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.

One of the main problems Pakistan have had in not being able to win Test matches is their inability to put up large totals. The bowlers have to remove the opposition having only a ODI batting total to back them up. With the batting line-up chosen for England, and having scored more than 300 in only 11 of the last 30 innings, it looks like Pakistan’s Test problems will continue. Though new captain Shahid Afridi performed admirably with the bat in the Asia Cup with two brilliant centuries, we cannot expect him to step up to the plate all of the time.

So, is Younis right to be taking this stance or is the PCB being too fussy and childish? What is it that Younis has supposedly done and will be apologising for anyway? Many would argue that he should apologise for the sake of it as it is obvious how much his country needs him. But if ‘sorry’ is a hard word to say for the likes of us, then it is near enough impossible, not only for a Pathan, but one that thinks he is innocent.

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 good thing is that Test game is much slower paced than Twenty20 and will give Afridi time to think over any decisions and confer with other players. He would also be able to get the input of the coaching staff during drinks breaks, at the end of sessions and at the close of play.

Apart from Afridi, who else is there as possible Test captain? The only other likely candidate, Younis Khan, is still serving his indefinite ban and is waiting on his appeal to be heard. This hearing will definitely not come in time for for him to be considered for the ODI captaincy as his appeal has been adjourned until the 29th of this month with the Asia Cup captain to be named on the 25th. Chances are that the Asia cup captain will probably be Afridi, and this, along with Younis’ ban and Afridi’s desire to return to the Test side, may have made the decision to keep him as Test captain merely a formality. With Afridi’s request in the media of a quick resolution to the damaging allegations surrounding the Pakistan team, he is beginning to sound the part of captain at least.

As a player, I think his return to the Test scene will give us a much more potent and balanced side. The argument is that his batting is not up to Test standard but I have argued in the past that he could make our Test side on his abilities with the ball alone. Also, those critics will probably be surprised to learn that his Test average is a more than respectable 37.40, with 5 centuries in 46 innings. In the recent past we have struggled for the breakthrough and his attacking variety of spin would be perfect for such a situation. We have also had problems getting past 300 runs as a team and the option of Afridi’s spin could then give us the option of dropping Saeed Ajmal/Danish Kaneria for an extra batsmen.

I think he will make the Test side on merit, and be given the captaincy because there simply is no other choice. Nevertheless, with the likes of Shoaib Malik out of the way, he has a chance to develop into a good Test captain with a young team and two new coaches that are right behind him.

After the above series, Pakistan will be involved in the Asia cup at home which precedes the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Champions Trophy which is also to be held in Pakistan provided there are no security issues. In December, India will (hopefully) arrive for a 3-test 5-ODI series. This would mean that this is the only test series Pakistan would have played since December 2007 which was also against India. This equates to a whole year without test cricket. Is test cricket not the most important and highly regarded form of the game? It doesn’t seem that way to the ICC and the PCB.

Yet 2008 does not see the end to this problem. If you have a look at Pakistan’s future tours programme (FTP) you will not fail to notice that it is riddled with one-day matches. Some may argue that not much could have been done about Australia’s pull-out but even with those three tests, the picture would not have looked a whole lot brighter. The ICC is responsible for drawing up the FTP (signed by the ten full member countries) thus some of the responsibility lies with them. The thing is that the PCB has not exactly helped itself either by flying around the world meeting the boards of five of the top sides in an attempt to fill Pakistan’s FTP gaps with 38 more ODIs for the period between 2008 and 2010. The worrying thing is that the PCB was actually pleased about this as if it was some kind of major accomplishment.

Much of the blame lies with the former PCB administration which was in charge and responsible for agreeing Pakistan’s FTP back in 2004 when the current programme was drawn up. However, the current administrations argument that more tests could not be added to the schedule as the FTPs for most of the other test playing nations were filled sounds very weak. It raises the question why some of these extra 38 ODIs weren’t sacrificed for more tests. If the other nations had gaps in their FTP to fit in extra ODIs, surely these gaps could have been filled with tests. But the depressing fact is that test cricket simply does not bring in as much revenue as the shorter forms of the game and with plenty of those in the future, the I€€ and P€B will be more than happy.

But what will become of Pakistan as a test cricketing force if test cricket continues to come second to the money spinning ODIs and Twenty20s? These are testing times for Pakistan cricket, but not in the way we had hoped.

Cricket should be something totally separated from politics yet in Pakistan this is hardly ever the case and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) can take most of the blame for this. How do you separate the game from politics when the Patron of your board is the current President? This has led to the current situation in which Pakistan cricket continues to be linked with terror and the current security situation all over the world. Now when the PCB’s Chairman Dr Ashraf insists that the postponement of this tour will have no affect on future cricket in Pakistan he is just kidding himself. The Asia Cup takes place at the end of June and I’m sure that the nations involved would seriously ask themselves that if it’s not safe enough for the leading test nation then is it safe enough for us.

Cricket Australia (CA) was always going to pull out, they didn’t even send a security assessment team, but just dragged the situation on and on eventually calling their pull out a postponement rather than a cancellation. Maybe this has something to do with a possible threat of legal action by the PCB since now CA can say that they are still going to tour but not right now. The way I see it is if they postpone their 2008 tour to Pakistan and don’t tour in 2008 then it’s not a postponement, it’s a cancellation. Yes they can say we will tour in 2010 or whenever but it’s not the same tour, not the same time and will not involve the same players. It has been obvious to me that the PCB has been let down slowly by CA and now by their use of semantics they’re just making fools of the PCB who probably don’t need any help even at the best of times.

Let’s play with bat and ball and not with words because then that would be politics and not cricket wouldn’t it.