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The Blame Yousuf Bandwagon
By Tabrez Janjua for Stani Army in Pakistan Cricket
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An old face but a young captain
Mohammad Yousuf came in for a lot of criticism from all corners for his field placements in the second Test against Australia when Peter Siddle and Michael Hussey were at the crease. How much was Yousuf to blame for this and was this the real cause of Pakistan’s defeat?
Many writers held Yousuf solely responsible, and had you been listening to the Australian commentary on that 4th day then it would have been easy to follow suit. Bill Lawry, Tony Greig, Richie Benaud, Mark Nicholas, Michael Slater, Mark Taylor, and last but definitely not the least, Ian Chapell, were all at it. Ian Chapell in particular, did not talk about anything else apart from Mohammad Yousuf in his 4th day commentary stints. I have an automatic dislike of people that are too sure of themselves and Ian Chapell is one.
If you are still firm in the belief that Yousuf got the field placing wrong, then you have to accept that it cannot have been his decision alone. After the close of play on day 3, strategies must have been discussed in the Pakistan camp and all the support staff, including the head coach, must have had an input. Also, the fact that Hussey and Siddle stayed in for so long showed that Yousuf did in fact read the track well, in that it was a relatively easy one to score on. So, would an immediately attacking field have been a good thing or a bad thing?
Had we started with an attacking field, this would have left more scoring opportunities for both Hussey and Siddle. Yes, it may have increased our chances of removing them but did our bowlers honestly look like getting anything on the 4th day? At one point, the camera followed Asif on his run up and he looked flat as a pancake. So if an attacking field didn’t yield us the wicket, the Australians would have got off to a flier and we would have then had to have resorted to a more defensive field but only after giving away easy runs. We would have been in even more of a bad position. To back up the argument that it was an easy pitch to score on, when Pakistan were on 55 in the last innings, 44 of their runs had come off boundaries; and this to an attacking field set by Ponting.
The Australian commentary aside, the frustration aside; if you look at it in the cold light of day then Yousuf didn’t do too much wrong. His biggest mistake, in fact, was the reckless shot he played when Pakistan were in such a good position in the final innings. Though it was easy to criticise him, he was not the reason we lost the match, with Kamran Akmal picking up that accolade (that is after dropping it!).
Still early in his captaincy career, I think Yousuf should be persevered with as long as he shows the desire to learn quickly. His admission of the poor shot he played shows that he is a man who is willing to learn since that admitting your mistakes or shortcomings is usually the first step in learning. Younis Khan has been captain many times and was seen to still make mistakes throughout his captaincy. He never came in for nearly as much criticism as Yousuf already has.
Field placings aside, the 176 target on that pitch should have been easily achieved with a bit of grit and intelligent thinking. Peter Siddle showed more determination on his own than the whole of the Pakistan team. Though I think heads must role after this defeat, I don’t think it should be Yousuf’s. You can see the way Australia celebrated that this was no ordinary victory for them. Inversely, this was then no ordinary defeat either as Pakistan went from unplayable in the beginning of the match, to unwatchable at the end. Permanent changes must be made.
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January 10th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Stani
But how many wickets Ponting got with his attacking field placement you are ignoring that fact we only needed two.
He only bowled Sami 1.5 overs with the new ball and didn’t brought him back until 20 overs were bowled.
His field placement was neither preventing boundaries nor getting any wicket.
Blamed every thing on T20 mentality but played himself like a T20 batsman.
Yousaf in normal circumstances would have never batted the way he did in the second innings.
I agree with you the commentary was biased but didn’t Yousaf proved them right in the end.
With the exception of Salman Butt everybody threw away their wicket.
If Asif, Gul and Kaneria were not troubling the batsmen then he should have brought in Sami earlier.
Younis Khan has also made many mistakes and I don’t agree that he was not criticized as yours truly has grilled him without any mercy, the fact that he is sitting outside after winning a WC and playing in the semis of CT is a testiment to the fact that he didn’t got any special treatment.
I know there is a lot of confusion, Younis was personally out of form he made some critical errors as a captain during the CT especially when he gave Umar Akmal a rest.
But he didn’t lose any match like this, the same players didn’t supported him in SriLanka and then later on revolted against him, he couldn’t get any sympathies because he himself didn’t performed at all.
But Yousaf is not out of form neither Kamran Akmal, if they throw away a match like the way they did then this should not be taken lightly nor forgiven.
January 10th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Wasim
The resolve of the Australian batsmen was much better than ours. I wouldn’t say Ponting got our wickets, we gave them away. Our batsmen weren’t got out, they gave away their wickets. They made Ponting look good.
With the bowling, I agree, he could have done it different. For one, I wouldn’t have started Asif first up. My choice would have been Gul and Sami or Gul and Kaneria.
In terms of Younis not getting criticism and Yousuf getting criticism, I’m not talking about you, me or the rest of us bloggers. I’m talking about the professional cricket writers. Can you remember the last time they criticised Younis?
I don’t think we lost the game because of Yousuf. It was Akmal’s four drops and our batsmen that cost us. They didn’t finish the game in the first innings and they couldn’t get 176 in the second on a flat track. I know Yousuf was a part of this batting, as I stated, and he acknowledged that too. I just think too much was made of the field placing issue.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:46 am
Stani
I agree with you that most of the journalist have been very lenient with Younis, remember I wrote a post about that, this is partly because most of the cricket writers are from Karachi.
I had an altercation with Osman Sami on my blog some time ago he was of the view that the reason they support Younis because they had some inside information about things going on in the team which people like us don’t know and exactly due to those reasons they supported Younis to that extent. At that time I just thought of it as a mere excuse but now I see what he was trying to hint at.
There is no doubt about that if Akmal had taken any of the first three catches Pakistan would have won so he is the main player to blame but then again Yousaf also deserves criticism for his field placements and his poor batting at times it was just seemed that he was waiting until Australia gets completely out of the woods and then attempt to take the wickets.
Whenever you set an aggressive field the batsman is always tempted to go over the fielders and that is where they make the mistake and that is what Pakistani batsmen did.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:53 am
Stani read this:
http://tiny.cc/Oetmw
January 11th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Wasim
Really? Send me the link of that page on your blog if you still have it. I would love to have a read. Some professional journalists do enjoy little arguments.
The thing is though, the Australian batsmen have more brains and determination than ours just like Siddle and Hussey showed. They could have easily taken advantage of an overly aggressive field and gotten cheap runs.
Interesting article. The thing is, if Umar is doing this then he’s jeopardising his own career. Also, I’m not sure how this will exactly pressure the management into playing Kamran. Is Umar saying “If you don’t play my brother, then I won’t play”? If so, they should say goodbye. I’d be surprised if this was true though.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Here is the link Stani
His second reply was an email which I have misplaced.
http://cricketfiles.com/2009/01/29/osman-samiuddin-is-plagued-with-double-standards/
First I also thought that media is blowing the Akmal issue out of proportion but after reading Kamran Akmal’s statements on Cricinfo I guess he has launched a full war with PCB to keep his position. In the end Umar Akmal will play whether he performs or not that is a separate issue.
January 11th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Wasim
Top stuff. Having read the argument, the Pathan issue aside, his is just the same of the more recent support Younis has been getting from various journalists. I mean, they still haven’t given in….may be because it would then mean they were mistaken in their opinion of him.
Of course, these journalists are entitled to their opinion, but sometimes we all have to be ready to accept that we were wrong. We cannot keep our opinions the same or we’re not alive, we’re not learning. I’m sure there’s things I’ve written on here, time ago, that may seem contradictory now. But I wouldn’t call them as such; merely that I’ve attained a more learned opinion of what ever the issue was. Though Younis may be a Pathan, he certainly hasn’t behaved like one….outside of his own head of course.
As for Umar, yes, it will be interesting to see how he performs. He’s just got into the side so he’d be stupid to show such a bad attitude. It would also be immature of his older brother Kamran if he doesn’t advise him to stay away from such games. If Kamran truly believes in himself, then he will not need any underhand tactics to get back into the side; he’ll do it himself.
January 11th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Stani
I completely agree with you I have been supporting Malik, Misbah and Akmal for a long time, there were times they deserved the support as some people consistently target these players of their jingoistic hatred. It was only a few weeks ago everybody was saying we should play all six Akmal brothers but all of a sudden the opinion of even die hard fans has changed because mistakes can be forgiven but what happened in Sydney is unacceptable and should not be forgiven.
My argument with Osman started when I saw a series of articles from him as a campaign against Malik’s captaincy a lot of arguments he presented in his articles were completely biased and presented only one side of the story.
The pathan comment I made in anger as he presented it as a qualification for Younis and also I was sick and tired of all the racist propaganda done by some bloggers from Karachi against Punjabi players, I don’t mind criticism on any player but I can’t stand racism and believe it or not “minority racism” is on the rise in Pakistan.
Since we had that argument he didn’t wrote any article blatantly supporting Younis but to be fair with him, a few things which he blamed on these players turned out to be true such as forming cliques and under performance by certain players.
Younis made a few mistakes as captain his personal form was also at rock bottom but one thing now is clear he had more integrity than these bunch of crooks. These guys fooled every one of us as the matches Pakistan won Malik, Yousaf, Akmal bros and Afridi they all performed.
As regards Umar and Kamran, I also rubbished that report in Daily Telegraph first but in the last two days the statements Kamran Akmal has been issuing make it quite obvious that he is resisting the decision to drop him and is not going to go quietly. Which is very strange as even the best of the best do get rested once in a while during their career, why is he resisting? Was he promised that he won’t be dropped and now feels betrayed or he thinks that he owns the team?
Whether it is politics
January 12th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Wasim
Six Akmal brothers? He has six brothers? Wow! Yes, sometimes when the team is trying but fails, then it’s easy to forgive. What happened in the second Test was unforgivable.
Sectarianism has always been rife in Pakistan society and I do agree with you that this regionalism is on the rise. Like Pakistan cricket, it is inter-linked with politics. When the leader is from a certain region then he gets supporters from that region or people from that region, regardless of what his policies are.
Osman Samiuddin is in a fortunate position to be able to see these things so some things he does say will no doubt turn out to be correct. We can only look on from the outside but he has to be careful also so as not to upset his sources.
That Khalid Hussain does write some good pieces though so may be there is some truth in the Akmal brothers’ conspiracy. Although, Khalid Hussain is asking the question (“Akmal brothers using pressure tactics?”) rather than saying it is a fact. After reading it in the papers, maybe the brothers will think again. Kamran needs to understand that the wicket-keeping spot is not his for life. The way you keep your place in the team is if you play well. If you play poorly, you get replaced, that’s how it works.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
PS sack the MOYO !
Replied stani
January 12th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Stani
If they had put up a fight or even showed they were competing, the fans would have forgiven but it seemed so evidently that they were facilitating the Aussies.
Finally the confusion is over Sarfraz will play and you never know what has been bargained through this standoff, a position in the Odi’s and T20′s or maybe he will play the test as a batsman but I am not willing to admit that these guys created this drama knowing that they might not get anything out of it.
As regards regionalism, What pisses me the most is when people make statements that Fawad was dropped after one bad performance and continue to remind his century on debut but what happened afterwards nobody wants to check and comment about it the same is true about Khurram and Faisal.
No doubt Younis is a great test player but what about last 12 months how many match winning innings he has played?
The team will never get better unless this tussel between Punjabi and Karachite players is settled,it shouldn’t matter where the players come from as long as they are good. Criticising only a certain group of players on every available opportunity and then pushing mediocre players as their replacement will not solve anything. The replacements should be selected on merit.
January 13th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Rana Naved took a hatrick stani :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkskXSuijNQ
January 14th, 2010 at 3:14 am
Loving the look at Pointing face, he is buried in his ego, this is priceless.
What a summer this could have been have Aamer taken that sitter, what idiot.
January 15th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Wasim
Yes, people seem to convenietly forget very quickly. It’s why we keep going in circles and findining ourselves in the same plight.
Revesre
He’s in the big league now. He’s probably never taken a catch of that importance with a crowd of that size behind him….and he still hasn’t.
January 29th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
The U19 performances suggest Pakistan has the talent and ingredients to become a top force and revive the country’s image in the future. Its just a matter of the PCB realising and getting some brains so they can utilise the talent effectively and successfully on the international stage !
This current nepotistic corrupt approach and political dividing never allows the team to fulfill their talent and do the nation proud which is a necessity as the meaning and influence of cricket for Pakistan at a global level is necessary for the country to be renown with some positiveness and life as opposed to sheer hardship and vulnerability otherwise we will continue to be renown as a lifeless and hopeless nation. Cricket is of such significance that its indescribable to dictate in words.
Therefore, the authorities need to get a grip and make some wise and long term decisions for the better.