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, why on earth did he come out with the excuse that he was smelling the ball? He would have even been better off saying that he was starving because of the poor Australian cuisine.

Afridi has history of course. In a game against England, he walked onto the middle of the pitch and preceded to do a few pirouettes to scuff up the track with his spikes. Highly subtle once again. Yet maybe he should have used his spikes on the ball this time by stepping on it as it obviously legal as it worked for Stuart Broad in the recent match against South Africa where he got away with it.

Stuart Broad, sinking his spikes into the ball & doing "nothing wrong"

And the difference between what Broad and Afridi did? Nothing. So why did he get away with it? Well it’s obvious, Broad is an Englishman. Broad knew what he was doing and as soon as the allegations emerged, the English PR machine went into overdrive with Broad being “astonished” by the allegations, Strauss calling them “malicious” and Cook being angry since they’d done “nothing wrong”. At the time, Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Simon Wilde of The Sunday Times had suggested that the outcome would have been far different if the bowler who did it was from Pakistan. It is clear this difference they spoke of is being shown to some extent in how Afridi’s actions were dealt with. If you look at the effect it has on the ball, surely metal spikes are worse than the enamel that teeth are made of? But I guess in the eyes of the ICC, a Pakistani is worse than an Englishman too.

What Afridi did was wrong and embarrassing, but that and what Broad did shows why it continues to pay to be from certain countries. Just ask Sulieman Benn who was suspended after an incident with Mitchell Johnson and the saint that is Brad Haddin. Haddin, who instigated the clash, and Johnson who clearly makes physical contact with Benn first (at 3 minutes 55 secs), were only fined a fraction of their match fees, whereas Benn was banned, after the match referee had finished analysing his findings. That match referee was Broad’s daddy Chris, by the way. If you don’t want to call it racism, then call it whatever you will, but what it is, is obvious.

Last chance for a talent unfulfilled

So why Sami and not anyone from our contracted players? We have Rana Naved, though not an out and out pace bowler, he has many strings to his bow. Rana is quite expensive though and this is probably the reason why he has never been favoured in Tests. Then there’s Sohail Tanvir and Yasir Arafat, both of whom can bat a bit and would have added strength to an already fragile batting line up. We also have Sohail Khan, a young raw talent who’s played just the one Test, against Sri Lanka earlier this year in which he failed to take any wickets and went for more than 6 runs per over. Also, there have been better performing fast bowlers on the domestic circuit, yet because of the poor quality of our domestic league, we cannot really use those performances as the be all and end all argument, whether it’s for or against the selection of any player.

I do not want to be too critical of Sami’s inclusion as I just have the sneaky feeling that if he does play, he will do quite well. After all, if Sami ever wanted an incentive to succeed, here it is. Having been in the wilderness since 2007 and now almost 29 years of age, with the emergence of the likes of Mohammad Aamer, even Sami would not have imagined he’d get an opportunity like this.

What seems to have worked in Sami’s favour is his experience at the top level and the fact that he has played in Australia before. In December 2004, Sami took 5 wickets in two Tests, having bowled 68 overs at almost 4.5 runs an over. Another advantage is the fact that Waqar Younis, who Sami has played and worked with before, will be with the team as bowling coach. Considering the above, his inclusion does seem to be a reasonable decision. Looking at it from Sami’s point of view, it is a great chance for him to get back in the team and go some way to fulfilling his obvious potential.

The chief protagonists in the fight back for Pakistan were Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Asif and Rana Naved who bowled maidens in both the 45th and 47th overs of the Australian innings. This meant that not only had the Aussies have to worry about wickets but also the number of balls remaining.

Australia tied the game with a ball remaining which meant that India were out of the tournament at that point. Requiring one off the last ball they got there with a bye to keeper Kamran Akmal whose throw, had it hit the stumps, would have resulted in the game finishing tied rather than in an Australian win.

Pakistan again demonstrated why they have the world’s premier bowling attack. It had it all, spin, unerringly accurate yorkers…it was a joy to watch. Who said 50 over ODIs were boring? Well they certainly are not when Pakistan play them!

Pakistan will now play New Zealand in the semi-finals on the 3rd of October. Aamer will no doubt be back for that but Asif’s second spell would have got the captain and selectors wondering. He did well but expect Pakistan to go into the semi-finals with the side that beat India in the group stages.

A Test series will follow sometime this year although PCB Chairman has already hinted at the fact that it will not take place in Pakistan by suggesting England as a replacement venue. They may as well just book it now. 

Why the special treatment for the Aussies? This is clear proof of Imran Khan’s point about Pakistan suffering because of this “War on Terror”.

Schedule:
April 22: 1st ODI (Dubai)
April 24: 2nd ODI (Dubai)
April 27: 3rd ODI (Abu Dhabi)
May 1: 4th ODI (Abu Dhabi)
May 3: 5th ODI (Abu Dhabi)
May 7: Twenty20 (Dubai)

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.

The disappointing thing is that when an issue like this is highlighted it is brought into the public eye and more attention, including that of those who would want to stop it, is focused onto it. Maybe the boards and the players, the Australians in particular, should have kept quiet and had discussions behind closed doors whilst coming to a decision instead of attracting so much media attention. South Africa and Zimbabwe toured Pakistan and no terrorist was probably any the wiser – not that they’d care about cricket anyway. Yet we had players, of whom Andrew Symonds was most outspoken, come out and continuously make statements when nothing had even been decided upon. It’s all well and good knocking over streakers Andrew but why don’t you come over to Pakistan and show us how hard you really are.

With the security assurances and the fact that South Africa, Australia-A and Zimbabwe toured without a problem, does Cricket Australia have a genuine reason for pulling out of the tour? If they do pull out then it will be interesting to see whether Pakistan do like-wise and boycott their tour of Australia in November 2009. They could always cite a fear of naked men running on the pitch as a reason as I’m sure the Pakistan players would not want to get as close as Andrew Symonds wanted to.

Give us your views and cast your vote in our poll.

Although not yet official, with the messages that have been fed to the media in dribs and drabs from both Cricket Australia and the Australian players over the last few weeks, the cancellation of their tour looks odds-on.

The effects of a political situation on a country are not something that changes over night. Is Australia ever going to be ready to tour Pakistan? If in their eyes, Pakistan is not safe now, how much safer will it be in 3-5 years? Will a team who has not played at the home of one of the major test playing nations since 1998 have the right to call itself the best?

The saddest thing is that this game of cricket has to be mixed up in the wretchedness of politics. I read an argument by an Australian fan the other day who basically said that if you can’t protect your ex-Prime Minster (Benazir Bhutto) how are you going to protect the Australian team. Well, unless Ricky Ponting is going to run for Prime Minister in the Pakistan elections then I don’t see how the two situations compare.

Cricket Australia won’t want the players to tour because they won’t want to be held responsible were the worst case scenario to occur. The players; well they won’t mind because it’ll mean that they can make a quick buck in the IPL. It’s only right that Cricket Australia should be concerned about player safety but what is the degree of risk in Pakistan and is it perceived or actual.

Let’s flip it on its head. Could Cricket Australia guarantee the safety of any team in their country more than Pakistan can of Australia visiting them? The simple answer is that they can’t. If bad people wanted to do bad things they would do them; doesn’t matter where.

There are many foreign businesses and people in Pakistan yet there is no mention of them getting by without any trouble. The Pakistan team Coach, Geoff Lawson, an Australian himself, has come out and made it clear that the situation on the ground is not as it is portrayed in the media. There is risk everywhere in the world. The fact is that when you get yourself out of bed in the morning you put yourself at risk – in which case, I better stay right where I am.