Afridi to play in Pak National T20 C'ship

Afridi to play in Pak National T20 C'ship

Karachi: Retired from international cricket, Shahid Afridi will be seen in action in Pakistan's National Twenty20 Championships leading his home team Karachi Dolphins next month.

In what will be seen as a surprising choice, the Karachi Dolphins and Karachi Zebra squads, to be led by out-of-favour spinner Danish Kaneria, were announced by a selection committee that included national chief selector Mohsin Khan as a representative of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Both Afridi and Kaneria are presently out of favor with the PCB for different reasons.

While Kaneria is not being cleared by the PCB integrity committee which insists he must prove he has been cleared by the Essex police in the spot-fixing investigations last year in England, Afridi has clashed with the establishment since being removed as captain of the national one-day team in late May.

The board's decision to remove Afridi as captain led to his retirement from international cricket in protest after which he was forced to go to court against the PCB. He eventually paid a fine of Rs 4.5 million to the board for breaching the code of conduct.

"Basically the big picture is that Afridi and Kaneria are out of favor with the board and yet they have been named to lead the Karachi teams which were finalized by the chief selector," a former Test player said.

However, a KCCA source said that while the selection committee was confined to announcing the squads the naming of captains was the prerogative of the KCCA executive council.