Stani Army

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But as long as the players who the allegations were brought against are withdrawn from the squad, stopping the tour will serve no purpose.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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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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'We're not dumb, we batted rubbish so that we could lose the Test early to give our bowlers a rest'

If just for the sake of our bowlers, then the PCB must react to the current batting situation even if it means sending out a call for Mohammed Yousuf, Younis Khan and maybe even Misbah Ul-Haq. The argument that we should persist with the youngsters would be a fair one in any other situation, but we need to get these youngsters out of the cauldron they are in because this is not helping them or our bowlers.

The longest our batsmen have occupied the crease thus far in England has been 90 overs. With only Asif and Aamer of the bowlers showing any form, and Aamer being just 18, there is a worryingly huge workload placed on the bowlers, in particular the aforementioned two.

Kamran Akmal: The ‘wicket-keeper batsman’
The other thing exacerbating the situation is the dropped catches and general fielding. It is as if the bowlers have to get the opposition batsman out twice for every one dismissal. The chief culprit in this is Kamran Akmal. I stated in my last post that enough was enough, that since Kamran is making the same mistakes and not showing any improvement, then he has to be dropped. The argument that we select him because of what he gives with the bat is a false one. If you look at his contributions with the bat

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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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I can’t help think that for some of the Pakistan players, this tour of England will be a defining one. Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik and Shoaib Akhtar seem to be in the last chance saloon and will be hoping for some better than average performances if their international careers are to be prolonged. With captain Shahid Afridi looking to introduce younger talent, and the PCB ready to come down hard on unruly behaviour, it is now or never for the aforementioned three.

Peculiarly, it will also be a defining tour for three players that haven’t made any of the announced squads: Mohammed Yousuf, Younis Khan and Misbah Ul-Haq. The performances of those that are about to fill the slots of these three veterans, may dictate how easily they get back into the side, or if they do so at all. Performances on the pitch aside, even just a happy camp with a good dressing room atmosphere may be enough to keep Younis and Yousuf out. I say this because the PCB and the captain may get the sense of having ‘moved on’ thus will view the selection of Younis and Yousuf as a potentially troublesome retrograde step.

Whatever happens as a result of the current side doing well over here in England, it can only be a good thing for Pakistan cricket in the long term, if the current crop put in some commendable performances here in England.

It seems that the continuation of Younis Khan’s international cricket career is entirely dependent on him apologising to the PCB. Of the six punished players to have filed their appeals, it is believed that Younis is the only one who did not apologise for his behaviour, whereas the others did, so have been welcomed back in to the international fold.

It was obvious that something wasn’t right as despite Younis’ appeal, his name was not included in the squad for the Asia Cup unlike that of Shoaib Malik, who had also appealed his ban and was included in the squad. It was believed at the time that Younis’ appeal had been put back because he wanted a personal hearing to clear things up rather than, in effect, admit to a guilty plea like the others in return for having his place back.

Sorry? But I didn't do anything!

Certainly with the weak looking batting line-up chosen for England, Pakistan could have done with Younis’ services. Just to get a taste of how fragile our batting has been and how dependent it has been on Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf; I read statistics the other day that the pair have score 30% of Pakistan’s Test runs since October 2004. Not only that, they’re responsible for almost half of our Test centuries also.

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