despite seeing almost non-stop turmoil due to the Pak captaincy in the past two decades, I’d never thought critically about why the Pak captaincy is such a bone of contention. just accepted it as a matter of fact and one thing more that we had to navigate around. but now I’m trying to understand why it is so highly sought after.
you don’t see this single-minded obsession with becoming the captain in other countries. for example, in South Africa, no one tried to lead a mutiny against Smith. Klusener didn’t buy into the new era and was promptly shown the door. in Australia, after Waugh, there were three contenders - Gilchrist, Warne and Ponting. and Ponting became captain despite being the least likely out of the three. but that never came in the way of the Aussie team. both Warne and Gilchrist continued to win matches for australia and Ponting. when Fleming was in charge of the Kiwis, he was the undisputed leader. and Vettori was waiting in the wings and when he took over, again there was not even a slight murmur against him.
now, ppl often say that its just the culture in those countries. theyre more professional, etc. well even in the subcontinent, Pakistan is the only team that has these problems. look at India. apart from Ganguly where things turned ugly for a while, the captaincy has generally been handed over in a smooth manner and without bitterness. the new captain seems to enjoy decent support. Tendulkar, Dravid are playing under Dhoni. can you imagine Inzi playing under Younis? same goes for Sri Lanka. Jayawardene voluntarily (imagine that) gave up the captaincy in favor of Sangakara. again it was a smooth transition with no challengers. heck even Bangladesh seems better placed than us in terms of captaincy.
I won’t even ***** about the quality of players in the Pak team now and how they should concentrate on their individual game before trying to sabotage the team for a shot at the captaincy. but even in the 90s, there should have only been one captain. Wasim, whether he was the captain or not, was THE leader of the team. when he became mature enough, he should have been captain right till he retired.
so, why is there so much dysfunction when it comes to the Pak captaincy? does the captain make way more money? I’m sure Akhtar made more money than many of his captains due to commercials, endorsements, etc. so, can’t be that. does the captain get perks? like he gets a single room on tours and the rest have to share? more room service? honestly? is it the protocol? like he gets the front seat on the bus to the stadium? or he gets the aisle/window seat in the plane? seriously, what is the reason for so much fighting?
not everyone is/has to be good at everything. McGrath, Klusener, Donald, Boucher, etc are/were all amazing players, yet we never heard about their captaincy ambitions or tantrums. they just kept winning matches for their team and captain whoever that might be at the time. so, why does every Pakistani player think of himself as a captaincy candidate regardless of his individual performance/leadership abilities?
I mean if you had told me 5 years ago that Afridi would be a serious candidate for the Pak captaincy, I would have told you that when he becomes captain, Shehnaz Sheikh and I will be married and living a life full of wedded bliss. simply unbelievable (the former, not the latter). so, please shine some light on this issue for the sake of my mental health which is pretty shaky as it is.