Younis Khan

Captain Gives His Career New Lease of Life When Younis Khan yielded to the PCB demand by reversing his resignation decision, he gave his cricket career a new lease of life. Younis had undergone significant developments of his cricket career during the recent months. First, he won the Twenty20 World Cup for the country, thus becoming second only to Pakistani cricket legend Imran Khan to win a world cup for Pakistan. Then he decided to step down from Twenty20 cricket, giving way to Shahid Afridi for captaincy in the shortest version of the game. Then he suffered the torture caused by match-fixing allegations of a short-sighted parliamentarian, leaving for him a resignation as the only honourable way out. Jamshed Dasti, chairman of the sports committee, had summoned Younis, coach Intikhab Alam and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt to explain the defeat to New Zealand in the semifinal. However, Younis Khan's return to the national squad is going to cast a lasting impact on his career and will prove a key milestone in his cricketing career. Interestingly, the 11-day long cricket series, from November 3 to 13, against New Zealand, comprising three ODIs and two Twenty20 fixtures, has its own overtones. First, it is being held against the team who had recently quashed the hopes of the Twenty20 champions by defeating them in the Champions Trophy semifinal last month. Second, it is the second series being hosted by Pakistan in UAE because of security-related problems. Cricket has really been banished from Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates has become a shelter house for security-hit Pakistan who has to resort to host its guests on neutral venues. The refusal of the Aussies and Kiwis, and then of England and the West Indies, to tour Pakistan on security grounds is, by all means, justifiable after the Sri Lanka cricket team, which had agreed to tour the fast-getting lonely state to expresses solidarity with it, fell prey to the worst terror of game's history on March 03, 2009. Terrorism, or at least the fear of terrorism, had crept into sports becoming a major concern since Athens Olympic in 2004. But the March 03, 2009, attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore sealed the fate of cricket in Pakistan, and endorsed the ICC decision to shift away the biennial Champions Trophy tournament, and the ICC World Cup 2011 matches from the terror-ridden South Asian nuclear state. In the exile of the Champions Trophy, could be foreseen, indeed, exodus of the cricket world cup event from Pakistan. Starting in September 2001, when the New Zealand team returned even before reaching Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, a chain of terrorist activities speedily rendered Pakistan lonely, gradually alienating the cricketing nations from the South Asian country. In May 2002, a suicide bomber killed 14 people outside the Karachi hotel where the New Zealand team was staying, prompting them to leave and abandon the series; Australia had already refused to tour Pakistan for the same reason. The next year, a bomb blast in Karachi kept away South Africa from visiting Pakistan, while England refused to play a Test in Karachi in 2005. The Karachi Test had to be shifted to Multan after South Africa refused to play there after assassination attempt on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. In March 2008, Australia bluntly refused to tour Pakistan. While Pakistan rightly boasts of its batting greats such as Hanif Mohammed, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Muhammad Yousuf, the cricket team at present direly needs a batting master strong enough to bear the burden of Pakistani batting line-up and inspire the young cricketers to excel their performance. And such expectations can be set from Younis Khan. The courageous decision of Younis Khan in response to match-fixing allegations was another instance of the skipper's no-compromise approach. The fact is that Younis is going to lead the team by 2011, as has been assured by PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt on the only condition of his physical fitness, and this will make Younis strong enough to quell any inward conspiracy, thus making his way to the 2011 World Cup easy. While our major cricketers are expected to play the forthcoming World Cup to be conducted in the Sub-continent, Younis will be able to inspire them enough to fight for the world championship.