Stani Army

The outspoken Afridi pays the price

Shahid Afridi has been removed as ODI captain for the upcoming one-day series against Ireland.

The 31-year-old helped guide Pakistan to the semi-finals of the World Cup earlier this year and was also in charge durin the recent 3-2 series victory over the West Indies, but has now been replaced by Misbah-ul-Haq, who will lead the side for the two games against Ireland in Belfast later this month.

“Afridi has been retained as a player in the one-day squad but the captaincy has gone to Misbah” the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt said.

Afridi recently spoke out against the PCB and accused them of interfering with his role as captain of the 50-over side during the recent series win in the Caribbean.

Pakistan’s governing body then responded disputing the accusation, and while they refused to give a reason for Afridi leaving the role, they maintained that it was PCB policy to monitor the role of captain on a “series by series basis”.

Afridi stepped down from the test side last summer and returned home following the conclusion of the series against the West Indies.

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Asad Shafiq; looks to be made of the right stuff

Pakistan may find themselves 2-0 down in the ODI series against England but Stani fans can take some hope from the two performances, particularly today’s one. In the first game which Pakistan lost by 24 runs, the difference ended up being Umar Gul and his bad day at the office with the ball. Today it was the failure of the Pakistani batsmen to accelerate near the end of their innings and get the total up and around a challenging 310.

The most pleasing aspect was the emergence of what seems like another little gem for Pakistan in Asad Shafiq. He looks a ‘busy’ type of cricketer that keeps the scoreboard ticking by just dropping the ball and picking up vital singles. As he showed in the first ODI, and at certain times today, he can also attack and do so quite effectively.

With the  3rd ODI on Friday, Pakistan should look to make a couple of changes at least with Fawad Alam and Mohammad Irfan failing to impress. Though Fawad’s strike rate was good today, he still found it difficult to get the boundaries when they were required nearer the end of the innings.  I would certainly consider bringing in Azhar Ali in place of him, who showed in he Tests that he can certainly power the ball over the boundary.

As for Mohammad Irfan, I think he has a long long way to go. Though he does have the very useful physical characteristic of height, he doesn’t make the best use of it and was a liability in the field today. He certainly shouldn’t be discarded and forgotten about, but should be worked on closely back in Pakistan at the academy

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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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….nothing. Well there will be nothing if the ICC gets its way. David Morgan’s (ICC president) suggestion of reducing Test matches to four days has come as quite a shock to me. If the governors of the game hope to attract more spectators and encourage fewer drawn Test matches, then I’m afraid reducing the number of days a Test match is played over will not work.

The people that do not enjoy 5-day Test cricket, will still not enjoy 4-day Test cricket – simple. In modern day life, it is difficult to commit five full days to watching cricket. People work, they have to provide for their families, Test matches will always have low attendances; that’s just the way it is. Day/night Tests will help this, which is why I would not mind such a development as long as the match is contested over five days and a series is not completely made up of day/night matches.

As for the results side of the argument, surely having fewer days would lead to more drawn Test matches? Trying to squeeze an innings in each day and hope for a result in such a batsmen dominated modern game is just devoid of common sense.

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