Stani Army

The PCB's 'legal eagle', Tafazzul Rizvi

I don’t know much about Pakistan’s legal adviser Mr Tafazzul Rizvi, but something tells me he doesn’t enjoy striking whilst the iron is hot. The ICC have cleared Pakistan of any wrong doing in the ODI against England at the Oval, yet all we see coming from the Pakistan camp is an expression of relief. It appears this was a completely false newspaper allegation made by an English tabloid at a sensitive time and was a kick in the ribs that Pakistan did not need as it was already on the canvas. It resulted in Pakistan being further ridiculed and shamed in the media with the likes of Ian Botham calling for Pakistan to be banned from cricket, and the likes of James Anderson, Tim Bresnan and Jonathan Trott making on-field comments they shouldn’t have. These allegations were most hurtful to the remaining clean Pakistani players after the three of Asif, Amir and Butt, who were linked with the spot fixing scandal, had been sent home. Yet the Pakistan camp just expresses relief? They should have jumped on this straight away.

Cricinfo reports that when Tafazzul Rizvi was asked about the news that Pakistan had been cleared and whether there would be any pending legal suit against the Sun newspaper, his reply was that they would await for the outcome of the inquiry into the initial News of the World spot fixing allegations. Yet the News of the World’s and the Sun’s allegations were completely separate. Why should they not instigate legal proceedings against the Sun now, whilst also taking a look at the role of the ICC, who broke the news of an investigation before informing the PCB

Read the rest of this entry »

Misbah Ul-Haq receiving the trophy for leading his side to a domestic title earlier this year. He comes with plenty of domestic captaincy experience

Though it seems that Misbah Ul-Haq has been appointed Pakistan’s Test captain for the two games in the UAE against South Africa more through circumstance than preference, it is the right appointment as far as Stani Army is concerned.

Upset at being dropped for the tour of England, Misbah’s argument was that he had a better average in all forms of the game than most of the touring party, and he had a case. The reasons for Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan’s axing were that the former had retired and the latter had still not apologised for some apparent disciplinary issue. The reason for Misbah’s axing was less obvious even though it was said that the team was looking to go in a new direction with younger players. The recall of the 36 year old Yousuf mid-series put paid to that excuse. Many argued that Misbah was out of form, but then which of the Pakistan batsmen had shown form in the series’ in New Zealand and Australia that had preceded? At least Misbah had been making runs in domestic cricket whilst the others continued to fail on the international stage.

When Younis Khan resigned as captain this time last year, we went through the four possible candidates for the job of captain and Misbah certainly looked as good as the rest if not better in our opinion. He seemed a clean member of the side (from corruption as oppose to drugs!…o.k, and drugs), intelligent and well-spoken. This is something that former Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson has mentioned recently, backing the choice of Misbah as captain. Lawson said that Misbah had the “best cricketing brain” in Pakistan, which is no small compliment

Read the rest of this entry »

Ijaz Butt multi-tasks: On the phone and reading the newspaper upside down at the same time. Isn't Pakistan cricket lucky?!

Ijaz Butt’s outburst was a real chance for the ECB and ICC to do something for Pakistan cricket in helping to remove Butt from his position as captain of the Pakistan ship. But a simple apology from Butt means that all is well and good once again. For the ECB, ICC and Ijaz Butt, it is at least, but under Butt’s command the Pakistan ship continues to drift into rough seas towards rocky shores.

I was hoping that Butt would be stubborn as usual and refuse to apologise, forcing the ECB to take him to court, and the ICC to suspend him. But deep down there was a feeling that he would retract his comments with a grovelling apology in a desperate attempt to hold onto his position. Self-preservation has always been Ijaz Butt’s main goal.

The ICC, it is believed, were ready to suspend Butt yet preferred to give him time to retract his comments and issue an apology. The head of each ICC member board automatically becomes an ICC Director, and it is from this role that the ICC could have suspended Butt. Yet instead of getting their hands dirty, they waited, as they love to do, rather than take the lead as the game’s governing body and take the required action against a guy that cricket does not need.

The ECB had taken their position very early in threatening legal action unless Butt apologised. I get the feeling that any legal battle may have overlapped their beloved up and coming Ashes series as court cases are generally long and drawn out, and England did not want to be dragged into such a distraction. Nevertheless, the allegations were grave and I’m surprised the ECB has settled for a simple apology.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Pakistan Cricket Board has announced that it will be taking legal action against the ICC and the British tabloid paper the Sun after they made public allegations that Pakistan had taken money to fix their scoring pattern in the third ODI at the Oval.

A PCB statement read: “The PCB and the Pakistan players completely reject the allegations made by the Sun newspaper and the ICC yesterday about the Pakistan team’s conduct in the 3rd Nat West ODI at The Brit Insurance Oval.

“The allegation’s were wholly irresponsible and completely without foundation.”

“The PCB expresses its gratitude for the outstanding conduct of the Pakistan team since after the first spot fixing story broke and will take all legal and disciplinary action which may result from these allegations.”

“It remains in the best interests of world cricket, the players and in particular of cricket supporters that the tour should continue, and it would set a dangerous precedent to call off a tour based on the misguided and inaccurate allegations of an English tabloid.”

Pakistan’s recently appointed new Chief Executive said: “We are looking for an apology. If it does not come we’ll look at other options. You can’t impugn someone’s integrity without having proper evidence.”

Read the rest of this entry »

I read somewhere that Ijaz Butt’s tenure as PCB chairmen was coming to an end but I’m not certain of the ins and outs of it all or how long he was brought in at the helm for. I’m sure one way of getting rid of him was if England were to sue him for defamation after his latest comments accusing English players of match fixing in the third ODI.

Now if by some remarkable act Ijaz Butt presents the world clear evidence to back up his claims, I’d be the first to hold up my hands. But, I have complete faith in his ineptness and stupid rantings that this will not happen. From reading his comments, I think the English team have a very strong case and should take him to the cleaners which would then

Read the rest of this entry »

The only evidence of ball tampering in the fourth ODI at Lord's as Paul Collingwood uses the wrong ball (his own) to knock off the bails

So what’s the next accusation the English media have in store for Pakistan? Whilst they’ve broke three match fixing stories, the next one will probably be about how Umar Gul was able to reverse swing the ball so much in engineering England’s downfall in both the last two ODIs.

In both matches, there was a sense of inevitability as Umar Gul and Shaoib Akhtar  began to reverse swing the ball as English wickets tumbled. It was as if the hand of God was guiding the ball down the wicket and giving it a little sideways nudge at the end. It was signature Pakistan. No other bowling attack in the world could ever attest to showing such quality swing bowling in cleaning up a batting line up.

As the whiter ball came into play in the 35th over of the fourth ODI, you could see the cameras starting to zoom in on the Pakistan players’ hands to check if there was anything untoward going on. There was even a comment by one of the commentators at how remarkable it is that a newish second ball can begin to reverse in and around the 42nd over, just 7 overs after it had been taken.

The ball tampering accusations were hurled at us in 1992 with Waqar and Wasim and it may happen again, but as Geoffrey Boycott said back then, “they could have bowled England out with an orange”.

Read the rest of this entry »

England had no answer to Gul's reverse swing

A quite brilliant spell of swing bowling from Umar Gul clinched Pakistan the third ODI against England at the Oval. Gul finished with figures of 6-42 which included three bowled dismissals. Through certain parts of the Test series and the previous two ODIs, Gul has looked a shadow of the man who holds the accolade of being the best bowler in Twenty cricket – the form of cricket which is harshest on bowlers. Gul does seem to be one of those bowlers that needs to be near optimum fitness in order to perform at his best. A few niggles whilst he has been over here in England may lay claim to why he hadn’t shown the type of bowling he showed today.

At most points throughout the England innings it seemed as a forgone conclusion that England would knock off the runs and go into a 3-0 unassailable lead. Indeed, Billy Doctrove who saved Andrew Strauss and England in the last game tried his best to do so again today when he for some reason did not refer a stumping appeal to the third umpire. Luke Wright was the batsman and Umar Akmal, deputising for his injured brother behind the stumps, did very well to time the stumping just as Wright’s foot was off the ground. Rather than go up to the thrid umpire and make sure, Doctrove immediately said no as Akmal appealed.

Earlier in Pakistan’s innings, there was a far less convincing appeal by England, and one that would be far less in line with the spirit of the game, when Shahid Afridi took evasive action to a throw which struck his bat and went onto the stumps. Docrtrove walked over to the stumps to replace the bails and seemed as if he wasn’t going to even consider it as a run out until Stewart Broad queried it. After taking a few seconds to think about it, Doctrove

Read the rest of this entry »

You’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m talking about match fixing here but I’m not. This ugly face of cricket is one that is acceptable to fans, players and the game’s law makers alike. In Pakistan’s second ODI against England on Sunday, Andrew Strauss deflected the ball off his glove to the wicket-keeper yet stood his ground and refused to walk after umpire Billy Doctrove unbelievably failed to give it out. Now some may say that this is just part of the game but why does it have to be?

Andrew Strauss sullies the game but it's acceptable

Cricket has always seemed to take the moral high-ground when it comes to sports related problems such racism and hooliganism we see in football, or the continued battle athletics has with drugs use. But there is no other sport where cheating is so blatantly accepted as just a part of the game. We saw the hue and cry over the recent spot fixing allegations against the Pakistan player where law makers, supporters and players of various nations acting as if they had been truly hurt, but where are these voices when something like this happens? I deplore match-fixing, let me make that clear, but I deplore this form of cheating too. Whilst people may argue there is no comparison between the no-balls Amir and Asif bowled, I will simply ask them which act influenced the result of the game? Was it those no-balls or Strauss’ failure to walk when he was on 38 and went on to make a match winning 126. Who is the bigger cheat?

Read the rest of this entry »