After professing ‘love’ for India, Afridi goes missing in training
KOLKATA: Javed Miandad is livid with Shahid Afridi for his ‘love’ bite. Petitions are being filed against him at the Lahore High Court. But where was the Pakistan captain two days after his remark set off a thousand questions? Not even in the vicinity of the Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
If Afridi had been present, he could have given another quote that would have hogged the headlines and led to more anger across the border. Instead, coach Waqar Younis tried to douse the fire saying he didn’t find Afridi’s quote controversial. Oh wait! Isn’t that a new controversy?
What got lost in the hype to get Afridi’s response to criticism from Miandad and Pakistan was that the team trained without its leader before their first match of the World Twenty20, to be played on Wednesday. That too against Bangladesh, a team that has convincingly beaten them in both ODI and T20 formats recently. Waqar said Afridi was indisposed. How sick was Afridi that he couldn’t even come and sit in the dressing room, asked a journalist. “It’s not like that. It’s better to take
rest. It’s warm out there,” said Waqar.
If it’s an ICC event, controversy is not too far away from the Pakistan team. In the 1996 World Cup, Wasim Akram had caused a flutter by pulling out of the quarterfinal against India in Bengaluru at the last moment citing a shoulder strain. Three years later, he said they were treating an India-Pakistan World Cup tie as a practice match!
This time though, the cup of controversy involving Pakistan seems to be overflowing. Right from the Dharamsala mess to Afridi saying he gets more love here than back at home to not showing up a day before their first match, Pakistan have had more off- the- field drama than on it. Younis agreed. “You’re right. We had a bit of drama and a bit of controversy yesterday also. I hope it does not affect the team’s performance,” he said.
TEAM IN DISARRAY
Apart from the pace attack, the team is not finely tuned. The combination has undergone a bit of chopping and changing. The batting particularly lacks depth. For the time being though, Afridi is in the centre of the cross-border, love-hate tug-of-war.
His presence in the dressing room could have eased the nerves on Tuesday. Being his last World Twenty20, Afridi, whose personal form is under scrutiny, would have liked more momentum.