Thaindian News

Karachi, July 8 (IANS) Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was left “weighing his options” after Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butt fired a salvo at the allrounder, saying that he has no captaincy future.

The PCB chairman, reigniting a dispute that rocked Pakistan cricket last month, accused Afridi of playing a negative role during the national team’s One-day series against West Indies earlier this summer.

According to excerpts of his television interview Thursday night, Butt also accused Afridi of using political pressure to avoid punishment at the hand of the PCB after ‘violating’ its code of conduct. He minced no words in saying that Afridi has no captaincy future either.

For the moment, Afridi is refusing to be drawn into a new dispute with Butt and the PCB.

“I don’t even want to think about them (Butt and PCB),” the star all-rounder was quoted as saying in The News

Afridi is currently in Southampton where he is featuring prominently in Hampshire’s title campaign in the Friends T-20 event.

“I’m enjoying my cricket and won’t allow anybody to spoil it for me,” added Afridi, who won man-of-the-match awards in three of the six matches he has played for Hampshire so far.

“Let me see what they are saying against me and then I’m going to decide whether there is a need to give my side of the story to my fellow countrymen,” he said.

Afridi, 31, fell out of favour with Butt and PCB just weeks after leading a previously under-achieving Pakistan team into the World Cup semifinals in March.

Butt, meanwhile, has ruled out a return to captaincy for Afridi in the future, though he left a window open for him to return to the side as a player.

“As far as I am concerned he is not captaincy material for the PCB anymore,” Butt said in a television interview. “(As a player) he has done well in the past, he’s been a good cricketer for Pakistan, there’s no doubt about it.”