Posts Tagged ‘Shoaib Malik’

3 results.
Jan12

Zimbabwe are no minnows for Pakistan

by wasim on January 12th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

shoaib-akhtar.jpg

With six countries playing test series at the moment i.e., Bangladesh vs. New Zealand, West Indies vs. South Africa and India vs. Australia, the later has taken the sheen away from the rest owing to the controversies of bad umpiring and racism related issues. For Pakistanis there is nothing much to talk about owing to their own political turmoil in the country except for a few domestic matches which are in preparation to meet the minnows, Zimbabwe who are due to arrive today.

Pakistan has selected 28 probables for the camp and according to their chief selector Salahuddin Ahmad they will give chance to their “budding players,” which means once again there will be a big question mark on the team selection. The question is how long Pakistan is going to experiment new players and new combinations instead of being persistent? The reason they have not been able to build a decent team in the recent past or even for a decade or so is because, except for two or three players no other player is assured of his place in the team. It is very similar to the country’s political parties and politicians ruling the country.

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Jan28

PCB reward under performance

by wasim on January 28th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

I won't kill you with the bat, I will stab you in the back like a true PathanI I won’t kill you with the bat I will stab you in the back like a true Pathan

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday replaced Shoaib Malik with Younis Khan as captain of the national cricket team after a humiliating defeat against Sri Lanka, its chairman said.

Malik led Pakistan to their worst one-day defeat – by 234 runs – in the third and final one-day international in Lahore on Saturday to give Sri Lanka a 2-1 series win.

‘Malik has accepted to step down after the Sri Lanka defeat and we have appointed Younus as the new captain for an indefinite period,’ PCB chairman Ijaz Butt told reporters.

‘We haven’t sacked Malik. In fact, I met Malik and told him about the situation, as the whole nation felt disappointed over the team’s poor performance and a lot of people wanted a change,’ said Butt.

‘That is why I requested Malik to step down and he gracefully accepted.’

Malik led Pakistan in 36 one-day internationals – 12 defeats and 24 wins – including a Pakistan record 12-match winning streak.

Malik also led Pakistan in three Tests, losing two and drawing one.

In contrast, the 31-year-old Younis has led Pakistan in six one-day matches, winning two and losing four.

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Its a mind boggling decision by PCB, but completely inline with their past tradition of showing shallow knee jerk reactions after every loss it will not solve any problem but will create more mess.

It was not Malik’s fault that the rogue senior player’s were playing for the book makers rather than the country.

It was also not his fault that the conniving senior players were playing with ulterior motives and some of them wanted to see his downfall and were on a quest for power. Pick every major loss Pakistan suffered under Malik you will find only three characters as chief culprits, Younis, Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar.

It was not his fault that the selectors selected a team on the basis of seniority rather than current form.

As the former Pakistani pacer Mohammad Akram said :

The blame culture is still alive and kicking in Pakistani cricketing circles and this time it was Malik whose neck was on the line. Why haven’t the manager or coach or selectors also been sacked? It seems that in Pakistan cricket every time we lose, someone has to get the blame for it and this time it was Malik.

Malik couldn’t go out there and hold the bat for his team mates or bowl for them, they should take individual responsibility for their poor performances, rather than putting all the blame squarely on the captains shoulders.

Malik was constantly being targeted by the supporters of Afridi in the media through out his tenure as a captain, regardless of the results only negatives about his captaincy were highlighted in a systematic campaign spurred by jingoism.

Our hero the world’s greatest all rounder Sahibzada/Haramzada Shahid Ali khan Afridi who can neither bat nor bowl was playing dirty politics within the team and leading this bunch of rogue players.

The guy doesn’t deserve even to qualify to play for a Mohala eleven, let alone make him the captain of the national team, I have seen better players than him playing on the streets, he might excite some school boys with his tulla brand of cricket but for serious cricket  fans he holds no charm, for the past two years he has been capitalizing on the jingoistic support from Karachites and was the royal pain in the ass for the management and the Captain, he survived for so long just because of his dramabaazi, If he failed as an opener he blamed it on the captain that he deliberately sent him as an opener so that in case of his failure he could kick him out of the team, if he failed down the order he and his supporters blamed again on the captain that he should have been sent as an opener so that he could take advantage of powerplays, if he was hit as a bowler again the blame was squared on the captain that he used him in powerplays or when an established batsman was playing. The fact is that brainless idiot is  good for nothing  and he should be axed from the team.ASAP

It has been reported in the media that Afridi’s deliberate under performance is being investigated by PCB, I hope that ICC also takes a note of it and the guy is kicked out of the team forever he has been a constant negative influence on the team along with Shoaib Akhtar.

PCB has rewarded under performance by making Younis Khan the captain, Younis Khan scored a mere 28 runs @ 9.33, and he dropped two crucial catches, Afridi made 14 runs in 3 matches and took 1 wicket @ 4.96/over, both of these players alongwith Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Yousaf have been the biggest criticis of Malik all four of them openly expressed their desire to lead the team during Malik’s captaincy.

Nobody knows what was the rationale behind this decision and nobody knows how it is going to solve the problems faced by Pakistan cricket team as other than Shahid Afridi no other player is facing the axe immediately, same players will produce same results and mark my words Younis is going to prove to be another Inzamam who is going to protect his comrades.

Younis has already said

“don’t expect any miracles from me”.

“There are big problems with our cricket system and it will take time to put things in place,” Younis said soon after the Cricket Board named him as the new captain in place of Shoaib Malik.

Younis said he had agreed to take up the captaincy because of the challenges facing the team but said the board and cricket fans will have to be patient for consistent results.

So why were we expecting miracles from Malik he was playing with the same players and under the same system, we all know the system is not going to change, as the board gave Malik no powers to get rid of under performing players, he had no role in selection, and the fact that these players revolted against him is evident of his desire for a change and improvement.

“I will talk to all the players including Malik and discuss future strategy. Because at the end of the day the players have to perform as a team not individuals,” he said.

Really, we were under the impression only the captain has to perform, you will get no margin from anybody rest assured.

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The big question is why Captaincy is so important for these rogue players, we all know these guys don’t play for self pride or honor of the country they play for their self motives and the book makers. Is it the huge amount of money involved in match fixing which makes them so desperately strive for captaincy? Or it is their big ego which can’t let them live in peace?

The way  administrations have bent backwards in front of player power and turned a blind eye toward under performing players leaves no doubt in my mind that this administration had decided in advance to throw away this series.

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Jan17

Does Afridi deserves to be retained as captain?

by wasim on January 17th, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

PCB has announced Pakistan’s squad for the six match Odi series against New Zealand and the 30 probables for the world cup 2011. As usual the mindless public outcry has already begun. The jobless Ex-cricketers and Ex officials of PCB are issuing scathing statements aganist PCB and the selection committee over the decision to ignore Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf and over the appointment of Misbah Ul Haq as the Vice captain of the Odi team, the jingoistic media as usual is trying it’s best to protect Afridi and his captaincy. It’s a sad situation nobody seems to be sincere with Pakistan cricket, the think tank of Pakistan cricket is highly opportunistic and their statements only pressurize the board and add confusion in the minds of the fans and the decision makers.

The same people were criticizing the board for not axing Malik a year ago for creating cliques in the team and for under performance, but now when the selectors have dumped him, they want him back.  In last 20 Odi’s Malik has only one score above 40, he has consistently failed, his domestic performance is nothing new he always performs well in the domestic tournaments especially when the key players are on international tours. His form and seniority are irrelevant here, the main problem is that he hasn’t been able to satisfy the integrity committee about the source of a deposit of 90,000 pounds in one of his  bank accounts, which clearly puts him under investigation and that’s the main reason for ignoring him, everybody knows about this but would still try to use this situation to criticize the selection committee and the Board.

The second case is of Mohammad Yousaf, he was under investigation for the Sydney test but was later on cleared. In last 30 Odi’s he has only 3 scores above 50. There is definitely no question about the class of Yousaf but his recent performance has not been impressive and to be very honest most of his recent innings have been suspicious as he gets on to a good start and soon after he crosses 20′s or 30′s he throws away his wicket to a loose shot. He hasn’t been able to win matches for us as consistently as a player of his stature should have done. His fielding has always been a liability and on top of that he is currently unfit.

In India and Srilanka Pakistan would definitely be needing players who can play spin better, and both Malik and Yousaf are perhaps the best players of spin in Pakistan, their absence will certainly hurt Pakistan’s chances but only on paper as in reality if these players were going to perform the way they have done in their last 20 matches then Pakistan is better off with Misbah and Asad Shafiq.

The absence of these two players would only hurt Pakistan on paper on the field Asad and Misbah will perform better than these two.

The third case is of Captaincy, no captain has been announced for the world cup as of yet, Afridi has failed as a captain he has lost most of the Odi and T20 series Pakistan played under him his win loss ratio in Odis is 8: 15 and in t20′s it is 8 : 18. There is no plan in his leadership, the team plays instinctively and as a result we only win due to individual performances on many occasions his brainless aggression while batting was the main reason for our loss. Through out his 15 years of international career the sense of responsibility, match awareness, and the ability to read the situation and change gears accordingly has been missing, his fans have given him a license to be stupid and that is harming Pakistan cricket. His fans in his defense give an argument that he is just a bowler who can bat but that is not true he plays as an all rounder and does not bat according to his potential, his bowling performance has also declined which diminishes his value as a player in the team.

In a tournament like World cup every team needs a strong leader who can lead by example, handle difficult situations and can play according to the situation, Afridi lack in all these departments.

PCB is fully justified in contemplating a change of leadership in the team for the world cup, I wonder why there is so much criticism about Misbah’s nomination as a vice captain and a potential candidate for ODi captaincy, he is averaging 114 as a captain and has led a much weaker team than Afridi and produced better results, the team is performing like a team under him and average players are churning up better performance and on every occasion in the last two test series when the team was in trouble Misbah pulled it out of trouble because he batted responsibly and according to the situation.

In my opinion Pakistan stands no chance in the world cup under Afridi unless he changes his game drastically but that it is almost impossible for him to shed the school boy brand of cricket and start playing maturely, nothing predicts behavior like behavior. Pakistan would have won against England and SA had Afridi shown just a little bit of responsibility.

Misbah or Younis are the best candidates to lead the team in the world cup.

Cricket Pundits are not giving any importance to Pakistan team in the world cup but if the selectors selected the team on merit then Pakistan still has the ability to win the world cup. Everybody is declaring India, England and South Africa as favorites.

I think the race will be between India, Pakistan, SriLanka and South Africa.

Pakistan just lost to England and SA away from home, the result was 3-2 in both series, both losses were marginal and were affected by poor umpiring.This clearly shows Pakistan can beat any team and in home like conditions they will definitely dominate these teams.They have a few grey areas, players like Afridi, Razzaq and Umar Akmal can win matches single handedly but they do not deliver consistently and in the absence of consistency these players more than often cause a collapse. The bowling line still has some teeth but unless Umar Gul, Afridi and Ajmal regain their form of last two years, Pakistan won’t win the world cup they can reach the semis but in order to win the cup these three bowlers will have to be at the top of their form.

 The pundits always under estimate SriLanka they have lost only one series last year, they’ve got a good team and will enjoy home advantage.

I still believe that the defending champs have an outside chance, Australia has a good limited overs side but it will all depend on the form of Clarke and Ponting as Micheal Hussey is doubtful for the world cup due to severe injury, their pace attack with the return of Tait and Lee will become quite threatening but they have too many things to fix in the batting department. They will also have to overcome the demoralizing affect of recent defeats. England is a team which is on the rise but they rely heavily on their seamers who prefer home like seaming conditions and will find it extremely hard to adjust in subcontinetal conditions they do have a world class spinner but their recent record in India is miserable.They will also have to adjust from hard bouncy wickets to slow and low wickets of subcontinent.

India has home advantage but they have some serious issues with their bowling they have just named two pacers(Zaheer & Nehra) in their 15 men squad, it would be a blasphemy to call Munaf and Praveen as pacers. But despite their weakness in the bowling department India still will be the team to beat, just because of their batting, home grounds and spinners.

South African players have considerable experience to play in India and at the moment they have a very balanced team, their batting line up is in form their bowling has variety.

 

Pakistan’s squad for ODI series in NZ:

Pakistan ODI squad: Shahid Afridi (capt), Muhammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal (wk), Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Umer Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdul Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umer Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanveer, Tanveer Ahmed, Ahmed Shehzad

Pakistan’s 30 probables for the World cup 2011:

 Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Taufiq Umar, Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Naveed Yasin, Kamran Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed, Salman Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Abdul Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanveer, Tanvir Ahmed, Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema, Asad Ali.

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