The country is being governed in mafia style and is ruled by a thug, the hand picked institutional heads operate like area dons and are given targets to achieve to fill the coffers of God father, PCB has been no exception Musharraf appointed Nasim Ashraf and despite heavy criticism he was never removed, Zardari appointed Ijaz Butt who is unaniomously hated by all the cricket fans in Pakistan and despite so many set backs he continues to retain his position. Through nepotism, favoritism, bribery, jingoism, dirty politics and mismanagement these guys have ruined PCB financially and in the process have also destroyed Pakistan cricket.

I have pointed this out many times before during the last three years that there is a pattern in selection through which PCB top brass controls the outcome of a series, the core group of players continue to get selected no matter what there performance has been. Even though there is always a selection committee but the selection is rigged by either Ijaz Butt or the tour selection committee. Pakistan has rarely played to it’s full strength due to this rigging in the selection process.

Why Ijaz Butt needed to have a dummy chief selector? Why he is selecting the team on every tour, if he is honest and has nothing to do with the corruption then why can’t he let the selectors work independently. There is no precedence of such policies in the entire cricketing world.

In past several of my blogging friends have made fun of me when I used to point out corruption and foul play, some said that I was obssessed about match fixing these players are inherently incapable of winning matches, but I have always maintained that form doesn’t change overnight, a bowler bowls beautifully in one innings and bowls all over the place in the next.

 Akmal brothers at their best have won us many matches recently but look like street players when we lose, Kamran Akmal all of a sudden fails to take simple catches behind stumps and gives too many byes, Omar Gul can’t get his length and line right and bowls too many no balls, Kaneria gifts one full toss every now and then in an over and bowls too many no balls for a spinner. Malik after scoring a quick 20 or 30 suddenly gets out, Misbah finds the strangest ways to get out, Omar Akmal every now and then takes a suicidal run and throws away his wicket, Salman Butt all of a sudden loses his form and looks like a pedesterian player, Afridi can get away with anything, because over the years he has developed a reputation of being brainless when it comes to batting, but I do find it strange that when he wants to bat sensibly he certainly can, he has displayed it many times during this year. The captains through defensive field placements, wrong bowling changes and poor selection on the tour control the outcome of the match.

These guys are experienced and professionals they should have never been allowed to get away with all this hanky panky by just declaring it being unpredictable or unprofessional.

After the Australian tour PCB gave the world an impression that the team’s poor performance was a result of factionalism in the team and covered up all the corruption. It’s not that Sindhis, Punjabis and Pathans can’t get along with each other in Pakistan if there was factionalism in the team it was only due to two factors, one that a few players like Younis Khan wanted to play honestly and with integrity and two, players like Afridi, Malik, Butt and Yousaf wanted to control the team for the lions share. The former never accepted the job as a dummy and all the later played in the hands of PCB and never showed any integrity.

Afridi’s statement that he knew that certain players were fixing matches and had contacts with Majeed is hillarious, the same guy is also his agent and the same guy has also stated that the Odi series against England is also fixed. Why Afridi didn’t raised his voice in the media when he knew that the guy had links with match fixing mafia? Why he retained him as his own agent? Why he accepted Kamran Akmal as his deputy? The selection of Shahzaib and Hafeez despite their failure in T20 WC was done to rig the Odi and T20 series.

PCB will try it’s best to form a shady inquiry committee and will try to save the maximum number of players but corruption will remain as long as long as people like Ijaz Butt and Yawar Saeed are at the helm of PCB.

Players like Miandad, Wasim Akram, Muddassar Nazar and Majid know what is wrong with Pakistan cricket they will never accept a key position. Only desperate people like Mohsin Khan and Waqar Younis will continue to work for PCB, It’s been in the news that the bookie was related to Pakistan’s batting coach Ijaz Ahmad who also has a shady past.

Waqar has always been one of my favorite players and there is no doubt about his abilities as a bowling coach but he has a past, he was appointed as a bowling coach by Sheryaar Khan, but Nasim Ashraf told him that he won’t travel with the team and will only work with the players in the academy, Waqar resigned and surprising his replacement Mushtaq another man with shady past was sent with the team, anybody with little common sense must have realized that these former players with shady past were only hired because of their links with the bookies, Waqar was not allowed to travel with the team because he was hired by the previous administration and the new management wanted to make new deals.

The current administration first appointed Intikhab another guy who have always been in the center of every match fixing controversy but after heavy criticism from the press and public lost his job but continued to get the same pay for doing nothing. Why??

After firing Intikhab they promoted Waqar as the head coach when he threatened PCB that he will tell the Senate’s committee of sports what happened in Sydney.

Ijaz Butt also brought his close associate Yawar Saeed who also have been in center of every match fixing controversy these guys when they come to Pakistan criminal charges should be brought against them and their properties should be confiscated and they should be thrown in jail for bringing shame to the country nothing short of that would be acceptable to the people of Pakistan.

The team management cannot claim that they didn’t knew anything about the activities of players a simple statement by Yawar Saeed that he warned the players about Mazhar Majeed doesnot in any way gives him a clean chit the fact that the players were meeting him and he was staying with the team incriminates Yawar Saeed and the rest of the team management especially when they both Afridi and Yawar Saeed have admitted in their statements that they warned players about Majeed.

It is evident from the facts that the team management created a corrupt culture in the team,  honest players were sidelined and young players were influenced to become corrupt  , Umar Amin and Wahab Riaz were openly recieving gifts from Mazhar Majeed for underperforming, the most sad and disappointing thing out of this crisis for me is the fact that Aamer has also sold his soul to the devil. He was the most promising player since Wasim and Waqar for Pakistan but like many of his other feats in which he overtook his predecessors in corruption also he beat them becuase I don’t think Wasim or Waqar did any corruption when they were this young and new in the team.

Pakistani cricket fans are divided by regionalism and these crooks have taken full advantage of it, this is the time that instead of pointing out how many  corrupt players are from which region it is time to think rationally and attack the root cause of this corruption and that is the corrupt administration and the corrupt heritage of the team.

We will have to disolve this corrupt board and team and rebuild from scratch with all honesty.

It’s only a matter of few weeks that people will start forget this and will start defending these players or will start to find precedences in other countries to justify the acts of our players or start looking for conspiracy theories, I guess we as fans should not defend these morons and should demand the harshest punishment for them because their crime is nothing short of treason.

This time the evidence against Pak players is overwhelming, the only thing PCB will be able to do is that they will limit the matter to spot fixing and will temporarily ban a few players, It’’s time for ICC to get more proactive they will have to suspend Pakistan from International cricket for a while until the whole corrupt organization of PCB is disbanded and Pakistan is forced to form a board managed by people who have spotless reputation.

Yes I am a Pakistani and I am asking ICC to suspend Pakistan from playing international cricket that is the only solution to get rid of this menace.

The fans all around the world deserve to watch pure cricket free of any corruption and in it’s true spirit. We don’t want to watch this WWF version of cricket.

The chief selector Mohsin Khan has been criticized a lot for not acting as an independent selector but not a word of criticism is being hurled at Afridi who finalized the whole team with Ejaz Butt in a one to one meeting. Has anybody ever thought that why Is Afridi behaving like a dummy captain? If he believes that certain players are being ignored for wrong reasons and he is not being given a team selected on merit then like all men of integrity and honor he should stand up against Ejaz Butt for truth and Justice.

By just issuing a loose and ambigous statement regarding ignoring Younis he tries to remain politically correct and gives the impression to the rest of the world that he sincerely tries but the matter is really beyond his control.

Is the matter really beyond his control? If it is then I am sorry to say Afridi even though he is supposedly a big and brave pathan is just another poodle of Ejaz Butt, who can only lick his master’s feet and can never stand up against him.

I don’t think in the current situation his role is any different than Mohsin Khan’s.

There is only one real man in PCB and that is Ejaz Butt the rest are just hermaphrodits nobody has the strength and courage to stand up against him.

It’s a dog eat dog world every one is for himself I really don’t think that Afridi has any sincerity with Younis Khan because if he had any then he should have done more than just issuing meaningless statements. These guys are not acting as poodles of Ejaz Butt because he is so powerful they are doing it for their own self interests.

The selected team is as follows:

Squad: Shahid Afridi (capt), Salman Butt, Shahzaib Hasan, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Azhar Ali, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Fawad Alam, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Wahab Riaz.

Reserves: Sarfraz Ahmed, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Irfan, Abdur Rehman.

First of all what in the world has Hafeez and Shahzaib done since the T20 WC to get recalled they couldn’t survive in flatter conditions how they are going to cope with conditions where the ball swings both in the air and off the seam.

Where are the advocates of merit now and why are they not raising their voice against the selection of Shahzaib who was a complete failure during the T20 WC.

Afridi has not only ignored Younis Khan but he has also ignored Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmad and Abdur Rehman.

The reserves are not travelling with the team, Asad, Sarfraz and Irfan are playing with Pakistan A and Abdur-Rehman is probably in Pakistan the probability of them getting any real chance is zero.

Why Asad was not selected in place of Hafeez or Shahzaib?

Rahman will become history because he is a direct threat to Afridi himself.

There was no need to keep so many fast bowlers, an additional spinner could have helped a lot especially when Rahman performed really well in the T20 WC.

The selectors have still not learned from their mistakes, they have again picked some players who do not have the technique to play in English conditions the team consists of too many flashy players who will fail miserably in English conditions especially when the new players have not been acclimatized with English conditions.

In England the ball swings after it passes the stumps but if that was the problem why Akmal kept behind the wickets so confidently against Australia, he never dived on many balls going down the leg side which normally he stops. The ball in Trent bridge is not moving as it did in Leeds if he kept behind the wickets with confidence there then there was absolutely no excuse for him to stand way behind the wickets here.

Any keeper can drop catches but the technique Akmal displayed here was appalling and cannot be justified by saying that he is just a poor keeper, he kept decently against Australia.

The way both brthers batted in the last test was also questionable and once again Umar Akmal failed in this test, he also told Azhar Ali not to use the review when he clearly didn’t got an edge.

Just when I was writing this line Kamran Akmal got out for a duck, man I hate his fuck face.

England has bowled beautifully but they haven’t been that good to justify a 46/6 scoreline, Pakistan’s batting has been appaling. Their tail starts from #4 Umar Amin hasn’t done anything, Akmal brothers are only good for T20, Malik is still hanging in there and might get his 10-20 runs.

This performance has been a joke and Kamran Akmal did a great acting job behind the stumps, I think it’s time that we dump this pretend wicket keeper for good.

England has already announced their team.

Pakistan will probably go with the same combination which won the last test against Australia.

The war of words has already begun.

Paul Collingwood took a swipe at Pakistan’s much coveted pace trio and regarded it as over hyped, whereas Salman Butt said that his pace trio is the best in the world.

I am not sure if Pakistan’s pace trio is the best in the world but it is definitely damn good to send some tremors in the English camp, they have complete variety to exploit all sorts of conditions, the results do not do justice with the quality of these bowlers as they are often let down by their fielders and batsmen.

One thing Collingwood must realize that Pak bowlers don’t have to Stomp on the ball or use sticky lozenges to make the ball talk they only need a bit of overcast conditions and he has no control over that.

England has an advantage of home conditions they also have a better batting lineup, but if Pakistan’s pace trio remained  fit and in form Pakistan will have a strong chance of winning against England but they can’t win without improving their batting.

Akmal brothers will have to lift their performance and will have to respect the test format and demonstrate that they can change their game to suit the format, Pakistan will have to decide very quickly about the role and psoition of Shoaib Malik in the team so far his contribution to the team has been nothing and he has been a complete burdon on the team, he will have to bat higher and perform to prove his worth and justify his selection.

Just heard the news that Shoaib Malik has injured his foot and is doubtful for tommorrows match, Malik has a habit of injuring his foot before every tough series, but I guess it’s a blessing in disguise for Pakistan. 

Umar Amin deserves one more chance, Pakistan cannot win if four of their top batsmen fail consistently especially when they don’t have even a single bowling all rounder in their lineup that makes the depth of their batting looks really thin.

The inconsistency which is associated with Pakistan team is only because of their fragile batting their bowling has been pretty consistent they might have some worry about the form of Kaneria but they do have two quality spinners on the bench so they don’t have to worry much about that but they will have to make a decision about their middle order after the first match.

The Injury to Ian Bell and lack of match practice and form of Kevin Pieterson are the main worries for England,  their bowling looks decent but a lot will depend on Swann’s performance.

Even though Pakistan performed well against Australia but this series will present different challenges, Australian bowlers failed to exploit the conditions in England but English bowlers won’t struggle in home conditions as a result this series will be more tough for Pakistan.

A positive start to this series will be very important for Salman Butt’s captaincy and this young Pak team, the win against Australia  silenced the critics and all the hue and cry about the selection of Yousaf and Younis have died down , but  one loss and those all those vultures will be back for the feast.

The win against Australia might have also raised the expectations of the fans but in reality this team especially the batting line up is too inexperienced to win consistently, England in my opinion is favorite to win this series.

Since Inzamam retired Afridi has been very vocal regarding his desire to lead Pakistan team in all formats of the game, his fans were even more vocal than him, by their relentless criticism they brought down the captaincy of three captains and finally after three years of relentless lobbying and “fitna” he got the job in all three formats, all the other contenders for the job were sidelined and for a moment Pakistan cricket fans felt that finally we will have some stability in the team as there will be no more dirty politics and leg pulling in the team.

After leading the team only in one match he realized that he made a stupid mistake of coming out of test retirement which will risk his career in all formats, he knew that the team he was leading wasn’t good enough to win a test match against any team in the world, his style of cricket doesn’t suit the longer format and he always becomes a burden on the team, and had he lost the series against England too then it will be hard for him to remain in the team in all three formats. I don’t know if I should call his move smart, honest or selfish.

I think it’s nothing more than a joke, he knew his bowling will not work in test matches and as a batsman he has always failed in test cricket barring a few good innings. He betrayed his fans and all those who supported him and he betrayed his team mates in the middle of a difficult tour and is now trying to dump his responsibility on somebody else that is just unacceptable.

His fans always told his critics that he is a “Pathan” a natural fighter with a never say die attitude but after just one loss he has completly melted down and has decided to abandon his troops in the middle of an important tour. What a wuss he turned out to be.

Shame on You Afridi, you have been completely selfish here and your retirment proves that you are a coward.

Earlier today Australia beat Pakistan by 150 runs, except Azhar Ali and Umar Amin all the rest of the batsmen threw away their wickets on ordinary balls and due to there own mistake. The margin of defeat was 150 it is the same score which Australian tailenders snatched from Pakistan, Afridi never tried to make life difficult for the tailenders, the field was spread out and the bowling was without a plan and a desire to finish off the opposition. After day 2 the body language of our captain suggested that he accepted defeat and gave up the fight after Pakistan’s first innings.

Nobody expected this team to win from Australia in a test match, the bowling was ok but nobody expected a solid performance from this weak batting lineup everybody knew and accepted that we are in the rebuilding phase and we might lose for a while, there was not going to be any serious backlash for Afridi except for his personal performance. I think Afridi wasn’t willing to take the risk and decided to save his ass by quitting, which has become a proven exit strategy for all the seniors since it has been successfully used by Yousaf and Younis on several occasions.

PCB will be looking for a new captain, I doubt that they will find many volunteers as nobody wants to captain a sinking ship. Salman Butt is an option but PCB says he is not an automatic choice, well more blunders are in the making, he is the only guy who is in form and if PCB snubbed him for the job for the second time I don’t think it would motivate him positively.

There is a rumour and it’s denial that Yousaf has been asked to join the team. Younis is still in England and as far as I know poor guy is trying his best to get back in form by playing county cricket but PCB morons again decided to ignore him. Malik is sitting on the sidelines they say he is out of form, but the question is that barring Sakman Butt who is in form?

15 months ago when Malik was removed from captaincy, I wrote that nothing will change, and things will become even more worse, now those who criticised his role as a captain can compare his international and domestic captaincy record with those who preceeded and followed him.

He was criticised for his place in the team, well YK, Yousaf, and Afridi all flopped in test matches as players during their captaincy tenure.

PCB is in huge trouble, they won’t make Younis the captain, Afridi just retired Yousaf might not accept it, and Malik won’t be accepted by majority of fans. Even if Younis accepts it he is out of form and has serious differences with the board and a large number of current players, Yousaf just can’t lead so it wouldn’t do any good. Malik right now is the most hated cricketer in the nation. Salman Butt is the only choice they have.

Unfortunately the unfair criticism will again become fierce, when Pakistan will struggle in test matches, but the truth whiich nobody is willing to accept is that Pakistan would have struggled in test matches with or without Yousaf and Younis as they did against Srilanka, NewZealand and Australia last year.

Our batting has always been fragile but in recent years our bowling in test matches has not been upto par, a lot will depend on Asif’s form, Aamer has already shown that he will do good he must have really worked hard during the last few months now he can move the ball both ways and is much more accurate. Umar even though he bowled at a lively pace and was at his usual best in T20 but keeping in view his past test performances it is difficult to predict how he will perform in the forth coming test series.

Shahid Afridi will ease some burden off Kaneria, these two matches will determine the fate of Kaneria’s future, do we really need two leg spinners shouldn’t we play Ajmal more often in test cricket?

Our opening conundrum is still there Butt is in form, but we have two failed horses to pair with him and two youngsters who are yet to be tried, Afridi should ignore Yasir and Farhat and should go for Umar Amin and Azhar Ali.

The middle order looks very light without Yousaf I don’t care much about Younis or Misbah as they were not doing anything and just occupying space. Akmal brothers are in form but Pakistan will have to extract better performances from Malik and Afridi.

This would be the probable team.

Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Umar Amin, , Umar Akmal, Malik, Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Umar Gul, Aamer, Asif and Kaneria/ Ajmal 

My team would be as follows

Salman Butt, Azhar Ali, Umer Amin/ Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Malik, Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Aamer, Gul, Asif, and Ajmal.

Pakistan during the last 12 months have played Australia under three different captains they tried different bowling and batting combinations but always stopped short of winning, the difference between the two teams is not much as the results suggest, poor fielding and internal rift between some players  during the Australian tour caused the real damage due to which Pakistan lost several matches which they should have won.

Pakistan is a very inconsistent but unpredictable team, their unpredicatbility stems from the fact that they never play two consecutive series with the same bowling or batting combination, they are going to face Australia  again with a new combination, Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar have made a come back we might see one or two new faces in the batting line up, they are playing as a unit under Afridi who is in the form of his life and is feeling no pressure of captaincy unlike his predecessors. Overall the team looks very weak on paper but in reality this team has much more depth in it, they have a better bowling attack than the last time they faced Australia, their batting is in form and looks quite deep.

Australia on the other hand have pretty much the same team but they will carry a huge psychological advantage, they just lost an Odi series to England but won the last two matches quite convincingly, I am not too worried about their batting line up this time around because they are not playing in home conditions, it’s  not easy to score in foreign conditions. But their pace attack caused a lot of problems for all the teams in the T20 WC but fortunately Pakistan in both of their matches posted a decent total against Australia, our players didn’t show any discomfort in handling the pace and bounce of Nannes and Tait.

A lot is being said about Shoaib Akhtar and Tait, I don’t think that Shoaib at this age can match the pace of any Aussie pacer but he has shown in the few matches that he has played since his comeback that he can still be quite economical and can still create havoc with his pace.

Afridi should drop Razzaq and go with the combination of Aamer, Gul and Akhtar  but if he wants to play Razzaq as a batsman then he should play him in place of useless Fawad Alam. It sounds mean but unfortunately Fawad with his poor SR doesn’t have a utility lower down the order and he doesn’t have the technique and the range of strokes to play as a top order batsman.

Afridi will have to attack Watson and Hussey, this time he has the proper bowlers to do so, Australia struggles big time if these two don’t score.

Pakistan team will have to stop giving undue respect to their Aussie counterparts infact they should show some swagger and treat their opposition with disdain, they should target their key players, this is the only way they can overcome their psychological hurdles and beat the Aussies.

SriLanka has set Pakistan a target of 235 which is quite decent on this pitch where the ball is holding up and the seamers are also getting some movement. Shoaib Akhtar’s return was quite impressive he bowled quite fast even though he looked a bit bulky and was struggling to run fast but he took three wickets and was easily the best pakistani bowler in this match, Asif and Aamer both are going through a lean patch both of them were unimpressive Asif should have caused more problem for the Lankans on this pitch than any other Pakistani bowler but he went for too many runs and took only one wicket clearly looks out of form.

Aamer has become one dimensional he hasn’t added more variety to his bowling, at times he can’t control his line and goes for runs, he can be very dangerous but it seems he doesn’t apply himself and doesn’t plan his spell.

Pakistan are in huge trouble right now chasing a relatively small toatal of 235 they are 33/4 after overs.

Salman Butt Pakistan’s man in form got out on a duck, Umer Amin struggled for his 7 runs, and Shahzaib played a very uncharacteristic knock and scored just 11 from 33 balls, he ;looked under pressure and perhaps wanted to score a big innings but his biggest flaw is that he can’t work the ball through gaps and blocks too many balls. Pakistan should not dump these youngsters after one poor performance they should persist with them through out this tournament.

SHoaib Malik failed miserably in this match and scored just 8 runs from 14 balls, it will take time for him to come back to form.

Right now Afridi has launched a counter attack he struck to consecutive sixes on the bowling of Mahroof, the partnership between Umar Akmal and Afridi can only rescue Pakistan.

SriLankan team looks to be in form they just returned home after winning the triangular series between Zimbabwe, India and SL, it will take time for the Pakistani players to adjust they havent played international cricket since the T20 WC.

What made him change his decision overnight only Afridi knows but the question is that if he thought that he wasn’t physically fit to play the longer format just 24 hours ago how come he will justify his selection, he hasn’t played test cricket for four years, he has never proven himself in test matches and was constantly being in and out of the test team his poor performance in the format almost ended his career and finally he made a smart move and pulled himself out of the format.

His legspin has never been effective in test matches he can’t turn the ball, he doesn’t have a great variety only relies on speed variations, his batting except a few good scores has never been upto the test standard so how will he prove himself to be useful to the team only he knows.

I think his decision to come out of test retirement was prompted by the rumours in which Salman Butt was tipped as Pakistan’s new test captain, Afridi’s captaincy is in it’s infancy stage he doesn’t want another captaincy candidate created.

I think he should be kept away from Pakistan’s test team as he is a worthless player in that format, Pakistan shouldn’t waste a precious slot in the team by including him in the team especially when his game never suited the format and hasn’t played any test cricket in last four years, and most important of all he himself until a few days didn’t thought that he is good enough to play test cricket.

The move to come out of test retirement is only based on self interest, Pakistan cricket won’t benefit from it.