'To me it was about captaincy ambitions' - Younis Khan reveals what led to a revolt against him in 2009

Former Pakistan batter Younis Khan feels players were not upfront with him during his tenure as the captain of the team in 2009. The right-hand batter took charge of the team from Shoaib Malik. But rather than having a smooth sailing in the captaincy department, Younis had to suffer tantrums from his own teammates who apparently didn’t like his captaincy style.

The former player had a good career for Pakistan and he scored over 17000 runs across the three formats, but he feels the captaincy was taken away from him due to his attitude. He, however, dismissed the theory that the players were having issues because of his captaincy style or strong attitude.

After the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) removed him from captaincy, Younis went onto prosper under Misbah- ul- Haq in red-ball cricket and for a few years under Shahid Afridi in the white-ball format. “If the players had problems with me they could have spoken to me. They claimed that they didn’t want me removed as captain but just wanted the cricket board to speak to me to change my attitude,” Younis told a TV Channel in a recent chat.

He also mentioned about Shahid Afridi and how he demanded to the PCB to be named the skipper instead. “Then how is it that when the player (s) met with the then PCB Chairman, Ejaz Butt one senior player, apparently Afridi demanded the captain be changed. To me it was about captaincy ambitions,” said the highest Test run-getter for Pakistan.

Younis Khan sheds light on his international career

Apart from the Afridi incident, Younis also spoke about Umar Akmal, who approached him to ask for the Holy Quran as some of the players wanted to recite some Sarah’s before a crucial match. The right-hand batter was subsequently removed from the captaincy in 2009 due to constant revolt from the players.

After the snubbing from the PCB and indifferent behavior from players during his captaincy stint, Younis later transformed himself into a quiet person and would just concentrate on his batting. He retired from ODI cricket in 2016 and from Test cricket in 2017.