Stani Army

If you go by the ‘logic’ that has prevented the IPL franchises from signing Pakistan players, then Pakistan would have to be excluded from the 2011 World Cup too, due to be held in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. The 2011 fixtures were drawn up in such a way that Pakistan would play their group games in Sri Lanka, and would only have to play in India if

Lalit and his girls: The 'best' thing to happen to cricket since....football

they reach the final. But what if they do reach the final? Some would say that this is a big ‘what if’ but they’d be ignoring the recent big ‘what if’ which prevented Pakistan’s players from playing in IPLIII.

The reason given was that the franchises could not be certain of the availability of the Pakistani players. So what do they exactly mean by that? Well, the Pakistani players would have been free from international duty in that period so this cannot have been what was meant. May be the reason is the fear that half way through the tournament, something happens in one of the two countries which would strain diplomatic relationships and heighten civil tension, causing Pakistan to call back its players for fear of attack in India. A big ‘what if’ in my opinion.

The most tasteless part of this IPL snub was that the Pakistani players were given false hope and led along until the very last minute, literally. Why did the eight franchises request the eleven Pakistani players up for selection if their policy was not to pick players that were not certain of availability? Well it is clear that something happened inbetween the period that these players were requested by the franchises and the time of the auction, and this is the sinister side to this whole situation.

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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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In a previous post, Stani Army questioned why the PCB had included the 3 ICL players from Twenty20 World Cup squad only to remove them, and it seems it was a tactical ploy by the inept PCB who wanted to keep the ICC happy before the meeting in which Pakistan’s co-hosting of the 2011 World Cup was to be discussed.

Well it obviously didn’t work. Had they had any brains, they would have indeed not included the 3 ICL players at all rather than bringing embarrassment on themselves by including then dropping them.

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Still two years left until the 50 over format World Cup and the ICC has wasted no time in taking it away from Pakistan. Though it was probably on the cards, there was always a little ray of hope in the heart of the optimistic Pakistan cricket fan.

But was there any need to decide this early? For one, if terrorists were going to target the 2011 World Cup, the ICC has just told them not to bother planning for Pakistan but for the other three countries right?

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