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Anonymous at February 17, 2018 0
Pakistan won the first test against Zimbabwe due to an extra ordinary innings of Younis Khan. However, all other batsmen especially top order flopped. In first test Zimbabwe could not capitalise the momentum due to lack of experience but team Pakistan’s continuous poor performance provoked Zimbabwe to have a jubilant ending of the test. As I said earlier that Coach Whatmore should formulise, the strategy considering and tweaking the weaker aspects of the team otherwise these mistakes will haunt us again against South Africa and Sri lanka. But the players agreed upon bringing shame at the hands of Zimbabwe, this has created bigger trouble for Whatmore who is trying to console by saying that Pakistan equalised the series against Zimbabwe did not lose it.

Moin Khan who was a critique about the system and team when he was an expert on TV channels now when he has been appointed to a post in PCB he has declared grass as green. Former Wicket Keeper should have been worried about the defeats however, he is declaring the performance rather satisfactory saying Pakistan only played bad in two matches in the rest of the tour team played well. This indeed is another limit of naivety.

What are the reasons behind losing, who were the underperforming players, and which player has a falling performance graph? Our readers must have realised that very well as for past few days “experts” on TV are sobbing over the defeat and conducting autopsy of the team. The majority agrees that Pakistan lost due to the defensive approach of Captain Misbah who failed to act like a finisher in the second test mach. As a result Pakistan lost by 24 runs. If Misbah would have single handedly lead Pakistan to the victory he could avail the praises but now he is the only one facing the music and his critical 79 runs not out have been totally wasted. This is interesting that why experts fail to see that team is not all about Misbah only there were five other expert batsmen too who also failed completely.

It seems to be easy escape for the office holders in PCB to bring Captain down and cricket fans can be amused with the chants of new captain and new spirit. However, this will not be the solution of the real problem. There is need of changing the system not captain, system that is killing the capabilities of cricket in Pakistan. This is sheer helplessness that poor performers cannot be replaced as the options have either lesser experience or talent. Moreover, seniors like Younis Khan and Misbah Ul Haq are still playing because board and system failed to produce their replacement, and those who were painted as the next big thing are also in line to be replaced.

Just because the backup does not have good players, therefore the poor performers from Zimbabwe series will still manage to hold their spot against South Africa for the series in UAE. Change in system is inevitable to turn things around and creating a consistency in the performance. PCB is not producing good players regularly for the international level and as a result; cricket is on the verge of devastation. Rather than emphasising over changing the captain the need of hour is to change is vision, mindset and setting up an effective system that PCB can operate with and produce good results with any captain.
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Anonymous at September 09, 2013 0
Pakistan scored 249 all out in the first innings of the first Test against Zimbabwe. Out of this, Saeed Ajmal scored 49 runs and Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq jointly scored 131. That means rest of the eight players including four specialist batsmen and one wicket-keeper scored just 69 runs in aggregate. Apart from Azhar and Misbah, the remaining four specialist batsmen scored a total of 23 runs - or  5.75 runs each. This is the tale of Pakistan’s first innings against Zimbabwe.

After watching the first innings at Harare, I have no choice but to accept my mistake that I had wrongly envisaged the tour as one-sided. I had expected this to be a charmless and boring tour and thought that Pakistan could easily whitewash in all three formats. I thought that fans' interest in the series would be restricted to knowing the victory margin of Pakistan, for there would be now a question of their defeat against the minnows Zimbabwe. The expert would call it a good preparation opportunity before matches against Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Pakistan Batsmen
But Pakistan has made even this tour interesting, for they have the inbuilt ability to make any match of any format against any team exciting.

Earlier this year Pakistani spectators had the same excitement during ODIs against South Africa as they had against Zimbabwe in the one-day series. Pakistan had a thrilling series against the top team where the last match was the decider and now Pakistan have made ODI series interesting again a team like Zimbabwe.

During T20s Pakistani bowlers were struggling to take wickets but this can be neglected on the pretext of shorter format of the game and on the back of the expectations that Pakistan would outclass Zimbabwe in ODIs. But Pakistan was themselves outclassed in the first ODI.

Somehow, Pakistan won the one-day series and then it was hoped that Zimbabwe would be a piece of cake for Pakistan in the Tests. But on the first day of the match, Pakistan found that the cake was quite difficult to swallow. Pakistani batsmen faced an average bowling attack on a sunny day and on a flat track as if they were facing English pacers on a cloudy day at Lord's on a seaming wicket.

I fail to understand that why a good performer of one format fails in the second one. Ahmed Shehzad plays amazingly in T20s but as soon as ODI starts his abilities seem to fade away, and he starts playing selfish and negative cricket to secure his place in the team.

Mohammad Hafeez gets man-of-the-series-award in ODIs but as soon as the "professor" wears white kit, he lost his footwork. It looks like centuries against Ireland and Zimbabwe in ODIs have not helped Hafeez to improve his Test batting as if he seems not to have learnt anything from his failure against South Africa early this year.

After scoring his career-best 196 against Sri Lanka last year, Hafeez has only scored one century in the next 10 innings. He scored 143 runs in these 10 innings at 14.30. In 2013, Hafeez has only scored 48 runs in 7 innings with an average of 6.85. Even after such poor performance, no one dares to drop the professor from Test side.

Khurram Manzoor, who scored 77 runs against Australia in 2010, has been given another chance after 3 years. However, his batting shows that he is not in the mood for availing the chance.

The most senior and accomplished batsman in the side Younis Khan also failed against Zimbabwe and only scored 3 runs. If he continues with the performance, it will be difficult for him to remain in Test side in the near future.

A score of 27-3 was evident of Pakistan batting line-up failure. But then Azhar Ali, who has made his International comeback after six months, helped the man of crisis Misbah and anchored a partnership of 93 runs. But after Misbah’s departure, Asad Shafiq did not last long. Pakistan lost their eight wickets at 182, including Azhar Ali’s wicket. At that stage, Saeed Ajmal and Junaid Khan scored a partnership of 67 to help Pakistan cross 200-run mark.

Pakistan are repeating the same performance as they did against the excellent South African pacers. It is evident that because of playing more shorter format games Pakistani players are losing the ability to judge the ball and doing justice to it. As a result, they are facing problems in Test cricket.

Pakistani batsmen turned out to be merely quarter-to-6-run players against Zimbabwe on the first. Either Pakistani batsmen are incapable to do more or their temperament does not allow them to play longer game.

I am sure at least one batsman will stabilise himself and play a bigger innings in second innings. Moreover, I am sure that Pakistan will win this series very easily and the entire shortcomings will be covered with the same ease. But when will these quarter-to-6-run batsmen start performing consistently?
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Anonymous at September 08, 2013 0
In recently held T20 series between Pakistan and Zimbabwe, Ahmed Shehzad played the biggest innings in the first game. However, the confidence of debutant batsman Sohaib Maqsood was also worth watching. Just after getting off the mark on his sixth ball, the next one he sent to six over long-on. That shot was evident of his ambitions.

Though Sohaib played a brief innings of 26 runs, the way he played those 16 balls, hitting two sixes and one four, was enough to make spectators as well as experts fell for this lad from Multan. Some overzealous experts even started comparing him with legendary batsman Inzimam-ul-Haq.

The 26-year-old MBA degree holder is being raved about by cricket analysts, and they are declaring him a future star. But where were all these people when in domestic season he piled up runs after runs and needed media attention? These experts turned a blind eye to him, and some even rejected him categorically, saying he was not the "material" for international cricket.

Sohaib Maqsood

A few months earlier when Super8 T20 cup was held in Lahore, Multan's skipper Sohaib played captain's innings and also showed his bowling skills against Lahore Lions. At that time, I got the news that his strokes had impressed Dav Whatmore and T20 captain Mohammad Hafeez. However, Hafeez was a bit concerned about his fitness and planned to give him chance in the next season.

After the game between Lahore Lions and Multan tigers, I met the "professor" and asked him about this young batsman. Hafeez confirmed that Sohaib has a matchless talent and he can be a part of the team in coming tours.

After this brief conversation with Hafeez, I wrote on a social networking website that Sohaib was going to be a part of the national team in the next series. Sohaib performed remarkably in T20 format and Hafeez wanted him to be part of T20 team initially. Therefore, by saying next series I meant the next T20 series.

However, as soon as I wrote that, a representative of a foreign website sitting behind me at the Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore, press box quickly asked me that given the next series was the Champions Trophy,would the PCB's selection committee going to give Sohaib chance for such mega event. Finding my answer in the affirmative his response was like "I don't think so".

I wrote a review about Sohaib's performance in national T20 and referred him as a "tiger of Multan", for he is always hungry to score runs. In addition, this reference was quite right as Sohaib was scoring runs against every bowler and kept filling scorebooks. I wrote that Sohaib was among the top performers in the ongoing season but still his name was not in the shortlisted 30 players for the Champions Trophy. I was quite sure that could not be neglected for very long. This run-scoring Multani Tiger was inevitable to be part of the national team.

In National One Day Cup, Sohaib scored 475 runs in 6 innings with an impressive average of 95. His career best innings was against Karachi Dolphins when he scored 156 runs on 95 balls with the help of 13 fours and 10 sky-high sixes.

Sohaib made his first-class debut as offspinner 10 years ago, but initial failures confined him to grade two or district-level cricket. However, he was a new batsman when he made his comeback in the 2007-08 season; a batsman who must have spent many hours practising on the net.

In his second appearance in Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, he scored 123 runs while bating at number 6 against Karachi Whites. In that season, Sohaib Maqsood scored 537 runs with the average of 53.70 in 12 innings.

The 2012-13 season was a turning point for him as besides reaching the 1000-run mark he was also declared the best ODI batsman. This helped him get a chance for West Indies tour but fitness barred him the favour.

Pakistan has found a dependable batsman in Sohaib who has a wide range of strokes. He can adjust himself to any format and his average of more than 43 in first class and around 51 in ODIs is a proof of that.

PCB should utilise his talent rather than wasting him in just T20s. This Multani batsman has the ability to play longer innings and losing such talent is certainly not affordable for Pakistan.

Read this in Urdu: https://www.cricnama.com/23785
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Anonymous at June 28, 2013 0
Professional sports are run seriously elsewhere in the world but in Pakistan they are taken for granted and anybody who has spare time is welcome to try his hand in the business. Cricket in the country has become a surprise for quite a while and has experienced things so funny that nobody could have ever imagined. The national team’s victories and defeats both are unpredictable and the surprises within the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) are mind-boggling. As fans were still reeling from the shock of team’s performance in the Champions Trophy, they got another surprise after the tournament when renowned journalist Najam Sethi was made PCB’s acting chairman just a month after his stint as Punjab’s caretaker chief minister.

It is yet to be decided as to what was the bigger surprise – Zaka Ashraf electing himself as the board’s chairman for a four-year term or Sethi’s appointment for the post. However, the appointment of Sethi is as illegal as was the election of Ashraf because the Islamabad High Court (IHC) did suspend the former chairman but not the board’s constitution. Under the constitution, the members of governing body can nominate any of their member as chairman within 45 days. But the government named Sethi as the board’s supremo who boarded to London to participate in ICC’s annual meeting. Sethi's appointment has been challenged in a court and the Transparency International has also warned of the illegal appointment. But on the other hand, ‘Aapas ki Baat’ host is releasing strict orders with smiling face and warning PCB officials that his unnamed source, which he often refers to as ‘chiriya’ (sparrow), is informing him of every development.

There are observers who believe that the aura of confidence Sethi had while taking the charge as PCB chairman was never witnessed before. Sethi has the powerful hands of present government on his back, which helped him acquire the top-notch position. Links with eminent politicians and experience of chief ministry have their importance, but in the PCB – where even big guns found it difficult to survive – Sethi’s ‘chiriya’ will not take long to take a final flight.

Najam Sethi

Addressing a press conference as PCB's acting chairman, Sethi said he was not there to play a long innings and that he would quit when his short innings would be over. If he wanted to make his innings short, he needed to make some big hits, but now it seems that the acting chairman needs to safeguard his wicket because a yorker in the form of court’s decision can break his wickets. Sethi’s appointment is not the first instance of government’s intervention in the PCB. Past governments also showed favouritism by appointing their dear ones at the top. But the appointment in question by the government that has been making decisions in haste and with perplexity is going to cost him soon.

The ICC had given the deadline of June 30 to all its member boards to install democratic setup free of government’s interference. Keeping this in view, Zaka Ashraf managed to elect himself as the board’s ‘constitutional’ chairman just two days before the general election which was challenged in the court. The incoming government showed sheer idiocy to appoint Sethi as PCB’s acting chief because the board’s current setup is neither democratic nor constitutional. That is why Pakistan will likely to face suspension from the ICC as soon as July starts, and unfortunately, nobody is considering this aspect. The ICC is also now aware of the Sethi episode after Transparency International raised the issue. Let’s see how the anchorman convinces the council in this regard because cricket in Pakistan would go further down if the country’s membership was suspended. So Sethi – who entered the ground to ‘enjoy’ a short innings – now faces a monumental task ahead about which he was unaware of before taking the charge.

Critics say that Sethi’s chiriya will fly shortly from Gaddafi Stadium because of the unconstitutional appointment. The journalist also does not want to see his chiriya caged in the stadium which provided him with the news from the echelons of power. Sethi actually wanted to leave the PCB headquarters after a brief period just as he ‘served’ briefly as Punjab’s chief minister, but now he has to perform his duties seriously as the board’s acting chief because it is not out of question that the government gives his appointment a democratic colour after which Sethi – who has been planning to play a T20 – would have to play a Test match.
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