Untitled… Can’t say much to these people

With due respect – please start doing something constructive now!

More tough oppositions in queue for Pakistan. Now after the conclusion of Asia Cup, the next destination Pakistan would be playing their home games would be England where they’ll be conclude Test match series of which the ODI series was played in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 2009. On the other hand, they’ll also be competing against the English in their own conditions with victories against South Africa, Bangladesh and now Australia under their belts already, so it’d be tough competing against them, with current form the Pakistani team is playing, like not finishing on the advantage they’re getting (read the match against the Sri Lankans, where Afridi almost took the match away from Lankans by bringing the required run rate under 6 per over but still loosing the match from that position, no comments for the India match as it was an edge of the seat match and it was won on the last ball of the match).

As I was saying playing in England in their own backyard this time of the year wont be an easy task for Pakistan, keeping in mind this current Pakistani team is without the services of Two Y’s of Pakistani middle order, i.e. Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan, and because no experience is selected, other than Afridi and Shoaib Malik, it would be easy for the English to capitalize on Pakistan on their own weaknesses.

The flaw is from our side, with reference to my previous articles which clearly mentioned that Pakistan didn’t work out for talent hunts and under my personal calculations, the performance difference between current Pakistani national side and Pakistan A team is stretched upto 4-5 years atleast, and that’s where we’re lagging as we’ve to rely again and again on the ones who’re already used whose utility is almost at the end, don’t want to mention such player’s names but they’ve spent their times and now the time has come to start the search for newer players.

Take example of India, they won the 2010 Asia Cup without the services of their premier batsmen i.e. Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and partially Virender Sehwag (as he was hurt in between the Asia Cup 2010), just because their backbenches are filled with their talents, are we preparing for the same? Is our backbench is ready? Are we doing anything significant for hunting the raw talent around us? Doing cosmetic things like summer camps etc, won’t give us anything, it requires long term planning, which we’re afraid of!

We just want spectacular results in short span of time, like the Wasims, Waqars, Saeed Anwars, Aamir Sohails etc, which were exceptional talents, but not everyone is that lucky to have god gifted talents! So start long term planning instead of wobbling for other things.

Injustice in selection of players

Ignoring a player like Younus for a difficult England tour, on what grounds?

I don’t know is there any example similar to Pakistan Cricket Board in the world to follow, but apart from raising fingers on the credibility of this cricket board, everyone knows about English conditions, where it seems alot although not as much as it were during 70s 80s but still worthy when it comes to players particularly from South Asia.

And in this scenario, ignoring the experience just for the personalized reason and later justifying by pointing fingers on his form and disciplinary grounds is totally rubbish! Even if they had to select players other than Younus or Faisal, Asim Kamal was a good choice, as in English conditions we need players who know how to prolong their stay on the wicket, if you stay on the wicket, you’ll be able to score else fell miserably, and this is what I am seeing as the Aussies would eye Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi, as they’re only the renowned names in current Pakistani middle order, and can include Kamran Akmal aswell, so as a sequel to my previous blogs, I am not very optimistic with the current Pakistani team doing well, as the team has not been selected on merits and like I was listening to some voices from common people on a Pakistani sports channel, I do agree with them that after conclusion of a 4 month long tour of England, Pakistan will end up finishing on 9 and so on rank from current 7 position in both One Day International and International Test Rankings, just because lack of experience in the team and plus playing with the future of Pakistani youngsters by demoralizing them if they do not perform, loosing the grip on the match clearly shows there’s lack of experience in the team which is costing them the match.

As far as they wobble Pakistan have a great middle order batsman in Shoaib Malik, he didn’t played in the team when Inzi was skipping the test side against England in their last tour to England, so how can you say he’s able to take the pressure and burden onto his shoulder? Whatever knowledge of cricket I’ve, I think experience in any arena of cricket whether ODI, test or T20, you must particularly rely on the experience candidates who’re specialist in their field, prior to Malik’s short spell of captaincy, his place in the team wasn’t confirmed during those days, and what major performance did he contributed in test in recent times? Questions to be answered.

Even there were news that Selection Committee was not happy with this team, means team was approved by someone else and not the selection committee panel, so what is the credibility of this panel when they can’t decide and make a team on their behalf?

Pak India Clash on 19th June

Well played Pakistan but it wasn’t your day

The iconic clash on 19th June 2010, in the Lankan city of Dambulla was a treat to watch for both Pakistani and Indian cricket fans and players, as it was an edge of the seat contest which although ended in favour of Indians but it also cemented a fact that importance of ODI’s have not dimmed (although I might sound like Ricky Ponting or ICC CEO and their other managers 😉).

At first the way Pakistanis played, I personally was disappointed with their efforts at the depth of the inning where they had to accelerate, and its my personal opinion that players like Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf could have steadied the ship in order to touch the magical 300 mark, which they didn’t and was admitted even by Shahid Afridi in his post match press conference. It would be unfair just to criticize Pakistan for bad fielding as during Indian fielding, Indians too dropped catches and miss-fielded, but yeah they managed to reduce Pakistan to a par score which India’s batting power could easily manage to chase under-lights.

But it is justified to criticize on the decision making and field setting according to situation, for instance they way Shoaib Akhtar was bowling today against the Bangladeshis, if he could had bowled with the same zeal and enthusiasm against the Indians and specially to so called Indian Hero Harbhajan Singh aka Bhajji, i.e. bowling in-swinging yorkers instead of short pitch and short of the length (not SoAL blog guys =P) deliveries, things would have been difficult for Bhajji to score that much, although must give credit to Bhajji for keeping his cools and showed courage, but it could have avoided.

So its literally unfair and useless to criticize Pakistani players for losing the match on small points, Pakistan did fought and even in the Indian Dressing Room, till Bhajji didn’t hit the penultimate sixer, they were tensed. For Pakistan it was more like the same what happened in the Wedding City i.e. St. Lucia where Pakistanis were stunned with the heroics of Mike Hussey last over spanking to Saeed Ajmal and this time it was Mohammad Aamer, the legacy continued.

Any how, now the 19th of June 2010 has gone and Pakistan and Bangladesh are the two countries who’d be boarding their tickets for the UK, as India and Sri Lanka would be competing with each other in the finals (may the best team win), Bangladesh to complete their later leg of bilateral ODI series with England and Pakistan to compete against the Aussies in their home-series following bilateral series against the English in difficult conditions in English summer where Pakistanis would complete their English summer.

Well played Pakistan, but the tour ended quickly for you…

Pakistan played well but lost the match when it really mattered!

right now when I am writing this blog, approx 2 hours after Pakistan India match concluded with result favouring in India, although Pakistan fought well and took the game to the last delivery, and in the first half Pakistan unexpectedly played relatively well. Again like I mentioned earlier failed to capitalize on the gained advantage!

And now the need for creating backup can be observed as these old horses are starting to show fatigue in their performance too, performed well with bat, average with bowling but null with fielding (read Mohammad Aamir dropping Gambhir, which contributed Pakistan for costing a match), but no backup plan can be seen from our authorities, see India, they rested Tendulkar, Yuvraj and paved way for the Juniors and they showed liveness in the field (read Salman Butt runout).

Played well but seems the legacy from St. Lucia is haunting Pakistani team and will haunt for a while! till then other teams would enjoy playing and winning against Pakistan (my heart hurts while writing this but its reality and we should admit that). God forbid but I am seeing interest of cricket game in Pakistan in shatters in coming years, already unlike in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka where I heard school cricket is mandatory, in Pakistan situation is unlike, when there are alot of institutions in Pakistan but without facilities of sporting arenas, even in the biggest city of Pakistan, Karachi does not have the same ratio of sports grounds like the way we have population, so similarly the passion for cricket might also disappear like that if we get to see such performances.

Pakistan on India Asia Cup clash

It’ll be a tough match barring friendships between the players of both teams

Its the most awaited match of the tournament, and even Nimbus would be expecting high profits and TV ratings from this match as this is the match between two arch rivals Pakistan and India. Off the ground they’re good friends (as the image shows) but on the field they can be fiercest of rivals, even more than Aussie-English rivalry.

Last time when these two sides clashed with each other, Pakistan had won in the Champions Trophy 2009 group match in Centurion, South Africa and now things have changed for Pakistan as in that team we had support of Muhammad Yousuf and Younus Khan who contributed in whatsoever circumstances and after that Pakistan had its bad times started when they started the series against the Kiwis in the UAE, because a turmoil sorta situation was starting to stitch by some of the players which completed in Aussies tour, resulting in which we lost players like MoYo and Younus in return.

Many say both teams are evenly poised with India weaker on bowling and fielding and Pakistan on batting and fielding but my personal gutsy feeling that India would have an upper hand as they have the tendency to stay on the wicket, finding it sans in Pak players, plus the humidity suits more to the Indians than Pakistanis.

Still wish Pakistan wins the match with flying colours.

Match almost won

Well played Afridi

Don’t wanna say that team didn’t play well, but it was without planning of any sort. The stage where Afridi left Pakistan could have easily won that match, but as the legacy going on with Pakistani players, of not capitalizing on the advantage in later part of the inning. Similar was the case here when Required rate was under 6 so it was just the case of taking single doubles with Razzaq at one end, was an easy job. No doubt Lankan kept their cools but it was more of Pakistan loosing the match.

Now matches further in the tournament are tough but must win for Pakistan to proceed into the finals of the Asia cup which Pakistan only won once, in 2000 in Bangladesh. Pakistan can do it but very difficult.

On the other hand, on paper team India looks stronger opponent with players like Sehwag, Gambhir, MSD, Raina in their lineup (thank god they didn’t included the wall known as Dravid 😉)

Lets hope after this performance what would be the conclusion of Pakistan-India ODI, which I am not very optimistic of, because already in the first match of a tournament, in disciplinary actions were shown by Pakistani players, clearly exposing the lack of management interest of those who’re on the job.

God saves us from such managers, who can’t control 15 players.

Asia Cup KickOff

Asia Cup 2010 to be kicked off today with the game between Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Asia cup will be kicking off today just inside an hour’s time when I am writing this blog. I personally feel this time it would be more tight contest as this time there are limited teams and no useless games like last time in Pakistan when there were games like UAE and Hong Kong and so interest level in each of the games would be high, although one might say and rightly so that parallel to this tournament is FIFA world cup where they’ve increased the number of teams and allowing the minnows to compere against the tough fishes in the tournament just for the sake of expending this already famous game, so why can’t the same be applied for cricket?

I disagree with them as with quantity increase results in quality decrease and this tournament can prove to be a quality tournament which isn’t played for formality but I personally feel it should have the same importance as other bilateral tournaments being played for centuries, here the application of this tournament isn’t decided whether it would be a bi-annual or quad-annual tournament, something to think about. Heard this time Nimbus (which is also the official broadcaster of Board of Control for Cricket in India) got hold of the contract for broadcast of Asia Cup till 2014, so it would want a bi-annual tournament compared to a quad-annual, and all cricket played these days is dependent on the broadcasters how they manage to do so and maintaining its quality to attain its viewership aswell.

As far as the team is concerned I don’t expect Pakistan to go at the scratch and win the tournament but to take this tournament to get accustomed to the conditions in Sri Lanka as during the ICC World Cup 2011, Pakistan is scheduled to play its league games in Sri Lanka, so Pakistan should enchash this opportunity and develop a stable combination (which I personally think not possible under current PCB Management) Still being optimistic with my team that even if you loose but loose with a fight just like you had against the Aussies at St. Lucia, you lost there but had shown a fight, similar sorta things we Pakistanis want only.

If you performed more than that, it would be a bonus than.

Best of Luck

Asia Cup 2010

Mother nature not in a good mood for Sri Lanka

The Asia cup is right on the corner but there are chances of it being distracted by the weather. Just look at the cloud cover over whole Sri Lankan island (I wished some of it were diverted to Karachi instead 😉), jokes apart but literally, this was not a good time to stage an international tournament in Sri Lanka, although its mentioned Dambulla has been the driest of all places in Sri Lanka, still the amount of cloud cover would not allow matches to be completed, (read ICC Champions Trophy 2002 played in Sri Lanka and there were many rain disrupted matches including the final)

Similarly was the reason the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy, which was scheduled to be stage in Pakistan, but was shifted to South Africa giving preference over Sri Lanka amid the same reason. I know it would be a tricky situation for ACC as-well, to convince teams like India and Pakistan who’ve a tough schedule ahead and even Bangladesh would be arriving directly from England after completing their ODI series against the hosts, to shift this bi-annual tournament somewhere later this year. Leaving Pakistan because of security conditions, it would have been shifted to India and the next one, in 2012 to be Sri Lanka in compensation, else it wont be possible that in this season, even the central parts of Sri Lanka not receiving their shares of rains.

On the other hand being positive, bowlers would get ample support on this track as on normal circumstances, this track is known for its bowler friendly conditions as its windy, humid and sweaty, so I suppose we should not expect high scoring matches over here compared to Premadasa Stadium or SSC in Colombo.

Even Pakistan just after winning the ICC World T20 Title in 2009, found it difficult to handle the winds and the conditions here which suits Lankans. So I just hope inspite of the weather game, we would expect a good game of cricket.

Selection on reputation

Unfairness in selection of Pakistan team, by not selecting the ones who’re capable of keeping wickets, instead of the top dogs selecting again and again after costing an almost won test match!

As Osman Samiuddin in his latest article on CricInfo clearly states:

The elder Akmal has actually been rewarded by being made top dog again. Someone should tell the fool of an understudy Sarfraz Ahmed, who didn’t even make it to the 35 probables, to drop four catches and screw up a Test (read match notes) and then very publicly oppose the selectors and board. Then there’ll be no removing him from the top spot.

Isn’t it unfair to the youngster after being a performer in domestic and relatively better keeper behind wickets than elder Akmal, leaving him [Sarfraz Ahmed] personally I feel was better choice than Kamran Akmal as I think he needs a rest and secondly we need to groom another keeper in Sarfraz Ahmed who can keep wickets in his [elder Akmal] absence and later by permanently keeping for Pakistan.

Its nothing new in Pakistan Cricket, there have been time when Rashid Latif and Moin Khan used to play and they had stiff performance competition between them which helped Pakistan and Pakistan Cricket but now just because this backup thing have been ignored, these old dogs are repeated again and again, leaving the youngsters hopeless for their future in Pakistan cricket.

Look at Australia, while Gilchrist was playing, they groomed Brad Haddin, and now when Gilchrist retired, Brad was the perfect replacement, and they [Aussies] didn’t lag in that dept, as severely as we are facing, as we’ve been insisting with Senior Akmal since 2003, apart from a T20 match against South Africa under the captaincy of Inzi for Zulqarnain Haider and a complete series for Sarfaraz Ahmed in 2008 edition of Asia cup played in Pakistan, apart from that Akmal has been insisted permanently without any backup plan.

Speaking of backup plan, this whole Pakistani team for Sri Lankan Asia Cup and England tour had been selected on reputation, no offence because if there was a permanent process for backup plans, players like Malik wouldn’t be selected, and they had to prove themselves to be part of Pakistani team. Just because they were selected without letting them know the importance of this green shirt and blazer they wore, like a spoiled child they’ll act again and again.

Hope PCB gets something in their heads.

Leaving Younus Khan!

Leaving Younus Khan for a tough series in Sri Lankan Asia Cup and England might prove harmful for Pakistan Cricket

For a batter, having a consistent track-record in tests in a team more famous for its unpredictability than anything else, how can you expel him from all forms of cricket when you don’t even have the evidences against him regarding creating disturbance in the team and demoralizing the team spirit during New Zealand and Australia tours, where he was literally present in ODIs against Australia!

Shame upon the current management of Pakistan Cricket Board alias Pakistan Cricket Butt since Mr. Ijaz Butt has taken the position as the chairman of the Cricket board, acting more like the circus elephant who got free from its cage and now wants to settle score with the circus master.

Just imagine saving Malik with expense of greats like Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan is a big mistake and will haunt Pakistan Cricket for long, similarly the case with Justice Qayum’s report on involvement of Pakistani players in match fixing, which still haunts Pakistan and Pakistani Cricket 10 years after the report was first published.

Still yesterday when team was announced from the pool of 35 players for upcoming Asia Cup to be played in Sri Lanka, Younus Khan was literally ignored saying he was not impressive. On the other hand, PCB kept their stance of taking U-Turns, and this time they again took one when they claimed that there was no such ban on Younus and he can be selected on wish of the chairman.

Why wasting and insulting such a player? I don’t know which kind a managerial skills are they showing, its neither scientific nor human side management, now which kind of new managerial table have they define? For god’s sake don’t humiliate players like that, first clear you own collars when all problems are started from your end.

Click image to enlarge!

Summary from Wikipedia

This graph details the Test Match performance of Younis Khan. It was created by Raven4x4x. The red bars indicate the player’s test match innings, while the blue line shows the average of the ten most recent innings at that point. Note that this average cannot be calculated for the first nine innings. The blue dots indicate innings in which Younis finished not-out.

This graph was generated with Microsoft Excel 2002, using data from Cricinfo and Howstat.

The information in this chart is current as of 16 December 2007.