ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The plan to allow former Twenty20 Skipper Shahid Afridi to play a farewell match in the upcoming series against West Indies has been put on hold at the moment by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
Pakistan was eliminated from the 2016 World Twenty20 in March 2016, after losing to India, New Zealand and Australia. There were talks about this being Afridi’s ‘last Twenty20’.
Afridi had said after the loss to Australia that he would think about retiring and announce it. But instead on April 3 he stepped down from the T20 captaincy and didn’t announce his retirement.
After that time and again Afridi has been claiming to be the fittest player even after being left out of the T20 squad but he was not given a chance. Recently there were reports that the PCB would allow Afridi to play one last match and then the all-rounder would announce his retirement.
The plan was to send Afridi to UAE as the 16th player and he would appear in a final match against the West Indies before announcing his retirement and going out gracefully.
But according to a PCB official, any plan to allow Afridi to play one final T20 match has been dropped by the board at the moment.
When asked that the plan to include Afridi in the T20 was dropped as Najam Sethi (head of the executive committee) was not in favor of it, the official said it is not true.
“There are chances that the board would give Afridi a proper farewell event where he would announce his retirement,” he said.
The all-rounder, has played 398 ODIs and 98 T20 internationals and also captained Pakistan in all three formats.
