Former skipper Pakistan cricket team Shahid Khan Afridi has announced retirement from international cricket here late on Monday. Afridi told that he could no longer perform for a cricket board that did not respect its senior players. “I have decided to retire from international cricket because I am not in a mental frame of mind to continue playing under this board,” the 31-year-old said.
The hard-hitting batsman and leg-spin bowler told that there were “disgraceful” people in the board who could not tolerate outspoken people like him. “I can’t work with such people. To me self-respect is more important than anything else and this board has no respect for me,” he said. He added more that during his spell as one-day captain he was not consulted over squad selection and did not know until the last minute if he would be retained as skipper.
“There was no respect shown to me although I picked up a ragged and scandal-hit team and built it up into a fighting unit. We reached the 50-over World Cup semi-finals (this year) and the reward they gave me was the sack,” he said. “They sacked me without telling me. No one bothered to even speak to me. “There is a particular lobby of people … who don’t want me in the team perhaps because I don’t fit into their scheme of things. They have poisoned the chairman against me.”