‘Take your money, go home’ – Former Pakistan legend offers valuable advice to Babar Azam on league cricket’s captaincy

After a disappointing exit from the recently concluded ODI World Cup 2023 in India, Pakistan’s star batter Babar Azam resigned as captain from all forms of captaincy. Pakistan finished 5th in the World Cup and failed to qualify for the knockouts. After that, he was brutally criticised and trolled by his own country’s former cricketers and fans.

Meanwhile, former legendary Pakistan captain Wasim Akram recently revealed that he gave an idea to Babar a couple of years back. Akram said that he advised Babar not to do captaincy in league cricket as it brings extra pressure to the player without any reason. He advised Babar to take his money, score runs and go home.

“I had a given an idea to Babar Azam a couple of years ago that don’t do captaincy in league cricket. [You’re a] Big player, take your money, play your game, get runs, go home, and then to the next event. Pakistan’s captaincy is alright, but the league brings extra stress without any reason,” Akram was quoted as saying by News 18 Sports.

PCB announced new captains for T20I and Test teams

Talking about Pakistan cricket, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced their Test and T20I captains. Shan Masood will be leading the Test side while Shaheen Afridi is appointed as their T20I captain. Masood will be seen leading the side for the first time in the upcoming 3-match Test series between Australia and Pakistan which is scheduled to kick off on December 14 with the first Test to be played in Perth.

On the other hand, Shaheen Afridi will have a bigger task as the T20 World Cup will be played in the US and West Indies in 2024. Afridi has proved himself enough as a player in all formats of the game for Pakistan. However, it’d be interesting to see him displaying the role of the captain. He has a decent amount of experience in leading a team as he has led Lahore Qalandars to 2 consecutive Pakistan Super League (PSL) titles in 2022 and 2023.