Stani Army

I’m not sure many of you have read Samir Chopra’s latest article on Cricinfo’s Different Strokes blog, but it is simply outrageous. Filled with sarcasm, insult, hatred, ignorance and a bit of jealousy, Chopra gives us his views on the recent banning and fining of Pakistan players by the PCB. He starts of questioning whether any of what has gone on is “even mildly interesting?”, but seems to ignore the obvious that it was interesting enough for him to write about it.

It was Aldous Huxley that once said “The pleasures of ignorance are as great, in their way, as the pleasures of knowledge” and it is evident from the article that Chopra gained great pleasure in telling us what he ‘knows’ about Pakistan cricket. Certainly, from his photo on Cricinfo, it is clear he is someone quite fond of himself generally. Having taken exception to his piece, I decided to write the following as a comment: “A shameful article by someone who quite clearly has a chip on his shoulder. How long have you kept that pent up inside you?”. Who thinks my comment was allowed through? Wrong, it wasn’t, but can anyone tell me why?

Here’s a taste of his work:
“There is a way of describing Pakistani cricket, which used to be tiresome but which has now started to strike me as patently offensive. This is the insistence that Pakistani cricket is charmingly erratic, wonderfully unpredictable, beautifully inconsistent, sublimely indisciplined. Right, I’m making these up. But you see the pattern. Pair a couple of adjectives which span the spectrum from the sublime to the sordid and have a go at describing Pakistani cricket. And I suspect the world of Pakistani cricket revels in this description, because this sort of indulgent tolerance gives it a free pass.”

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Stani Army was recently approached by the guys at MTJAG, who are avid Indian fans, to take part in a question and answer exchange. They asked if I would ask them questions on Indian cricket for which they would provide answers for, and they would in turn do the same on the subject of Pakistan cricket for which I would provide the answers. We had hoped to have it done and posted on the respective sites before the India v Pakistan game but …errm, just like the governments of the two countries we had a few communication problems but obviously not of the same nature, thankfully.

‘MTJAG’, though it may sound like a luxury car that’s run out of petrol, it does in fact stand for ‘More Than Just A Game’. They occupy a pretty unique niche among sporting blogs covering both football and cricket, something many sports fan, including us at Stani Army, can identify with. Big shout out to all West Ham fans across the world, come on you Irons!

You can find their answers to my questions on Indian cricket below. You will find their questions and my answers on Pakistan cricket at More Than Just A Game any time soon so be sure to visit their great blog!

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This eagerly anticipated contest didn’t disappoint, at least from the Pakistani point of view. And they say the Australia England rivalry is bigger in cricket? I don’t think so.

Pakistan’s victory was set up due to a brilliant partnership of 206 between Mohammad Yousuf (87) and man of the match, Shoaib Malik (128). The pacing of the partnership left MS Dhoni scratching his head but you have to feel for the guy as only Ashish Nehra and Yusuf Pathan did anything of note with the ball for them.

It is a well held belief that if Pakistan’s batsmen fired then they’d be a force to be reckoned with as the bowling usually takes care of itself. Unfortunately for India, their bowling was their weak link and many of their bowlers looked devoid of ideas and played into Pakistan’s hands. The most frustrating of them for Indian fans must be Ishant Sharma. After bursting onto the scene he has flattered to deceive even though he posses all the attributes you’d need to be a top quality fast bowler. India’s main selection conundrum is the bowling all rounder spot. It means that their bowlers have to do their job and their batsmen likewise. If either fails, then it becomes difficult for them to make it up.

Of Pakistan’s bowlers, the normally reliable Umar Gul had a surprisingly off day giving many extras and conceding 55 of his 6 overs. It must be said that Younis should have dragged him

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It was said to be the more difficult group and so it proved as the current holders India went out of the tournament. It was sad in a way as the favourites, and rightly so, did not manage to quite galvanise themselves when it mattered after two easy pre-tournament games. The loss of the brilliant Sehwag and talk of unrest behind the scenes can’t have helped.

There’ll be lots of ifs, buts and maybes from the Indians; would India have did it had Yuvraj stopped the 5 byes in Harbajan’s last over? Yuvraj himself would say that he made up for that with a ridiculously good first ball 6. Then there’s Jadeja who faced 3 overs of dots. Many said that he played too slow yet he will argue that he got two important wickets including that of Pietersen’s and took an important catch.

It was clear what Pietersen and Collingwood felt fired the English up and that was the booing their team got at the beginning of the game. It was a strange thing to have occurred

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