Younis Khan - A Captain After All?

Younis Khan
By JMB
December 10 2006

This site would like to send its best wishes to Younis Khan after the untimely death of his brother. Younis has recently reemerged as a candidate for the Yorkshire captaincy.

Younis’ brother Farman Khan died in Germany after a failed liver transplant. This is the third personal loss Younis has suffered in the past two years. His father died in January 2005, and he lost another brother in November 2005. As a result of the most recent family bereavment Younis has temporarily pulled out of the current One Day series between Pakistan and the West Indies.

Younis is however back in the frame to be Yorkshire captain. The club still says that all options remain open, but have indicated that the second overseas signing could also be a batsman. With Darren Lehmann and Michael Lumb already gone and Anthony McGrath refusing to play for Yorkshire again the club are desperate for new recruits to fill the void.

Chief executive Stewart Regan told BBC Sport: "Our goal is to make sure we enter into a period of stability. We don't want to knee-jerk into something we might regret. We have had lots of conversations regarding the captaincy position. One of the options is that we could sign a captain, one of the options is we could bring in an overseas player as captain and another is that we could offer the captaincy to someone inside the club. We are very keen that the captaincy issue is sorted out, but we want to make sure we get it right. We don't want to knee-jerk into something we might regret."

Regan told this site in mid November that Younis Khan was a non-starter as an option for captaincy as he misses the first three county championship matches due to his participation in the Pakistan World Cup side. It would seem that Yorkshire have degressed to a needs must situation and Younis is now the best of a massively compromised shortlist.