Afridi Named Pakistan Skipper for Asia Cup, England

Lahore: Dashing all-rounder Shahid Afridi was on Tuesday named Pakistan skipper for next month's Asia Cup and the following tour of England, uniting the team under one captain for all three formats of the game.

The 30-year-old Afridi, who led Pakistan to a semi-final finish in the World Twenty20 this month, was seen as the natural choice for all three forms of the game and more importantly someone who can unify the players.

"Afridi will lead Pakistan in one-day and Test cricket and is our best choice," said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ejaz Butt.

He becomes the latest in a line of Pakistan Test captains since Shoaib Malik took over from retired Inzamam-ul-Haq in 2007, followed by Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf.

"It is a great challenge to lead the team in all forms of the game," said Afridi, made Twenty20 skipper after Younis retired from the shortest form of the game following the team's World T20 title win last year.

"I will try to do my best and take all the players as a unit and build towards winning the World Cup," said Afridi, referring to the 50-over tournament to be jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh between February and April next year.

Pakistan suffered a leadership crisis after several players fell out with Younis, who was forced to relinquish the captaincy and pull out of the team's tour of New Zealand in November.

Yousuf replaced Younis for New Zealand and the following tour of Australia, where the team lost all three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20, resulting in Yousuf not being retained.

Following the tour, the PCB banned Yousuf and Younis indefinitely "over infighting in the team over captaincy", while Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan were banned for one year each and heavily fined.

Afridi and the Akmal brothers - Kamran and Umar - were also fined heavily and the trio kept under a six-month probation over breaches of discipline during the Australia tour.

Except for Yousuf, who retired in protest at the ban, all six players have appealed. A one-man arbitrator is dealing with the appeals, with the PCB on Monday promising a review of the penalties soon.

Pakistan feature in the four-nation Asia Cup in Sri Lanka from June 15-24 before proceeding to a two-and-a-half-month tour of England, where they play two Twenty20 matches and two Tests against Australia.

They then play England in four Tests, five one-day and two Twenty20 matches in a tour which finishes late September.

The PCB later named a 35-man preliminary squad for both the tours, including banned Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik, subject to their clearance from the arbitrator.

The 15-man squad for the Asia Cup will be decided in the first week of June after a short, five to six-day training camp in Karachi. The squad for England will be decided soon after that.

Probables Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Khurram Manzoor, Shahzaib Hassan, Azhar Ali, Azeem Ghumman, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Faisal Iqbal, Fawad Alam, Hasan Raza, Asad Shafiq, Umar Amin, Aamer Sajjad, Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi (capt), Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Sami, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan, Tanvir Ahmed, Aizaz Cheema, Danish Kaneria, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Zulfiqar Babar, Kamran Akmal (wk), Zulqarnain Haider (wk).