Afghanistan sack captain Asghar ahead of World Cup, senior players unhappy

Asghar Afghan was on Friday sacked as Afghanistan skipper with its cricket board splitting the leadership role across three formats, a move that has not gone down well with senior players Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi. The development comes with less than two months to go for the World Cup.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) removed Asghar from captaincy in all three formats, naming Rahmat Shah, Gulbadin Naib and Rashid as skippers of Test, ODI and T20 teams respectively. The 31-year-old Asghar had replaced Nabi as captain in 2015. Under his leadership, Afghanistan became a Full Member of the International Cricket Council and secured their maiden Test win against Ireland in Dehradun last month.

He also led the team to victory in the ICC World Cup Qualifier 2018 when they beat the West Indies in the final. Across formats, Afghanistan won 37 out of 59 games under Asghar's captaincy. The ACB's announcement was not taken well by Rashid and Nabi, who are currently playing in the IPL.

"With all the respect to the Selection Committee, I strongly disagree with the decision as it is irresponsible & bias. As we have @cricketworldcup in front of us, Captain #MAsgharAfghan should remain as our team Captain. His captaincy is highly instrumental for team success," tweeted Rashid. "With just months to go for such a mega event like World Cup, changing the captain will cause uncertainty and also team morale will be affected," he added.

Nabi, too, expressed his frustration on the social media networking site. "Being a senior member of the side & having seen the rise of Afghanistan cricket @ashrafghani I don't think it's the right time to change the captain before the WC @afgexecutive. The team has gelled really well under #Asghar & personally feel he is the right man to lead us," he wrote.

Meanwhile, a 23-man Afghanistan squad has departed to South Africa for a training camp ahead of the World Cup, which begins next month. On the appointment of Naib as skipper, ACB's chief selector Dawalt Ahmadzai said: "Asghar Afghan, who captained team Afghanistan for a period of around four years, achieved a lot and made the country proud, and I hope Gulbadin Naib will be able to continue his legacy at the helm of the team's affairs.

"Gulbadin Naib is a senior player who has also led the Mis-e-Ainak regional team on many occasions and we hope that he will play a vital role in the team's future success." The training squad will participate in six practice matches during their time in South Africa, before returning to Kabul where the 15-man squad for the marquee event will be announced.

Squad: Gulbadin Naib (c), Rashid Khan (vc), Mohammad Shahzad, Noor Ali Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Usman Ghani, Asghar Afghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Rahmat Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Najib Zadran, Darwish Rasooli, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Shapoor Zadran, Hamid Hassan, Karim Janat, Qais Ahmad, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Sayed Shirzad, Samiullah Shinwari.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)