Archive for ‘April, 2009’

3 results.
Apr13

A rare opportunity for Pakistan

by wasim on April 13th, 2009 at 4:13 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

Last three years have been very turbulent for Pakistan cricket, security problems in Pakistan led to the cancellation of many home series against the top teams in the world and the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore put an end to any hopes of hosting any foreign team in Pakistan for foreseeable future, a premature demise of Pakistan cricket was imminent.

Foreseeing this problem, and in order to keep Pakistan relevant in the world of cricket the administrators at PCB found a new home for Pakistan team in Dubai.

The ODi series between Pakistan and Australia will kick off of on 22nd April in Dubai, Pakistan will be playing Australia after four years, its a rare opportunity for Pakistan cricket team to re establish themselves as a force in world cricket.

Pakistan hasn’t played much international cricket in 2008 they will be rusty but the Australians are also struggling with their combination and by resting Ponting, Hussey and Johnson they have made the competition quite even. There is no excuse for the Pakistani team not to perform well against this Australian team as Pakistan will be playing on home like conditions, they do enjoy advantage in the spin department and their top batsmen are in good form, the only area of concern for Pakistan will be the form of their pace bowlers and fielding.

I do not foresee a whitewash by either side, both sides are missing some key players and are quite evenly matched, the only advantage Australia has over Pakistan is that they have played a lot of top level cricket against quality teams during the last year and their players will be battle hardened as opposed to the Pakistani players who will be quite rusty.

The inclusion of ICl players would have given Pakistan a clear advantage over Australia but PCB made a quick U-turn and discarded the three ICL players, which was the right decision in my opinion as these players preferred money over national duty in the past and they might do the same in future, these players should not be considered for national selection unless it is confirmed that they have revoked their ICL contracts.

There were no surprises in the selection done by Qadir & co, however the inclusion of Shoaib Akhtar and Yasir Arafat is objectionable, both the players failed miserably against Sri Lanka and I seriously doubt that they have improved their fitness and form during the last two months.

I hope that Sohail Tanvir has regained his form and fitness otherwise Pakistan will be in trouble.

Mohammad Aamer the 16 year old left arm fast bowler finally got selected for the practice match against Australia, I hope he does well in that match.

Intikhab Alam has hinted that he is going to rely predominantly on spin bowling because he feels that spinners can trouble the Australian batsmen, I don’t know if his assumption is based on facts or he is just trying to make us believe that he is actively participating in the planning for the series because before the Sri lankan series he made similar claims about using an all pace strategy against the Sri lankans which went horribly wrong as his bowlers were bowling all over the place and with out a plan, I hope this time his plan is real and he has actually worked with the players regarding it’s execution.

The forthcoming series against Australia will also be a major test of Younis Khan’s skill as a captain, although his personal performance against the Srilankans was examplary but as a captain on the field he looked short of ideas and creativity. All of his claims about the preparation of lively wickets for the SriLankan series were nothing but lies. He should understand the difference between playing stupid cricket and playing aggressive cricket,  taking 4 slips and asking your bowlers to pepper misdirected short balls is definitely not aggressive cricket, great captains make a plan to attack the weakness of the opposition and make sure that their players do not flaw in executing the plans. I hope that this time he has done his homework and he will show more control while executing his plans.

I have noticed another problem in Younis as a captain he is consisently showing lack of faith in young players and is mostly picking his team on seniority basis, part of this problem stems from the politics going on in the dressing room which is unfortunate but he will have to quickly identify the players who have passed their sell by date and should get rid of them.

My playing eleven for Pakistan will be as follows:

1-Salman Butt

2-Nasir Jamshed

3-Younis Khan

4-Misbah Ul Haq

5-Shoaib Malik

6- Shahid Afridi

7-Fawad Alam

8-Kamran Akmal

9-Sohail Tanvir

10-Umar Gul

11- Rao Iftikhar

Mohammad Aamer should be the 12th man.

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3 Comments
Apr17

Mission Impossible

by wasim on April 17th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

Two issues will be discussed in ICC’s  board meeting on Friday.

Pakistan’s chances to co-host the world cup after Lahore attack.

The future of ICL players and the implementation of new ICL laws against the un authorised league and its players.

PCB officials are vowing that they will be resisting every move to relocate its matches to another country and are also claiming that they do enjoy the support of other Asian members on the issue. Any decision of the ICC executive board is required to be passed by votes of 7-3 and if the Asian countries were together they had four votes.

I don’t think that the Asian boards are united on the subject.

Chances are that the sub continent might altogether lose the hosting rights as security problems exist through out the region.The political stand off between India and Pakistan has seriously damaged the unity of the Asian group in ICC and hence reduced the chances of the cup to be held in Subcontinent.

Pakistan has no realistic chance to co-host any of the world cup match on its soil as most member countries do not want to send their teams to Pakistan after the Lahore attack, the discussion will mainly focus on finding alternate venues for the matches which were going to be played in Pakistan.

Chances are that Pakistan’s matches will be relocated to Bangladesh or SriLanka and PCB will be financially compensated. The chances of India to host Pakistan’s matches are slim due to the current political stand off between the two countries.

I think that the WC 2011 should be held outside of the subcontinent, the whole region has security problems and right now the environment is not right for such a big sporting event, things can get better in two years but its better to be safe than sorry.

The board members will also discuss the future of ICL and its players. It is being proposed that all players who will revoke their contracts before June 1st will get a 1 year cooling period before they can play again for their country.

It’s a stupid suggestion and in my opinion ICC and its members are losing a good opportunity to get rid of ICL.

ICL has not paid to its players for the last six months they also canceled this year’s addition of the league, the league is facing financial problems. Since the league is not paying it’s players, the players can revoke their contracts right now because of withholding of payments. ICC should have facilitated their move back into official cricket rather than imposing this 1 year cooling period punishment. In my opinion ICC is losing an opportunity here.

This cooling period punishment will leave the players no choice but to go back to ICL. PCB should strongly resist this new law.

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Apr22

The spin trap worked for Pakistan

by wasim on April 22nd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

Intikhab Alam talked about a spin trap for the Australians before the series, I was skeptical about the existence of any such plan as Intikhab’s plan of a pace trap failed miserably against SriLanka, but this time my skepticism proved to be wrong.

Afridi and Ajmal bowled magnificiently, the Australians had no clue about their variations. Ajmal was literally unplayable he mixed his doosra’s and off spin intelligently, the inexperienced Australians failed miserably to read him.

Australia were 51/1 at the end of 11 overs, this is when I stepped out of the house for 30 mins, In the 12th over Afridi was being introduced into the attack, I knew he will provide Pakistan with a breakthrough but never realized that I am going to miss probably one of his best bowling performance by the time I came back Australia were 109/6, Afridi took three wickets and Ajmal took 1 the match was already wrapped up for Pakistan the rest was just a formality. The Australian wickets kept on falling like dried up leaves and Afridi finished up with his career best figures of 6/38 from 10 overs, Ajmal finished up with 2/19 from 10 overs.

Australians were thoroughly punished for their arrogance and the disrespect they showed to the Pakistan team by resting their major players. They also showed their vulnerability against quality spin bowling their Young players are too inexperienced and lack in skill.

Pakistan started their run chase over cautiously except for Afridi and Akmal nobody else tried to play any extravagant strokes, Pakistan kept on losing wickets but Australia never had any chance to win this match.

Afridi’s innings of 24 from 16 balls took the match away from Australia, Pakistan’s overall run chase was a bit nervous and less exciting as they were over cautious and in no mood of taking any undue risk.

Afridi was declared the man of the match.
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