Confident or plain stupid?

Collingwood was quoted as saying: “I don’t want to go overboard on ‘these guys are the best thing since sliced bread’ – or Wasim Akram, or this, that and the other”, he went on: “I think they have got a lot of talent. But to say they’re the number one bowling attack in the world I would say was over the mark. They have come up in conditions recently where it’s done a fair bit”.

It’s interesting because it comes at around the same time that the Pakistan captain said in an interview to cricinfo that he believes that in Mohammed Aamer and Mohammed Asif, he has the best pace pair in the world. Add Umar Gul to the mix, who as statistics prove, is the best bowler in Twenty20, the form which is harshest on bowlers, then it’s not such a bad pace attack.

“Without any doubt I can say that Aamer and Asif are the best pair in the world at the moment and Gul with the old ball is the most dangerous” Salman Butt.

I hope the Pakistan captain Salman Butt prints out Collingwood’s words and sticks them to the dressing room walls (with translation if required), because that will be his team-talk done for him. If I was an English batsman who had watched the manner in which our bowlers bamboozled the likes of Ricky Ponting, I wouldn’t exactly be over the moon hearing the comments Collingwood has publicly aired. But this cockiness is very much the way the new England team operates under Andy Flower, under whose stewardship the indiscipline of the English players seems to have multiplied. The reasons for it may well be that like many other sides, England are trying to follow the successful Australian blueprint on how to be the best in the world. Unfortunately, the Australians know how to do it and can back it up with actions, whereas the English over do it and don’t always back it up with actions.

With our bowling attack, we have all the required ingredients. It is time to cook up a meal, serve it to Collingwood and let him eat his words.

Aamer turns away as Ponting puts out his elbow

The media release on the ICC website it states: “this was the second time in two matches that Aamer had made physical contact with a batsman”, which is absolutely incorrect. It is quite clear that Ponting made physical contact with Aamer on this occasion and not the other way around, so to suggest otherwise you would either have to be blind or deliberately biased. Apart from that clear injustice, there was no mention of Broad having a word with Ponting who was let off for elbowing an opponent on the cricket field. The Pakistanis will obviously not do anything about it because of their inferiority complex, and will continue being too bloody nice for their own good. Even a simple statement from Captain Shahid Afridi telling Ponting to act his age would suffice and would show him that he is not a law unto himself.

Broad went on to say: “there are a few things [Aamer] still has to learn in relation to how to conduct himself on the field of play”, this coming from  a man whose son, Stuart Broad, has the biggest attitude problem in cricket, consistently showing disgust towards the umpires. Go have a word with him Chris.

And people wonder why John Howard’s candidature for the ICC vice-presidency wasn’t accepted by the Asian bloc?

Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson demonstrate their childishness

Ponting was clearly frustrated at not being able to get bat on to ball as Aamer mesmerized, yet Ponting could learn a great deal from his vice-captain Michael Clarke, who clashed with Aamer in the 2nd Twenty20 but accepted Aamer’s apology with good grace. Whilst Ponting has built himself a certain reputation in cricket, there is a side to him that is not so immendiately obvious. Back in December 2009 when Chris Gayle and Shane Watson had their falling out, Ponting’s behaviour at the time was something that really surprised me coming from such a classy player. The clip below shows Watson dismissing Gayle and then behaving like a brat, but have a look at 15 seconds into the clip in the back ground at Pontings ‘celebration’ as he runs in from slip. Pathetic. Would you have seen Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar do such a thing?

We will wait to see if the match referre Chris Broard does somethig about it, but  knowing Broad, I wouldn’t hold my breath. A little bit of slap and tickle would suffice for the Aussies I’m sure. And consider the fact that asked a while back who his favourite cricketer was, Aamer replied Ricky Ponting. Shame on you Ponting.

There is no doubt that these comparisons with other cricketing greats would have been made as the record went but what is the need to bring one great down in the name of the other? Those that do, have to seriously reconsider their adherence to this sport. Certainly, even those with the burden of responsibility such as cricinfo.com, have erred when it comes to not adding fuel to the fire by describing the achievement as having “eclipsed” Saeed Anwar’s 194. They also happened to have ignored Charles Coventry’s 194* in this instance, demonstrating an undercurrent of an India/Pakistan clash of bragging rights.

The fact that so many are turning this into an Indo-Pak battle shows the mindset of many. You would wonder what these people would do if Saeed Anwar wasn’t Pakistani and Sachin Tendulkar wasn’t Indian. No doubt they’d find something to argue about.

Tendulkar’s critics maintained that his record was on a flat track and a small outfield, and Anwar’s was against the big rival Indian, in India. His supporters respond by saying Anwar needed a runner (he was unwell, so this makes it easier?), and that Tendulkar done it against a better bowling attack and remained not out.

Sachin Tendulkar gives thanks for his blessings

Had it been any other batsmen overtaking Anwar then there wouldn’t have been so much gloating, or from the other side, so much criticism. But this is what Sachin Tendulkar, India and Pakistan have to live with. Many of their fans and critics are not of the live and let live kind. At the time of Saeed Anwar’s 194, Tendulkar said himself that it was the best innings he had seen. Do his supporters ignore his opinion now?

I personally enjoyed watching Lara more than anyone because of his style, and if someone asked me to choose between Ponting and Tendulkar in my team for a must win game, I’d probably choose Ponting for his grittiness, even though I’m not the biggest fan of his conduct at times. In every other situation (that’s most of them!), I’d take Tendulkar. This is just a personal preference and doesn’t mean I dislike Lara, Ponting or Tendulkar as cricketers because how could you? All three would be in my greatest eleven.

This ‘who is the best’ argument is just about opinion and personal preference. Warne says Tendulkar’s the best, McGrath said it was Lara; is one right and the other wrong? We don’t have to always win an argument, we can agree to disagree. To praise Tendulkar, you don’t have to belittle Anwar, to praise Bradman, you don’t have to belittle Tendulkar. Anyhow, I don’t think anyone of the modern age can even have a real opinion of who was the best as they can’t have been around to see Bradman. His average of 99.94, whatever you may say about the cricket of the time, at the very least deserves that we do not give that ‘greatest’ accolade to anyone in his absence, even if we don’t give it to him.

So, let’s appreciate for a moment, Sachin Tendulkar’s achievement of staying in for 50 overs against a top bowling attack, scoring at more than a run a ball, and most importantly of all, not offering the opposition a chance. For all the extreme views, this was a great achievement and the record could not have gone from a nicer guy in Anwar, to a nicer guy in Tendulkar. A guy so nice in fact, that he’d probably disagree with some of the things his ‘supporters’ are saying on different sites, in his name. Grow up people, well done Sachin.

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, why on earth did he come out with the excuse that he was smelling the ball? He would have even been better off saying that he was starving because of the poor Australian cuisine.

Afridi has history of course. In a game against England, he walked onto the middle of the pitch and preceded to do a few pirouettes to scuff up the track with his spikes. Highly subtle once again. Yet maybe he should have used his spikes on the ball this time by stepping on it as it obviously legal as it worked for Stuart Broad in the recent match against South Africa where he got away with it.

Stuart Broad, sinking his spikes into the ball & doing "nothing wrong"

And the difference between what Broad and Afridi did? Nothing. So why did he get away with it? Well it’s obvious, Broad is an Englishman. Broad knew what he was doing and as soon as the allegations emerged, the English PR machine went into overdrive with Broad being “astonished” by the allegations, Strauss calling them “malicious” and Cook being angry since they’d done “nothing wrong”. At the time, Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Simon Wilde of The Sunday Times had suggested that the outcome would have been far different if the bowler who did it was from Pakistan. It is clear this difference they spoke of is being shown to some extent in how Afridi’s actions were dealt with. If you look at the effect it has on the ball, surely metal spikes are worse than the enamel that teeth are made of? But I guess in the eyes of the ICC, a Pakistani is worse than an Englishman too.

What Afridi did was wrong and embarrassing, but that and what Broad did shows why it continues to pay to be from certain countries. Just ask Sulieman Benn who was suspended after an incident with Mitchell Johnson and the saint that is Brad Haddin. Haddin, who instigated the clash, and Johnson who clearly makes physical contact with Benn first (at 3 minutes 55 secs), were only fined a fraction of their match fees, whereas Benn was banned, after the match referee had finished analysing his findings. That match referee was Broad’s daddy Chris, by the way. If you don’t want to call it racism, then call it whatever you will, but what it is, is obvious.

Result! My stock’s risen and I didn't even play!

As Pakistan supporters, we’re all frustrated and upset by the meek manner in which our team has surrendered to an Australian side that runs more on mental toughness than it does cricketing skill. Yet, to blame Mohammad Yousuf’s captaincy for the situation our team currently finds itself in is quite unfair. Dr Abbasi has been an outspoken supporter of Younis Khan as captain in the past and maybe his overly harsh criticism of Yousuf this time has something to do with this.

Yousuf has taken over at a difficult time with very little captaincy experience. We mustn’t forget that it was Younis who chickened out of the tours to New Zealand and Australia. Maybe he knew that staying in the background while Pakistan lose in Australia would make him look a better captain. Sadly, through the eyes of some it has.

It is extremely difficult to set fields or captain when your players cannot do the basics in the field or their job with the bat. A captain is only as good as his players. Until the last innings, Ponting hadn’t done much, he even made the mistake of batting first in the 2nd Test, but he’s soon going to find himself as the winning captain in a 3-0 series whitewash. Why? Because he could rely on his players. Yousuf, on the other hand, had nothing to fall back on. Nobody questioned Yousuf’s captaincy in New Zealand. Nobody questioned Yousuf’s captaincy in the 1st innings of the second Test. The difference was that the players were performing to some degree. Yet what of the roles of the coaching staff in this? Any blame Yousuf is deserving of must surely be shared by Intikhab Alam and Waqar Younis who don’t strike me as the finest examples of human intelligence.

For Dr Abbasi to say “nothing has been more dismal than the captaincy of Mohammad Yousuf” is blatantly incorrect. If any are to blame more than Yousuf, then it’s those that have dropped catches, Dr Abbasi’s namesake in particular, and those that haven’t scored well. It isn’t Yousuf’s captaincy that has played Ponting’s batsmen into “glorious form” as Dr Abbasi says, it’s those men. Had we taken just our catches, Yousuf would look a genius right now. But what does a captain do when he’s captaining a bunch of clowns?

Mohammad Yousuf: Took over in difficult circumstances & let down by team

Dr Abbasi was also critical of Yousuf for the fields our bowlers bowled to and the manner in which they bowled. Don’t our bowlers have a mind of their own? Don’t they know where to bowl? Bowlers can demand changes to fields, you see others teams bowlers doing it so why couldn’t ours? A simple question to ask is if we were to take Yousuf out of the side and put in another captain would we have been in a much better position right now? Well, the manner in which we batted and fielded, I doubt it. How can anyone attribute most blame to Yousuf’s captaincy then?

I think what fuelled Dr Abbasi’s disgust even more was listening to the Australian commentators such as Shane Warne, Richi Benaud and Mark Taylor; men that Dr Abbasi refers to as “some of the greatest Australian minds”. I did speak about the dangers of listening to these commentators on a previous post as their blatant biasness would leave many Pakistan supporters’ judgment skewed and end up filing them with rage. Mark Taylor isn’t the best friend of Pakistan as anyone who had listened to him in the wake of Bob Woolmer’s death and the Lahore attacks would know. Richie Benaud is someone who makes sly and cocky statements and really should tone down his cockiness in his old age as it is not a way to go for someone who doesn’t have long to go. As for the great Shane Warne, is it his womanising, match fixing or illegal substance taking greatness which makes his opinion so valid? Also, there were reasons why he was never made Australian captain.

Many people may still believe that Younis is a better captain than Yousuf, and in some ways, I’ll probably agree. But to criticise him this much for our current situation is very unfair. But whatever his downfalls, at least Yousuf hasn’t run off yet like a certain someone. Mohammad Yousuf may not be the greatest captain in the world, but this decent man certainly doesn’t deserve to be shamed like this.