Once again a Pakistan captain had to step down due to a player’s revolt.
Almost 10 months ago, it was Malik who was deposed as a result of a similar revolt backed by a systematic media campaign, the senior players under him were inconsistent in key matches which resulted in several series loses, but the one series loss against India and the statements of Mohammad Yousaf after he left for ICL delivered the fatal blow.
Even though Malik’s success ratio as a captain was not that bad considering the fact that the team under him was going through a rebuilding process and a lot of key players were lost to ICL. The biggest criticism on Malik was that how can he lead the team when his own position is not guaranteed in every format of the game. It was true that Malik’s role as an all rounder was questionable as he rarely performed with the ball his batting performance was also not extraordinary to justify his place in the test team, his performance in the Odi’s and T20′s as a batsman was fine. Finally Malik was removed and Younis Khan was made the new captain of Pakistan team, the move came in as a surprise for Shahid Khan Afridi who was leading the revolt against Malik.
Malik stepped down quietly but surprisingly he retained his position in all the formats of the game. That was the biggest mistake PCB selectors and higher management made. Malik should have been dropped from the test matches.
Younis Khan after he took over adopted a strange policy of rotation it was almost like a quota policy where each bench player was getting a chance to play.
His initial policy was to favor the senior players over promising junior players. He gave a fair chance to Shoaib Akhter, Razzaq, Imran Nazir, Rana, Rao Iftikhar, and Salman Butt but neglected players like Khurram Manzoor, Fawad Alam, Ahmed Shehzad and a few others.
He soon realized that it wasn’t possible to keep everybody happy as most of the ICL returned players were inconsistent and he had to rotate them, the problem got compounded when Younis himself lost his form as a batsman.
Pakistan won the T20 WC under Younis only when Younis promised Afridi that he is going to step down as the T20 captain and Afridi will be the new T20 captain for Pakistan.
Pakistan won the T20 WC as most of the players supported YK, Razzaq who came back from ICL was trying to prove his worth, Younis was fortunate to have found Aamer. The shorter format suited Pakistan’s fragile batting and aggressive bowling as a result Pakistan won the T20 WC.
The huge paychecks from IPL & ICL have also been a great incentive for these players to perform and keep their worth for the format alive.
Pakistan lost a hard fought test and Odi series against SriLanka, that’s where the trouble started, the rogue elements in the team underperformed in almost every match and Pakistan lost both the test series and the Odi series which they should have won easily. There was a series of questionable collapses, Players like Misbah and Malik only performed in dead rubber matches in an effort to retain their position in the team, Mohammad Yousaf who scored a century in the first match after he came back from ICL was quite inconsistent later on, the new comers Fawad and Khurram Manzoor although showed promise but failed to maintain their consistency.
Pakistan also lost the Odi series against a struggling Australian side which was missing almost all of its key players again Pakistan should have won that series but strange middle order collapses resulted in a series loss but Pakistan again won the dead rubber match and all the out of form players suddenly returned to form which raised the doubts in the minds of some people about corruption and groupism in the team.
Even though the selectors and the PCB management were aware of the rifts within the team but they continued to select those underperforming players, if one looks at the team selected for the recently concluded series the selectors selected atleast six openers and three extra fast bowlers but no replacement for any of the middle order batsmen. On the surface Younis was given the ultimate authority to select the team but his hands were cut by not giving him replacement options for the middle order. I don’t know who Younis Khan’s advisor is but his rotation policy rubbed Mohammad Yousaf the wrong way he should have atleast kept good relations with his senior most batsman.
A few things went wrong under Younis.
His personal form was the biggest problem.
The inclusion of Malik in the team despite his inconsistent and mediocre performances and on top of that leading a rebel group of players against Younis. The management should have sent him home on getting the first report that he is not co-operating and causing friction in the team.
The return of ICL players have increased the bench strength of Pakistan but has also increased the headache for the captain and the selectors, not only that there is a serious threat that the Inzamam culture will return in the team but also frequent rotations to accomodate everybody will cause frictions in the team. We have forgotten that these are the players who dumped Pakistan for ICL in anger when they were dropped last time, they have a history of being bad boys.
There is no need to give a new lease of life to tested and tried players like Salman Butt and Imran Farhat. When Khurram Manzoor Fawad Alam and to some extent Ahmed Shahzad did an Ok job why did we returned to these players and why we didn’t allowed those youngsters more time to adjust.
A strict warning should be issued to Afridi and an example should be made out of Malik.
To lead Pakistan is not easy, Pakistan cricket should not be allowed to be held hostage by a bunch of corrupt, selfish and rogue players, sports stars are not born they are created, we have turned Ajmal and Aamer into a star, Fawad Alam is waiting for his turn and there are many others who are waiting, there is no dearth of talent that PCB has to tolerate such revolts time and again.
Justice will only be served if Malik is dropped from the team.
I am not saying that Younis did every thing right he made many mistakes but the rest of the players had no right to not give 100% to their captain. Younis was a Ceasar who had nine Brutus around him.
The problems originated from both sides and they need to be addressed. If anyone thinks that Afridi is going to stop lives in a fools paradise, if people think that Malik and Yousaf are now best of friends they are also wrong. We will have to look beyond some of these players to bring consistency in the team and eradicate under performance and dirty politics from the team.
Except for Umar Akmal no body tried to play an ugly shot early in the innings, I wonder why they didn’t batted like this in the Odi. What was the hurry.
Anyways I was disgusted to see Malik still in the team, good that he couldn’t score hopefully we won’t see him in the next match.
We do need an experienced batsman in the middle order to calm things down especially if the wickets fall too early. But I liked the approach of relentless but cautious attack, Pakistan has too many weapons for this format.
Umar Gul is almost on the verge of getting dropped he needs to take some time off and sought out his bowling once again.
Imran Nazir again proved his criticis wrong, the guy can score and score at a very rapid pace, he is the perfect weapon for the initial power plays, only if a captain can handle him properly.
Razzaq not only bowled well but also batted well, I wonder what happened to his length in Odi’s and why he was so tentative while batting in the Odi’s.
Everybody knew that the team will do well in the T20′s but this victory doesn’t change the fact that these players underperformed in the Odi series the problem is still there lets not forget it. Justice should be done.
Why Pakistan is going in with six regular bowlers? Is Razzaq playing just as a batsman?
AHBD
PCB has already tried that under Nasim Ashraf but it didn’t worked the money from throwing away one single match is much higher then what PCB will ever pay to these guys.
The problem can only be fixed if the head of this monster is cut, If PCB management is sincere they would go public with all the evidence against one or two chief culprits in the team and just destroy them.
Thanks SP
The problem is that establishment for quite some years especially since Inzamam took over captaincy has been reluctant to give chance to younger players. Misbah Ul Haq was kept out of the team for at least 7 years. Asim Kamal another player his career was destroyed there are many other examples a group of players who get close to the captain they keep on getting chances.
The problem is that most of these players are match winners whenever they are out of the team they make a strong comeback but then gradually resort to their old ways. Take example of Razzaq he played an important part in Pakistan’s victory in the T20 WC but after that his performance died down, Rana Naveed played a few good matches and then his performance died down, Yousaf scored a century in the first test innings he played after his come back but after that he gave only one match winning performance against India. All the matches Pakistan won in recent past were on the back of Afridi and Akmal if these two performed we won.
Malik has become a parasite he played one good innings in SriLanka and one match against India and thats it, we all know he can perform better but after scoring 20 runs he throws his wicket.
No new player can survive in the team until they become a part of this group.
The problem is that the establishment is involved in all this otherwise they would never have let the players go off the hook after the performance they displayed in the last ODI.
If the establishment had backed Younis then this problem would not have occured but all the problems stem from the poor form of Younis.
It’s a tricky situation and I don’t know how Pakistan cricket will come out of it.
I think where the PCB could start is by perhaps reducing some of these big monthly retainers they pay – the players get paid seperately for actually playing and then more based on performances. I think the majority should be paid for playing and perfoming.
This way players like Malik, who have their bread buttered on 2 sides, might not be so keen to whack the ball straight to the fielder.
one of the best piece i have read on pak cricket wasim!!
like you i fail to understand when there are riches of talent in pak cricket… why they keep sticking to the losers… and icl discards…?
i still can not understand why yousouf is playing cricket at international player… whatever is his talent the fact is he is like a poison in the team coz i have not seen any selfish player than him… and so is malik… i don’t know you would have noticed but in last match how many batsman got out to playing pull shot to non existent short balls…? they were just trying to get themselves out…
if pak cricket can not begin a fresh… we will keep hearing these types of stories like a never ending soap opera…
disgusting. disgraceful. pathetic.
if i can feel that bad about pak cricket… i can very well understand the plight of you ppl…
As expected Misbah will be taking place of Younis in the test series however Daily jang has reported that Aamer and Ajmal might be given a rest in todays T20 match, I won’t be surprised as both Saeed and Aamer caused a lot of embarrasment to the senior players with their performance in the last ODI.
If that happened it will be a grave mistake by Afridi people will eat him alive.
Ahbd
You are quite right.
Reverse Swing
Justice won’t be complete until the underperformers are severely punished. The change was being planned for quite some time the assistant manager who was dumped after the SriLankan series is making a return he is quite close to Inzamam. I think Butt himself is involved otherwise no sane mind can let these players go un punished after seeing how they threw their wickets in the last ODI.
Nicely written.
I agree if someone is not giving preority to team and nation rather then their personal benifis and politics then they don’t deserve to play in team no matter how great player they are. And thanks GOD we have enough talent to build a good team.
Apparently after they had lost a serious fight took place. It appears that Afridi, Malik and Razzaq in particular pushed for his sacking.
Younus stood down due to lack of backing by Butt
The Pakistan Cricket Board may be insisting that Younus Khan had asked to be rested but he was apparently forced to step down from captaincy for the Test tour of New Zealand after PCB chairman Ejaz Butt refused to back him in the players’ revolt.
Well placed sources in the team told PTI that Younus had held a one-on-one meeting with Butt in Dubai after the one-day series defeat to New Zealand in Abu Dhabi which led to widespread criticism of the captain and the team’s performances.
Younus had asked Butt to back him and pull up the players who had ganged up against him, but the PCB chief was clearly not amused.
“Younus told Butt some of players were not cooperating with him and letting the team down and they should be pulled up. Butt, however, remained non-committal,” one source said.
The source said that after Butt kept quiet, Younus told him that he would make things easier by making himself unavailable for the series against New Zealand and Australia.
Butt had been reportedly been given a clear message by the players and some former Test captains that Younus should not lead the team for the Test tour of New Zealand.
“Basically, it was a revolt against Younus and Butt bowed to the pressure of the players. It was a case of Butt changing tact within a matter of days. Younus realised this during the meeting because the same PCB chairman had supported him while rejecting his resignation last month,” the source noted.
Interestingly, Younus had also excused himself from the Test series in New Zealand and Australia when he had submitted his resignation to Butt after the Champions Trophy.
The source said that problems for Younus had begun the moment the team landed in Abu Dhabi with senior players like Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Yousuf not willing to cooperate with the captain when they were told they were being rested for one match each.
“Their attitude disappointed Younus and this led to a bad situation in the team. At one stage, Younus was not even on talking terms with many players with the coach and manager silent spectators and unable to resolve the crisis,” the source said.
“Yousuf who was named captain in place of Younus was constantly in touch with some former captains in Pakistan seeking advice and Younus heard them at one stage telling the manager Abdul Raquib that Inzamam-ul-Haq should be brought in as coach,” the source said.
This is not the first time that the board had to bow to players’ revolt. In 1981, the players had revolted against the captaincy of Javed Miandad and in 1994 the players ganged up against Wasim Akram.