Stani Army

After disappearing from the team in Dubai, Zulquarnain Haider has a lot of questions he needs to answer, and he better be quick about it.

The cynics are already suggesting that Zulquarnain engineered this whole saga in order to provide a better life for him and his family by seeking asylum in the UK. Geo News reported that he had already applied and certainly from his words: “Help my family somehow. If it can be done, send my family here (UK)”, it seems that his actions may have another motive behind them.

Zulquarnain Haider does the sajda - Honest man or opportunist?

The manner in which he has behaved since the alleged threat he received for refusing to fix matches has also been strange. He did not inform the Pakistan coaching or support staff and lied to them in order to obtain his passport before he disappeared. Neither did he confide in any of his team members or inform the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU). He has also yet to request the help of the Pakistan High Commission in London, something the cynics would say would have been one of his first steps if he feared for his and his family’s safety.

The message coming from his family in Pakistan also tends to suggest we’re not the only ones confused by Haider’s actions. His brother was quoted in The Times of India as saying: “He should return to Pakistan

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Mark Nicholas – Wishes he was Australian

The constant derision and mockery from the Australian team of commentators throughout the Test series that has just finished left me increasingly sensitive and aware of their every comment. In the 79th over of Pakistan’s first innings in the last Test, Salman Butt brought up his century and took off his helmet to do the sajda (prostration). Mark Nicholas, a ‘great friend’ of Pakistan cricket, then uttered something along the lines of:

“There seems to be a break play. Salman Butt is having his moment of worship…[pause]…which he is entitled to of course, but he also seemed to summon a drink or something”.

Now you would have to have listened to it to know exactly what was going on here with his tone of voice and what he was implying. Nicholas, as any keen follower of cricket will know, has a habit of sucking up to the Australians, and here he was at his sycophantic best. In order to try and please his fellow commentators, who were Australian, he thought he’d criticise Salman Butt for stopping play and calling for drinks when Butt was doing nothing of the sort. When Nicholas realised that

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