I never interfered in Afridi’s job, coach Waqar Younis

Pakistan cricket team’s coach, Waqar Younis on Thursday denied interfering in former captain, Shahid Afridi’s job and expressed his surprise on his statement. “As a coach I have my own domain and I know my job description and I never interfered in Afridi’s job nor in selection affairs“, he told reporters after a meeting with the Chairman, Pakistan Cricket Board, Mohammad Ijaz Butt here at Gadaffi stadium. He said Afridi’s statement that coach intervened in his job comes as a surprise and he fails to understand why the former captain has stated so. “I have my own mindset and I always try to concentrate on my job and I will follow the same in future as well as long as I am the coach of the team”. Waqar said he had a positive and productive meeting with the Chairman PCB in which he submitted the tour report of West Indies and now it is upto to him (Chairman) whether to take action or not on it. He said as a coach he is also under heavy load of responsibilities as if the team performs good he gets the credit and in case of its (team’s) failure he is blamed for that. Team’s coach said Pak team players are playing cricket abroad for the past eight months and in such a situation minor differences are developed among them but they should not be made a big issue. When asked to compare the captaincy of Afridi with Misbah ul Haq, he has it was not his job to make a comparison. “Afridi was a good captain and I was satisfied with his captaincy”,he said when pressed to comment on Afridi’s captaincy.  Waqar termed team’s recent tour of West Indies a success and said it made a come back after suffering defeat in the first test before doing too good in the one day series. He said Misbah justified in the role of captain in West Indies and in Ireland. Team official had praise for young players including Junaid Khan and Azhar Ali saying they are the future of Pak cricket. He supported the idea of having a batting coach with the team adding it was the responsibility of the PCB to look into that aspect. “Even without a batting coach our batting put up fine show in the recent tours. Waqar rejected a questioner that Pak team was playing against weaker opposition. “I do not agree to it as we played against world’s best teams and now we are playing against those teams which are low in ranking but all these assignments are part of our tour programme”. He said the coming assignments of the team are a mixture of strong and weak teams as Pakistan will be playing England, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. “In present day cricket considering any opponent weak or under strength is not a fair thought”,he said adding “As a coach my responsibility is to lift the level of the team in every event and I am upto to that specific task”.