{"id":9424,"date":"2007-05-01T16:07:59","date_gmt":"2007-05-01T16:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/05\/01\/players-back-malik\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T16:20:38","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T16:20:38","slug":"players-back-malik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2007\/05\/01\/players-back-malik\/","title":{"rendered":"Players back Malik"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

He was obvious choice, says Imran Khan<\/h3>\n
\"\"PAKISTAN’S choice for the team’s captain may have raised more then a few eyebrows but Shoaib Malik has received the backing from former great Imran Khan.<\/strong><\/div>\n

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The 25-year-old was appointed captain after Inzamam-ul-Haq stepped down following the team’s exit from the World Cup.<\/div>\n

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Vice-captain Younis Khan publicly refused the job while top-order batsman Mohammed Yousuf said, if offered, he would gladly take the post. <\/div>\n

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But the Pakistan Cricket Board opted for youth and gave the job to Malik who made his debut for the international side in 1999. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had no option but to appoint Shoaib Malik as captain, said Imran Khan, who led Pakistan to World Cup glory in 1992. <\/div>\n

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“It is up to Malik now to lift his game and first cement his place as a batsman and command respect from the players,” Imran told AFP. <\/div>\n

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“It will largely depend on how he performs under pressure, because captaincy pressure sometimes can bring the best out of a player but some players will simply capitulate. <\/div>\n

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“He does seem to have a cricket brain. “He looks like a team man.” <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Malik himself said he had no hesitation in accepting the post when offered by PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

” “I am ready. I may not have had much experience domestically of leading sides but I have learnt a lot under Inzamam’s time”, he said. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“He spoke to me regularly when he was captain and I kept picking things up from him.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“I had been sounded out about it a couple of times recently. But as soon as the offer was made, I said yes straightaway. It’s such a big honour and to lead Pakistan through difficult times is such a big challenge. I am going to give it my best shot and that is all I can do.” <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Malik will lead his team out as captain in June when they will compete for the Afro Asia Cup in India.<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He was obvious choice, says Imran Khan PAKISTAN’S choice for the team’s captain may have raised more then a few eyebrows but Shoaib Malik has received the backing from former great Imran Khan. The 25-year-old was appointed captain after Inzamam-ul-Haq stepped down following the team’s exit from the World Cup. Vice-captain Younis Khan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}