Younus wants to lead Pak to 2011 World Cup win

Karachi:

Even after becoming the second Pakistani captain to win a World Cup with the Twenty20 format triumph, Younus Khan is not a satisfied man and now wants to emulate Imran Khan by winning the 50-over World title in 2011.

Sources close to Younus said that he decided to quit Twenty20 cricket for star all-rounder Shahid Afridi to take the skipper's mantle in the shortest format but he is not in a mood to stand down from the ODI captaincy.

"Younus is a very straightforward character so he has decided to quit Twenty20 cricket and leave it to the youngsters with (Shahid) Afridi in charge. But Younus is dead serious about captaining the team to take a shot at 2011 World Cup title," the source said.

According to sources, Younus was not being able to assert his authority in the beginning of World Twenty20 because of problems among senior team members, similar to what happened in 1992 over late inclusion of star batsman Javed Miandad, which was the reason behind Pakistan losing the early matches.

It is no secret that when Younus replaced Shoaib Malik as captain in February after Pakistan lost its home one-day series to Sri Lanka, some of the leading players were not happy with the change.

Younus reportedly faced problems in getting cooperation from players including Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Salman Butt and even wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal. But fortunately for him he got support from Afridi.

"Younus faced problems because these players were resisting the inclusion of youngster Shahzad Hasan and even Fawad Alam in the playing eleven and didn't want either Butt or Ahmed Shahzad dropped," one source said.

"To complicate matters, Younus was also not getting enough cooperation from coach Intikhab Alam and assistant coach, Aaqib Javed. That was one of the reasons why Pakistan had a poor start to the World Cup and the team looked disjointed," the source added.

It was before Pakistan's crucial do or die match against New Zealand in the Super Eight stage that former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif, who is very close to Younus, advised him to put his foot down and exert authority.

"Rashid advised Younus to change the playing eleven by including Shahzab to open with Akmal, play Fawad Alam regularly and use Afridi at the top order," a source disclosed.

"After this, Younus got very serious and let the coach, assistant coach and other players know that since he was the captain he would take all the decisions on team strategy and the playing eleven."

The source disclosed that Younus was assured full support by Afridi and some other players.

"That is why Afridi was sent up the order and took on a new responsibility in the tournament. That Younus also scored runs helped a lot," the source disclosed.