Stani Army

Akmal was dope tested before the World Cup. Unfortunately they tested for the wrong kind of dope

Pakistan’s unbeaten record at the World up came to an end with an almighty crash today, as they were put to the sword by Ross Taylor.

In all honesty, Pakistan followers would have known that there was a performance like this just around the corner, and on closer inspection, this unbeaten run wasn’t as special as it was being made out to be anyway. Two of the three victories came against minnows, in games that were not as comfortable as they should have been. The only real decent victory was against Sri Lanka, and one good game is no winning run. Certainly this false sense of things going well may be the reason why they have failed to make the necessary changes in team personnel.

Chief architect in today’s defeat was wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal who dropped three catches – two off Ross Taylor, when he was on 0 and 4 respectively. Taylor went on to make an unbeaten 131, helping New Zealand make 102 runs off the final 5 overs.

Many of those that have called for Kamran to be axed must be banging their heads against a wall right now. Had he been a South American footballer, his mistakes would have seen him go into hiding in fear of his life. The captain and coach need to take the decision and take the gloves of Kamran for the rest of the tournament, even if they still play him as a batsman or, they should drop him outright. As a friend of mine once said, maybe it’s time to drop Kamran just so he knows how the ball feels.

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Pakistan got their World Cup campaign successfully underway today as they dominated a poor Kenya side to win by 205 runs. Shahid Afridi starred with the ball, taking 5 wickets for just 16 runs, recording the best ever figures by a Pakistan bowler at the World Cup.

Earlier in the week Afridi promised to do all he could to bring the World Cup trophy home after Pakistan were banned from hosting the tournament alongside India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh following the terrorist attacks of 2009, and he looked to make good on his promise with an impressive bowling performance.

Bigfreebet will have installed Pakistan as clear favourites, but their opponents were poorer than expected and sent down a joint record number of wide balls, unenviably matching the 37 the West Indies bowled in the 1991 tournament.

The Kenyans had begun the game well, and restricted a Pakistan batting attack looking to take advantage of their lesser opponents. Two wickets down with just 12 runs on the board, Kenya looked to replicate the success of the Netherlands against England yesterday by putting pressure on their esteemed opponents.

But the Pakistan middle-order came good as they accelerated through the innings, moving from 129-3 off 28 overs to an imposing 317-7; a figure which always looked out of Kenya’s reach

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Akmal: "Being dropped is not an easy thing to take". Yes, imagine what the ball feels like Kamran!

With the World Cup fast approaching, and Pakistan choosing to send in a early preliminary list of layers to the ICC for vetting, Kamran Akmal has decided to come out into the open about his frustrations at being ignored. Having asked the ICC if he is under any investigation and been given the green light, Akmal is surprised as to why he has not been brought back into the fold after being dropped for his poor performances in England.

The belief is that Akmal is being shunned by the PCB as there are suspicions that he has been involved in match fixing. With the PCB recently being told by the ICC to clean up their act, they may just be playing it safe by keeping Akmal away from the international side, even if there is no hard evidence he has been involved in fixing.

So why is there this cloud over Akmal? Suspicions first arose during the tour of Australia when Akmal dropped four catches behind the stumps in the 2nd Test, three of them off of Michael Hussey, who was Australia’s only hope left in the innings. Hussey managed a century, and carried his bat with the tail with Pakistan eventually losing by 36 runs. This led to Akmal being questioned by the PCB, and he was later dropped for the Twenty20s against England in Dubai.

When Pakistan flew to England, Akmal was sent a notice by the ICC seeking information about events related to the 2010 World Twenty20 held in the Caribbean, as the suspicion in regards to Akmal’s performances continued. On the same tour, he was dropped for the 2nd Test against England after a string of missed opportunities behind the stumps and poor batting scores.

He was also recently named in a video by fixer Mazhar Majeed as one of six Pakistan players that Majeed had on his side, ready to engage in fixing games

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Pakistan have made a number of changes to their Test squad for the two-Test series against South Africa starting this Friday. The most surprising is the inclusion of Adnan Akmal, brother of Kamran and Umar. Adnan, who is the second youngest of the three, keeps wicket and was called in as replacement for Zulqarnain Haider. Regarded as more of a specialist wicket-keeper, Adnan has been quoted as saying that he believes he is the best wicket-keeper in Pakistan. I’m not sure what older brother Kamran will think of that but I guess we will soon find out about the younger man’s credentials.

Want your child to play for Pakistan? Name him Akmal!

Adnan averages just under 23 runs with the bat in the domestics, which is 11 fewer than Haider and 7 fewer than his brother Kamran. If he is any good at keeping though, expect him to cement a place in the side as Zulqarnain has gone into retirement and Kamran is well known for his blunders with the gloves. It means it is a complete turnaround for the Akmal family

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So the Sun newspaper, feeling left out after the revelations by its sister paper the News of the World, needed to get in on the match fixing scandal act by alleging that spot fixing took place during Pakistan’s victory over England in the third ODI at the Oval.

Having received evidence from the newspaper, the ICC have felt it necessary to launch an investigation into allegations that the Pakistan batting innings was scripted, with scoring patterns in two specific overs matching the evidence provided to the ICC before the game. Could something still be going on or could the said scoring patterns have been just a coincidence?

The fact that the ICC felt it necessary to launch an investigation will point to them having some substantial evidence to do so. But there are a number of reasons why these recent ongoings may just be a coincidence.

With the spotlight of the world on the Pakistan side, would anyone in the team have been brave or foolish enough to take instructions from bookies? I would be very surprised if this was the case. Secondly, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir who had been implicated previously are no longer in the side. Salman Butt was even referred to as the ringleader, so with the aforementioned not being there would something untoward still be going on? Also, with the police on Mazhar Majeed’s tail, it would be highly unlikely that he would still have contact with any of the players let alone be setting up fixes. It’s certain any other agent looking from the outside wouldn’t have dared try anything now too.

Which batsmen could have been involved?
If you look at the Pakistani line up, the only player there to have been linked with the original scandal was Kamran Akmal. Yet just looking at his innings on the day would tell you that Akmal wasn’t in long enough to carry out any instructions and neither would his freak dismissal (the ball deflected off the underside of his thigh pad, behind his leg and onto the stumps) have been something purposely planned out.

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The PCB needs to drop Salman Butt and the other three named players with immediate effect

It’s been suggested by some writers that the remainder of Pakistan’s tour should be stopped after Sunday’s match fixing allegations. Fixer Mazhar Majeed was taped telling  the undercover News of the World reporter that two of the upcoming ODIs against England had been marked out to be fixed. This has rightly raised doubts over the legitimacy of the contest between the two sides during the rest of the tour.

But as long as the players who the allegations were brought against are withdrawn from the squad, stopping the tour will serve no purpose. We must think of the Pakistan fans and the players in the squad that are completely innocent. We must think of the host nation and the losses they will suffer due to any abandonment.

The chances of the plans for the two matches that were to be fixed going ahead are pretty slim now. The issue has come to the world’s attention and any player would not even consider putting a foot wrong, pardon the pun, in the ODIs and Twenty20s to come. Should the PCB drop the suspected players – including Salman Butt who was refereed to as the ring leader – then the alleged plans to fix the two ODIs would have even less chance of going ahead. Though slight supporter suspicion will remain, the two points above would almost guarantee that the integrity of the contest in the remaining fixtures is maintained. Stopping the tour would be an overreaction and pretty pointless.

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The News of the World Newspaper is reporting that the Pakistan team has been involved in match fixing in the final Test at Lord’s. The paper’s undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood, set up the sting after tracking down a match fixer by the name of Mazhar Majeed. Majeed agreed that he would arrange for the Pakistan bowlers, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir, to bowl no-balls at exactly the agreed point in the match in exchange for £150,000. This form of match fixing is know as spot fixing, whereby bets are placed on certain aspects of a game rather than the result.

In footage which will send a shudder through Pakistan fans, Mazhar Majeed is seen telling the reporter exactly at which point Amir and Asif will bowl no-balls in the Lord’s Test.  Majeed tells the reporter that it will be the first ball of the third over and the last ball of the tenth, bowled by Amir and Asif respectively. Shockingly, this is exactly what happens and in the case of Amir, he no-balls half a foot over the crease. If it is proved that the video was filmed before the event then the evidence I’m afraid looks pretty damning. Majeed’s other promises to the reporter that turned out to be correct were another no-ball from Amir and a maiden over batted out by captain Salman Butt.

Crooked Majeed, went on to name Captain Salman Butt and wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal as two other players he has on side. He bragged that he has links with Indian bookies, manages ten of the Pakstani players and works “very closely with the PCB”

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Pakistan have announced the squad for the upcoming ODI series and Twenty Internationals against England and there are a few interesting changes. It does seem that one squad of 16 has been announced for both formats with the likes of Abdur Rehman and Shoaib Malik who had made  the 14 man Twenty20 squad that beat Australia 2-0 earlier on the tour, missing out this time around.

The fortunes of Yousuf and Malik seem to be going in opposite directions

Shoaib Malik’s exclusion for the last Test against England came as no surprise but his exclusion from this limited over squad is slightly more surprising. With Fawad Alam and Mohammed Hafeez coming back in, maybe Malik’s role would have been seen as being covered adequately enough. Hafeez’s inclusion also means that there is no place for Imran Farhat, who strangely enough, is probably more suited to the shorter form.

Most interestingly, Mohammed Yousuf has completed his come back by being named also. One would think that he’d only be used in the ODIs but I for one am certain he could do a job in the Twenty20 see-ball hit-ball form of the game. Younis Khan was overlooked because, according to captain Shahid Afridi, he has not sorted out his dispute with the PCB. In what seems a very unsympathetic and ruthless statement, Afridi said: “I asked the chairman PCB about the situation with Younis twice. But the clearance wasn’t given by the PCB. I did what I had to do”. Make of that what you will.

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