Stani Army

The Champions Trophy is set to kick off on the 22nd of September in South Africa. On paper, Pakistan seem to be in the tougher of the two groups (A) but with the typical unpredictability of them and the West Indies, who are in their group, this may turn out to be the easier of the two groups in terms of the margin by which the top two progress to the knockout stages. The other two sides in group A are Australia and India respectively. Should the West Indies and Pakistan blow cold rather than hot, Australia and India will pretty much cruise through. Should they do their potential justice however, it will be a very tough, exciting and close fought group.

Umar Gul and Younis Khan have come out and said how they’d love to beat India but there’s a trophy out there up for grabs, a tournament, so let’s concentrate on that. Holding the Champions Trophy as well as the Twenty20 World Cup will strengthen any argument about Pakistan being the side to beat in the shorter form of the game so there’s plenty of incentive there.

The other group (B), is made up of England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

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Mohammad Asif’s inclusion in the Champions Trophy squad has divided opinion amongst Pakistani fans. Many feel that he will be undercooked and I get the feeling that the remainder just don’t want to see him back because of the issues he’s had with drugs, which is fair enough.

If you keep in mind Pakistan’s tour to Australia which follows the Champions Trophy, then bringing Asif back now would be the right thing to do in my opinion, but whether the selectors thought of this is another matter. This will be a vital series for us and we’ll need our best bowling attack and Asif would certainly fit into that category as he’s arguably the most talented seam bowler in world cricket.  The Australian tour comprises of 3 Tests, 5 ODIs and a Twenty20. If Asif was not picked for the Champions Trophy then it would be very difficult to justify his inclusion in a team to play Australia, especially with the 3 Test matches coming up first.

The fact that the Champions Trophy is a short tournament in which he’ll come up against quality but where the result won’t matter as much as it would in a WC tournament, makes it a good place to return. If he does fail, then at least he’ll fail here and not on a long and important tour.

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Was I the only one who thought Umar Gul was darn unlucky not to get the player of the tournament award? It went to Tillakaratne Dilshan for scoring the most runs in the tournament. But in a batsmen’s game, surely a bowlers achievements should be recognised more? Shorter outfields and flatter wickets; certainly it was easier to bat well than bowl well no?

Of course, Gul’s was not just any achievement but a record, a first ever 5-wicket haul in International Twenty20s with his spell of 5 for 6 in three overs against New Zealand. Maybe the ICC didn’t want a Pakistani clean sweep so decided to spread the awards out. It’s either that or Daniel Vettori must have been on the ICC judges panel.

The other issue I had was the fact that the next Twenty20 World Cup is going to be held in April 2010, meaning that we will not even hold the title for a year. I will not go over it in detail as to why as Q has done a fine job of this over at Well Pitched, but it all stems from the cancellation of the Champions trophy in Pakistan in 2008. I suppose it does make sense but it’s just sad we will probably be the shortest holders of the World T20 title

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The ban on the 19 Pakistani cricketers who participated in the ICL has been temporarily lifted by the Sind High Court, allowing the players to participate in domestic cricket. Whilst this was positive news for Pakistan’s ICL players, for those Pakistani players affiliated with the IPL, things were not so positive.

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