Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, landed in Wellington on Thursday and according to sources carried out preliminary meetings with the team management ahead of the one-day series against New Zealand getting underway in Wellington from Saturday (Jan 22).

Sources told Arab News that Butt is planning to take a decision on the captaincy issue after carrying out further meetings with Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq, the two candidates for World Cup captaincy. The PCB chief will also be discussing the issue extensively with Pakistan coach Waqar Younis and team manager Intikhab Alam. There is also a possibility that he will take inputs from a few senior players of the Pakistan team.

Most of the meetings between Butt and the team management will be taking place at the team hotel in Wellington on Friday.

Surprisingly, all of this is happening months after Butt had earmarked Afridi to lead Pakistan in limited-overs matches at least till World Cup 2011.

However, there had been indications that Butt and the PCB were having second thoughts on the team’s captaincy after Misbah led Pakistan in a drawn series against South Africa in UAE last November.

The seasoned batsman then captained Pakistan in their first Test series victory in four years against New Zealand.

The Board added fuel to speculations when it decided against naming the team’s captain while announcing a 15-man final squad for the World Cup.

According to sources, Afridi remains the front-runner for the one-day captaincy but the senior all-rounder will have to convince Butt that he can lead Pakistan from the front.

Afridi will be leading Pakistan in their six-game ODI series against New Zealand and there is a possibility that Butt would witness a couple of matches before making a call on the captaincy issue.

However, there is a possibility that the PCB chief might name the captain over the weekend.


Meanwhile, Pakistan cricket authorities have asked national coach Waqar Younis to explain himself after his comments on the delay in naming a World Cup captain, a cricket board spokesman said Thursday.

Under the Pakistan Cricket Board's code of conduct, players and team officials are barred from criticizing official decisions.

"Waqar has been served a notice to explain his comments on the captaincy issue since he is under contract with the board and his statement comes under violation of the code of conduct," PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar said.

Pakistan Tuesday announced a 15-man squad for next month's World Cup — to be jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — but stopped short of naming a captain as they consider both one-day captain Shahid Afridi and Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq.

Waqar, speaking after Pakistan drew the second Test against New Zealand at Wellington on Wednesday, expressed surprise at the delay.

"I am surprised that the board has delayed announcing the captain. I don't know the reasons for this but personally I think the captain should have been named with the team," Waqar said after Pakistan's 1-0 win in the series.

The board's delay has also come under severe criticism from former players such as Wasim Akram and Iqbal Qasim who said it was "damaging for the team" before the World Cup.