Stani Army

Calls for clemency as the kid is caught in the corruption

“They got their hooks into him as a baby, at a time when he would have had few confidants in the dressing room, few colleagues he could have gone to for guidance. These men, his team-mates, were meant to look after him; instead they corrupted him, blackened his soul and diminished his talent.

Look at Aamer’s no-ball. It is a joke. It is so exaggerated, so utterly out of keeping with his bowling performance on Friday that it attracted the attention of the television commentators.

Look at Asif’s. Barely over, a small misjudgement, hardly noticeable. To the naked eye, one man looks as if he knows what he is doing, the other hasn’t a clue. If the allegations are correct, both are cheating, but the older man appears better at it; one might even say more practised.” Martin Samuel – Daily Mail

“When I heard on Saturday night that Pakistan were involved in a match-fixing scandal, I immediately thought two things. The first was: I’m not massively surprised. The second was: please, don’t let it be Mohammad Aamer.When it turned out the lad was involved, it felt hugely disappointing. Mohammad Asif has got himself into scrapes before, but Aamer has been a breath of fresh air all summer. He’s revived the dying art of proper fast bowling and his future looked fantastic. Now it’s been tarnished. Lord’s felt a shallow place to be yesterday.” Nasser Hussain – Daily Mail

“the pain of witnessing a young boy of the most beguiling talent and apparently sunny nature making what might just prove to be his last strides in a theatre of sport he had come to command so brilliantly, so quickly.

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I did mention a while back that this tour would be a defining one for three of our experienced batsmen that did not make the squads, namely Misbah, Yousuf and Younis. Well it seems the discussion about their exclusion will now be re-ignited after the current batting line up failed again, this time against England.

Whilst overhead conditions were favourable to the English bowlers, it was a good track and for the Pakistani top five to make a combined score of just 40, some fault must lie with them. Nasser Hussain said in the break that when he was captain, batsmen did have the tendency to come back with a resigned attitude after being dismissed in swinging conditions, as if to say ‘ Oh well it’s swinging, there was nothing we could do’. Yet he went on to say that that should not be an excuse because that is the true test of the skill of the batsman, whether he can negotiate the movement or not. It’s obvious the skill of our batsmen was lacking.

Whilst there have been some encouraging performances here and there, it has to be said that our batsmen have so far failed on the whole. In the four innings we had against Australia, our highest innings total was just 289. For a Test match that is simply not good enough

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We did mention on Stani Army that Umar Gul would be missed at the Twenty20 World Cup, and today he showed just why. At the end of the 17^th over, Australia were still in it with Michael Hussey still at the crease. On came Gul for his 3^rd over and cleaned up the dangerous Hussey with a superb yorker that seemed to move both ways. At the end of that over, in which Gul also took the wicket of Tim Paine, the game was effectively over. Once again he has shown why he is the best Twenty20 bowler in the world.

But what gave the bowlers something to bowl at was the superb innings from Umar Akmal. With Pakistan missing Mohammed Yousuf, Younis Khan and Misbah Ul-Haq from their squads, the talk before this tour was of the younger Akmal having to step up to the mark. He has certainly started off very well, with an innings of class, filled with a complete range of strokes. Hopefully there will be more to come from him.

Shahid Afridi also had a good game in the field. Though he failed with the bat, he bowled at his attacking best, took two very good catches and made the right bowling changes at the right times. His decision not to risk Shoaib Akhtar for a 3^rd over was a strong and correct one.

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The stupidity of Shahid Afridi’s actions was profound, there is no question. As if the two whitewashes hadn’t caused us fans enough embarrassment, Afridi had to compound it by taking a bite out of the ball with as much subtlety as that spectator’s tackle on Khalid Latif. By the way, everyone’s talking about security in Pakistan, what happened here Cricket Australia?

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

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For quite some time now, I’ve felt that those of a coloured complexion in English cricket have not been given a fair chance when it comes to playing for THEIR country. At first I fought against thinking this way as it was a very easy accusation to make, but after Ravi Bopara’s recent exclusion I have run out of reasons to defend it.

I have always felt that Nasser Hussain (along with Duncan Fletcher) till this day has never been given enough credit for what he did for England. People are all too ready to shove their heads up Michael Vaughan’s behind yet fail to recognise the work Hussain put in in dragging the English side off the floor and onto its feet before Vaughan arrived. Those that point to Vaughan’s Test record should know that a captain is only as good as his team. Had Hussain had half the players Vaughan had at his disposal, he would have done much better in my opinion.

Many Asian cricketers have manged to break into the English set-up but have not been given a fair chance and have been axed at the earliest opportunity, or have been ignored completely even when excelling in county cricket; the yard stick used by the ECB. Sajid Mahmood, Kabir Ali, Vikram Solanki, Mark Ramprakash and Owais Shah are just a few that come to mind

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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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