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Despite a valiant attempt by Azhar Mahmood 34(15) and Rana Naved 13(5) in the end the Badshahs fell short by six runs of their target, both the batsmen got run out, Badshahs have lost the first final in the best of the three series it was their first loss in the whole tournament and they should blame it all on their top order batsmen at one stage the Badshahs were 50/4 in 9.3 overs not only they were behind in run rate but also lost wickets on regular intervals.

Taufeeq Umar who was playing in place of Imran Farhat played an innings of 43(48)  he was agonizingly slow and never took the initiative to take on the bowling not even in the last few overs he kept on exposing the new batsmen to the bowling by taking singles and leaving the burden of hitting boundaries on them, he carried the bat in the end..

Badshah’s should not have changed Imran Farhat they should have brought in Taufeeq umar in place of Hassan Raza who failed for the third consecutive innings, Taufeeq Umar will put imense pressure on his partners as he is never going to go after the bowling himself.

Razzak was the star for Hyderabad Heroes who scored 21 of 12 balls and gave his team a flying start, then he bowled the danger man Imran Nazir in his second over, his first three overs only costed 13 runs and in the final over when only 12 runs were required he started horribly by bowling three wides and giving away 5 runs but on the next ball Rana got run out in an attempt to take a quick single and Razzak bowled Sami on the next ball, and removed Shahid Nazir on the last ball of his over. The match was lost when only seven runs were required of last four balls and Taufeeq umar tried to give strike to Rana when the single was not there he should have gone after Razzak himself.

Earlier on Sami and Mushtaq bowled ecnomically, giving away only 15 and 14 runs in their allotted four overs respectively,all is not lost for the Badshahs they will have to win two matches in a row now to lift the trophy.

Umar Gul and Yousuf are also contemplating to join ICL next year and who knows how many more will migrate. The prize money of Rs 2 crores and six tournaments in a year will ensure that players in ICL earn much more than those playing for IPL.The incentives will ensure that the mass exodus continues. ICL is going to play six tournaments in a year which will ensure that these players only play ICL and not any other form of Cricket so even if the ban is lifted on these players they will hardly be available.

PCB is not a poor organization according to its balance sheet as on 2006 they had a cash and bank balance of RS.2896 mil they can easily organise a T20 tournament of their own, the purpose of PCB is to promote cricket and look after the welfare of cricketers and not to be run like a PVT Ltd Co. The domestic structure needs to be changed and its high time that PCB should change its operating model. The franchise sytem should be introduced instead of the departmental system, the marketing should be done more aggressively for sponsorship rights, we have plenty of private TV channels who are hungry to fill their IDLE air time, the Infra structure is already there, all we need is planning  and affective management and implementation.

Given the security situation in the country their is a risk that more tours will get cancelled in the near future, and PCB will struggle again to fill up its tour schedule, as a result the players will continue to migrate, in order to keep them match fit and financially satisfied PCB will have to revise its policies and its operating model.

We are offering the fastest bowler in the world only Rs 75000/m and then expect him not to join IPL or ICL or sign endorsement deals across the border it is wishful thinking and one can only laugh at the simplicity of the DNA & CO. Imposing bans on players will not stop this migration the boards will have to be competitive with these leagues they will have to organise their domestic cricket on commercial lines and will have to increase their revenues.

The Lahore Badshahs which was comprised of test discards from Pakistan lifted the standard of ICL and made it look like an International quality tournament,the tournament was a big success and if you compare it with the lacklustre tournament of last year it has improved a lot. The stadiums were packed, and I am sure from a financial standpoint its management is going to make money especially when their are no franchises.

PCB will have to design a T/20 league of its own starting from next year which can compete with these leagues the sooner we do is the better as England is also contemplating to start a league of its own pretty soon Australia and Newzealand will do the same, the Carribeans already have a league whichwas also quite sucessful, if Pakistan has to retain its players then we will also have to do the same their is no other way out.

If we look at the domestic ABN AMRO ODI tournament being played in Pakistan you can easily feel the void created by the exodus of top 17 players who are playing in ICL, the standard of the tournament has fallen you can hardly find a recognizable name as far as bowling is concerned. In the absence of big names not only the standard of the game will further deteriorate but also it will have a financial impact on the balance sheet of PCB this year the revenue from tickets will fall, the future endorsement deals will get geopardized the money from the vendor contracts will also fall considerably.

The governemnt should remove DNA & co from office and should hire professionals to run the organizations.The Cricket world is entering a new Era where commercialism is going to affect every thing we should change our operating pattern right now before ts too late.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjGOWJElAN4]

Not many people can accomplish what Chanderpaul  did when he carried West Indies to a thrilling final-ball one-wicket win in the first one-day international in Port of Spain after being left needing 10 off two deliveries. The last over was being bowled by Vaas one of the games most experienced bowlers at death, 13 runs were required from the last over and only three came of the first four balls with two balls remaining and 10 runs required he responded with a straight drive before flicking a Chaminda Vaas full toss over deep midwicket to send the Trinidad crowd into wild celebrations.

Vaas who can bowl swinging yorkers at will was for some reason clearly struggling, he kept on bowling low full tosses and finally paid the price the memory of this match will get etched in his mind for a long time to come.

Pakistan have beaten Bangladesh by 7 wickets in a rain curtailed match, Bangladesh scored 226 in 48.2 overs when rain stopped the match a revised target of 158 in 25 overs was given to Pakistan which made the match a bit more interesting as the required RR climbed to 6.34 from the beginning, Salman Butt (76) and Nasir Jamshed (21) gave their team a blazing start they scored 39 of the first four overs which forced Ashraful to bring in  Shakabul Hassan and Abdur Razzak earlier on in the Innings, the spinners did a fine Job for their captain and dried up the boundaries and Nasir Jamshed who was scoring at will against the pacers struggled against the spinners and lost his wicket trying to heave Shakab over the Midwicket boundary and was clean bowled.

Younis scored a quick 13 which included a massive six of Mahmudullah but threw away his wicket when he moved outside the offstump too early and completely exposed his stumps to Reza who bowled a well directed ball on the leg stump to clean him up.

Yousuf was the next man in, who is in sublime form, from the very first ball he played his strokes all over the ground  and did not wasted any ball he kept on placing the ball between the gaps with the use of his wrists and kept the score board ticking, he also struck some powerful boundaries in his cameo of 32 and also became the second Pakistani batsman after Inzamam to cross 9000 runs in ODis.

Tamim Iqbal scored an aggresive 60 but the wickets kept on falling on the other end, Mahmudullah tried to rebuild the innings he scored 58* the rest of the Bangladesh committed the same mistakes as they did in the first match Afridi was the most successful bowler for Pakistan who took 3/33, Umar Gul was agin the most expensive he is struggling with his rythm and line & length, I think in the next match he should be rested and Sohail Khan should be played in his place.