To have some, you’ve to lose some

The cricketing career for Salman Butt and Muhammad Asif has got an end, and similarly it won’t be easy for Muhammad Amir to have a comeback after 5 years By the time I’m writing all this, since my last post, things still messed up for EG, Kolkata and their first match of the cricket world cup is shifted to Chinaswammy Stadium, Bangalore, but a similar sorta debacle came for Pakistan yesterday when the suspended Pakistani trio, Salman Butt, Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Amir were penalized for 10, 7 and 5 years suspension respectively, which means that Salman Butt and Muhammad Asif’s career has got an end, because a 10 year and 7 year suspension sentence means they can’t participate in any kind of registered cricketing event for that time period. On a personal note, I favour this suspension, because literally as I conveyed the same message to my fellow colleagues in my working place and in my university that at least it showed us the points and aspects where we lagging, like disciplinary, managerial, controlling, planning etc (it seems I am studying the basis of managerial studies once), and the result of which is the Doha Verdict in which the trio was suspended. Although according to my standards, they were penalized leniently, else i was expecting and wanting them to be suspended for life including Muhammad Amir else it’ll convey a negative message to the youngsters that they can get the benefit of doubt every time they commit something stupid. Secondly it also exposed our Cricket Board which wasn’t supporting them at all. It meant that the board was also involved in it or at least knew about all this fishy stuff. Why am I saying like that? Flashbacking to Pakistan’s tour to England where all this thing erupted, in the second test where Zulqarnain Haider saved Pakistan from a humiliating Inning Defeat margin, they (the PCB Management) couldn’t control them and Haider was able to gather information about staying in London while having immunity, now he’s utilizing those information and now blackmailing the PCB and Pakistani Government in security threats, as if he is a super star in Pakistan. I don’t think he even close to Kamran Akmal’s stature to be having life-threats. Blah Blah Blah Everyone knows the educational standard here in Pakistan, where Karachi and Lahore are having SOME educational institutes where emphasis on personal grooming is given, but those who belong to rural localities of Pakistan, don’t have such privileges, minus Zulqarnain Haider from it, like we say in Urdu دیڑھ ہوشیار بننا. So its useless to even brag about it. What I feel? What I personally feel when you wear a green shirt with the word Pakistan embossed alongwith the PCB emblem, we should respect that instead of playing personal sinister games. Before having a comeback into Pakistan National Side, Muhammad Asif was already penalized for having drugs and had lifetime ban of entering into UAE because of it. No player is indispensable, at that time we should have start looking for young slot instead of having such a monopolistical influence of these players, if we had moved that way, things must have been on a track. Following are some of the extracts from the former Pakistani players on eve of this controversy. What they said? Iqbal Qasim believes the investigation has shown up the inefficiency in the Pakistan board. “To gain an honest system, and have unquestionable integrity, you have to lose something and players come and go – this will be a momentary loss for Pakistan cricket.” Rashid Latif is confident that the verdict will be to the benefit of Pakistan cricket in the long run. “The ICC had decided to give punishments to the players because there was too much pressure on them to curb fixing. It’s an important day for world cricket and very sad for Pakistan. Amir and Asif are a huge loss.” Former PCB chief Arif Abbasi supports the tribunal’s verdict. “Amir can still make a comeback because he has age on his side, but it is good for him to learn his lesson at this stage.” Former ICC president Ehsan Mani believes Amir can serve his ban and return to the highest level. “The important things with any punishment for those sorts of things is that it sends a very strong message to people that might be tempted to do it in the future… that if you do it then your career is going to be substantially reduced if not completely destroyed.” England captain Andrew Strauss agrees the punishments can serve as a deterrent

Pakistan tour to NZ, not optimistic about it

The Kiwi Cricket Board already showed their stance that Kiwi public may not be excited about Pakistan’s upcoming tour of the country amid spot-fixing controversy Already when Pakistan tour to New Zealand going to start in matter of some days on the boxing day with a series of 2 T20 series, one of the major news off the ground was that Kiwi Cricket Board’s heads are not very optimistic with this current tour of Pakistan haunting a spot fixing scam with them. They’ve the right to say that they’re not very much pleased with what going on with Pakistan as the Justin Vaughan feels that the New Zealand public may not be excited about Pakistan’s upcoming tour of the country due to the spot-fixing controversy, “I can understand the public may not be quite as excited about Pakistan as they otherwise might have been,” Vaughan said. Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand, which is part of the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, will be the only international series of the summer in the country and Vaughan said, “We’re kidding ourselves to think that there won’t be some residual impact out of all this, which is sad.”, and if we go back to Gaddafi Stadium Lahore where a Butt shaped mammal is chairing, where till now while I’m typing this, PCB is requesting the ICC for giving permission for them to select the suspended players for national team selection. This again shows lack of  good governance and management. Look at the other teams for God’s sake, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, they’re giving rest to their seniors and juniors are hired in their places, just see, the current concluded ODI against the Kiwis, India rested their majority gun power like Sehwag, Tendulkar, MSD etc and still they were able to finish the tournament on high. On the other hand, our cricket board is having a policy of rehiring the seniors who’re already found in playing politics in the national cricket team. Let me be starting from the first name who I should call the drama queen of the Pakistani cricket team (I am using the term queen with complete consciousness) Mr. Shoaib Malik aka Shoaib Mirza who when included in the team or was given privilege to travel with the team although he wasn’t playing, he was found creating distances between the players and so he’s responsible for what happened with Pakistan cricket i.e. making it a laughing stock, we blame others for exploiting us but why only blame them when we already have black sheeps in our national cricket teams. The second numbers comes to my mind is Kamran Akmal, who’s a Gilchrist sorta player in Pakistani team, but he was also found to be lost in the glitters of fame, and made him think that he is immortal and even if he can, his brothers should fill his shoes. Although earlier when he was included he made sure he would reply everyone whoever were in against of his inclusion into the cricket team, but since his brilliant innings against the English and later against the Indians at NSK where earlier IK Pathan had scored a hat-trick, who can forgot his match saving ton and his innings in the 2nd T20 event played in England. But later when he alongwith other senior players dropped the match from their grasp last year same time, since than the bad time on Akmal Senior started. He was so complexed with other keepers in the run that he did not made any keeper to stay alongwith him, thanks to that he has axed him and the Pakistani team as well. Earlier he also played with Zulqarnain Haider’s career the same way that later on when Haider got a chance, he took the cheapest way to get fame, and under the clouds of such controversies, this series is going to be played and Mr. Vaughan has the right to say that the excitement level of the cricketers and the crowd may not be to that standard. Anyways going back to the game of cricket, it is my personal opinion that we should now look life after these players and to give them so much strict punishment that the youngsters who’re in the pipelines should get some lesson from it. Atleast some sort of integrity should be regained and another message should be conveyed to them that look mate, this is Pakistan’s national cricket team and not you father’s owned cricket team so be in your limits else get lost we’ve other players too in the pipelines. But that’s not the case and I think that pipeline is somewhere chocked, that’s why again and again the same players are coming again and again. If I flashback to the Pakistan South Africa series played in UAE, MoYo was not fit enough and while practicing he was not able to bend himself so how, why and what in the world he was doing there, who was preferred on someone else’s place who like Azhar Ali when got a chance might have scored somewhat, unlike Moyo who’s more like a liability since he’s relaxed now and since he like some of the other senior players in the camp did didn’t allowed some of the players to cement their place, because of it Pakistan is paying the price and that’s why news in the circuit is that Pakistan might recall Mohammad Yousuf again. Is this a way a national team is made? Like Rameez Raja in one of his latest interviews clearly mentioned that if Pakistan able to be out of news for atleast 6 months, than it’d be said that Pakistani Cricket is somewhat out of the torrent. So under such circumstances, I don’t know why and how Kiwis should be excited about this series, which is the only home series they’re going to be playing this year? They’ve the full right to show their  reservations. Plus I just want to make a point clear that blame others but before blaming them, first clean your own collars, as if you point fingers on someone, three fingers also point you, so just remember that before making any point, as when they are filing charges against the bookie, when their pictures were released with him, at Hobart – Australia, when Pakistan was playing the dead rubber test against the Aussies, Mazhar Majeed was found sitting with several of the players like Akmal, Malik, Salman Butt, Sarfaraz Ahmed etc in the hotel lobby, and those pictures were in a stance that they were in a group for a group photo sorta gathering, so how can’t they figure out the background of the bookie sitting with them? Secondly the responsibility must also fall on the shoulders of those who’re heading our cricket board as these players are in the payroll of the cricket board, and as I’ve a little bit training experience at several banks, I’ve seen that the permanent employees bear the most of responsibilities on their shoulders, and because they’re on the payroll of their employees, they’ve to give some result, else they’ve got someone else to fill in their shoes, which in management language is said to be a result oriented management which is followed globally, but can’t say whether the PCB follows the same or not? Peace!

Can someone go THAT cheap?

Can someone go that deep into a cheapness?

Reports which are coming from London and from PCB clearly showing that the things were not as sever as Haider was portraying. Similarly if I put myself into Haider’s shoes, I’d clearly headed to Karachi to be with my family, instead of flying to London and gathering media attention by saying that some people were behind me and they wanted to kill me blah blah blah.

Is he really that much a bigger star cast like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar, Aamir Sohail and list goes un-ending? Is HE ON THAT STANDARD? What I personally feel now, this was just for gathering media attention and nothing else, already he has a Facebook presence aswell, and yeah speaking of Facebook, yesterday he wrote on his wall that NotW newspaper wanted to bribe him for giving them his interview but he refused it and gave it voluntarily. What else I can say about this gentleman, wanting the fame either by hook or by crook.

Such players are usually netted by the newspaper groups like NotW. Just to show his importance, Haider has now started to play such a melo-drama. Although I must say that cricket in today’s era is clean and played with spirit of the game. But doing such things to gather international media attention is a thing to worry. I shouldn’t be saying so but why only Haider got the threats, when 2 nights ago Razzaq played a gem of an inning in Abu Dhabi scoring a ton and winning the match, Razzaq didn’t got any so why and how in the world a player who’s literally young in international cricket starting to get threats? If he scored those match winning 19 odd runs, so nothing to brag about it, its a duty being a player of the national side to play for the country as much as he can…

And plus he calls Pakistan as his mother (as if we don’t rate it), even then was that the right way, or the right way would be to play in the team and show the world how much dedicated person and a cricketer are you who can exert so much of a pressure on his shoulders. I am not defending the managers of the squad as they’re too responsible for granting Haider his passport, just because he wanted to buy a mobile subscription sim card. What I’ve been hearing since couple of days, the thing was that the team management thought to drop Shafiq and Haider to replace with Umar Akmal and MoYo, so in retaliation he took such drastic step, and I am 110% sure that no one can’t dare to take such a step with out a proper backing, he was backed up completely that’s why he was confident enough to travel all the way from Dubai to London, that too when during those days when Dubai Airport is flooded with connecting flights for Hajj, so apart from the managerial collapse, one must note these aspects as well…

No offense

See! I told you

News which have been in rotation that NotW is wholly responsible for this mishap…

Don’t wanna use idiomatic statements over here regarding the logo of a third class British Tabloid, WHICH AGAIN responsible to bring the name of Pakistan into dismay.

News which has been in rotation in Pakistani network is that again NotW has been behind all this, and like the way they trapped several Pakistani players in their own backyard, they tried to do the same again with Pakistani players and this time it was a rookie Haider, who fall into their sinister plan and now he is in their grab in the UK.

This is what making me into suspicions that why in the world he was getting so desperate to to get his passport and to leave for England as soon as possible, and if news are to believed true, A NotW NEWSPAPER REPORTER WAS ACCOMPANYING HAIDER IN THE EMIRATES AIRLINE! This NotW newspaper was all the way pleading that to ban Pakistan cricket when Pakistani team was touring England recently…

For a third class British tabloid, I can only call them, as the sick man’s old dream. Apart from the assault from those third class tabloid, they’re assaulting the team and the name of Pakistan because of our lenient management. Players are getting the punishment but what about the management? Before this fiasco, there was a managerial mishap in which 3 players including Haider were fined because of arriving late in the hotel after having some sight seeing around the city. What else I could say about managerial mishap!!!

Same old story with new characters

Some questions still in my mind why and how Haider was able to depart from Dubai to London, and no-one even dared to notice him

Whatever happened in Dubai yesterday is past, I was not hopeful of Pakistan winning their first bilateral series since their win against the West Indies in 2008 on the same deserts of Arabia they’re playing with South Africa and that’s why I was on work but I didn’t took my phone’s handsfree to keep me away from the commentary and because of it I wasn’t able to know what literally happened to Pakistani team BEFORE THE START OF THE MATCH, was an unexpected shock which came from the person I wasn’t expecting from, i.e. from Pakistan’s rookie wicket keeper Zulqarnain Haider aka Haider.

If news reports are expected to be true, that it all started when the Pakistani players were penalized and fined on disciplinary grounds and fined the trio 500 Emirates Dirham just a day before the fifth and penultimate ODI against the Proteas, and the next day the so called management also gave him his passport with a British Visa and he flew suspiciously to London, saying he was targeted and was getting threats that’s why he left in such fashion.

Whatever I know about multiple visas, they’re usually granted on behalf of an organization and not on the individual basis, secondly after getting the passport how he was able to have a British Visa as soon as possible when its a process of days, so it means, either PCB or any other organization has used him for hiding their own blames. For god’s sake, can’t anyone see, how he was able to get his passport for buying of a new phone connection sim? If it were a tight management, than he’d not have got the passport without a proper investigation… and how in the world he gets a one month UK visa in a day, when sporting visas are canceled when a member of visiting team leaves and lands on the home soil, and plus he wasn’t had a contract with an English county team, so having a British visa so easily DO making me create some doubts.

What I am taking, Haider was used by the PCB, to hide their own mishap, but still failed in it as to close one Pandora box, they opened another one, when the security officer and assistant manager early in the morning saw Haider leaving, what the hell were they doing freezed in that position? Wasn’t it in the jurisdiction of these two gentlemen to inquire, look young man, where in the world are you leaving at this hour when we have a match in the noon? Couldn’t had they ask it?

Taking strong actions doesn’t mean that your mishaps would be grounded, even after the so called manufacture of latest code of conduct, they couldn’t avoid in maintaining a strong conduct in a home series being played in the UAE. So what’s the credibility of this so called Pakistan Cricket Board, they should call it Butt’s Cricket Board…