Stani Army

I’m not sure many of you have read Samir Chopra’s latest article on Cricinfo’s Different Strokes blog, but it is simply outrageous. Filled with sarcasm, insult, hatred, ignorance and a bit of jealousy, Chopra gives us his views on the recent banning and fining of Pakistan players by the PCB. He starts of questioning whether any of what has gone on is “even mildly interesting?”, but seems to ignore the obvious that it was interesting enough for him to write about it.

It was Aldous Huxley that once said “The pleasures of ignorance are as great, in their way, as the pleasures of knowledge” and it is evident from the article that Chopra gained great pleasure in telling us what he ‘knows’ about Pakistan cricket. Certainly, from his photo on Cricinfo, it is clear he is someone quite fond of himself generally. Having taken exception to his piece, I decided to write the following as a comment: “A shameful article by someone who quite clearly has a chip on his shoulder. How long have you kept that pent up inside you?”. Who thinks my comment was allowed through? Wrong, it wasn’t, but can anyone tell me why?

Here’s a taste of his work:
“There is a way of describing Pakistani cricket, which used to be tiresome but which has now started to strike me as patently offensive. This is the insistence that Pakistani cricket is charmingly erratic, wonderfully unpredictable, beautifully inconsistent, sublimely indisciplined. Right, I’m making these up. But you see the pattern. Pair a couple of adjectives which span the spectrum from the sublime to the sordid and have a go at describing Pakistani cricket. And I suspect the world of Pakistani cricket revels in this description, because this sort of indulgent tolerance gives it a free pass.”

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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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