Thaindian News

Karachi, Jan 30 (IANS) Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt wants a younger player to lead the national side as he is not happy with the performance of current skipper Mohammad Yousuf.
Butt Saturday said that unusual circumstances forced him to appoint Yousuf as captain and hinted that a new player would be considered to take the responsibility.

“Ideally, a younger player could have been chosen to lead Pakistan, but Australia is not the place to experiment. So, the choice fell on the seniormost player Yousuf. Now we would like to hand over the reins to a younger captain who can lead the side for a longer period.”

Butt told Deutsche Welle Urdu Service that Younis Khan was appointed the captain but he decided to quit amid match-fixing allegations by parliamentary sports committee chairman Jamshed Dasti and we went for Yousuf.

“It was not possible to appoint a young player to lead the Pakistan team on a long and difficult twin tour of New Zealand and Australia.

“That’s why we were forced to make Yousuf captain of the team. Yousuf has led the national team after five long years and it was a difficult task,” Butt said.

Butt defended the appointment of three bowling coaches for the national team, stressing that bowling could be taught as Sarfraz Nawaz had taught to Imran Khan the art of reverse swing. But he did not consider that batting could be taught like bowling. However, he said that a batting coach would be appointed to train the upcoming players at the National Cricket Academy.

He also disclosed that changes in coaching staff would be made after the return of the team from Australia.