Stani Army

Misbah Ul-Haq recently voiced his displeasure at being ignored for the tour of England, and with Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf out of the picture, are the older players deliberately being shunned as the Pakistan team looks to the future?

One person that seems to have come out smelling of roses from all the troubles of the recent past is Shahid Afridi. Stanis may remember that last October, Afridi had a meeting with the Chairman of the PCB and rumours began spreading that plans were afoot for Afridi to take over as captain in all three formats. Afridi denied this at the time and insisted that he would never go against the then reluctant captain, Younis Khan, and that the meeting was purely in regards to preparation for the World Twenty20, which he was about to lead the team into.

Shahid Afridi: Power hungry megalomaniac or innocent patriot?

Fast forward seven or so months and Shahid Afridi is now Pakistan’s Test, ODI and Twenty20 captain with Younis and Yousuf nowhere to be seen and Misbah completely ignored. Coincidence? You decide. Consider the fact that prior to Afridi’s meeting with Butt last October, Younis had handed in his resignation and it was not accepted by the Chairman both at the PCB offices and later in the car. It seems strange that such obvious support of Younis by the Chairman has waned and become muted.

Certainly Afridi’s lame excuse in his recent statement in regards to the exclusion of Younis from the squad did little to allay the suspicion: “I wanted Younis to be in the team but, besides the issue of his recent form, there was also a bit of a disciplinary issue with Younis”.  The funny thing is that you can take that quote and swap the name ‘Younis’ for a number of Pakistani players. In fact, you could put ‘Afridi’ in there too and it would fit. Making excuses Shahid? What is he hiding?

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It seems that the continuation of Younis Khan’s international cricket career is entirely dependent on him apologising to the PCB. Of the six punished players to have filed their appeals, it is believed that Younis is the only one who did not apologise for his behaviour, whereas the others did, so have been welcomed back in to the international fold.

It was obvious that something wasn’t right as despite Younis’ appeal, his name was not included in the squad for the Asia Cup unlike that of Shoaib Malik, who had also appealed his ban and was included in the squad. It was believed at the time that Younis’ appeal had been put back because he wanted a personal hearing to clear things up rather than, in effect, admit to a guilty plea like the others in return for having his place back.

Sorry? But I didn't do anything!

Certainly with the weak looking batting line-up chosen for England, Pakistan could have done with Younis’ services. Just to get a taste of how fragile our batting has been and how dependent it has been on Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf; I read statistics the other day that the pair have score 30% of Pakistan’s Test runs since October 2004. Not only that, they’re responsible for almost half of our Test centuries also.

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…and that’s just in One Day Internationals. The saying goes that the only completely consistent people are the dead, so going by that, Pakistan cricket seems well and truly dead and buried. The old criminals were back from the dead – the likes of Akhtar and Malik – in a desperate attempt to breathe life back into the team, but to no avail as Pakistan exited the Asia Cup at the first opportunity.

It had been the view of many that a complete clear-out and introduction of new young talent to the international fold would have been worthwhile even if they did nothing but lose for the first few months, because as the evidence shows, the superstars that currently occupy these places have done nothing but that.

Pakistan have won only three international matches since December of last year, a period which included 3 Tests, 7 ODIs and 9 Twenty20 Internationals. Most disturbingly of all, the three matches they won were all Twenty20 games, two of which were against Bangladesh and a poor South African side. And if you think that at least they are good at Twenty20s, well that period included two warm-up Twenty20 losses, one to Pakistan A, and the other to Zimbabwe. Having won just 3 of the last 19 internationals, the up and coming home series in England will bring with it a lot of pressure to put things right and bring some cheer to us long suffering fans.

The PCB has once again demonstrated it’s pointlessness in almost retracting every punishment they handed out to the seven players after the Australian tour. At the time, Ijaz Butt came out with some tough talk saying that he was going to hand out harsh punishments. Indeed, he kept his word at the time with life bans for Mohammed Yousuf and Younis Khan, one year bans for Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved, and heavy fines for the Akmal brothers and Shahid Afridi. With Rana Naved’s hearing still to be concluded, all punishments have been retracted except for the fines the Akmal brothers received which have been reduced by two thirds. It thus goes without saying that If Mohammed Yousuf should come out of retirement, his ban would also have to be lifted.

Untouchables of Pakistan cricket: Innocent when proven guilty

With all that has come out of the inquiry and various player statements, it is clear that Shoaib Malik was one of the worst culprits. Unfortunately, with Malik still around, I can’t see Yousuf changing his mind and returning to the side. I know who I’d rather have back if I had a choice between Malik and Yousuf.

In some ways, the return of the players is evidence of the dearth in Pakistan talent with hardly anyone from the domestic game being trusted to be able to step up into the international side and keep these criminals out.  Many would say that this is something the punished players know and have been taking advantage of for some time. It is why, for most of the seven, it was important that the punishments were upheld, if not entirely, at least to some worthwhile degree. Right now the players must be inwardly laughing at the administration which governs and disciplines them. Ijaz Butt has denied that this will make the PCB seem like a soft touch to the players, but if everyone else thinks that is how it is looking then I’m certain the players are thinking likewise.

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