I, Malik, became a Malik apologist after what happened to him. [late 2009 and afterward].
During that time, I and Insaaniyat were rooting for Younus who took over, and Younus lost our support due to fishing. Then we switched to Afridi, who decided to quit in his first Test under his captaincy, therefore lost our support. Then, our support switched to Salman Butt who took captaincy to lead from vulnerable position, as usual he got what others got.
Anyhow, i was more fan of Misbah because of his WC T20 2007, was a member of at one site where i had a avator of both Misbah and Inzimam walking together. Although, i wasn't member of PP back then.
If you compare Malik of 2003 to 2007 and 2007 to 2010, then you would notice the different.
He was innocent and still is, whose crime only that he accepted the captaincy offered by PCB only to be ridiculed by the nation just because his captaincy policy didn't sit with certain cricketers who had huge fan-base. Then, his captaincy was undermined consistently, to the extent that he was forced to resign whilst Younus and the whole team was celebrating over his resignation from captaincy.
He was weak, unliked, unpopular and nobody. He was easier target. Knowing the credibility of media, he was vilified, accused with no evident, yet the whole nation believed them [because of their hatred over Malik] as opposed to not believe on media regarding the allegation over ISI and Pakistani army.
Younus knew the oath-taking gate that was against Shoaib Malik, but Younus didn't reveal it to public, and then, replaced him as a captain.
Shoaib Malik knew the oath-taking gate, but next day, he revealed it to Aqib Javed and this became public news, followed by outburst of Mohammad Yousuf towards Shoaib Malik.
I cannot say that for myself. But Aqib Javed did, and that's how oath-taking gate became public news. All credit goes to Shoaib Malik.
He was a victim for what happened. No one is talking about performance, wedding gift, 4 years with his dry runs.
We are talking about Oath-taking incident.
Regarding taking an oath on Holy Qur'an is still unclear, as that might seem exxagerated. No one take oath on Holy Qur'an, as it is unholy, knowing the architector with his religious background, which i find it hard to believe that he would go for this. The media can exxagerate sometimes. At the end, Allah knows best.
Nevertheless, the fact is that you are accusing Shoaib Malik for taking an oath-taking whilst ignoring the fact that if he hasn't joined the group, he wouldn't be able to reveal oat-taking incident to Aqib Javed.
He cannot be accused of joining the group if his only purpose of joining the group only to expose it to public instead of playing the game, dumb like Younus Khan did during Shoaib Malik's captaincy whereas Younus Khan should have told this incident to anyone in PCB or media.
Oath-taking against Younus became public because Shoaib Malik didn't stay silent. Oath-taking against Shoaib Malik was unheard because someone chose to keep his mouth shut.
You see my point?
Shoaib Malik exposed it to Aqib Javed, then to public. What did he get in return? People never stopped villifying him, and this thread is a proof that Shoaib Malik is still being villified.
Apart from Shoaib and Younus, take a look at players who were involved in oath-taking group. They are in the team now, enjoying highly ranking status as well as popularity from the nation.