Rashid Khan has resigned his national team captaincy and publicly slammed the Afghanistan Cricket Board, claiming he had no say in the team chosen to represent the country at the upcoming T20 World Cup.
The ACB released a squad of 18 players late on Thursday, and less than 30 minutes later Khan had announced his unhappiness with the selection.
The 22-year-old was named as captain in the ACB's post on Twitter, which has still not been deleted as of 8am on Friday.
All-rounder Mohammad Nabi has been given the honour instead, having previously been skipper for his country between 2013 and 2014.
In the message announcing his resignation as captain, Khan claimed he had not given his consent for the team announced.
He said: "As the captain and responsible person for the nation I reserve the right to be part of the selection of the team.
"The selection committee and ACB has not obtained my consent for the team which has been announced.
"I am taking the decision of stepping down from the role as the captain of Afghanistan T20 side effective immediately."
Khan had only been appointed the country's T20 captain in July, after a brief spell as skipper for all formats in 2019.
The 22-year-old did not specify any specific selections as being ones that he disagreed with, though there are some curious choices in the side named by the ACB.
Firstly, rules state teams must have a squad of 15 players, with a scope for naming reserves, though limits have been dramatically increased as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Teams can now name up to 22 players, with a total limit of 30 people when combining players and support staff.
This is so, in theory, countries have enlarged squad to cover for injuries or illness, for example in the event of a positive Covid test.
Afghan cricket bosses have named 18 players in their side, with only two reserves in Afsar Zazai and Farid Ahmad Malik.
Among those named in the main squad were Hamid Hassan, who has not played a T20 international for his country in more than five years, and Mohammah Shahzad, who was fined and banned for a year by the ACB in 2019 for failing to seek its permission to leave the country when he travelled to Pakistan.
Bowlers Shapoor and Dawlat Zadran were also selected, despite neither being called up to the T20 side in 18 months or more.
Khan's resignation as captain is the ACB's latest headache, after the head of its selection committee Asadullah Khan stepped down at the end of July citing "too much interruption" from "non-cricketers" on the board in the wake of it naming the squad for an ODI series against Pakistan.
Some of the people on the board have "no knowledge about the players and selection", Khan claimed.
