Pakistan's stylish opening batsman Salman Butt, speaking exclusively with PakPassion.net, has strongly backed the appointment of Shahid Afridi as Pakistan's captain for the World Twenty20 in the West Indies this year.

By: ShehryarK

26 March 2010

Pakistan's stylish opening batsman Salman Butt, speaking exclusively with PakPassion.net, has strongly backed the appointment of Shahid Afridi as Pakistan's captain for the World Twenty20 in the West Indies this year.

Shahid Afridi has recently been named as Pakistan's captain for their World Title defence, and Salman Butt, one of the more experienced members of the squad, has expressed full confidence in Afridi's leadership abilities.

"The whole squad wishes Afridi all the best as skipper and we are all fully behind him", Salman stated, in a welcome shift away from player politics.

Salman has represented Pakistan in 119 matches in the three formats of the game, scoring an impressive 11 hundreds and 21 fifties in them. He was also hopeful of Pakistan's chances in the tournament, telling PakPassion.net that "the whole squad is looking forward to playing in the T20 WC and performing well, and hopefully retaining the trophy".

Butt, in his younger years lauded as the next great hope of Pakistani batting, and a member of Pakistan's world title winning team in 2009, was realistic in his assessment of Pakistani chances and acknowledged that there were areas for improvement in the team.

However, he sounded a very positive note by saying that "we all want to improve our individual and team performance as a whole and we want to fight hard for our country and fans".