Karachi: Flamboyant batsman Shahid Afridi has told Pakistani selectors not to consider him for Test matches until next year’s cricket World Cup saying that he wants to concentrate on the one-day and Twenty20 formats.
“There is a lot of international cricket being played these days and I think it is better if I focus on these two forms of the game in the period leading up to the World Cup,” Afridi said.
Afridi, who last played a Test in July, 2006 in England, said the next two years were very important for Pakistan cricket with the T20 and 50-over World Cups lined up.
“I would love to see our team winning both competitions and I feel we have the potential to do this,” the spin all- rounder told the ‘Jung’ newspaper.
Afridi said not playing Test matches would help him stay fresh for the T20 and ODI matches. He has played 285 ODIs compared to just 26 Tests in his career which began in 1997.
The national selectors have already omitted him from the Test squad announced for the upcoming tour of New Zealand and named him captain of the T20 side until the next T20 World Cup in the West Indies.
He also dismissed reports of differences with captain Younus Khan.
“I am fed up of the thousand and one stories doing the rounds about me and Younus not getting along, my lust for captaincy and the like,” The New Zealand Herald quoted Afridi, as saying.
“Younus and I go a long way as friends, almost 15 years. We won the world Twenty20 in June under Younus’ leadership, and there’s no reason why I should not back him for leading the team and the country to more laurels,”
“We respect each other. I have always supported him as player and captain and I will continue to do that in future as well,” he said.
Bureau Report
