Pakistan:Shahid Afridi refuses to be drawn into another dispute

KARACHI: The Shahid Afridi-PCB dispute seems set to explode once again after Ijaz Butt decided to take a swipe at the former Pakistan captain.
Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, has opted to reignite a dispute that rocked Pakistan cricket last month by accusing Afridi of playing a negative role during the national team’s one-day series against West Indies earlier this summer.
According to excerpts of an interview with Geo Super, Butt also accused Afridi of using political pressure to avoid punishment at the hand of the PCB after ‘violating’ its code of conduct.
For the moment, Afridi is refusing to be drawn into a new dispute with Butt and company.
“I don’t even want to think about them (Butt and PCB),” the star allrounder told ‘The News’ from Southampton, where he is currently 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 has won Man-of-the-match awards in three of the six matches he has played for Hampshire so far.
But Afridi being Afridi is not ruling out a tit-for-tat response to Butt’s accusations.
“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 company just weeks after leading a previously under-achieving Pakistan team into the World Cup semifinals in March.
The player was relieved of Pakistan captaincy just days after he hinted at disharmony within the national team management following the one-day series against West Indies which the Pakistanis won 3-2.
Irked by what he termed as PCB’s ill-treatment, Afridi responded by speaking against the Board and its policies. He also announced a conditional retirement from international cricket, saying that he will only return to national duty once the current PCB set-up run by Ijaz Butt is replaced with competent officials. The Board reacted sharply by suspending his central contract besides revoking all No Objection certificates granted to the allrounder to play professional cricket abroad. Afridi filed a petition against the PCB before the case was settled out of court. Afridi was slapped with a Rs 4.5 million fine but the Board agreed to restore his NOC that allowed him to play for Hampshire in the English Twenty20 tournament.
Afridi is planning to return home next week after receiving reports that the Sri Lankan cricket authorities are mulling the option of hosting the inaugural edition of the Sri Lankan Premier League (SLPL) without foreign players. Afridi was supposed to lead one of the franchises in the tournament that will begin later this month.
The Karachi-based player, meanwhile, is considering an offer to play for Hampshire in the English one-day championship.
“It’s a very tempting offer and there is a big possibility that I will play for Hampshire in the one-day championship as well,” he said.

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