LAHORE, Apr 07 (Agencies): Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Zaka Ashraf said that white-ball captain Babar Azam had left the captaincy of all formats at will.
Speaking to the media, Ashraf said: "I wanted to retain Babar Azam as the red-ball captain. However, I wanted to appoint a new captain in white-ball formats."
Ashraf extended his best wishes for Azam and the entire national cricket team. However, he has defended his decision to remove Babar Azam as captain following the team's disappointing ODI World Cup campaign in India.
Zaka also denied claims from Pakistan's former captain, Shahid Afridi, that he had advised him to appoint Muhammad Rizwan as white-ball captain and not Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is his son-in-law.
Babar was recently re-appointed as white-ball skipper, while Shaheen got the axe after just one series as the leader of the side. "No from what I recall Shahid (Afridi) never made any such suggestion to me to appoint Rizwan as captain in white-ball formats," Zaka told the media in Lahore on Saturday.
Shahid has claimed several times on television and in interviews that he never wanted Shaheen to take up the captaincy and, in fact, had suggested to Zaka to make Rizwan the white-ball captain.
He said he had never asked Babar to step down as captain of all formats after the World Cup.
"That was his own decision. When I met him I told him clearly that everyone felt that the burden of leading in all formats was adding to the pressure on him and his performances and he should continue only as red ball captain," Zaka recalled.
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