Ironically, though, they are praying that the 37-year-old Misbah-ul-Haq continues to perform well with the bat so that he can carry on as the national skipper in all three formats for as long as possible.
The reason behind their prayers is that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is completely clueless about the future national captain. After weighing all their options, the PCB and national team officials have reached the conclusion that at the moment they don’t have a single player who can be groomed into a successful captain, somebody who can take the reins of the national team from Misbah ahead of the next World Cup.
“It’s certainly a very tricky situation,” a senior Pakistan cricket official told Arab News on the condition of anonymity. “All of us agree that what our team needs is a good, young cricketer, who can be groomed into a future captain. The idea is to identify a player who is good enough to get a permanent place in the national team for all three formats. The player should have leadership skills, somebody who can command respect and motivate his teammates,” he added.
“But the problem is that currently we don’t have a single player, who can even come close to fulfilling all these requirements and that’s posing us a big headache,” said the official.
According to sources, PCB and the national team management are both convinced that for the moment they should keep faith in Misbah, the aging middle-order batsman, who was installed as Pakistan’s Test captain last year after a spot-fixing scandal halted the international career of his predecessor Salman Butt.
Misbah was also appointed as Shahid Afridi’s deputy for limited-overs formats last year. Earlier this summer, Misbah was also given the charge of the one-day team after Afridi fell out with the PCB and announced his retirement.
“Misbah is in the good books of PCB and the team management,” said a reliable source. “He is backed by the Board, the coach and the manager. All he has to do is to keep performing and that will give PCB enough time to find his successor,” he added.
But the problem is that Misbah is in the twilight years of his international career. He is 37 and is certainly not a long-term answer to Pakistan’s captaincy problem. That was precisely the reason why Waqar Younis, the Pakistan coach, has recommended that Pakistan should start thinking about a young captain.
In his report, Waqar has praised a number of younger players like inform all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez. "Hafeez has been exceptional, both with the ball and the bat… He is now taking responsibility as a senior member of the team," Waqar wrote in his report.
Those remarks back by Hafeez’s prolific performances triggered speculations that the PCB was seriously mulling the idea of appointing him as Pakistan’s one-day captain.
But a senior Pakistan team official told this correspondent that there was little or no chance that Hafeez will be installed as Pakistan’s new captain. “He is not captaincy material,” said the official.
Another player who received glowing praise from Waqar was senior batsman Younis Khan. However, the 33-year-old former captain is not being considered for captaincy because of his past history. Younis and PCB chief Ijaz Butt had a bitter fall out in 2009 just weeks after the batsman guided Pakistan to a title-winning triumph in the ICC World Twenty Championship in England. “Younis won’t be made captain till Ijaz Butt is around as PCB chairman,” said a source.
