Shoaib Malik named Pakistan captain

NEW SKIPPER: Pakistan Thursday appointed Shoaib Malik as their new cricket captain, saying the young all-rounder represented the national team’s future after a disastrous World Cup.

The 25-year-old Malik was unveiled at a press conference here as the successor to Inzamam-ul-Haq, who quit as skipper after Pakistan exited the tournament in the first round.

“He is the future of cricket. He has intelligence and he has a good cricketing mind,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Nasim Ashraf told reporters, flanked by Malik himself.

“Malik is the personality to get the best from players both senior and junior,” Ashraf added. “He is a unanimous choice. He is the best man to lead the team.”

Malik will be the captain of both the Test and the one-day side until at least the end of 2007. No decision has been made on a vice-captain, Ashraf said.

“I am very motivated. I will give 110 percent,” Malik told the press conference.

Talat Ali was meanwhile appointed manager of the Pakistan cricket team for two years, Ashraf said.

The appointment of the relatively inexperienced Malik came after senior batsman and former vice-captain Younis Khan refused to assume the leadership role for personal reasons.

PCB sources said they opted for the right-handed batsman and useful off-spinner over more established names like master batsman Mohammad Yousuf because they wanted a fresh start.

Malik is likely to face pressure to deliver and command a team which has several captaincy hopefuls including Yousuf, flamboyant pacer Shoaib Akhtar and mercurial all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

Pakistan, the World Cup winners in 1992, were knocked out of the current edition in the Caribbean after losing to minnows Ireland on March 17 in one of the biggest upsets in the tournament’s history.

The following day coach Bob Woolmer was found murdered in his Jamaica hotel room. An overwhelmed Inzamam announced his retirement from one-day cricket and relinquished the captaincy soon afterwards.

Malik, from the industrial town of Sialkot near the Indian border, has played 18 Tests and 137 one-day internationals with a batting average of 37.64 since making his debut against Bangladesh in 2001.

His bowling action has been reported twice, once in 2005 and then again in 2006, forcing him to undergo elbow surgery.

The only other blight on his career so far was when Pakistan cricket chiefs banned him for one Test in 2005 for throwing a domestic game in protest after his team was penalised for a slow over rate in another match.

Malik later apologised.

Immediate reaction to his appointment was mixed.

Former Pakistan paceman Sarfraz Nawaz said the “decision is disappointing,” adding: “Nasim Ashraf has been taking one decision after another towards the destruction of cricket in Pakistan.”

Thursday, AFP