Pakistan’s coach Waqar Younis has become the latest to join the growing list of people to express his surprise over the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) decision to delay naming of the captain for the 2011 World Cup while announcing the 15-member squad.
“This is also surprising to me. I don’t know what reasons the board could have for delaying naming the captain but personally I feel it would have been better to announce the captain along with the World Cup team,” Waqar told Geo Super from Wellington.
The PCB on Tuesday announced the World Cup squad but held back the name of the captain, adding to speculations that Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq might be picked to lead the side in place of regular skipper Shahid Afridi.
Asked who he felt was a better choice to lead Pakistan in the World Cup, Waqar said he was not in a position to respond to this even as a layman.
“But whoever is the captain, his name should have been announced along with the team. Not announcing the captain will only lead to issues,” Waqar said, adding that all other teams have announced their squads with their captains.
The former pacer, however, hailed Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq for leading the team to its first Test series win in four years in New Zealand.
“I think he has done an outstanding job on and off the field as captain. He deserves a lot of credit for the way he has handled the team issues and players, besides for his own personal contribution as player.”
Waqar said that after the Test series win, the forthcoming six-match one-day series against New Zealand would be a tough challenge.
“How we perform against New Zealand in the one-dayers will basically decide our tone for the World Cup. It will give a clear indication of how we are going to perform at the mega event.”
