Stani Army

Pakistan have dropped Misbah Ul-Haq from all three squads for the upcoming games against New Zealand. As a big fan of Misbah, I think this is a big mistake and one which will show come the end of the New Zealnd series’.

Compared to 2007-8, Misbah has not had a great time of it this year, visibly struggling to play his natural game. Even though, his ODI average has still been a useful 33.33, better than Shoab Malik, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi and our captain at the time of writing, Younis Khan. In case you don’t believe me, click here.

The figures above show that it was a not only Misbah who struggled but for some reason he has been the one sacrificed. When looking at an individual’s performances, they must, as above, be put into context. Pakistan have played on some tough batting pitches of late in Sri Lanka and the UAE. In the 5 match ODI series against Australia in the UAE, the team batting first scored over 210 on only one occasion. Our batting performances in general have not been great of late.

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As was likely, Younis Khan keeps his role as captain of Pakistan after the PCB rejected his resignation.

Ijaz Butt the Chairman was quoted cricinfo as saying “He is definitely our captain till the 2011 World Cup provided he remains fit”. So the only criteria for him keeping his captaincy is by remaining fit? I’m not sure if it’s as simple as that, or indeed I hope it is not as Pakistan fans the world over will be wondering, is he not going to be held accountable for results? So Younis can perform how he likes without getting removed for the next year and a half? I wish I had bosses like that.

Butt also said “His performance has been excellent”, hold on a minute, this is not even debatable, it is blatantly incorrect. It is the one thing that writers and fans in support of Younis since this saga have been keen to ignore – Younis’ own performances.

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If Younis Khan’t, then who can? Though it seems as though Younis will be persuaded to return, lets examine the possible candidates up for captaincy should Younis stick to his decision to resign. Here are the obvious four, each with their positives and negatives.
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Shahid Afridi:
+ Attack minded
+ Brave
+ All rounder

- Thoughtless at times and in some critical situations
- Will he play Test matches?
- Alleged to be involved in Younis’ resignation

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Younis Khan has handed in his resignation after being quizzed by a parliamentary committee in regards to match fixing allegations which first appeared in an Indian newspaper. The newspaper was forced to take back the story after pressure from the ICC but various personalities in Pakistan, in particular National Assembly committee chairman Jamshed Dasti, jumped on the band wagon and began to question Younis and the teams performance.

Some newspaper was going to make such an allegation because India’s progression was dependent on Pakistan beating Australia. When this didn’t happen, the allegations that Pakistan deliberately lost to make sure India was knocked out, were bound to surface. Unfortunately, certain people in Pakistan were not clever enough to figure this out so decided to believe what they were reading and criticise their own team rather that question the newspaper report.

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“…That doesn’t mean the tournament is perfect. The marketing is incorrectly playing on the name of the tournament. “Only Champions. Only the Best.”

Only Champions? That isn’t true. Runners-ups are playing too. Lots of them, some of them are good, others are Somerset.

Only the Best. But not the best? The best-performed country in World Twenty20 championships is Pakistan; they are the superheroes of Twenty20 cricket. Rajasthan Royals had two pretty important Pakistani members in the first IPL team. Even in Australia they used them domestically. And the last ICL was won by Pakistanis.

When it comes to the term champions in this format, they should probably be first in line. The team that we miss out on is the Silky Stallions (actually title Sialkot, but Silky is snappier) who have won four out of a possible five Twenty20 titles in Pakistan. I have no idea if they are good, but I have no idea if Otago are either, I assume Otago aren’t, but they get a chance to prove me wrong.

Pakistani cricketers have always been my favourite, and it seems wrong to not have them in a tournament like this. Especially when it isn’t their fault. So many idiots have conspired to ensure that there should be an asterisk in the title of this tournament…”

Couldn’t agree with him more. Until Pakistan players do participate, Stani Army will be a Champions League-free zone. Jarrod’s article can be found here. Visit his cricketing blog Cricket With Balls.

New Zealand turned up to the semi-final of the Champions Trophy and did exactly what you should do against a Pakistan side which is to stick in there, not force the pace and allow Pakistan to implode. They only made one mistake in the field that I can recall and never allowed themselves to get above their station, cruising home comfortably in the end.

Though the scars of our bowling performance will be fresh, it was the batsmen that cost us again I’m afraid. Many may argue the total was a defendable one, but it was by the bats of our bowlers that we were spared embarrassment and got to such a total in the end. Shoaib Malik and Shaid Afridi went off the same high risk shot, trying to cut fine instead of playing straight. When you’re 50 not out, you can play delicate shots but not when you just got in.

Umar Akmal played another encouraging knock (55) and was very unlucky to be given out lbw by Simon Taufel after sweeping the ball off the middle of his bat and onto his pads. Taufel is an excellent umpire who very rarely makes

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