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DETAILED ANALYSIS: How ACB became the victim of politics?

Gulbadin Naib accused some of the senior cricketers that they were not playing well deliberately. He claimed that they didn’t support him on the field whenever he used to ask them to bowl.

ACB
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Published : Jul 22, 2019, 8:01 PM IST

Updated : Jul 22, 2019, 8:33 PM IST

Hyderabad: Everything was going well for Afghanistan as they were set to play their first test match against India at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium which they did. They also had a fantastic run in the 2018 Asia Cup, where they defeated Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and almost managed to upset the eventual champions India and Pakistan.

However, in November, former Afghan skipper Nowroz Mangal, who was acting as the chief selector since early 2017 was asked to join the coaching staff of the national side as a Batting Consultant, while Dawlat Ahmadzai whom Mangal had succeeded was reinstated as the Chief Selector of the Afghanistan national cricket team.

A few weeks before the start of the 2019 cricket World Cup, Ahmadzai introduced multiple captaincy policy, and as a result, long-serving and successful skipper Asghar Afghan was replaced by Gulbadin Naib in ODIs, while Rahmat Shah and Rashid Khan were named as the skippers in Tests and T20Is respectively.

This move was backed by the board stating that this call had been taken keeping the 2023 World Cup in mind. The board chairman Azizullah Fazli had stated that the changes were a 'long-time investment and to compete in a better way'. The chief selector on his part said 'the changes are for the better future of the team'.

  • Being a senior member of the side & having seen the rise of Afghanistan cricket @ashrafghani I don’t think it’s the right time to change the captain before the WC @afgexecutive The team has gelled really well under #Asghar & personally feel he is the right man to lead us @hmohib

    — Mohammad Nabi (@MohammadNabi007) April 5, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data=" ">

However, this decision did not go down well with the players, with senior players like Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan criticizing the move. While Rashid labelled the decision "irresponsible and bias", Nabi expressed his disappointment at the timing of the move given it was less than two months for the start of the World Cup. He further said that Afghan was the right man to lead Afghanistan in the 2019 World Cup.

  • With all the respect to the Selection Committee, I strongly disagree with the decision as it is irresponsible & bias. As we have @cricketworldcup in front of us, Captain #MAsgharAfghan should remain as our team Captain. His captaincy is highly instrumental for team success .(1/2)

    — Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) April 5, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data=" ">

Even the head coach, Phil Simmons, expressed his astonishment with the move stating that he wasn't aware of the decision and was even not consulted before calling announcing this decision. He further said that he wasn't given any specific reason after the move was known to him.

  • With just months to go for such a mega event like World Cup, changing the captain will cause uncertainty and also team morale will be affected. @ashrafghani @afgexecutive @hmohib( 2/2)

    — Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) April 5, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data=" ">

Clearly, all was not well within the team and there were allegedly hints of favouritism by the board. But the ACB board officials claimed all was well in the camp.

However, all eyebrows were then raised when Asghar Afghan, the most consistent and experienced batsman in the Afghani squad was axed from the playing eleven. He was dropped consistently for the first three matches and was later reinstated after a poor showing from the other Afghani batsmen.

There was one more marquee incident during the World Cup which further established the notion that all is not well within the Afghanistan camp. During their warm-up match against Pakistan, wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad sustained a knee injury.

However, he was declared fit later and went on to play Afghanistan's first 2 matches of the World Cup against Australia and Sri Lanka. But soon after the end of the Sri Lanka game, Shahzad was ruled out for the remainder of 2019 World Cup after aggravation of the injury and teenage keeper-batsman Ikram Ali Khil was named as his replacement.

Upon reaching Kabul, an emotional Shahzad claimed that he was incorrectly declared unfit and omitted from the World Cup squad. "I had a practice session, bowled, batted, and had a keeping session... had lunch with my team-mates, and then sat down in the team bus (to return to the hotel) only to see the ICC press release on my phone saying I am out of the World Cup," he explained. "That was the moment when I found out that I was unfit."

The ACB chief executive, Asadullah Khan, nonetheless was adamant that there had been no foul-play in dropping the wicketkeeper-batsman. "It's absolutely wrong to say that he was unfairly dropped," Asadullah told a leading news agency. "We have given a medical report to the ICC to prove that he is unfit, and after thorough deliberation they allowed us to replace him. He is our main batsman, who can make a big difference with the bat, and it was a really difficult decision to drop one of our key players."

In the end, Afghanistan went on to lose all nine games in the World Cup - leading to question marks over the team selection.

All of a sudden, the Afghanistan Cricket Board on July, 12 appointed Rashid Khan as the skipper for all three formats. They also announced Asghar Afghan, who had been captain across all three formats before the introduction of the split-captaincy, will serve as Rashid’s deputy.

Further, on 13th, the ACB handed one-year suspension to the chief national selector, Dawlat Ahmadzai, and team manager, Naweed Sayem following the team's poor show in the World Cup. There were also reports that the board decided to sack former acting CEO Asadullah Khan, but Khan claimed that he himself resigned from the position.

On July 10, the board members of the ACB appointed Lutfullah Stanikzai as the new Chief Executive Officer of the board after considering the constitution of the board.

Yesterday, July 21, sacked skipper Gulbadin Naib, who never came out with controversial statements during the World Cup, however, accused some of the senior cricketers that they were not playing well deliberately.

He claimed that they didn’t support him on the field whenever he used to ask them to bowl at times. “We depend mostly on seniors in the World Cup but they were deliberately not performing, not giving attention to me, they were laughing instead of being sad after defeats & even not looking at me when asked to bowl,” Naib was quoted as saying by Afghanistan journalist.

All of these recent incidents clearly depicts that all is not well within the Afghanistan camp. There has been favouritism, politics and infighting happening within the squad and all need to move on and play in the spirit if they would want to continue the meteoric rise that Afghanistan has achieved in cricket.

Hyderabad: Everything was going well for Afghanistan as they were set to play their first test match against India at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium which they did. They also had a fantastic run in the 2018 Asia Cup, where they defeated Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and almost managed to upset the eventual champions India and Pakistan.

However, in November, former Afghan skipper Nowroz Mangal, who was acting as the chief selector since early 2017 was asked to join the coaching staff of the national side as a Batting Consultant, while Dawlat Ahmadzai whom Mangal had succeeded was reinstated as the Chief Selector of the Afghanistan national cricket team.

A few weeks before the start of the 2019 cricket World Cup, Ahmadzai introduced multiple captaincy policy, and as a result, long-serving and successful skipper Asghar Afghan was replaced by Gulbadin Naib in ODIs, while Rahmat Shah and Rashid Khan were named as the skippers in Tests and T20Is respectively.

This move was backed by the board stating that this call had been taken keeping the 2023 World Cup in mind. The board chairman Azizullah Fazli had stated that the changes were a 'long-time investment and to compete in a better way'. The chief selector on his part said 'the changes are for the better future of the team'.

  • Being a senior member of the side & having seen the rise of Afghanistan cricket @ashrafghani I don’t think it’s the right time to change the captain before the WC @afgexecutive The team has gelled really well under #Asghar & personally feel he is the right man to lead us @hmohib

    — Mohammad Nabi (@MohammadNabi007) April 5, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data=" ">

However, this decision did not go down well with the players, with senior players like Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan criticizing the move. While Rashid labelled the decision "irresponsible and bias", Nabi expressed his disappointment at the timing of the move given it was less than two months for the start of the World Cup. He further said that Afghan was the right man to lead Afghanistan in the 2019 World Cup.

  • With all the respect to the Selection Committee, I strongly disagree with the decision as it is irresponsible & bias. As we have @cricketworldcup in front of us, Captain #MAsgharAfghan should remain as our team Captain. His captaincy is highly instrumental for team success .(1/2)

    — Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) April 5, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data=" ">

Even the head coach, Phil Simmons, expressed his astonishment with the move stating that he wasn't aware of the decision and was even not consulted before calling announcing this decision. He further said that he wasn't given any specific reason after the move was known to him.

  • With just months to go for such a mega event like World Cup, changing the captain will cause uncertainty and also team morale will be affected. @ashrafghani @afgexecutive @hmohib( 2/2)

    — Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) April 5, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data=" ">

Clearly, all was not well within the team and there were allegedly hints of favouritism by the board. But the ACB board officials claimed all was well in the camp.

However, all eyebrows were then raised when Asghar Afghan, the most consistent and experienced batsman in the Afghani squad was axed from the playing eleven. He was dropped consistently for the first three matches and was later reinstated after a poor showing from the other Afghani batsmen.

There was one more marquee incident during the World Cup which further established the notion that all is not well within the Afghanistan camp. During their warm-up match against Pakistan, wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad sustained a knee injury.

However, he was declared fit later and went on to play Afghanistan's first 2 matches of the World Cup against Australia and Sri Lanka. But soon after the end of the Sri Lanka game, Shahzad was ruled out for the remainder of 2019 World Cup after aggravation of the injury and teenage keeper-batsman Ikram Ali Khil was named as his replacement.

Upon reaching Kabul, an emotional Shahzad claimed that he was incorrectly declared unfit and omitted from the World Cup squad. "I had a practice session, bowled, batted, and had a keeping session... had lunch with my team-mates, and then sat down in the team bus (to return to the hotel) only to see the ICC press release on my phone saying I am out of the World Cup," he explained. "That was the moment when I found out that I was unfit."

The ACB chief executive, Asadullah Khan, nonetheless was adamant that there had been no foul-play in dropping the wicketkeeper-batsman. "It's absolutely wrong to say that he was unfairly dropped," Asadullah told a leading news agency. "We have given a medical report to the ICC to prove that he is unfit, and after thorough deliberation they allowed us to replace him. He is our main batsman, who can make a big difference with the bat, and it was a really difficult decision to drop one of our key players."

In the end, Afghanistan went on to lose all nine games in the World Cup - leading to question marks over the team selection.

All of a sudden, the Afghanistan Cricket Board on July, 12 appointed Rashid Khan as the skipper for all three formats. They also announced Asghar Afghan, who had been captain across all three formats before the introduction of the split-captaincy, will serve as Rashid’s deputy.

Further, on 13th, the ACB handed one-year suspension to the chief national selector, Dawlat Ahmadzai, and team manager, Naweed Sayem following the team's poor show in the World Cup. There were also reports that the board decided to sack former acting CEO Asadullah Khan, but Khan claimed that he himself resigned from the position.

On July 10, the board members of the ACB appointed Lutfullah Stanikzai as the new Chief Executive Officer of the board after considering the constitution of the board.

Yesterday, July 21, sacked skipper Gulbadin Naib, who never came out with controversial statements during the World Cup, however, accused some of the senior cricketers that they were not playing well deliberately.

He claimed that they didn’t support him on the field whenever he used to ask them to bowl at times. “We depend mostly on seniors in the World Cup but they were deliberately not performing, not giving attention to me, they were laughing instead of being sad after defeats & even not looking at me when asked to bowl,” Naib was quoted as saying by Afghanistan journalist.

All of these recent incidents clearly depicts that all is not well within the Afghanistan camp. There has been favouritism, politics and infighting happening within the squad and all need to move on and play in the spirit if they would want to continue the meteoric rise that Afghanistan has achieved in cricket.

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Last Updated : Jul 22, 2019, 8:33 PM IST

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