Former Pakistan fast bowler and chief coach Waqar Younis was not happy with Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi because of their behaviour and approach towards the cricket. He urged the cricket authorities to drop Umar Akmal from the national squad and blamed Shahid Afridi for the defeats against England and New Zealand in ICC T-20 World Cup in India.
In his full report, the excerpts of which were leaked out in the media and led to his resignation last month, Waqar specifically mentions Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shehzad, and Afridi and has advised the authorities to stop feeding off egos.
On Akmal, Waqar is very critical and describes him as an indisciplined player. “Umar Akmal was asked by Haroon Rasheed (former chief selector) to come the next day for a fitness test to join the team in Sri Lanka for ODIs, instead, he chose to catch a flight to the Caribbean for a lucrative league without informing anyone. Few months later, when he was caught in the Hyderabad incident or misbehaving with his domestic team coach, all times he managed to retain his place back in the team. Is this what criteria we are setting for selection of new players?,” Waqar wrote in his report.
“We lost New Zealand, Asia Cup and T20 World Cup due to poor captaincy. On several occasions, I had made it clear that Shahid Afridi was not performing with bat, ball or captaincy but I was not listened to. Poor tactics, really cost us matches. Meeting was held after the NZ T20 series where the boys emphasised that they felt confused with what the captain was telling them to do,” the report said.
“Shahid Afridi did not attend a few meetings or practice, a captain leads from the front, not like this. It was unfair how he played Mohammad Nawaz during the game which destroyed the youngster’s confidence. he was so fixated on his own performance that he did not execute any game plan or use the right players at the right time. His sudden decisions on changing the batting order or field placements did not help the team,” Waqar wrote.