Pak- Eng series
English team has been unofficially dethroned from its #1 title, they were completely crushed by Pakistan in the first test match and in the second test Pak spinners just toyed with them and snatched victory from the English team when all of England thought that they had won the match. It was a shocking defeat from which it will be hard for English team to recover. Pakistan has already declared that they desperately want to white wash the series.
English players will be desperate to salvage their pride but it seems that they are missing that extra help which they always enjoy while playing at home against Pakistan, they did tried to start a controversy by raising doubts about Ajmal’s action but the tactic backfired, the English team had to face the wrath of Saeed Ajmal who has been virtually unplayable for their whole team.
There is something special and mysterious about this Pakistan team , on paper it is perhaps the most unexciting, inexperienced and weak Pakistan team of the last decade but its accomplishments are far better than the best Pak team of the last decade. The players might have a low profile but they are certainly not low on skill, spirit or integrity, they have a workman like attitude after a very long time we are seeing a Pakistani team which is playing like a unit, all the jealousy, venom, glitz, glamour , scandals and super inflated egos have disappeared with a few changes in the management and a few changes in the team.
The fans are also beginning to learn to appreciate these type of players who seem to struggle through out the match to perform but in the end deliver enough for their side to win, unlike some of the past players who would show their class in patches but would never deliver enough in a match that would make the team win, they had a tendency to make a free fall from hero to zero within an innings. I am glad we got rid of those mercurial players who earned such a bad reputation for the team and the country.
Inconclusive third umpires
ICC will have to take a strong action against third umpires who are visibly trying to take advantage of this “inconclusive evidence clause”, during this series there were at least three incidents where wrong judgement was passed because the third umpire declared that the evidence was inconclusive, on all three occasions it was only the third umpire who was inconclusive all the commentators and viewers thought otherwise. DRS is an expensive technology and is being installed to control the umpiring bias and judgement errors but if the umpires with all the technological help are still not going to effect the outcome of a match by giving wrong judgements then there is no point in having a third umpire and the DRS, the on field umpires can do this job easily.
Indian humiliation
I think the time has come for Dravid, Laxman and Sachin to retire, BCCI in my opinion has already over stretched their careers by at least two years. No doubt these players still pull huge crowds, BCCI has cashed their Iconic value in shape of gate money and expensive sponsorship contracts for years now these players are just a shadow of their past, and it is high time that they should make way for youngsters and let the fans enjoy exciting cricket.
India has suffered a white wash in its last two series, historically it is their bowling which fails them but this time around they could neither bowl nor bat. Batting has always been a strength of India but too much T20 cricket and the stubbornness of BCCI to prepare flattest tracks in the world for its home series over the last 10 years have gradually taken its toll on the skill level of Indian players. For the longest time Indians have been in denial about their bowling because their batsmen saved the day in the end, they are clueless as to why they have been unable to produce quality fast bowlers like other great cricketing nations, the answer is simple – dead Indian pitches, they usually are a grave yard for fast bowlers.
BCCI will have to cut down on T20′s and improve the standard of home tracks if they want to maintain the standard of cricket in India.
Mohsin Khan Vs Dave Whatmore
PCB has hired Dave Whatmore as the national coach. I have always been against foreign coaches, I don’t think that Dave has more cricketing knowledge or experience than Mohsin Khan. Mohsin’s experience is vast as compared to Whatmore, Mohsin has played 48 tests and 75 Odis in comparison to Dav’s 7 tests and just 1 ODI. Dav does have considerable coaching experience but I don’t think Pakistan team needs a foreign coach at this level. Mohsin has performed reasonably well as a chief selector, I wouldn’t give him the credit of the recent victories as a coach as much of the work with this team was done by Waqar Younis. If anybody really deserves to be the longterm coach of Pakistan it is Mudassar Nazar who in my opinion solely deserves the credit of creating Players like Umar Akmal, Mohammad Aamir, Mohammad Talha, Junaid khan, and Ahmad Shahzad and many more. Muddassar was a fine batsman an excellent seam bowler and a good fielder and above all he had the most pleasant personality, very easy to get along with something which all young players need.
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