more dignified.
The problem is that he is a straight talker with relatively better morals than our fucked up society. Where dignified people are not allowed to stay, because the system is made up of crooks and thieves (just look at PCB as the example).
This is not just cricket, it is the whole make up of the nation.
I don't think anyone should be blamed for what is happening to the Pakistani cricket. It is all because of our system. Whoever comes in Pakistani cricket he becomes a part of this system. Those who don't like the system are thrown out of the squad. I hope you all agree with me.