As Mohammad Yousuf, Youhana’s chances of leading the Pak cricket team are higher, says a Pakistani columnist
NEW DELHI: In the Byzantine ways of Pakistan cricket politics, the conversion of Yousuf Youhana (now Mohammad Yousuf) from Christianity to Islam may see his return to the vice-captaincy of the national side and eventually the captaincy itself.
As vice-captain, Youhana led Pakistan in two Test matches in Australia last season when captain Inzamam-ul Haq was injured and also in some One-day Internationals.
However, he was controversially replaced as vice-captain for the tour to India earlier this year, a move which the Pakistan cricketers and officials refused to comment on.
Reportedly, it was former captain Imran Khan, still wielding considerable clout in Pakistan cricket who objected to Youhana’s position in the side and this led to his being replaced.
Writing in The Nation newspaper in February, Pakistani journalist Zafar Samdani wrote `The PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) has stabbed the team in the back in a totally incomprehensible move by replacing the vice-captain (Youhana) with a player (Younis) who, judging by the management of the team in Australia (where Pakistan had just returned from after being beaten 3-0), is not treated as an automatic member of their playing eleven.’
Former captain and cricket legend Imran Khan had identified Younis Khan as replacement for Inzamam-ul Haq as leader of the Pakistan team. According to another Pakistan columnist, Imran had stated that Yousuf did not have the right character to lead Pakistan.
Hinting at this, columnist Kamran Abbasi wrote in Wisden Asia Cricket (October 2004): ‘When Youhana has substituted for Inzamam, his captaincy has been imaginative and astute, but highly placed insiders claim that Youhana is too self-serving to win the players’ confidence. His religion too makes the calculus more complex, when it should not even be a factor.’
The same columnist while discussing future Pakistani captains had written, ‘Yousuf Youhana is thought to be a schemer, not trusted by some of his team-mates, and others are shamefully reluctant to be led by a captain from a minority group.’
However, what may have turned the tide against his replacement, Younis Khan, was the fight that erupted in the Pakistan dressing room during the first Test match in Bridgetown, Barbados in May. The altercation involved Younis, Inzamam and Shahid Afridi.
Inzamam had also lunged at Younis at a training session during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa and had to be restrained by other members of the team.
Three other Christians have represented Pakistan in Test cricket, Wallis Mathias (1955-62); Antao D’Souza (1959-62) and Duncan Sharpe (1959).
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