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But as long as the players who the allegations were brought against are withdrawn from the squad, stopping the tour will serve no purpose.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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With Pakistan’s batting sinking to a new low in the 2nd Test against England, should we abandon this Test batting approach and play like we would in the shorter form, something we are much more comfortable with? There has definitely been some thinking going on in regards to how the Pakistan batsmen were going to go about tackling the swing generated by the English bowlers. It was obvious that their plan this time was to occupy the crease, play defensive and wait for the ball to get old. The plan didn’t work of course. The Duke ball tends to stay newer for longer and once Pakistan began losing early wickets then the plan had effectively been derailed from the off.

Would an ODI batting approach make Pakistan a happier and more productive camp?

From what the Pakistan bowlers have shown, they are clearly capable of restricting England to an ODI total, provided the fielders hold on to the ctaches. And should the Pakistan batsmen set or chase an ODI total themselves – which they are capable of if they go back to what they know – then we may even see a contest between the two sides.

With the backs against the wall, having tried various options, it’s time to fight back with no fear. This does not mean they shoud bat carelessly, but be postive like they are in the shorter form of the game and look to set to a total of 230 to 300, which would give our much suffereing bowlers something to work with. There is simply no point in

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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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With the Pakistan bowlers getting showered with compliments left right and center – many from those in the know such as Michael Holding and Paul Allott – the England Captain Paul Collingwood has interestingly expressed comments that would not exactly be in agreement with those expressed by the men above.

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.

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Congratulations to all Stanis for the deserved victory over Australia in the second of the two-match MCC Spirit of Cricket Test series. Having required just 40 runs with 7 wickets in hand, if there was one team that could have lost it from here it was Pakistan, and funnily enough, if there was one team that could have won it from here then it was Australia. Whist Pakistan tried their best to do just that, Australia’s first innings collapse caught up with them and it proved too much of a deficit in the end.

The victorious, young Pakistan squad with their backroom staff enjoy the moment

Though Pakistan did lose the wickets of all their front-line batsmen, it was fitting that it was two bowlers there at the crease scoring the last 5 runs to take Pakistan home. Throughout the two Tests, it was the bowling department that consistently outperformed that of the Australian’s and kept Pakistan in the race.

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Coming in to this Test series, there was concern regarding the two rookie batsmen that Pakistan were about to chuck into the deep end in their first Test at Lord’s. The irony is that the more established batsmen were the ones that let Pakistan down. Not only did Umar Amin and Azhar Ali impress with their ability, but it was clear that they have the temperament and cognitive capacity that the likes of captain at the time, Shahid Afridi, lack. So which players were a success and which a failure in the first Test?

Will Imran Farhat survive for the second Test?

Imran Farhat - FAILURE

Probably the one player on the edge of selection that does not divide opinion amongst fans. It is clear, from his second innings stroke if not from anything else, that Farhat is not suited to the Test arena. He’s been around for quite some time so had to step up and contribute in an already weak batting line up. Though he did take two good catches, he failed miserably with the bat with scores of 4 and 24. Expect him to be dropped for the next Test.

Salman Butt - SUCCESS

Recognised his importance and responsibility and was one of only three batsmen to pass 50 in the whole Test. Loss of concentration led to his downfall on both occasions but was unfortunate not to get the only century of the game when he was stumped for 92 in the second innings. We would have been embarrassed had it not been for his contributions of 63 and 92 in this Test.

Azhar Ali – SUCCESS

Showed good temperament and sound technique. Was dismissed by good balls on both occasions from Ben Hilfenhaus. Contributed 16 and 42, a decent showing in his first Test. Very able in the field also. Must look to pick up more singles off his defensive shots though.

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