53
Collingwood does Butt’s team-talk
By Tabrez Janjua for Stani Army in Pakistan Cricket
84 ViewsWith the Pakistan bowlers getting showered with compliments left right and center – many from those in the know such as Michael Holding and Paul Allott – the England Captain Paul Collingwood has interestingly expressed comments that would not exactly be in agreement with those expressed by the men above.
Confident or plain stupid?
Collingwood was quoted as saying: “I don’t want to go overboard on ‘these guys are the best thing since sliced bread’ – or Wasim Akram, or this, that and the other”, he went on: “I think they have got a lot of talent. But to say they’re the number one bowling attack in the world I would say was over the mark. They have come up in conditions recently where it’s done a fair bit”.
It’s interesting because it comes at around the same time that the Pakistan captain said in an interview to cricinfo that he believes that in Mohammed Aamer and Mohammed Asif, he has the best pace pair in the world. Add Umar Gul to the mix, who as statistics prove, is the best bowler in Twenty20, the form which is harshest on bowlers, then it’s not such a bad pace attack.
“Without any doubt I can say that Aamer and Asif are the best pair in the world at the moment and Gul with the old ball is the most dangerous” Salman Butt.
I hope the Pakistan captain Salman Butt prints out Collingwood’s words and sticks them to the dressing room walls (with translation if required), because that will be his team-talk done for him. If I was an English batsman who had watched the manner in which our bowlers bamboozled the likes of Ricky Ponting, I wouldn’t exactly be over the moon hearing the comments Collingwood has publicly aired. But this cockiness is very much the way the new England team operates under Andy Flower, under whose stewardship the indiscipline of the English players seems to have multiplied. The reasons for it may well be that like many other sides, England are trying to follow the successful Australian blueprint on how to be the best in the world. Unfortunately, the Australians know how to do it and can back it up with actions, whereas the English over do it and don’t always back it up with actions.
With our bowling attack, we have all the required ingredients. It is time to cook up a meal, serve it to Collingwood and let him eat his words.
Loading ...
July 28th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
wot an arrogant ginger ____, this ______ was one of the main benificiaries of Darrell hair’s biased decisions in 2006, plus he still thinks he is gonna be playing against the 2006 bowling attack of Sami, Nazir and Gul. I hope they end his career on this tour and Bopara replaces him.
July 28th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
@Qamar –
Absolutely Qamar, was he not on the pitch when Hair pushed the bails off to signify that we had forfeited the Test match? I cannot wait for our bowlers to get at them. What Asif and Aamer did to Ponting, who is twice the batsman any of the English are, was unbelievable. Either Collingwood did not watch the whole of the two Tests against Australia or he doesn’t understand cricket because the way the Australian batsmen were set up was just high class bowling. They were not just dismissed but taken for a ride, bamboozled, mesmerized and then dismissed.
Interesting you mention Ravi. How on earth did they not pick him? He looked well depressed at yesterday’s domestic Twenty20 quarter-final. He should go play for Scotland or Ireland!
July 28th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
I remember this guy sarcastically looking at his watch when the Pakistan team were doing their protest at the 5 run penalty handed down by Hair. He was standing with Bell waiting to come out to bat and should not have come out to bat until the fielding team came out, therefore Hair would not have been able to forfeit the game. Would not have had an england career if it wasn’t for Fletcher’s favouritism. He made his debut in the same odi triangular series as Owais Shah against Pakistan and Australia in 2001. I remember Shah getting a very good fifty in his second match against a very good Pakistan attack of Waqar, Wasim and Azhar Mahmood while Collingwood couldn’t buy a run especially against Waqar, but because england lost that match from the jaws of victory, it left a black mark against Shah in Fletcher’s eyes. Somehow scoring fifties against a Zimbabwe side circa 2001 including Andy Flower was a better way to become an untouchable in the england team. I don’t understand why more british born asians don’t go the dual nationality way and try and qualify for the country of their parents birth like all these south africans playing for england. Especially the way they are dropped for any small perceived weakness while others like the above mentioned player and others like Bell are constantly picked.
July 28th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
@Qamar –
You have a very good memory Qamar. You make a very good point about them entering the field.
Owais Shah is just one of the many British Asians that have been overlooked time and again and Ravi Bopara will just be the latest. Kabir Ali has been the leading strike bowling in the domestic game for a number of years but he never got the chances someone like Broad has. They have just selected Bresnan as Shazad has picked up and injury, but if you have a look at Bresnan’s stats you will be astounded. Just look how Panesar was discarded. Picked all the time until there was a more….how shall I say it, a more British option in Swann.
Geoff Miller was on sky talking about why they had not selected Bopara and his basic message was that getting selected for the international side should not be seen as something easy and players should feel that they have really worked hard to achieve it. But I guess that only applies to certain people because I haven’t a clue what the likes of Cook have done to deserve inclusion.
They played Trott against Bangladesh and let him get a double century to cement his place. They pick Morgan for this form for the first time to give him a try, give him a go, this is the kind of language that is used for them, but people like Bopara have got to work harder apparently.
July 28th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
It would be nice if Ginga was made to eat his words. But to be honest with you Stani, though I rate Pakistan’s pace attack very highly, I’ll still refrain from calling it the best in the world. For me it’s the duo of Steyn and Morkel that currently take that spot, Pakistan needs to show more consistency if it wants to be there.
And sad news about the air crash in the Margalla Hills today, eh Stani?
July 28th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
@sunny –
I’ve read about this Steyn Morkel partnership argument somewhere else too. Whilst I rate Steyn highly, Morkel? I may be bias but I’d have Aamer, Asif and Gul ahead of Morkel in my team. You?
Yes, very sad news. Hopefully the investigations can find a cause so the families of those that lost their lives can at least know what happened in the last few moments. From the images, there doesn’t seem to be much of the plane left so most of the answers will have to be gleaned from the black-box rather than the wreckage. So sad.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
@sunny –
Maybe the players will do a minute silence and wear black armbands in tomorrows game.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:16 am
Stani/Qamar
We will find out after this series whether Aamer and Asif are the best in the world or not.
One thing about which I’m sure is that they won’t get the same conditions as they got against Australia, on flat pitches both Asif and Aamer have still to prove themselves, but lets dare Collingwood to play these guys on a pitch which has something for bowlers too and is not a flat batting paradise.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:57 am
[...] Stani Army » Blog Archive » Collingwood does Butt’s team-talk [...]
July 29th, 2010 at 9:41 am
I know Morkel’s got a few short comings, but he is graduallly improving. But to be honest, I wouldn’t mind having an Aamer-Asif duo in his place, but I’ll only take both!
I hope they will wear these black armbands, 152 casualties is certainly not a small number. It was a shock, I expected there would at least be some survivors.
July 29th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
@Wasim –
If Akmal had taken that catch then we would have had our tails up and would have been well on our way but he’s back to his brilliant worst. I can’t even look at his face.
July 29th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
@sunny –
Yes, they are wearing black armbands (tape). From the images, there wasn’t much of the plane left so I assume it may have been going at some speed or had been consumed by the fire. Both scenarios would have made finding survivors difficult.
July 29th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Danish will have to help out his pacers a bit more in this Test.
July 29th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Stani
Pakistan should have gone with two spinners in this match but I think either they showed too much confidence in their pace trio or they misread the pitch.
July 29th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Damn Akmal took the catch this time:))
Great bowling from Aamer.
July 29th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
So far conditions are no way near Leeds or even Lords but Pakistan bowling is not up to mark either. Except Aamer and little bit of Asif, Gul and Kaneria are way out of sorts, still not able to find line and length on this dry and low bounce pitch.
This is the time for Kaneria to prove he deserve a place in Pakistan test side, this is ideal pitch, dry with cracks on it, already turning on day 1 will do more on last couple of days. If he continues bowling like this absolutely shit long hops it is high time he should try and groom new test spinner. But he has time to get it right in this or next some tests or it should be over.
On the other hand Swaan will be key and main danger for our wobbly batting line up.
Anyway if Pakistan bowling and intensity remains same Collingwood might be right so some catching up needed but nothing to panic yet Aamer is looking good Asif will catch up but other than that a question mark (?)
July 29th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
@Wasim –
So would you drop Gul Wasim? I couldn’t have minded two spinners but had they dropped Kaneria for Ajmal then I think that would have been better.
July 29th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
@Mudassar @ CricketVibe.com –
Had Akmal taken that catch I think it would have been a different story. The problem was that when our wicket did come it was time to take our bowlers off and the pressure wasn’t sustained.
I agree about Kaneria and Swann.
England ave been fortunate on three occasions so far: one dropped catch and two UDRS related decisions.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Aamer has been class again. Should have had three wickets by now. As I had highlighted previously in regards to the UDRS, we haven’t got a clue about using it. They had Trott and who do they ask for an opinion? Kamran Akmal! He says no and they don’t go up when if they did they would have got the wicket. Idiots.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Sure Stani I would have dropped Gul.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
@Wasim –
Hmm, Rehman would’ve been a good option because he can carry a bat too and their batting line up is much longer than ours
July 29th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
All Gul had to do was to bowl a disciplined line and length but he is trying too many things varying his line and length too much, English batsmen had no option but to go after Gul and Kaneria and if they had kept things tight they would have automatically gotten a few wickets.
Both bowlers are spoiling all the hard work done by Aamer and Asif.
I would bowl Imran Farhat than Malik.
July 29th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
@Wasim –
Yes, I just hope Asif and Aamer don’t pick up injuries. Had Akmal taken that catch and had we appealed for one review and the other gone our way, we would have been much further into their line up.
I had hoped Kaneria would be dropped after the first Australia Test but they kept him. And sine we won the second, they were always going to go in with the same line up meaning he’d retain his place. Ajmal for game two please.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Stani
This has been the major problem with Pakistan cricket even though the poor form of Kaneria was visible to ordinary fans but the team management still persisted with him, the guy gifts two bad deliveries per over, his bowling average is pathetic but we keep on selecting him, it’s just poor use of resources and seniority based selection which is killing Pakistan cricket, we have two World class spinners sitting on the bench but we continue with this mediocre player match after match.
I hope they kick him out in the next match regardless of his performance in the second innings.
Ajmal would have definitely bowled miserly and would have added much more pressure, Gul needs to play the role of the third bowler, he has to bowl line and length and control the flow of runs, I think Gul and Kaneria ruined this match for Pakistan.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
@Wasim –
…and Akmal. I’ve had enough of him, enough is enough.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Kamran Akmal is hell bent on repeating the Sydney performance. He will turn Kaneria into a victim by the end of this match.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
True Stani he needs to go enough is enough.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
@Wasim –
I think they only brought one keeper with them but it’s not the end of the world. What they should do is get all the batmen together at the end of the game and give them a go as keeper in practice. Whoever is the best, then make him keeper batsman. He cannot be worse than this joke.
Farhat look like he’s got good hands and his brothers a keeper I think so maybe it’s in his DNA.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Stani
They have Zulqernain Haider sitting on the bench, next match Akmal needs to go.Time and again same players underperform at this level you can’t be ordinary one day and excellent the next day a bowler with Kaneria’s experience is bowling one full toss every over these guys are simply not good enough if they can’t deliver the same level of performance in every match. There is no logic to continue with these guys.
July 29th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
@Wasim –
Absolutely. If there is no improvement seen (as in the case of Akmal), then no more chances.
July 29th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Pakistan will have to make a quick decision about Gul, Kaneria and Akmal in the next match, if the support bowlers failed to do their job then Asif and Aamer might get injured due to excessive work load and over use.
I think Riaz should be given a chance instead of Gul in the next match and Ajmal or Rahman in place of Kaneria, Akmal should be rested for the rest of this series.
July 29th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
@Wasim –
….rested for the rest of his career! He won’t improve I’m afraid. His mistakes are what he is and you cannot change what you are. Poor foot work, hard hands, and gets excited when he sees a chance.
July 29th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Next match:
Replace Gul with Tanvir (No Wahab as I think Tanvir is better as far as I have seen him)
Kanria with Abdur Rehman
Kamran with Zulqarnain
Batting replacment list still to come, Malik might have the last if he didn’t yet performed.
Anything above 450 match is over but I am inclined to say it is already out of reach for Pakistani batsmen. A 5 for Sawan is next or Finn.
July 29th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
@Mudassar @ CricketVibe.com –
Yes, or I may go Ajmal instead as he’s more attacking. I also think Swann will do much better than Kaneria. They have batsmen still to come and their bowlers can bat too. Looks like we’ve had it.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
A forgettable day at the office for Salman Butt’s team. With the exception of Amir we were frankly and truly awful and embarrassing. Kami is no doubt the BIG LOSER of the day with 4 key noticeable costly flaws coming from him and Danish Kaneria bowled pathetically as well. It will be extremely hard work from here but well played Morgan, excellent stuff indeed.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
The Flaws:
1) Drop Catch
2) Gave an indication to the captain that the review would be unsuccessful when it wouldn’t have been.
3) Standing too back for the edge which was poor judgement for someone of his experience especially!
4) Big miss stumping! How did he do that?
Time for Kamran Akmal to call it a day with the gloves I say and either play as a batsmen which he has talent in or get out of the team! Why should we let our (champion) bowlers suffer?
July 29th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
@Maaaaaaaz –
He was plumb LBW Maz and DeSilva decided to stay on the safe side and not give it because he knew we had used all our reviews.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
@TJ for Stani Army –
Four mistakes, spot on! Add number five, that stupid face he makes and number six his screeching voice shouting out.
July 30th, 2010 at 10:26 am
In terms of potential replacements for yesterday’s failures let me just mention that I played with Zulqarnain Haider in league cricket last year and in not even a single match did he score a half century! His batting is very very average. However, he is a sound WK and ultimately I feel that is what the side needs. Its a debatable topic as to whether you select a keeper based on batting potential or not. In my view, in Test Cricket you should select a keeper based on keeping ability primarily and if he can bat that is a bonus.
In the spinning department we badly need a change. Ajmal is the likely replacement, however I am in favour of the young Pakistani U19 left arm spinner, Raza Hassan getting a go ASAP. He has already troubled some top class batsmen of the England “A” side in UAE earlier this year when he took 9/74 combined in the 3 matches he played and was extremely impressive at the U19 WC in NZ earlier this year with his guile, craft, accuracy and variations. He is also a very athletic and able fielder. He can contain as well as attack and is a smart bowler too. He is young yes, but why not give him a go like we have given so many youngsters over the years at a tender age and show the world what potential our youngsters have!
Umar Gul was completely out of sorts yesterday. I have seen Yasir Arafat doing well for Sussex and feel he could be a suitable replacement. He can bat well too which will add depth and balance to our team which is another requirement we need.
Wahab Riaz, seems a quickish left arm fast bowler who can also bring the ball back into the right handers but I am unsure as to whether he will do well in Test Match situations or not. I think Tanvir Ahmed would be a better choice.
July 30th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
The umpiring has been quite poor in this match at least 2-3 decidions went against Pakistan and that is huge in a test match. Asif is bowling much better today. I would replace Gul with Wahab Riaz England never plays left armers confidently and Riaz has some pace and can move the ball, Tanvir is more like Sohail Khan I would have loved to see Irfan in the side nobody in the current Pak team has the ability to lift the ball, the score is only 350 so far and its pathetic that nobody has the confidence that our team will be able to score 350 in one innings such has been the fragility of our batting.
Dropped catches and poor Umpiring cost us atleast 150 runs. asif has already cleaned up the English tail, hopefully Pakistan openers will get us a good start.
Maaz
Have you seen Zulifqar Babar bowl?
July 30th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
From 331/4 to 354 all out! Pakistan have pulled it back! Phenomenal performance from Asif, take a bow!
Wasim, only on this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKharF0HP34
July 30th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Six wickets for 17 runs this morning, good job considering that one umpiring decision went against us and one catch was dropped, Asif was lethal today I wonder why he didn’t bowled like this yesterday.
Maaz Umar Gul also was as shitty as Kaneria.
July 30th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Guys, I think we were unlucky yesterday otherwise the England top order would have gone the same way. Had Akmal taken Strauss, the tone would have been set. Had all the other bad decisions, including ours not to use the UDRS, gone our way, England would have struggled to 230. We have badly let this Test slip, and it could have quite easily have been ours for the taking already.
With Gul, he needs to just sort out two things: His run up (no balling) and his length (too short) and he will be much more affective. Kaneria is just poor full stop.
July 30th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Stani
Gul is hyped for his reverse swing but I havent seen him reverse the old ball lately, his length is too up and down, there was no discipline in his bowling he was just running in and bowling at random targets, he used to bowl a very good away swinger which he never uses now he still can ball the inswinger, but the most important issue is that he is very generous in giving away runs as a third bowler his main job is to bowl a disciplined line and length and control the runs.He hasn’t fullfilled his role in any of the tests I have seen him bowl recently.
July 30th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
PaKistan 47/6
No, it never means we need YOUNIS & YOUSUF!!!
Our batters are doing wonders, they all are in-form, seeing and middling the ball and talented enough to score 50 atleast in all.!
YOUNIS should retire as YOUSUF has already! We dont need them! They both are out of form, cant see and middle the balls and old enough to be thrown out of team. They should retire.
July 30th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
@Wasim –
I think if he can get the no ball issue out of his mind, he can concentrate on the other end
July 30th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
@Riaz –
I’d be surprised if they change it now because they will be admitting their mistake and they never do that do they? I’m surprised Yousuf wasn’t flown out even when there was talk of it. I did highlight earlier that winning the second Test match against Australia covered up our faults to some extent and this probably led to them thinking we’re ok as we are. I think Umar Akmal has a long way to go and maybe he is not as good as we think he is.
July 30th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Riaz Pakistan has got out many times within 100 with Yousaf or Younis in the team, the situation right now makes their case look strong but I don’t think Younis would have performed any differently given his last year’s performance, Yousaf’s case is different he can bat and outscore all of these clowns in the team but he has his own agendas, it’s not very hard to understand if one looks at the whole last year.
But I do agree with you that if people like Akmal and Malik are playing in the team and are visibly underperforming then why not Yousaf.
July 30th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
If last year’s performance is the only criteria and a career of 10 years full of performance can be neglected on that, well be with it. All these batters were doing wonders for the last 1 year and look what they are doing in here in the third match on a roll!!!
Just because they performed well for last year in domestic, they should be tolerated with and allowed to do all this consecutively!!! Well said.
Can any one mark any 2 occasions Pakistan got out for less then 100 with YOUNIS and YOUSUF in team ? Forget about many times. With these outclass recently performing and well earned / deserved selected players, we should open batting with Kaneria and Asif ! They might fare better!
We are too prone not to accept what is written on the walls and in record books or learn from history!
July 30th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
90/6!
July 30th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Riaz
Have you forgotten the SriLankan series.
How many test matches we won in last three years with those two in the team can you give me a figure. One collapse and you came back to chew these guys up, you have so quickly forgotten that they just drew a series with Australia and won a the T20 series and this match is not over yet.
What if they will get out under 150 didn’t Australia got shot out for 88 the other day.
The point here is not to prove Y&Y worthless, you me and everyone else here knows that they have a lot of experience and have a long accomplished career, but you and everyone else here also know the problems which led to dropping them out of the team. Dirty politics huge personal egos, and consistent poor performances, and above all they don’t have more than a years cricket left in them so why not rebuild right now rather than wait another two years.
July 30th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
@Riaz, @wasim, totally unconditionally supporting Wasim argument and for that I will not even mind this collapse, it didn’t happened at some flat deck, difficult conditions and good bowling, except Akmal brothers everyone was trying to stay specially Azhar, Farhat and even Malik (well may be or may not be). Anyways I can’t find me excited at all by the news of getting two Y’s back at all.
July 30th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Riaz
Srilanka tour Ist test second innings Pakistan all out for 117.
2nd test ist innings Pakistan all out for 90.
2nd test Vs Australia ist innings Pak all out 139. and there are a lot of innings where the score was around 200.
You might disagree with me but I don’t think they have performed in last 2 years according to their stature.