Nizakat Khan sacrifices Hong Kong captaincy to focus on being city’s match-winner
Hong Kong begin Challenge League B campaign against Singapore on Thursday, as city team hunt ODI status under new skipper Yasim Murtaza
A “more relaxed” Nizakat Khan said shedding captaincy duties would release him to win more matches for Hong Kong, as they prepare to start their critical Challenge League B campaign against Singapore on Thursday.
Nizakat made what he called the tough decision to end his three-year leadership reign following November’s first Challenge League leg in Uganda.
In his opening two matches under successor Yasim Murtaza, and batting in his favourite No 4 spot, Nizakat contributed 84 and an unbeaten 42 against Uganda and Bahrain respectively as Hong Kong won a warm-up tri-series last week.
Nizakat said aspects of captaincy, including game planning, always thinking about where to fit players and “making decisions that mean players are unhappy with you”, were draining.
“The biggest challenge was keeping everyone together as a team, but they all respected me and listened to me,” Nizakat said.