By IANS
Karachi : The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has shot down Younis Khan’s desire to become captain, saying that he took too long to make up his mind.
Younis was the first choice for captaincy after Inzamam-ul-Haq quit, but the middle-order batsman declined the offer. He, however, agreed to be Shoaib Malik’s deputy on the recent tour of India.
“Now we have appointed Shoaib Malik as our captain till December, 2008 and have complete faith in him, which is why there is no need to change the captain,” PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf told the Pakistani newspaper, The News.
Younis, who captained the team in the second and third Tests against India recently after Shoaib Malik got injured following the first-Test defeat in Delhi, was quoted as saying that he was willing to lead the Test side if the PCB wanted him to do so.
“I’m not aware of Younis’s comments that he is willing to take up captaincy but even if he is, we already have a captain,” Ashraf said.
Malik led Pakistan in their 2-3 defeat in the One-day International (ODI) series against India. Pakistan also lost the Test series, 1-0.
Ashraf said that the biggest positive for Pakistan during the disappointing tour was the “guts they showed in the last two Tests”.
“We were in tough situations in both Kolkata and Bangalore, but the team fought its way to achieving respectable results, and it’s really commendable,” Asraf said.
Referring particularly to Misbah-ul-Haq’s superb showing throughout the Test series, Ashraf pointed out that “players like Sohail Tanvir and Yasir Arafat, besides Misbah, made it sure that we have something to cheer about in the series.”