PCB on Wednesday also imposed one-year bans on Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved after implementing the recommendations of an inquiry committee formed to evaluate Pakistan’s dismal performance against Australia in December and January.

Malik and Naved were also fined two million rupees, wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal was handed a fine of three million rupees and Umar Akmal, younger brother of Kamran, was fined two million rupees.

Shahid Afridi was fined 3 million rupees (US$35,200) for ball tampering during the one-day series against Australia.

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For the time being an average fan will be satisfied that finally justice has been done and player’s power has been eradicated from Pakistan cricket.

In my opinion the whole inquiry process has been a huge cover up and in a few months all of these players will get restored and their fines will be overturned because of the following reasons.

• The inquiry process was carried out by an in house committee rather than an independent Judicial inquiry like the Justice Qayyum inquiry. After Qayyum’s inquiry all the statements given by players, the whole proceedings of the inquiry alongwith the evidence presented were made public as a result nobody had any doubt about the fairness of the process and nobody had any sympathy with the players. Even though the recommendations of the current inquiry committee have been implemented but their are several loop holes deliberately left in the report because of which I strongly believe that all the players will be able to make a come back. The central contracts expired on Dec 31’st legally the players can go to the court and get the fines revoked because they were no longer employed by PCB when these fines were announced.  Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousaf  can get their bans over turned from any court as their stance has been vindicated by the inquiry committee’s report so why they are being punished? It is not clear as of yet.

• Questions will be raised in the media why PCB didn’t nipped the evil in the bud when these players were showing rogue behavior on different tours and were under performing to pull the legs of each other, Since the details of the statements made by the accused have not been made public, does it mean that the top brass was also involved in promoting factionalism for their own vested interests and tried to cover up their own role by keeping the proceedings of the inquiry secret. 

• Through out the last year several players of Pakistan team and at times the whole team has been accused of match fixing, even Mr Butt acknowledged that match fixing is prevailant but can’t be proved, since the inquiry committee was not independent and it’s proceedings have been kept secret and the fact that PCB didn’t do anything to curtail player’s power in the last two years, in fact on many occasions they encouraged it and protected the rogue players,  hence it is fair to believe that the top management was itself nurturing a corrupt culture, hence it is fair to believe that PCB deliberately covered up the evidence regarding the involvement of it’s executives in various mutiny’s and their role in mismanaging the serious situations on several occasions.

• Younis Khan refused to be a part of a corrupt setup and is only getting punished for that sole reason. In his case only PCB officials were guilty, they never supported him because apparently it didn’t suited their vested interests and now by punishing him they have covered up their own role. It is quite evident from Younis Khan’s case that PCB’s top brass itself was accomplice with some of the rogue players and was encouraging them against Younis Khan.

• Apparently Afridi has been punished for his ball tampering but I think legally they can’t punish him for one offence twice, I think behind the scenes their is more to it than what meets the eye he has been a central character in all the revolts and mutiny’s since Inzamam.

All the players except Younis Khan deserved this harsh treatment, the players are only puppets they could not have carried out their plans if they didn’t had any official sanction from PCB’s top brass.  Justice has been served to the players but the main culprits (the board officials) are still unpunished and are still controlling the affairs of PCB. The board officials won’t get away with it as very soon the players will hit back at the board and will try to take them down along with them.

The people of Pakistan should demand from PCB to release the full minutes of the proceeding of the inquiry committee alongwith the statements and evidences furnished by all the players and officials.

We deserve to know what was the role of the current management in prolonging this issue, people also deserve to know the real reasons behing the bans imposed on Younis and Yousaf.

I would appeal to the Chief Justice of Pakistan that he should take a suo motto notice of the situation and set up a special judicial commission for this purpose. 

But what do they get in return? Nothing but despair and heart breaks.

His supporters regard him as the only player energetic and aggressive enough to lead the team.

But is mindless aggression which has been the hallmark of Afridi’s game is the only quality required in a leader?  What about match awareness? What about shot selection? What about implementing the team strategy? What about improvising your game according to the situation and showing some resilience while facing pressure ?and above all what about playing selflessly for the team?

No doubt Afridi is highly energetic and aggressive but can anybody honestly claim that he possesses any of the other essential qualities which a Captain should possess.

He could have won the match easily for Karachi today if he had stayed on the wicket for two more overs. I am not willing to accept that a player with 14 years of experience wasn’t aware of the state of the match and didn’t knew the consequences of losing his wicket at that stage.

Afridi’s behavior pattern reflects that he will only act responsibly if he is given the leadership otherwise he will play his own game for his own self interest.

Dolphins were the most impressive team in this tournament and I was greatly impressed by their preperation the whole team was super fit, they built a great combination, their batting line up had depth and experience, their bowling was fiery, their fielding was electric and I was almost certain that they will win this tournament, in past Karachi matched the talent of Stallions but they could never match the professionalism of Stallions as a result Stallions always won. But this was the first time they had every thing they were looking more professional than the Stallions until Shahid Afridi decided to play for himself.

Afridi always behave like the arrogant Hare who thinks he is too fast and nobody can beat him, but today Malik behaved like a Tortoise and slowly but surely pulled his team out of a precarious situation and ensured that his team makes use of every single ball and puts as many runs on the board as possible, he was fully aware of the state the match  when he came into bat, kept himself calm and never tried to hit big risky shots (of which he is fully capable of) , led his team with a lot of calm and composure in front of an extremely hostile crowd, playing against a very aggressive team and under the supervision of two highly biased umpires.

Against all odds his team won, thanks to the mindless brand of cricket from Shahid Afridi.

This was a lesson for those who think that mindless aggression will win us matches, absolutely not. We need a leader who is calm and composed and has the intelligence to implement and devise strategy instead of a man who is just a big show off and always plays for his own agendas, be it to please the crowd or to pull the leg of his team mates.

Afridi’s statement in the post match interview again showed how mature he is, he showed his vindictive Pathan nature by blaming the loss on the Coach the same coach who was against handing him over the leadership of the team. Everybody knows that he was upset at KCCA for not giving him the leadership of Dolphins and this was the sole reason he didn’t played responsibly. Did the coach told him to go berserk and keep on playing risky shots when the required run rate was under 7?

Sami did a great job for Karachi and was visibly heart broken when he got run out and lost the match by just 7 runs with 9 balls remaining.  I hope KCCA takes Afridi to task and grill him for letting his team down and issuing such a moronic statement in his post match interview.

It was a flat wicket and 211 was chaseable for Lions and they were on Target untill the 13th over. But they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals Akmal brothers started off aggressively but couldn’t last for long and when Salman Butt got run out the match was over for Lions. Misbah led the Wolves intelligently he had better field placement and better bowling changes, when Lahore’s batsmen were coming out of the crease against fast bowlers he asked his wicket keeper to stand up as a result the batsmen couldn’t score freely anymore, Salman did a great job behind the wickets even though he misjudged a catch of Kamran Akmal. The Wolves have a very potent spin attack and they have proved they can beat any team in the tournament.

Stallions Vs Dolphins

The match is still in progress, The stallions must have felt today as if they were playing in India, the crowd was hostile, the umpires were biased, and the commentators were horribly biased.

Batting first the Stallions scored 149, Imran Nazir scored 38 he got retired hurt on 20 but came back, other than Nazir and Malik nobody else could score anything of note, Rana scored 10 and Razzaq could muster only 6, at one stage it looked as if the Lions will not be able to cross 125 but a cool and calculated batting by Shoaib Malik ensured that he bats till end and maximizes the score of his team.

What disgusted me the most is the biased umpiring against Sialkot, Noballs and wide balls were not given against Karachi bowlers, at least three plumb lbw decisions and one clear caught behind was not given to Sialkot bowlers.

The Karach crowd and their commentators went berserk when Shahzaib Hassan punished Asif in the first over but Razzaq took two wickets in his first over and sent both openers back in the pavillion, and silenced the whole stadium. Asif took another two wickets in the next over and Karachi was on the back foot and Sialkot was at top. In came Afridi who thrashed every bowler in his brief stay the crowd was as loud as it could have been the commentators were acting like cheer leaders for Karachi but the momen Afridi got out the euphoria turned into hopelessness, Afridi as always since he was not the captain didn’t played sensibly and accoriding to situation like Malik did for his team.

The crowd started leaving the ground even though that Karachi could still have won the match, Fawad Alam played a gem of a knock of 41(28)  balls and almost brought his team in sight of victory, after him Sami and Tanvir played brief cameos, 9 runs required from 10 balls is when Sami got run out and the Dolphins lost by 7 runs. Just because of the biased and unfair umpiring I think the Stallions deserved this victory, eventhough through out the tournament I liked the Dolphins but the way the whole system was rigged and skewed in favor of Dolphins they didn’t deserved to be in the finals.

Hats off to Sialkot and heartiest congratulations.

I  am very impressed with Sami he led his team very well until he was derailed by Afridi’s batting, he fought till end and almost took his team home, I think he deserves the leadership of Karachi.

Shame on Afridi for not accepting responsibility for his own failure he blamed it on the coach that he didn’t do proper planning. I am sure by making this statement he has made a lot of enemies in Karachi association.

Shame on Geo TV for producing the most biased and un fair presentation in the history of Pakistan cricket.

“I think the KCCA senior officials need to rethink their attitude towards senior players and how they treat them,” Afridi told reporters at the National Stadium. “I think the KCCA officials should have had the courtesy to at least tell me why they didn’t want me as captain. I am always prepared to play even as a ordinary player but there is a way you treat senior players and the KCCA is not doing that.

“I have always taken a lot of pride in representing Karachi in domestic cricket but if the KCCA continue to treat senior players badly then I might be forced to play for some other region in coming events.”

What’s wrong with this guy? Since Inzamam left this guy has turned into a major menace in the team the main source of discord and groupism. He has intimidated every Pakistani captain since Inzamam, tries to take over the proceedings in the field, issues open statements about his interest in captaincy, and announces his candidacy when the team is already being led by another captain.

Mostly people blame other players for goupism and cliques in the team but it is stupid and ignorant not to hold this guy responsible for groupism in the team. He was the first one who re-ignited this Captaincy race and openly pursued it, he hasn’t accepted any captain appointed after Inzamam and have been behind every players revolt we have seen during the last three years even if he was not on the forefront. If he can’t play under the leadership of others then how can he expect that others will play under him?

By criticizing Karachi Association he has indirectly disrespected Mohammad Sami and has issued a threat that he is not willing to play under anybody else.

Senior players all over the world play under Junior players without any objection but Afridi has some special obsession with captaincy he thinks he is the only player worthy of leading the team and  takes it as an insult if he plays under others. PCB should put an end to this bullying, Afridi may have an energetic and larger than life personality but as a player through out his career he has been below average, a person who always fails to live upto his potential and disappoints.

With leadership comes responsibility and Afridi has shown the world how responsible he is when he led Pakistan team against Australia in the last ODI. The reason which prompted him to bite the ball is still a secret, nobody has accepted his excuse that he did it to win the match.

If the new selection committee and the new team management wants to improve the team environment then they will have to ensure that who so ever leads the team is respected and accpted by every single player in the team and those who do not accept the decision with an open heart should be dropped from the team.

Almost one month has passed but the the inquiry committee’s report although it has been submitted to the Chairman but it has not been made public, as regards the changes historically, the support staff and the chief selector have always been soft targets and always become the first casuality after every loss. This time also things are progressing in the same manner, Iqbal Qasim knowing that he will be relieved of his duties resigned like his predecessor. Intikhab Alam and Abdul Raqueeb were not going to resign themselves therefore they were fired. But the top PCB management again survived, the main culprits the core group of senior players who underperformed are almost certain to survive, PCB might fine Kamran Akmal and Afridi but they are not going to take any further action.

Pakistan’s outgoing coach in past has held a key position with the team mangement whenever the team got embroiled in match fixing controversies, he was too old for the job in the first place why a controversial person was handed over the job in the first place and why we appointed two cricketers with tainted past in his place.

Nobody can deny Waqar’s and Ejaz Ahmad’s credentials but nobody can also deny that right now the team needed people in the support staff with a squeaky clean record.

Waqar in his previous stint as assistant coach was surprisingly banned from touring with the team on foreign tours and Waqar in protest resigned from the post, later on Mushtaq Ahmad was appointed as his replacement who was allowed to travel with the team, why he was stopped to travel with the team and his successor was allowed ? we don’t know. But it for sure creates some doubts about him.

After the Australian tour Waqar issued a statement in the press that he was going to tell everything that went on in Australia to the Senate’s sports committee, but later on back tracked on his statement and said that he will submit his report to the inquiry committee. Did he got this job as a result of blackmailing? He didn’t produce any results as a bowling coach in Australia in fact the performance of Pakistan’s bowlers became from bad to worse as the series progressed. With the exception of Asif and Sami no other bowler performed decently.

Waqar can certainly help Aamer and Umar Gul to a certain extent but if Pakistan needs a bowling coach he should have been appointed at the Academy so that budding fast bowlers like Aizaz Cheema, Sohail Khan, Mohammad Talha and Wahab Riaz could benefit from him there was no need to appoint a bowler as a head coach as Pakistan’s main worry is their batting and fielding about which Waqar is clueless. Ejaz Ahmad will take care of fielding and batting but he too has a tainted past and it seems that the old mafia is gradually taking over Pakistan’s cricket team, instead of doing an operation clean up the corrupt administrators have reinforced their position by appointing like minded people at every key post.

Is Ejaz Ahmed good enough to coach Mohammad Yousaf? can he change the mentality of Imran Nazir or Shahid Afridi? The current core group of players have at least 8-15 years of experience nobody can improve them. What we really needed was a Video analyst who could devise strategy by studying the opposition and who could identify the flaws in techniques of our own players, I don’t think that either Waqar or Ejaz has any experience in Video analysis.

The changes made are just for the sake of maintaining status-quo as far as the control over the team by a certain group is concerned.

A selector usually is a person who is deeply involved in domestic cricket, Mohsin hasn’t been involved in domestic cricket for quite a while, I doubt if he even knows about all the upcoming young players.

He said that he was interested in the coaching job but PCB made him the Chief selector, apparently he is just another jobless ex cricketer desperate to get any job. He is not strong enough to bring about the required changes he will just be used as a rubber stamp. Out of all the new appointments his was the most meaningless and less likely to produce any positive results.

Why we change the Chief selector after every series and retain all the under performing players?

We dropped Yawar Saeed for a reason after SriLanka series why he has been brought back?

There is no continuity in any of the PCB’s policies except that they will do anything to retain the underperforming players and after every lost series they will change the support staff to look busy and satisfy the angry fans.

The purpose of the inquiry committee is only to buy some time for the under performing players to perform domestically and confuse the fans. After the RBS T20 cup no fan will ask for the ouster of Rana, Akmal, Farhat, Faisal and a few others.

The young and upcoming players who are being ignored since several years will be again ignored, the RBS cup has been rigged by making a few  teams too strong as a result all the semi finalist teams will consist of Key National players.

We have tested and tried these players for too long same players will produce same results, this is the key point Mohsin Khan & co should realize and they should show some balls to make the required changes.

Kamran Akmal and Aizaz Cheema starred with bat and ball respectively to help Lahore Lions sink Quetta Bears in the opening fixture of the RBS Twenty20 at the National Stadium in Karachi. Kamran made 68 in Lahore’s 196 but Quetta’s response was so meek, they failed to reach 100. An opening stand of 44 was the launchpad for Kamran and his brother Umar Akmal to shape a stand of 62 for the third wicket. Kamran added 38 with Kashif Siddique and remained unbeaten, hitting eight fours and a six in his knock. Cheema, the right-arm seamer, sliced through the top order to leave Quetta reeling at 24 for 6. They never recovered from that position, limping to 91 for 9. Cheema finished with 4 for 17.

To make the tournament more exciting in future teams like QUETTA should be allowed to hire players from other regions it was a totally one sided match. 

The day-night fixture at the same venue was a closer affair, with Multan Tigers beating Peshawar Panthers by 22 runs. It was a commendable fightback by Multan after they were reduced to 23 for 4, recovering to 146. Jannisar Khan did the early damage for Peshawar, before the lower order led the fightback. The 58-run stand for the seventh wicket between Naved Yasin and Mohammad Hafeez was the best of the innings. Yasin top scored with 35 while Hafeez remained on 32. Peshawar began very confidently with the openers adding 48 before it all went downhill. Hafeez and Zulfiqar Babar (4 for 26) shared the bulk of the wickets to bring Multan back in the game. Israullah scored 48 but after his dismissal, in the 14th over, the match slipped further away from Peshawar and they were ultimately bowled out for 124.

Again was the purpose of having two teams from NWFP when they don’t have enough talent to support two teams, Yasir Hameed, Rafat Ullah and Younis Khan moved to Abbottabad’d team and left Peshawar Panthers struggling.

 Group B 

Sialkot Stallions held their nerve in a cliff-hanger to overcome Karachi Zebras by four runs in the final game of the day at the National Stadium. The Zebras were favourites to finish it off as the rampant association between Khurram Manzoor and Faisal Iqbal, which had realised 125 runs in 82 balls, had to knock off 14 off 1.2 overs to finish the game. That was when panic set in, as both batsmen departed to run-outs off consecutive balls to throw away the initiative. Fourteen off six, with two new batsmen at the crease, became five required off the last ball, a task that proved too steep for Akbar-ur-Rehman as the canny Rana Naved-ul-Hasan dismissed him LBW to seal the thriller. The win was earlier set up by a strong batting effort, led from the front by the captain Shoaib Malik, who was risk-free and effective at the same time, striking just three fours in a 44-ball 67. Abdul Razzaq chipped in with a quick 38 as the score swelled to 171, despite the effort of Anwar Ali whose 3 for 24 had kept things quiet at the start. Mohammad Asif did likewise for Stallions, before Manzoor and Faisal nearly spoiled the day for the visitors, but only nearly.

For me the highlight of the match was the performance of Anwar Ali versus Rana Naveed, I saw Anwar Ali bowl after a long time not only that he has gained more speed but he also showed more control over his swing, the Zebras lost this match because of poor captaincy by Danish Kaneria and lack of bowling strength.

Khurram Manzoor and Faisal Iqbal were impressive but they couldn’t finish it off for their team.

Rana and Abdur Rehman were the most expensive bowlers.

UPdate Day 2

Group C

One of the tournament heavies Faisalabad Wolves began their campaign by crushing Abbottabad Rhinos by 90 runs at the National Stadium. Mohammad Hafeez and Asif Hussain set up the win with an opening stand of 89 before Asid Afridi, the left-arm seamer on debut, dismissed Hussain. Afridi later made a big impact in the final over, taking four wickets in five balls to leave Faisalabad at 165 for 7. The astute Misbah-ul-Haq, with an unbeaten 40 off 26 balls including four sixes, ensured it didn’t derail his side from an impressive total.

Abbottabad’s chase was never on, throttled early by Samiullah Khan Niazi. It turned out to be an evening for left-arm seamers as Samiullah dented the top order with three wickets. Abbottabad then lost three wickets with no addition to the score, including two to the excellent Shahid Nazir and at 57 for 7, the contest was long gone. Saeed Ajmal cleaned up the tail to finish with 3 for 4. Abbottabad are a traditionally weak side but were strengthened this year by the inclusion of a number of Peshawar players such as Yasir Hameed, Yasir Shah and Riffatullah Mohmand and will look to improve results.

Faisalabad looks very strong, their batting and bowling has a lot of depth and Misbah is looking in great form. The Rhinos never stood a chance against the strong Faisalbad team, YK didn’t played even though he is in their squad.

Group D

Karachi Dolphins got off to a winning start making light work of Hyderabad Hawks at the National Stadium. They had much to thank the visitors for pressing the self-destruct button before crawling to 119, a target that was always going to be easy.

Opener Shahzaib Hasan provided the fireworks during the chase, smashing 46 off 21 balls, including six fours and two sixes. Once Karachi had reached the halfway mark in just the fourth over, Khalid Latif continued the momentum, blitzing 32 off 15 balls. The openers’ charge was enough as the hosts sealed the win in the 10th over. Hyderabad made a watchful start with opener Sharjeel Khan managing a near-run-a-ball 39, but three run-outs in the space of three overs meant they ended on a well below-par score. Fawad Alam was Karachi’s most successful bowler with 2 for 20.

I watched this match Hyderabad started decently Sami got hammered in his first two overs by opener Sharjeel Khan, but the lack of big hitters in the Hyderabad side caused the problem Rizwan departed early who was probably the only explosive batsman in Hyderabad line up, Azeem Ghumman played a few decent strokes and was quite efficient in rotating the strike but he couldn’t hit the ball cleanly and looked out of his comfort zone against the short pitched stuff.

The highlight of the game was that both Sami and Afridi were a bit expensive, I was expecting a better performance for them since they are the key players in our national team, Pakistan should hope that Sami by the end of this tournament finds proper line and length for this format.

Another Highlight was the performance by Shahzaib Hassan and Khalid Latif both scored at a very high Strike rate, Shazaib in my opinion has a tie with Imran Nazir for the T20 WC. I also noted that a lot of key players of the national team are batting too low due to which they might not get enough match practice before the world cup. Afridi and Fawad should have batted at a higher number because they are going to get automatic selection.

I also got a chance to take a look at Tanvir Ahmed he was the highest wicket taker in the last domestic season, but I saw nothing special in his bowling, he makes a huge grunt while bowling every delivery like Sohail Khan but both bowlers are not express by any means.

The only two noteworthy pacers from Karachi are Anwar Ali and Sami.

Group A

Multan Tigers recorded their second consecutive win after cruising past Quetta Bears by seven wickets. Mohammad Hafeez and Mohammad Irfan set it up by sharing seven wickets between them to restrict Quetta to a poor 99. Rameez Alam then scored an unbeaten half-century to guide them home within 17 overs. Irfan and Hafeez cut through the middle order to reduce Quetta to 59 for 5 and it was a position from which they never recovered. Hafeez finished with 4 for 17 while Irfan took 3 for 14 before wrapping up the innings off the penultimate ball. Multan lost Babar Ali off the first ball of the chase but Rameez piloted the innings to help them coast home.

Once again Quetta team didn’t matched the quality of it’s oppsition and surrendered without putting up a fight, Multan team has the variety and depth in it’s batting they do have some quality spinners but they lack in the pace department which might haunt them against stronger oppositions.

Update 3

Rawalapindi Rams have beated Karachi Zebras by 11 runs, batting first the Rams scored 175 Ex Lahore Badshah  all rounder Tahir Mughal played a match winning innings of 58 of 36 balls and Umar Amin supported him with an aggressive 37 off 25 balls.  The Zebras could have won this match but their experienced players played selfishly, this is the second match in a row that Khurram Manzoor scored a fifty but in both matches he started slowly and didn’t improvised in the initial overs he is playing more for his place in the team rather than winning a match for his team, Rams had a decent bowling attack led by Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Rameez, but the Zebras failed the opportunity to go after the medium pace of Hammad Azam he gave onnly 23 runs from his 4 overs and took 2 wickets. The zebras dropped Asad Shafiq after one poor performance and haven’t played Shahar yar Ghani who is also an exciting batsman. Faisal Iqbal impressed me the most as this was the second match he played unselfishly and played a good aggressive knock. Zebras could have done a lot better if they were led by somebody other than Danish Kaneria who in my opinion has failed to inspire his team and has made several poor decisions in both matches.

Lahore Lions have bulldozed Peshawar Panthers, batting first Peshawar’s batsmen were clueless against Lahore’s pace attack which comprised of Aizaz Cheema, Imran Ali and Wahab Riaz Panther lost two wickets in Aizaz’s first over and they were 4 down after 7 overs with just 34 runs on the board.  Both Imran and Aizaz are quite fast and can swing the ball both ways, Aizaz Cheema was express and possess a lethal slower delivery probably the best I have seen so far by any bowler, he doesn’t change his action and the ball sinks in front of the batsman. Imran is more in the mold of Asif although a bit faster than him but his line and length is perfect and moves the ball slightly both ways and has a very accurate yorker. I think it’s time for Rao, and Rana to retire because these two are much more capable than both Rana and Rao. Wahab Riaz was also impressive but I think his shorter length would have been punished by a stronger batting line up.  Aizaz has taken 8 wickets in two matches and Imran has taken 5.

Nasir Jamshed gave a flying start to the lions chasing just 117 he scored 33 off 21 balls and Salman Butt scored 47 off just 26 balls, the match was over in just 11.5 overs Umar gul was quite expensive as he gave away 36 runs from his 3.4 overs and failed to take any wicket. Gul still was totally eclipsed by the youngsters looks like he is still out of form.

Lahore’s team is very strong and it is more than likely that they will win this tournament.

LAHORE: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has provided match fixing proves to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) against alleged involvement of wicket keeper Kamran Akmal and medium pacer Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan.

PCB chairman Ijaz Butt on Friday made the startling revelation that ICC had provided PCB with the concrete proves of their alleged involvement in match fixing. Despite repeated questions, Ijaz Butt had refused to name the players.

On investigation, a highly placed official in PCB exclusively told Voice of America on the condition of anonymity that “the two players were wicket keeper Kamran Akmal and medium pacer Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan”.

Wicket keeper Akmal had come under heavy fire for his repeated fumbles on the Australian tour. Its worth mentioning that both players were dropped from the T-20 series against England recently played in Dubai.

When asked if the proves were so concrete, why PCB included Akmal and Rana in the initial list of 30 players for the T-20 world cup, the source said that “both will be missing from the final list for the T-20 WC.

The source further insisted that “PCB has announced an additional wicket keeper Zulqarnain Haider along side Kamran Akmal and Sarfaraz Ahmed in 30 initial players which indicates that Akmal would not feature in the final squad for T-20 WC to be played in West Indies in April. ———————————————————————————

KARACHI: Senior Pakistan players Kamran Akmal and Rana Naved have reacted strongly to the reports, which said they were under investigation by Pakistan Cricket Board for their alleged involvement in match-fixing.

Both Akmal and Naved denied they had any link with the bookmakers or were involved in match-fixing.

The Voice of America, quoting a highly placed source in the board reported, on Saturday, that both the players were dropped for the T20 International series against England in Dubai this month for this very reason.

“I will be consulting the board and my lawyer also to decide what action to take against the VOA for making these false allegations,” Akmal said.

“I am definitely going to take this matter further,” he said.

The PCB chairman Ejaz Butt had stopped short of naming the two players, on Friday, at a press conference.

After first saying that two Pakistani players were under investigation for match fixing, he later retracted his statement saying he was talking about an old case.

Rana said that he had a feeling that there was conspiracy against him and he was also contemplating legal action against the people who gave the news.

“I have always tried to do my best for my country, look at my performances, how can anyone say I am involved in match-fixing,” Rana said.

Both players were dropped recently for the T20 series against England in Dubai without the selectors giving any reason for this decision.

Although both were named in the list of 30 probables announced, on Friday, for T20 World Cup, the VOA report quoted a source in the board as saying that they would not be selected in the final squad.

Meanwhile, a PCB spokesman also denied that any current player was involved in match-fixing.

More to follow

I have been saying it since last two years that some key players and top PCB brass is involved in match fixing, my views were often snubbed or rejected by other pundits, I always knew that only ICC can expose this corruption as PCB’s top management is itself involved in it, they have been continously  trying to coverup the under performance of key players by groupism in the team and continue to select the same underperforming players. So far ICC and PCB have their lips sealed about the names of the two players. But their have been whispers about Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Yousaf and Misbah Ul Haq being under investigation.

Recently allegations were made against Younis Khan and his team after the SriLankan series and during the champions trophy, Pakistan consistently surrendered it’s winning position either due to spectecular batting collapses, poor fielding or wayward bowling but after every series the underperformance was attributed to rifts in the team. The same group of players underperformed in NewZealand and Australia under Mohammad Yousaf and once again PCB tried to cover it up by attributing it to the rifts in the team.

Ejaz Butt initially remarked that the two players under investigation are from the current squad but now he has back tracked from his initial statement and has said the case under investigation is 10 years old.

The truth will come out in a few days.

PCB will try to cover up this case and will do every thing in it’s power to derail proper investigation of the two players, the real facts will only come out if such investigation is done by an independent party. i.e ICC’s anti corruption unit. At least five senior players are involved in this corruption and this evil cannot be erradicated from Pakistan cricket unless an independent investigation is held.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Butt is now saying that the evidence relates to 15 years old case and is not regarding the current players.  What is the purpose of digging up a 15 year old case when the player under scrutiny must have retired? I suspect it might be involving the new coaches of the team.

ICC has denied handing over any such report to PCB which means it is a domestic agenda of PCB top brass in relation to the on going political turmoil in the organization.

Prize Money

Winner - Rs. 2,500,000/-
Runners Up - Rs. 1,000,000/-
Best Batsman of the Tournament - Rs. 30,000/-
Best Bowler of the Tournament - Rs. 30,000/-
Best Wicket Keeper of the Tournament - Rs. 30,000/-
Best Fielder of the Tournament - Rs. 30,000/-
Man of the Final Match - Rs. 50,000/-
Man of the Match for each Match other than the Finals - Rs. 25,000/-

Semi Finals
Most no. of 6’s Rs. 25,000/-
Most no. of 4’s Rs. 25,000/-
Most no. of wickets Rs. 25,000/-
Most no. of catches Rs. 25,000/-

Final
Most no. of 6’s Rs. 25,000/-
Most no. of 4’s Rs. 25,000/-
Most no. of wickets Rs. 25,000/-
Most no. of catches Rs. 25,000/-

Also, in every match each player who hits a six will receive an amount of Rs. 500/- per six

The following are the Squads for RBS Twenty20 Cup 2009-10

Only two changes have been made Mohammad Yousaf will play from Islamabad and Abdul Razzaq will play from Sialkot Stallions instead of Lahore. Yousaf’s name was excluded from Lahore’s squad and Abdul Razzaq is upset because he was named as the captain of Lahore’s team.

Karachi Dolphins
1. Mohammad Sami (Captain)
2. Shahid Afridi
3. Khurram Manzoor
4. Khalid Latif
5. Shahzaib Hasan
6. Fawad Alam
7. Afsar Nawaz
8. Hasan Raza
9. Sarfraz Ahmed
10. Tanvir Ahmed
11. Anwar Ali
12. Azam Hussain
13. Fahadullah Khan
14. Haaris Ayaz
15. Tariq Haroon
16. Adnan Baig
17. Asif Zakir
18. Faraz Ahmed
19. Misbah Khan
20. Rumman Raees
Officials
21. Shafiq Kazmi (Manager)
22. Sadiq Muhammad (Coach)

Karachi Zebras
1. Danish Kaneria (Captain)
2. Daniyal Ahsan
3. Asad Shafiq
4. Faisal Iqbal
5. Sheharyar Ghani
6. Agha Sabir
7. Akbar-ur-Rehman
8. Saeed Bin Nasir
9. Ali Asad
10. Farhan Iqbal
11. Uzair-ul-Haq
12. Tabish Khan
13. Sohail Khan
14. Tahir Khan
15. Rameez Aziz
16. Babar Rehman
17. Nauman Alvi
18. Javed Mansoor
19. Malik Aftab
20. Mohammad Waqas
Officials
21. Syed Munir Ali Qadri (Manager)
22. Azam Khan (Coach)

Quetta Region
1. Shoaib Khan
2. Abdul Majeed
3. Taimur Ali (Captian)
4. Manzoor Ahmed
5. Sabir Hussain
6. Bismillah Khan
7. Arun Lal
8. Nasrullah Khan
9. Jalat Khan
10. Nazar Hussain
11. Arshad Khan
12. Taimur Khan
13. Khalil Ahmed
14. Naushad Irshad
15. Taimur Mengal
16. Munir Ahmed
17. Talib Hussain
18. Abdul Jabbar
19. Mohammad Asif
20. Abdur Rehman
Coach cum Manager
21. Abdul Rehman

Islamabad Leopards
1. Iftikhar Anjum
2. Shoaib Akhtar (Captain)
3. Raheel Majeed
4. Umair Khan
5. Naeem Anjum
6. Saad Altaf
7. Azhar Mahmood
8. Imad Wasim
9. Zohaib Ahmed
10. Fayyaz Ahmed
11. Shehzad Azam
12. Kamran Hussain
13. Fakhar Hussain
14. Rashid Amin
15. Umair Mir
16. Faizan Riaz
17. Ameer Khan
18. Junaid Nadir
19. Ali Sarfraz
20. Irfan Talib
Officials
21. Nasir Iqbal (Manager)
22. Taimur Azam (Coach)

Rawalpindi Rams
1. Babar Naeem
2. Naved Malik
3. Hammad Azam
4. Usman Saeed
5. Naved Ashraf (Captain)
6. Zahid Mansoor
7. Adnan Mufti
8. Umar Amin
9. Jamal Anwar
10. Yasim Murtaza
11. Asif Mumtaz
12. Mohammad Rameez
13. Sohail Tanvir
14. Mohammad Aamer
15. Yasir Arafat
16. Sadaf Hussain
17. Fawad Hussain
18. Rizwan Akbar
19. Mohammad Ayaz
20. Muzammil Nizam
Officials
21. Sheikh Abdul Sattar (Manager)
22. Sabih Azhar (Coach)

Multan Tigers
1. Abdur Rauf (Captain)
2. Waqas Sharif
3. Saeed Anwar jnr
4. Kamran Hussain
5. Mohammad Irfan
6. Zulfiqar Babar
7. Kashif Naved
8. Gulraiz Sadaf
9. Ansar Javed
10. Ahmed Raza
11. Shahid Abbasi
12. Mohammad Hafeez
13. Babar Ali
14. Mohammad Ali
15. Shahid Akram
16. Junaid Iqbal
17. Rizwan Haider
18. Taimur Ahmed
19. Shahid Iqbal
20. Ali Moazzam
Officials
21. Syed Altaf Hussain Shah (Manager)
22. Manzoor Elahi (Coach)

Abbottabad Rhinos
1. Younis Khan (Captain)
2. Yasir Hameed
3. Rafatullah Mohmand
4. Adnan Raees
5. Wajid Ali
6. Ghulam Mohammad
7. Fawad Khan
8. Riaz Kail
9. Junaid Khan
10. Khalid Usman
11. Mir Azam
12. Zeeshan Khan
13. Umair Khan
14. Farooq Ahmed
15. Yasir Shah
16. Mohammad Naeem
17. Asif Afridi
18. Mohammad Sami
19. Sajjad Ali
20. Inam Khan
Officials
21. Taimoor Khan Afridi (Manager)
22. Shaukat Mirza (Coach)

Hyderabad Hawks
1. Shahid Qambrani (Captain)
2. Mir Ali (V. Captain)
3. Zeeshan Gul (W-K)
4. Ghulam Shabbir
5. Mohammad Awais
6. Lal Kumar
7. Adnan Brohi
8. Sharjeel Khan
9. Rizwan Ahmed
10. Ghulam Yasin
11. Zahid Mahmood
12. Kashif Bhatti
13. Azeem Ghumman
14. Mohammad Urs
15. Ayaz Ali
16. Mashooq Bhutto
17. Aqeel Anjum
18. Rehan Nizamuddin
19. Ayaz Jamal
20. Nasrullah Memon
Officials
21. Pervaiz Ahmed Chandio (Manger)
22. Umer Rasheed (Coach)

Lahore Lions
1. Kamran Akmal
2. Salman Butt (Captain)
3. Abdul Razzaq
4. Nasir Jamshed
5. Umar Akmal
6. Taufeeq Umar
7. Aamer Sajjad
8. Sohail Ahmed
9. Junaid Zia
10. Wahab Riaz
11. Mohammad Irshad
12. Mohammad Naved
13. Ahmed Shehzad
14. Wasim Khan
15. Khaqan Arsal
16. Mohammad Zohaib
17. Sulaman Qadir
18. Irfan Fazil
19. Tanzeel Altaf
20. Arsalan Mir
Officials
21. Chaudhry Naseem (Manager)
22. Naveed Anjum (Coach)

Lahore Eagles
1. Imran Farhat
2. Humayun Farhat (Captain)
3. Azhar Ali
4. Abid Ali
5. Kashif Siddiq
6. Shahnawaz Malik
7. Adnan Raza
8. Kamran Sajid
9. Asif Raza
10. Saad Nasim
11. Jamshed Ahmed
12. Mohammad Khalil
13. Aizaz Cheema
14. Waqas Ahmed
15. Usman Malik
16. Ali Raza
17. Shoaib Akram
18. Hamza Mubeen
19. Ahmed Butt
20. Imran Ali
Officials
21. Hafeez-ur-Rehman (Manager)
22. Sajjad Akbar (Coach)

Peshawar Panthers
1. Riaz Afridi (Captain)
2. Umar Gul
3. Jannisar Khan
4. Zohaib Khan
5. Aftab Alam
6. Shakeel-ur-Rehman
7. Zulfiqar Jan
8. Fawad Ali
9. Adil Amin
10. Sajjad Ahmed
11. Hamad-ul-Hasan
12. Israrullah
13. Azam Jan
14. Mohammad Idrees
15. Imran Khan
16. Mohammad Asif
17. Azam Khan
18. Kashif Hayat
19. Jamaluddin
20. Mahfooz Sabri
Officials
21. Mian Alamgir Shah (Manager)
22. Rehmat Gul (Coach)

Faisalabad Wolves
1. Misbha-ul-Haq (Captain)
2. Shahid Nazir (V. Captain)
3. Mohammad Hafeez
4. Naved Latif
5. Zeeshan Asif
6. Imran Ali
7. Khurram Shehzad
8. Hasan Mahmood
9. Ali Waqas
10. Mohammad Salman (WK)
11. Asif Hussain
12. Mohammad Asif
13. Ali Raza
14. Mohammad Talha
15. Samiullah Khan
16. Asad Ali
17. Saeed Ajmal
18. Imran Khalid
19. Saadat Munir
20. Abdul Rauf
Officials
21. Tariq Fareed (Manager)
22. Waseem Haider (Coach)

Sialkot Stalions
1. Shoaib Malik (Captain)
2. Imran Nazir
3. Mohammad Asif
4. Naved-ul-Hasan
5. Sarfraz Ahmed
6. Kamran Younis
7. Shakeel Ansar
8. Abdur Rehman
9. Shahid Yousuf
10. Mansoor Amjad
11. Qaiser Abbas
12. Adeel Malik
13. Majid Jahangir
14. Faisal Naved
15. Mohammad Saeed
16. Naved Arif
17. Waqas Ahmed
18. Mohammad Ashraf
19. Sarmad Anwar
20. Farhan Malik
Officials
21. Abdul Qadeer Chand (Manager)
22. Azmat Rana (Coach)

Jayasuriya and Tendulkar came close to it on several occasions but just fell short of it , Sachin recently scored 175 against Australia and before that he scored 186* against New Zealand, Saeed Anwar’s record remained intact for 12 years, and now Sachin’s 200 might also remain intact for a long period of time, Sehwag and Dilshan are the only two players in world cricket who are mad enough to attempt such a monumental feat.

Hats off for the Grand Master, he truly is a living legend.