Mohammad Yousuf had another two years of productive Test cricket left in him © Getty Images

The purge of Pakistan's cricketers has claimed an unexpected victim. Mohammad Yousuf may have captained the team poorly in the recent series in Australia and New Zealand. He may have performed below his usual high standards. He may have fallen foul of his fellows and the cricket board. But there were still Test runs in his cricket bat.

It is a dreadful situation that Pakistan's most exquisite Test batsman feels compelled to retire from the game that made him. Pakistan cricket still needs its MoYo, especially with a testing summer of cricket in England to come. Without him, and perhaps Younis Khan, Pakistan's middle order will be a horror show.

Yousuf could have stuck it out, fought the ban, but why should he? The PCB's mismanagement has wrought this outcome. Yousuf was elevated to a captaincy that was beyond him - he didn't appoint himself captain. Indeed, if the PCB was unhappy with his behaviour it should not have rewarded him with the captaincy.

When the poor fellow was clearly out his depth, in the middle, in the media, and in private, the PCB did little to support, guide, or gag him. The final insult was announcing the end of his captaincy before the Australia tour had ended.

To punish him now--along with Younis Khan--is an absolute nonsense and national disgrace. I can understand his decision to quit this world of injustice. Yousuf may not have been the easiest fellow to command or control but such is the way of talent. How many great players have been infuriating personalities?

Once more, the PCB has failed Pakistan cricket and the Pakistani people. That's what you get when people are promoted beyond their capabilities.

In Pakistan cricket, as we all know, a retirement isn't necessarily the final act. Yousuf surely has at least a couple of years of productive Test cricket left in him. I hope he can be persuaded to wait a while. Pakistan cricket still needs his lofty elegance.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/KamranAbbasi

	Shahid Afridi, chosen for now to lead Pakistan's defence of the World T20 title, brings hope and uncertainty © Associated Press

Pakistan cricket, impulsive by nature, has appointed its most impulsive captain. Shahid Afridi, chosen for now to lead Pakistan's defence of the World T20 title, brings hope and uncertainty. Many Pakistan fans have lived an odyssey with Afridi, mesmerised by every twist of fortune and wishing him to grow into a player of genuine stature. Mr Boom Boom has been handed an opportunity to live their dream.

Afridi has been a box office cricketer for over a decade but when you analyse his career there are few moments of greatness. A record breaking first hundred in Nairobi, a match-winning Test century in Chennai, and then the World Twenty20 victory. The last two events were a decade apart. His career has been one of spasms of joy punctuating long pauses of disappointment for him and his supporters. Afridi has often thrilled but he has rarely transcended.

His critics, many of whom are Pakistan supporters, will be disappointed at this appointment. Afridi's temperament can be as erratic as his batting. He has had bust ups with team mates, scuffed a Test wicket with a dancer's swivel, and, in perhaps his maddest moment, gnawed a cricket ball when he was captaining his country. Afridi, say his critics, brings uncertainty and every chance that he will further dishonour his people. I beg to differ.

Captaincy is a complex art. Pakistan cricket is a complex environment. Yet the mess that Pakistan cricket finds itself in, much of it self inflicted, demands a simple methodology. Pakistan require their captain to lead from the front. Any dispute of that point was emphatically dismissed by the depression of Mohammad Yousuf's captaincy. Pakistan also require their captain to be aggressive, equally willing to light the fire in the bellies of his fellows and inflame the opposition. A tactical genius would be welcome but isn't essential. Passion goes a long way in Pakistan cricket.

The battered Pakistan team, despite its status as World T20 Champions, is screaming out for the defiance and attitude of Afridi. The challenge for Pakistan's new leader will be to control his most erratic urges, the ones that transgress the laws of cricket. Afridi can do it, provided he is properly supported by his colleagues and management, both of which are unfortunately open to question. But Afridi must be his own man, unbowed by this month's powerplay by the Pakistan Cricket Board. It is always better for a leader to be true to his convictions than, to use an immortal phrase, be a 'dummy' captain.

Shahid Afridi, of course, knows only one way. That is his appeal and his necessity. He brings hope that Pakistan can salvage something from the suicide bomb detonated by the PCB. More than ultimate victory in the T20 World Cup, Pakistan fans should be looking for a united spirit from their team and a competitiveness that has been absent since they lifted the trophy at Lord's. Indeed, in the absence and reluctance of Younis Khan, Afridi is Pakistan's best candidate to lead his country in all three formats.

Whatever the outcome, the Age of Mr Boom Boom will be compulsive viewing.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/KamranAbbasi

PCB’s latest investigation that has come down heavily on the players is a brazen attempt to save the skins of senior board members © Associated Press

The PCB committee of inquiry wants to punish Pakistan’s cricketers. The reasons are several, some known others only to be guessed. Unfortunately the whole episode is an exercise in passing the buck. The architects of the disastrous failure of Pakistan cricket have investigated their own performance and decided to blame some other people, the players.

When it comes to sympathy I have none for failed administrators and bureaucrats, who cling on to Pakistan cricket like leeches sucking every drop of lifeblood from a once vibrant national enterprise. These inquirers have a misplaced sense of justice: he who has sinned has cast the first stone. Isn’t the PCB’s latest diversionary investigation a brazen attempt to save the skins of senior board members?

Let’s take the accusations and the punishments. Shahid Afridi has already been punished by the ICC. The Akmal brothers could easily have been fined and disciplined without the hoopla we have had to endure, a self-inflicted public relations disaster. What Rana and Malik have done, nobody is yet sure? If it is match-fixing then how can one year bans suffice? It can’t be that.

If it is subversion of team spirit then there has to be better way of dealing with this. Indeed, the board encouraged this disruptive behaviour. When Younis Khan stepped down because a group of players refused to back him, the cricket board should have supported the captain. Instead, Mr Butt and his fellows undermined the institution of the national captaincy.

Who appointed the captain, coach, and manager for this debacle, and other recent ones? Who is ultimately responsible for discipline and professionalism? Yes, the grand inquisitors who are hoping that if the players take the flak they will escape without censure. Moreover, how can a squeaky clean board have dalliances with cricketers tainted by previous scandals, including the match-fixing scandal of the 1990s?

Ill-discipline from players does require sanction. Match-fixing requires life bans. But what about the members of the cricket board, who will hold them to account? Ultimately, it is the cricket board’s duty to manage issues of discipline and misconduct. It is in the governance and management of these very issues that the Pakistan Cricket Board has failed. Yet only Iqbal Qasim has accepted any responsibility. Power without accountability, this is the tragedy of Pakistan and Pakistan cricket.

J’accuse the cricket board, Mr Butt, and Mr Zardari for bringing dishonour to our national game and our nation. The players are puppets, yes glamorous puppets to be sure, but it is the puppet masters that are the root of the problem. Senior management creates an organisation in its own image. For shame go, but we all know these puppet masters are without shame.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/KamranAbbasi

As a modern great Waqar will have some leeway to establish himself and his methods, although any presumption that he will still be in post at the end of 2011 is ill founded © Getty Images

These have been a particularly bewildering few weeks in the bewildering world of Pakistan cricket. And who knows what thunderbolt will strike next? Some issues are better put to one side until some evidence emerges. Match fixing is a prime example. Cricketers, like their fellow humans, are ever fallible and inconsistent, hence accusations about match fixing based solely on mistakes and decisions during a match are invariably impossible to prove.

My own brief inquiry into the latest flurry of claims revealed that, according to an ICC spokesman, no information has been passed by ICC to the PCB. In these circumstances, it would be helpful, nay obligatory on the PCB, to provide clarification about the true nature of any concerns.

Amid the machinations among players, administrators, and politicians, two important decisions have been taken. Waqar Younis is head coach and Mohsin Khan is chairman of selectors. A third, appointing Shahid Afridi as Pakistan’s new captain is more pressing and more needed.

A final decision, most important of all and incumbent upon the Patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board, is required to rid Pakistan cricket of the calamity of Ijaz Butt’s leadership. Mr Butt’s greatest triumph has been to make some of his more questionable predecessors look like highly skilled professionals.

That Pakistan cricket is in a mess is clear. But there is a way out and it lies through putting up a fight on the cricket pitch and climbing back up the cricket rankings. Without the cricket board operating in the right way, any hope of a consistent revival is a distant one. More the pity, as another World Twenty20 followed by a series against Australia and England offers ample opportunity for resuscitation.

Indeed, you might argue that Waqar the Toecrusher, Mohsin the Eagle, and Shahid the Ball-biter, if he is appointed, have been handed an impossible hand. How can these good men and true—we hope—lead their charges through the perpetual storm that is Pakistan cricket? Will any of them survive long enough to make a difference? We all know that contracts, guarantees of longevity, and utterances of support count for nothing.

As supporters of Pakistan cricket our duty is to wish these fellows well at the dawn of another day in the last chance saloon. None of them is perfect but they have all displayed heroism at some point in international colours.

Waqar was a champion bowler, a true great of the modern game. But for injury his record would have been even more earth shattering, his legend even larger. Much of Waqar’s career was a spectacle but I’ll never forget the way he once demolished Brian Lara in the desert heat of Sharjah. It only served to emphasise what world cricket lost when Waqar had to yield to injuries during his prime.

Unfortunately, Waqar did embroil himself in the player politics of his age, the post-Imran era that returned Pakistan cricket to divisions within the team. We can only hope that Waqar has learned that such behaviour is destructive and will impress as much upon his charges.

When the captaincy came his way, it was probably ill timed, his fast bowling powers were on the wane and many of his best players were ending their careers. At the beginning of the last decade, Pakistan were a team in decline and the Burewalla Express was unable to stop it.

Waqar’s biggest coaching break was to work under Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s best ever coach. Confined to helping the bowlers, there was progress among Pakistan’s pace attack, with Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif beginning to establish themselves. But a lead coach has broader duties of management, tactics, and technique. Batting and fielding are Pakistan’s biggest concerns, areas in which Waqar never excelled nor acquired great experience.

These challenges will be tough for Waqar and his best strategy will be to employ experts in the areas where he is weak. At the very least if Waqar can revive Pakistan’s spirit and attacking brand of cricket, as well as forging a constructive relationship with the captain, half the battle will be won.

As a modern great Waqar will have some leeway to establish himself and his methods, although any presumption that he will still be in post at the end of 2011 is ill founded. Mohsin Khan, meanwhile, as a less modern and less great cricketer will have even less latitude. Yet, Mohsin was a dashing personality and flamboyant batsman at a time when Pakistan really began to establish itself as an international force. He also had the example of Imran Khan to help him understand the strong, no-nonsense approach that is required to get the best out of Pakistan cricket.

Mohsin’s biggest challenge will be managing the internal politics of the PCB and ensuring the integrity of his selection panel. A good start would be set clear rules of engagement with the PCB chairman, in other words the selection panel must be independent of the chairman and the other board members—in word and deed. In addition, a new chief selector should also mean change in the panel itself. Indeed, the selection panel requires more modern cricketers, not the long retired sycophants who live off the bounty of the board.

Unfortunately, Ijaz Butt has a habit of appointing friends or people he can control in positions of responsibility. The biggest question in my mind is whether or not Waqar and Mohsin can be their own men and do what is right for Pakistan cricket? In any senior leadership position it is better to fail by your own mistakes than fail because you compromised your vision, principles, or ideas.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/KamranAbbasi