Stani Army

Ijaz Butt: Needs to be harsh in his punishment of the Pakistan players

Pakistan cricket hasn’t exactly flourished under the stewardship of PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt. Described as “too old” and “physically unfit” by the senate’s standing committee on sports, many have felt that such an important role was beyond this 72 year old. On the team side, factionalism, internal bickering and a losing habit have plagued his time in charge.

Not being the most astute of operators, Butt is known to put his foot in where it does not belong. His insensitive and defensive approach in his response to the Lahore attacks was just one example. Rather than express condolences and outline the PCBs response, he went on the attack asking the ICC to ban match referee Chris Broad, for his comments on the lack of security. His most recent faux pas was the mixed messages he gave out in a press conference regarding the subject of match fixing.

Politicians are not the only people Butt has fallen out with. Javed Miandad, Abdul Qadir and Aamer Sohail, ex-Pakistani greats, have all come and gone from various posts during Butt’s tenure. Despite his unpopularity, Butt is still managing to hold on to his position of Chairman for the simple reason that he has the support of the most important man; Patron of the board and President of the country, Asif Ali Zardari.

The recent inquiry into the failings of the team on the New Zealand and Australian tour have given Butt an opportunity to do some good for his popularity. It is believed that the inquiry committee recommended heavy fines and bans for some top Pakistan players, including Shahid Afridi, Rana Naved, Shoaib Malik and the Akmal brothers, for various misdemeanours such as deliberately under-performing, provoking discord and undermining the captain.

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Chasing just 128, Pakistan allowed Australia to bowl three maidens in their 20 overs; played three stupid shots when in good positions themselves; and ended up falling short by three runs. I can’t help but think that had Australia been chasing that target, they would have got there cruising with the loss of just one or two wickets.

So what was the Pakistani mindset from the beginning? Well it was one ‘hero’ after the other. Each buffoon of a batsmen that followed the previous one thought that a few quick boundaries here and the game would be over. But boundaries come with high risks attached, risks Pakistan did absolutely not need to take with a target like that. Not just once, but on many occasions throughout that innings they could have held themselves back and have gotten home comfortably.

After smiling about the recent security breach, Pakistan continued with their niceties by gifting three maidens (two wrapped in wickets) to Australia and effectively turning a chase of 6.4 per over into 7.5 an over.

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The stupidity of Shahid Afridi’s actions was profound, there is no question. As if the two whitewashes hadn’t caused us fans enough embarrassment, Afridi had to compound it by taking a bite out of the ball with as much subtlety as that spectator’s tackle on Khalid Latif. By the way, everyone’s talking about security in Pakistan, what happened here Cricket Australia?

Captains take a bite. Maybe there was something wrong with the Australian food?

Afridi was being touted for captain in the Test and ODI formats and I would not have minded. He made a good case with his recent performances and showed signs of maturity but his actions here have got me wondering if he really has matured. Yes, every team probably does it Shahid, but I doubt they use their teeth and make it so blatantly obvious. He may as well have gone up to umpire Asoka De Silva and asked to use his dentures. And when quizzed on Pakistani television

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In his latest piece on cricinfo, titled ‘Why Modi is like Sehwag’, Ian Chappell continues his obsession with criticising Mohammad Yousuf. Yes, I know, the piece is titled  ‘Why Modi is like Sehwag’, but he does well to finish by bringing Mohammad Yousuf into it. The PCB has announced that there will be a new captain after the Australian tour so maybe Chappell should leave the guy alone now.

And whilst mentioning the run out between Salman Butt and Mohammad Yousuf in the 1st innings of the 3rd Test, he writes:

“This move has the potential to replicate either a brilliant attacking masterpiece by Sehwag or the chaos of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Salman Butt gesturing at each other after having failed to complete an easy single”

Inzamam Ian? You mean Yousuf right? Concentrate now, criticise one Pakistani at a time. This disease is similar to the one Tiny Greig was showing symptoms of during the ICL when he kept referring to the Lahore Badshahs as ‘Pakistan’. Very professional I must say. O the burden of ignorance!

Mark Nicholas – Wishes he was Australian

The constant derision and mockery from the Australian team of commentators throughout the Test series that has just finished left me increasingly sensitive and aware of their every comment. In the 79th over of Pakistan’s first innings in the last Test, Salman Butt brought up his century and took off his helmet to do the sajda (prostration). Mark Nicholas, a ‘great friend’ of Pakistan cricket, then uttered something along the lines of:

“There seems to be a break play. Salman Butt is having his moment of worship…[pause]…which he is entitled to of course, but he also seemed to summon a drink or something”.

Now you would have to have listened to it to know exactly what was going on here with his tone of voice and what he was implying. Nicholas, as any keen follower of cricket will know, has a habit of sucking up to the Australians, and here he was at his sycophantic best. In order to try and please his fellow commentators, who were Australian, he thought he’d criticise Salman Butt for stopping play and calling for drinks when Butt was doing nothing of the sort. When Nicholas realised that

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Dr Kamran Abbasi has posted his latest article on cricinfo and it has provoked a lot of debate. The article is very critical of Mohammad Yousuf’s captaincy. His articles are usually very balanced yet this, which comes across as an emotional outburst, is a fair bit different from his usual posts. I don’t usually like posting long articles but I felt this was an important issue so do bear with me.

Result! My stock’s risen and I didn't even play!

As Pakistan supporters, we’re all frustrated and upset by the meek manner in which our team has surrendered to an Australian side that runs more on mental toughness than it does cricketing skill. Yet, to blame Mohammad Yousuf’s captaincy for the situation our team currently finds itself in is quite unfair. Dr Abbasi has been an outspoken supporter of Younis Khan as captain in the past and maybe his overly harsh criticism of Yousuf this time has something to do with this.

Yousuf has taken over at a difficult time with very little captaincy experience. We mustn’t forget that it was Younis who chickened out of the tours to New Zealand and Australia. Maybe he knew that staying in the background while Pakistan lose in Australia would make him look a better captain. Sadly, through the eyes of some it has.

It is extremely difficult to set fields or captain when your players cannot do the basics in the field or their job with the bat. A captain is only as good as his players. Until the last innings, Ponting hadn’t done much, he even made the mistake of batting first in the 2nd Test, but he’s soon going to find himself as the winning captain in a 3-0 series whitewash. Why? Because he could rely on his players. Yousuf, on the other hand, had nothing to fall back on. Nobody questioned Yousuf’s captaincy in New Zealand. Nobody questioned Yousuf’s captaincy in the 1st innings of the second Test. The difference was that the players were performing to some degree

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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.

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Talk amongst fans may have been regarding the ‘SOS’ sent to Younis Khan but fans tend to forget very easily. Younis has not been in the best of batting form but the manner in which some are going about recalling him, you’d think he was the answer to our problems. That answer, in my opinion, is Shahid Afridi. Younis’ addition to the line up would be right, not because of what he has done but what his replacements haven’t, but Afridi would be the man to make that difference. In the first innings, Australia just strolled along as our bowlers struggled for that elusive break through. That was a situation made for Afridi and his attacking brand of spin.

Shahid Afridi, time to pull out the Test whites

Just imagine that was Afridi bowling to Watson when he was on 99 in the second innings? Now that would have been entertainment and I’m sure Watson would have been heading for the dressing room having left a brown trail behind him. The good thing is that Afridi is close by, currently in Australia playing for the South Australia Redbacks in a twenty20 competition in which he won the man of the match award just yesterday with bowling figures of 4 for 19.

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