PCB will appoint a younger captain: Butt

Karachi:

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ejaz Butt ruled out a complete overhaul of the team after their disastrous tour of Australia but said a younger skipper will replace Mohammad Yousuf.

"Ideally, a younger player could have been chosen to lead Pakistan, but Australia is not the place to experiment. So, the choice fell on the senior-most player Mohammad Yousuf. Now we would like to hand over the reins to a younger captain who can lead the side for a longer period," Butt told a television channel.

Butt said the board had appointed Younus Khan as captain last year with a view to have him in this position for a long time.

"Unfortunately, the National Assembly standing committee on sports made allegations against him and this caused him great distress and he decided to not play for a while upsetting our plans," he said.

The PCB chief said he was not a supporter of the culture of frequent changes in the captaincy and team management but circumstances forced the board to take short-term decisions.

He also said that the selectors would be looking at inducting some new players into the team.

"Complete overhaul is not possible and we will gradually start inducting new players into the side. There is plenty of talent in our cricket and we can even now replace the entire fast bowling line up but we don't want to take hasty decisions," he said.