Stani Army

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'It's all sorted!'

After a meeting between Ijaz Butt and Younis Khan, Younis has been cleared to resume his international cricket and has been drafted in to the limited-overs squad for the games in the UAE against South Africa. It comes just at the right time as Mohammad Yousuf looks likely to miss the series with a groin problem.

It does seem as if Mr Butt is beginning to alter his modus operandi after some forced introspection which followed his allegations against the England team. Yet his ‘apology’ to the ECB, and now his offer of an olive branch to Younis looks more as though he is desperate to cling on to his role. Whatever was discussed in the meeting between Younis and Butt, I would have been surprised if it came out that Younis was the one of the two to have backed down.

Along with the ICC’s warning to Pakistan to sort it’s administration out, I get the feeling that Ijaz Butt has been given a set of demands from within, that he has to comply with if he wants to stay on as Chairman, and like the dignified man that he is, he has climbed down from his position and accepted. This is in the same week in which the ICC’s task force in charge of bringing cricket back to Pakistan, will also be setting out some recommendations for the PCB to implement. Is Butt set to stay on for a new term as PCB Chairman? We hope not, but the signs do not look good.

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Misbah Ul-Haq receiving the trophy for leading his side to a domestic title earlier this year. He comes with plenty of domestic captaincy experience

Though it seems that Misbah Ul-Haq has been appointed Pakistan’s Test captain for the two games in the UAE against South Africa more through circumstance than preference, it is the right appointment as far as Stani Army is concerned.

Upset at being dropped for the tour of England, Misbah’s argument was that he had a better average in all forms of the game than most of the touring party, and he had a case. The reasons for Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan’s axing were that the former had retired and the latter had still not apologised for some apparent disciplinary issue. The reason for Misbah’s axing was less obvious even though it was said that the team was looking to go in a new direction with younger players. The recall of the 36 year old Yousuf mid-series put paid to that excuse. Many argued that Misbah was out of form, but then which of the Pakistan batsmen had shown form in the series’ in New Zealand and Australia that had preceded? At least Misbah had been making runs in domestic cricket whilst the others continued to fail on the international stage.

When Younis Khan resigned as captain this time last year, we went through the four possible candidates for the job of captain and Misbah certainly looked as good as the rest if not better in our opinion. He seemed a clean member of the side (from corruption as oppose to drugs!…o.k, and drugs), intelligent and well-spoken. This is something that former Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson has mentioned recently, backing the choice of Misbah as captain. Lawson said that Misbah had the “best cricketing brain” in Pakistan, which is no small compliment

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So the Sun newspaper, feeling left out after the revelations by its sister paper the News of the World, needed to get in on the match fixing scandal act by alleging that spot fixing took place during Pakistan’s victory over England in the third ODI at the Oval.

Having received evidence from the newspaper, the ICC have felt it necessary to launch an investigation into allegations that the Pakistan batting innings was scripted, with scoring patterns in two specific overs matching the evidence provided to the ICC before the game. Could something still be going on or could the said scoring patterns have been just a coincidence?

The fact that the ICC felt it necessary to launch an investigation will point to them having some substantial evidence to do so. But there are a number of reasons why these recent ongoings may just be a coincidence.

With the spotlight of the world on the Pakistan side, would anyone in the team have been brave or foolish enough to take instructions from bookies? I would be very surprised if this was the case. Secondly, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir who had been implicated previously are no longer in the side. Salman Butt was even referred to as the ringleader, so with the aforementioned not being there would something untoward still be going on? Also, with the police on Mazhar Majeed’s tail, it would be highly unlikely that he would still have contact with any of the players let alone be setting up fixes. It’s certain any other agent looking from the outside wouldn’t have dared try anything now too.

Which batsmen could have been involved?
If you look at the Pakistani line up, the only player there to have been linked with the original scandal was Kamran Akmal. Yet just looking at his innings on the day would tell you that Akmal wasn’t in long enough to carry out any instructions and neither would his freak dismissal (the ball deflected off the underside of his thigh pad, behind his leg and onto the stumps) have been something purposely planned out.

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Misbah Ul-Haq recently voiced his displeasure at being ignored for the tour of England, and with Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf out of the picture, are the older players deliberately being shunned as the Pakistan team looks to the future?

One person that seems to have come out smelling of roses from all the troubles of the recent past is Shahid Afridi. Stanis may remember that last October, Afridi had a meeting with the Chairman of the PCB and rumours began spreading that plans were afoot for Afridi to take over as captain in all three formats. Afridi denied this at the time and insisted that he would never go against the then reluctant captain, Younis Khan, and that the meeting was purely in regards to preparation for the World Twenty20, which he was about to lead the team into.

Shahid Afridi: Power hungry megalomaniac or innocent patriot?

Fast forward seven or so months and Shahid Afridi is now Pakistan’s Test, ODI and Twenty20 captain with Younis and Yousuf nowhere to be seen and Misbah completely ignored. Coincidence? You decide. Consider the fact that prior to Afridi’s meeting with Butt last October, Younis had handed in his resignation and it was not accepted by the Chairman both at the PCB offices and later in the car. It seems strange that such obvious support of Younis by the Chairman has waned and become muted.

Certainly Afridi’s lame excuse in his recent statement in regards to the exclusion of Younis from the squad did little to allay the suspicion: “I wanted Younis to be in the team but, besides the issue of his recent form, there was also a bit of a disciplinary issue with Younis”.  The funny thing is that you can take that quote and swap the name ‘Younis’ for a number of Pakistani players. In fact, you could put ‘Afridi’ in there too and it would fit. Making excuses Shahid? What is he hiding?

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Pakistan have lost the 5 match ODI series in the UAE with one game remaining but Younis Khan was still seen laughing in the field as usual. You would have thought that he would put the laughing and bum tapping behind him (no pun intended) but obviously he hasn’t. After scoring 11, 28, 0 and 7 in this series thus far, Younis really needs to tell us what exactly he finds so funny.

Many of us love sport for its unpredictable twists and turns. Let’s take the final one-day match of England’s tour, for example. Or the captivating fluctuations in fortune of the English Premier League. On-field events are the focus of our fascination, a blessing that Pakistan cricket has not received for almost two years.

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