Shahid Afridi has got to be the most entertaining player in world cricket, and it doesn’t always have to do with his cricketing talent.

      His recent antics included confusing the cricket ball with the forbidden fruit and gnawing on it as if it were made of Swiss chocolate. The move had me stumped. After wracking my brains for hours, I keep coming back to just one question: What was he thinking?

      The options are:

a) He wanted to check if Kookaburra tastes better than a Duke ball?

b) He figured the 2 dozen cameras on the field were switched off or were only focusing on the babes in the audience.

c) He was so hungry, he could eat a horse… er ball …er …never mind.

d) He was only removing the taste of grass for his teammates.

e) None of the above.

      And the answer is: E: None of the above. Why? ’Cause he says he was “only smelling the ball”. No, I am not kidding. He really was smelling the ball… apparently, with his teeth. Some people have a nose for trouble, our Pathan friend has 32 shiny teeth for the ‘dirty work’.

      Pakistan’s coach hit the nail on the head when he said: "It just happened, like he was eating an apple. I have no idea (what he was trying to achieve)." Moral of the story: An apple a day keeps ball tampering at bay.

      Later, Afridi pleaded temporary insanity. "I don't know what happened to me that made me do such a mad thing,” he said. Translated, it means ‘I was in a hurry and I forgot about the cameras’.

      Afridi, who was ‘19 years old for at least two years or more’, has been the bad boy of Pakistani cricket. He has been involved in a number of dressing room clashes –physical, not just verbal. Making him captain is like making Attilla the Hun the UN secretary general. Anyway, his bowling has improved. Let’s hope he doesn’t send Pak cricket deeper into the swamp Read more...

Manas Gupta Pakistan Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Kookaburra, Shahid Afridi

The reported decision by the Deccan Chargers to get Pakistan’s Abdul Razzaq as replacement for an injured player in the third installment of the Indian Premier League would be widely hailed. Commentators, who were distraught when the redoubtable Pakistani players were not picked during the bidding process, would be happy that sanity has prevailed.

However, given the immediate reactions that followed the bidding process about ten days ago, if his selection reports are correct, Razzaq may have to face bouncers far more difficult to dodge than the ones he faces on the playing field. Most of Pakistan saw the move then as an insult to Pakistan, with their government too joining in. It seemed this act was a bigger provocation for stumping relationship between the two nations than anything else over the past several years.

  Scores of commentators on TV and Print in Pakistan, accused India of deliberately humiliating Pakistan (they uniformly dubbed it as a snub to Pakistan and not players from Pakistan) and whipped up emotions among the general public, which, though had its own take. The common man felt it was wrong on their players part, who they worship, to be available as a commodity for Indian money. For them, this aspect was even more humiliating than the fact that they were not picked. They were hurt that money power was more important for them than their nation’s pride.

  My advice to all Pakistani fans would be to be fair to their players. Whether it is Razzaq or Shahid Afridi or Sohail Tanvir, all of who were hoping to be the first choice of franchisees, if they agree to play still, it would be for the love of the game and never for money. Just like the Indian players, Pakistani players know that they have become famous due to the game, and it is only their love for the game that makes them desperate to play, not money.

  In fact, in this regard, players are no different from politicians who want to become ministers of important ministries, not to make money or to enjoy the trappings of power that comes with it, but because they really want to serve the nation .As I had argued in a piece in May last (Only the selfless lobby for ministership), why else would they lobby to head a department or a ministry when in every area the ministries look after, the situation is grave. Any weakling would shy away from such arduous responsibilities, but not these bravehearts, possessed by the desire Read more...

Rajesh Kalra IPL, Pakistan abdul razzaq, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Deccan Chargers, IPL, Shahid Afridi

The Pakistan episode of the IPL is turning out to be like a gripping murder mystery. The body is there for all to see; there are enough suspects, motives and witnesses too. But somehow we fail to zero in on the culprit, even though he is floating right in front of our eyes. The first clue behind the mystery surfaced on Friday afternoon. Even as Lalit Modi nudged her at the press conference, belatedly, Shilpa Shetty thundered: ‘‘Why should the Pakistan players’ security be our onus?’’ Then she said something-something about political parties and loony groups.

    The second part was important, but not critical; the first part was the real clue, the giveaway. A quick follow-up and a few calls later, the mystery solved itself: The government had refused to provide security for the players. For any player, not just Pakistan’s.

    The immediate thought was: Very good. Why should the government do anything? Isn’t this a commercial venture? If the IPL can pour out millions on players, and make billions in return, shouldn’t it take care of all aspects related to the tournament too, including security?

    Absolutely. Except that the motivation was not so straightforward. To unravel it, we need to go back a little, into the past: In the inaugural year, the government was like a silent partner; it turned almost every stone to make the ambitious project a runaway hit: visas, security, the IPL bosses simply had to name it, and they got them on a golden platter.

    The next year, however, the government became a hostile partner: it refused to play sweet ball, explaining that it could not guarantee foolproof security to the players, or to the tournament itself, owing to the General Elections. Instead of negotiating, or trying to convince the seat, Modi promptly whisked away the IPL to South Africa.

    Many in the Congress saw it as a slap on their face; more importantly, they were also worried that the backlash might hurl them into the wilderness again. Luckily, cricket proved to be a minor player, the mandate didn’t turn negative and it returned to power.

    But then, a hurt political party is more dangerous than a woman spurned: it was just a question of time before Modi would be made to pay for his audacity, for taking on the government itself. Is it a surprise, then, that the Congress mustered all its muscle in Rajasthan a few Read more...

Bobilli Vijay Kumar IPL, Pakistan Blogs.CMDN.com, Congress, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, IPL, Lalit Modi, Pakistan, Rajasthan, RCA, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Pakistan are the current T20 world champions. Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Mohammed Aamer, Saeed Ajmal and company played some enthralling cricket to claim the trophy last year. Since then, Pakistan have seen another exciting batsman emerge on the horizon: Umar Akmal. Therefore, it defies logic that nobody wanted to buy the 11 Pakistani players in the IPL 3 auction on Tuesday.
 
What's the reason? Let us go through what has been proffered by the men and women involved with IPL. Some team owners have said that the Pakistani players had a problem of availability during the period. That's nonsense. Unlike the top Aussie players, they are available for the entire duration. In fact, West Indian Kemar Roach, a Deccan Chargers buy, will miss the first two games. That's because the Zimbabwe tour of West Indies gets over on March 14 while IPL 3 begins on March 12.  The second Deccan Chargers game will be held on March 14.
 
Another gentleman was heard mouthing that the Pakistanis were not chosen because this was a short auction. There were too few players to be bought, he said. This logic doesn't hold either. The truth is that the owners spent sums as high as $720,000 and $610,000 for the likes of Parnell and Roach, while ignoring Aamer and Gul. Are we saying that the former two are better bowlers than Aamer (who is also emerging as a handy bat) and Gul? Or that the Pakistanis are not even worth $100,000? And have we forgotten that Afridi was the man of the series in the T20 World Cup 2009.
 
One logic being offered is that franchisees were not keen to have Pakistani players because there is an element of uncertainty involving them. Simply put, the relationship between the two countries is already edgy and could always get worse. In that case, the Pakistani players might go back. So why take the trouble?
 
Even this argument is specious. Sure, nobody would want to invest a huge amount in a 'risky' player. But then isn't investing over $750,000 in Keiron Pollard any less risky? What's the guarantee he will succeed? What about investing $750,000-plus in Bond, once a great bowler, now extremely injury prone. Let us not forget he's currently injured too. Besides, he Read more...

Avijit Ghosh IPL, Pakistan Blogs.CMDN.com, Bond, Cricket Blogs, Deccan Chargers, IPL, Keiron Pollard, Kemar Roach, Mohammed Aamer, Pakistan, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, T20, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul

Pakistan finally won a Test after a yawning gap of nearly three years and 12 Test matches. On the face of it, the Wellington win appeared a convincing one because the Kiwis were crushed by 141 runs.

However, with our shoddy performance at Dunedin earlier, where Mohammad Yousuf and his brigade lost a battle they could have won with little more application and skill, predicting the outcome of the Test series would be foolhardy.

And while the grim battle goes on between bat and ball in the Test series, the off-field saga of Aussie tour captaincy is getting more complexed by the day.

As if Younis Khan’s ‘request for rest’ from international cricket was startling enough, we are now experiencing an agonising wait on who would be leading the Pakistan squad to a country where we have never won a Test series.

One wonders whether Younis’ astonishing absence and the subsequent reaction to it by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) can be rated as acts of professionalism by any standard.

A recent media report suggested that makeshift skipper Yousuf, assuming himself to be the captain-designate for Australia, has already proposed changes in the team for the challenging assignment following the mysterious silence of Younis who also missed the recent Quaid-i-Azam Trophy games despite chief selector Iqbal Qasim’s insistence on featuring in the same.

Needless to say, if the hastily-made leadership arrangement for the New Zealand Tests is persevered with, the move will certainly have its ramifications given the complexity of the present national cricket set-up.

Due to this captaincy crisis, Pakistan cricket seems to be in a shambles. Sometimes Read more…

Administrator PAK vs NZ, Pakistan Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dunedin, Ijaz Butt, Iqbal Qasim, Mohammad Yousuf, New Zealand, Pakistan, PCB, Quaid-i-Azam, Sri Lanka, UAE, Younis Khan, Younus Khan

Pakistan cricket is not alien to crisis. From time to time we have experienced it in every era and the present one is not any different to others.

The reason mainly being poor governance by those at the helm who had little or no ability at all to control the situation and, to save their own skin, they would succumb to all kind of pressures.

Sadly, a great majority of those administrators were forced upon the system to run the game as they pleased. The present lot is not any different.

Already a year in the office, they have neither managed to have a constitution nor have been able to convince their critics about the irregularities in maintaining accounts.

This is a huge scam and even the governing body of the PCB, which is supposed to bring some sort of transparency in the working of the board, has so far failed to make their presence felt.

The few voices of dissent from a couple of members from time to time in the meetings did little but not enough to go past the deaf ears of the PCB chairman who could have done the game some service had he not so far resorted to arbitrary decisions.

The appointment of Mohammad Yousuf as the captain for the tour of New Zealand has also come about in a similar fashion.

The members of the governing body once again have been made to look like the ‘dead ducks’. Their feathers have long been clipped from the time they joined the board and the future members will not be any different.

In a crisis like the one which resulted in Younis Khan quitting the captaincy and the tour, strong management should have made sure to shove off all the nonsense that has been going around within the team and should have made sure to back their captain to set an example Read more…

Administrator Pakistan Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Hafeez Kardar, Imran Khan, Karachi, Majid Khan, Miandad, Mohammad Yousuf, Mushtaq Mohammad, New Zealand, Pakistan, PCB, Wasim Bari, Younis Khan, Zaheer Abbas

You can always bet that Pakistan cricket will never be short of controversies. The rumpus created by Younis Khan’s decision to abdicate the reins of leadership for the sake of ‘taking time off from the sport’ is simply too hard to digest at a juncture when the national team is embarking upon an assignment which is going to be a tough test of its character in the coming months.

It’s unfortunate that Younis, who otherwise is one of the most decent sportsmen with no malice towards anyone, has to give in to the player-power politics that has been one of the reasons why Pakistan cricket is notorious for its inconsistency and unpredictability.

Critics, of course for the time being, are going to have a field day until the dust settles over the latest controversy.

Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, in an abrupt statement on Wednesday announced Mohammad Yousuf as the successor to Younis for the New Zealand Tests.

He also remarked that the cricket board had no objection to Younis asking to be rested from the New Zealand tour.

But the PCB chief was unwilling to admit that Pakistan cricket, not for the first time, is facing serious crisis.

The revolt against captaincy has happened on several occasions in the past and the current scenario appears to be no different as like in the past there appears to be no strict team management to curb this disruptiveness.

Javed Miandad had to relinquish the job shortly after the Australian tour in 1981-82 when almost the entire squad, instigated by Majid Khan and vice-captain Zaheer Abbas, went Read more…

Administrator Pakistan Abu Dhabi, Black Caps, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, icl, Majid Khan, Miandad, Misbah-ul Haq, New Zealand, PCB, Twenty20, Wasim Akram, Younus Khan, Yousuf, Zaheer Abbas

AUSTRALIAN cricket is facing its most deflating summer for decades. Following hard upon the feckless nomination of Chris Gayle as leader of the West Indies, the news that Younus Khan had stepped down as Pakistan captain is a hammer blow.

Pakistan and the West Indies are the summer’s main attractions but both will arrive as fractured outfits. Whether the Younus decision or Gayle’s reappointment is the bigger calamity is a matter of opinion. It’s a close-run thing. All the evidence suggests that it’s going to be a long summer and a hard sell.

Nowadays, the West Indies and Pakistan seem to spend an inordinate amount of time backstabbing and striking. And so cricket stumbles from crisis to crisis. The miracle is not that cricket frays at the edges but that it does not disintegrate. All the more reason to recognise the importance of strong and statesmanlike captains. Other sports can talk about coaches and managers. In cricket, the captain sets the tone. Put a turkey in charge and before long all and sundry will be squawking. Put a lion at the helm and soon the pride will be playing with pride. Younus was an impressive leader.

Honourable and intelligent, he tried to hold together a team unable to play matches at home and undermined to no small degree by defections to the Indian Cricket League and by rampant egos. Through it all, his reputation has remained intact. Despite the handicaps, the team continued to play its inimitable version of the game. Along the way, Shoaib Akhtar was dumped and Shahid Afridi turned into a frontline bowler.

And then the gripes began as older hands sought a leader more to their taste. All too soon Younus faced all sorts of allegations. There were suggestions Pakistan threw away the Champions League match against Australia because defeat meant eliminating India. Younus dropped a sitter and stuttered at the crease. Cricketers are not machines. His form has been poor. Not for the first time Pakistan’s batting lacked logic. It was an oddly subdued performance. But Younus’ team fought to the last and was only denied by tailenders. No one else Read more…

Administrator Pakistan Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Champions League, Chris Gayle, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, icl, Javed Miandad, Kiwis, Mohammed Yousuf, Pakistan, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, West Indies, Younus Khan

Pakistan’s cricket team has departed for the upcoming series against New Zealand with great expectations. The side balances class and experience with a healthy dose of youth and excitement. Separate squads have been selected for Tests, ODIs, and Twenty20 games.

One positive note that has not received much comment is the appointment of Abdul Raqib as the tour manager. He replaces Yawar Saeed, who had become the subject of criticism from players and fellow officials because of his high-handed management style. Yawar, who is close to PCB chief Ijaz Butt and belongs to an influential segment of Pakistan’s cricket establishment, received a generous run as manager. Credit to Mr Butt that he realised it was time for a change.

Raqib, an orthodox left-arm spinner from the 1980s, has been a stalwart for Habib Bank in domestic cricket and now heads the bank’s sports section. One of his first gestures was to invite Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi — the team’s two biggest guns — to his office and facilitate a thawing of relations that had become icy during the Jamshed Dasti-Younis Khan saga. Raqib’s opening move of peacemaker promises to be auspicious. From Pakistan’s team selection, of course, the most notable news is that Misbah-ul-Haq’s name is not in it. Misbah has been a capable batsman who pulled off some truly impressive performances, but this development probably signals the end of the road for his batting career. The reason for this can be summarised in two words — Umar Akmal. Misbah is not alone in this predicament. Not much fuss has been made of it, but in fact Shoaib Akhtar’s international career has also ended in similar fashion — in Shoaib’s case, from the emergence of Mohammad Aamer. Nothing keeps players on their toes like the threat of being replaced by fresher legs and younger blood. In time, the young blood will mature and eventually face a similar threat. It is the circle of life.

Eyebrows have been raised on Misbah’s omission, but an examination of his record validates the decision. Half of his 12 ODI innings this year have seen him dismissed in single figures; and his eight Test innings in 2009, which include two 50s but also a string of single-digit scores, left expectations unfulfilled. In Twenty20 cricket, in which Misbah had fashioned a reputation for himself as something of a specialist, he kept getting out cheaply in crucial matches, managing only low scores against the frontline teams in the Twenty20 World Championship earlier Read more…

Administrator Pakistan Abdul Raqib, Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Jamshed Dasti, Misbah, Mohammad Aamer, New Zealand, ODI, Pakistan, Shoaib Akhtar, Test, Twenty20, Yawar Saeed, Younis Khan

Pakistan is providing teenage players to international cricket for decades. First major instance is that of Mushtaq Muhammad, playing against mighty West Indies of Gary Sobers at a tender age of 15 years. The vibrancy of our youth cricket has flourished with the passage of time. Recent prime examples are fast bowler Muhammad Aamer and batsman Umar Akmal: perhaps best two teenage players of the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.

This potential reflects enormity of Pakistan cricket talent. But unfortunately the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is not forthcoming to nurture this youth talent at domestic level. Domestic cricket, and more particularly, youth cricket is a prime prey to the PCB ad hoc policies and plans. PCB top brass always engages itself more passionately with international cricket and give comparatively little attention to development dynamics of domestic cricket. How best domestic cricket is to be scheduled and regulated so that new talent is harnessed to the optimum is not a major concern with our cricket bosses.

To sustain this premise the domestic cricket calendar for the year 2009-2010 can be taken as the best example to elaborate the prevalent ad hocism. The inter-district senior tournament, to be contested by 82 grassroots teams, has been postponed. Instead, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, most important domestic event, comprising 22 regional and department teams has started from October 10. The inter-region under-19 three-day tournament, also an important youth event, has been deleted this year. During the last few years, this tournament preceded regional academies, of 45 days duration, to be supervised by regional coaches and availed by 275 boys, performing well in the Inter-district under-19 tournament.

This is really absurd. The domestic schedule should start from grassroots: senior inter-district and inter-district under-19 tournaments. Regional teams are selected or should be selected from those players who perform well in inter-district senior and regional under-19 one-day Read more…

Administrator Pakistan Ahmad Shehzad, Azeem Ghuman, Babar Azam, Blogs.CMDN.com, Champions Trophy, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Domestic cricket, Faraz Ali, Gary Sobers, Mohammad Aamer, Pakistan, PCB, Quaid-e-Azam, Shahryar Ghani, Umar Akmal, Umar Amin, Usman Qadir, West Indies