Younus denies differences with Afridi

Dubai: Pakistan skipper Younus Khan has revealed that he has no differences with his vice-captain Shahid Afridi. Speaking about the unity in the team for the series against New Zealand commencing Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, Khan said that the whole team will play united with the aim of winning the series.

Khan squashed rumours that he does not get along with Afridi.

"If there are any differences, they will be visible. There are no differences between us," said Khan.

"When you play for your country there are no differences. We have been playing as a team where I have been the captain and he the vice-captain. If you look at our history since 1991, both of us have been playing for a local bank. At times he has played under my captaincy and when I was out for some time he took over the captaincy and I played under him and I played under him. The only difference is that we are playing for the same country and he is playing under me. We also play for the same department and when he is available he becomes the captain and when I am available I am the captain," added Khan.

Create controversies

Khan added: "The point is that these so called differences are created by people. Like in this instance where I could not go to his shop recently and everybody started asking as to why the captain did not come when everyone else made it there. Some people went on to say that I did not turn up because there is some problem between us. People don't confirm things and unnecessarily create controversies."

Khan believes a few people love to blow up issues.

"This is how small things are blown up... The point is that when you play for the country there is no question of differences. This team is not anybody's personal property and we are all playing for Pakistan. Our aim is common, and that is to ensure that Pakistan should win," said Khan.

Meanwhile, Afridi, who will lead Pakistan in the Twenty20 matches in Dubai, made it clear he has no differences with Khan, just before his departure from Pakistan for the series.

"Younus [Khan] and I go a long way as friends for nearly 15 years. We are mature enough to discuss and sort out any problem in an amicable way," he said.

"My meeting with the Pakistan Cricket Board chief was blown out of proportion. The discussion was about planning for Twenty20 and not about captaincy. Rumours of discord with the leadership keep surfacing each time Pakistan loses a big tournament and I am not affected by it anymore," said Afridi.

Series broadcast

The Pakistan versus New Zealand series will be broadcast on Ten Sports and brought to the subscribers of Pehla Gold, Pehla Silver and Firstnet Premium TV platforms by Arab Digital Distribution (ADD), the largest pay television platform management company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Both the ODIs and T20s will be day-night matches, the three ODIs on Tuesday (November 3), Friday (November 6) and Monday (November 9) being broadcast from 13.30 hours UAE time while the two T20s on Thursday (November 12) and Friday (November 13) will be broadcast from 18.30 hours UAE time.

— Staff Report

Who do you think is better suited to lead team Pakistan in the future? Will dual captaincy work better? Are disagreements between team leaders inevitable?