Stani Army

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

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You have to wonder why such a fuss was made of Mohammed Yousuf’s recall. When it comes to the reasons for why he was banned by the PCB, I for one am still none the wiser. Stani Army supported Mohammed Yousuf after the debacle of the Australian tour, and we still support him now.

We did mention in a previous post that Yousuf’s return will not only have the obvious effect of adding runs to the scoreboard, but also have an influence on the opposition and the young Pakistan batting line up. Certainly, it was obvious from Azhar Ali’s body language, that he was delighted to be out there in the middle with Mohammed Yousuf, and it is no coincidence that it led to Azhar’s highest score of his young Test career.

Did someone call for Yousuf? Mohammed Yousuf's return coincided with Pakistan's first 300 plus total of the tour of England

Yousuf’s affect on the mindset of the opposition was obvious, with Strauss adopting defensive fields to him very early on  as it became clear that the tactics employed previously to the other Pakistani batsmen, were not going to work with Yousuf. Just his name on the team sheet would have put doubts in the minds of the English bowlers, as Swann later touched upon in an interview, that he had looked down the Pakistan line up and identified Yousuf as the prize wicket for his 100th Test victim. As it turned out, Swann did manage to get him, but more through a lapse in the great man’s judgement to a negative Ashley Giles type of round the wicket line from Swann, than through the guile of the bowler himself.

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With its recent handing out of punishments, the PCB is trying to send out a message to its players that the days of player power are over. It is why I could not help wondering if they would have been better served handing out rolling monthly contracts until the end of the year rather than tie themselves down to the full one-year contracts, back-dated to January 2010.

I will not go into the details of who was deserving of which category here, as Osman Samiuddin has already done a good job of that, but I wanted to consider whether it would have been a good thing to give out monthly contracts instead.

Whilst a year may be a short time in terms of employment contracts, we have seen that in Pakistan cricket, it is a very long time. A rolling contract would have kept the players on their toes and on their best behaviour, knowing that the slightest misdemeanour would mean potentially losing their contract. It would also give them incentive to do well when playing in games. I think many of the players named would have breathed a sigh of relief after the contracts were announced.

One positive addition is the new stipend category for top domestic performers and youngsters that show potential. It is a good thing for the domestic players as it will encourage them to perform whilst keeping pressure on those that occupy the International first-team places. It is also good for the young, up-and-coming Pakistan players as it gives them an incentive to turn their cricket into a career to make a living out of rather than a hobby which they eventually give up on and end up vanishing into obscurity. I think this is a very important step in sorting out the structure of Pakistan cricket lower down the cricketing chain. It will certainly have a positive knock-on effect, I believe, in years to come.

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