Butt faces biggest challenge in Afridi's defiance

Shahid Afridi's stunning retirement to protest his sacking as Pakistan's ODI captain could be the toughest test of PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt's tenure so far but he is unlikely to go back on his decision.

"At the end of the day Butt is a tough nut to crack and he has shown he can withstand media, public and government pressure," a PCB official said.

"But what he has to decide is whether to make Afridi an example or ease him back into the team and heal the wounds. Eventually it all boils down to how soon this controversy dies down in Pakistan cricket," he added.

Afridi took everyone by surprise last night when he announced, he was retiring from international cricket as he could not play under the present board set up which didn't respect players and had some "disgraceful" people.

Afridi's decision to retire came few days after Butt had sacked him as captain of the national one-day team before the series against Ireland and replaced him with Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq who led the team to a 2-0 series win over Ireland.

The board gave no official reason for removing Afridi especially after he led the team to the World Cup semi finals and also to a series win in the West Indies although unofficially it was confirmed that Butt acted on a report from manager Intikhab Alam from the West Indies.

The word is that a report was sought from the manager after reported differences between the captain and head coach, Waqar Younis on many issues including selection of teams and Intikhab informed the board that Afridi was at fault in the entire episode.