The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday said the national selectors never offered vice-captaincy role to Shaheen Shah Afridi in the run-up to the next month’s T20 World Cup in the Americas. Several reports claimed that Afridi was given a chance to be the deputy of Babar Azam when the Pakistan squad for the ICC showpiece was picked on Friday, but the left-arm pacer rejected the proposal. “The selectors were shocked with this news because when they held their nearly two-hour online meeting on Friday, six out of seven selectors were not in favour of having a vice-captain to Babar Azam,” a source close to one of the national selectors told PTI.

“The minutes of the meeting are on record as per the instructions of the PCB Chairman. So, today’s news about Shaheen declining the vice-captaincy came as a big shock to the selectors,” he said.

However, it was revealed that in March a selector in his individual capacity had asked Afridi if he would be interested in the vice-captaincy in future. But the pacer declined the offer outrightly.

It was not surprising either because by that time it was obvious that Babar was going to replace him as the T20 captain after just one series.

On Saturday, several reports suggested that the offer of the vice-captaincy was made to Afridi earlier this week.

The source termed it as an effort by some outside elements to tarnish the image of PCB and selectors.

“Shaheen was obviously not happy when his captaincy term was cut short after he captained in just one series in New Zealand in January,” he said.