Stani Army

The PCB has once again demonstrated it’s pointlessness in almost retracting every punishment they handed out to the seven players after the Australian tour. At the time, Ijaz Butt came out with some tough talk saying that he was going to hand out harsh punishments. Indeed, he kept his word at the time with life bans for Mohammed Yousuf and Younis Khan, one year bans for Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved, and heavy fines for the Akmal brothers and Shahid Afridi. With Rana Naved’s hearing still to be concluded, all punishments have been retracted except for the fines the Akmal brothers received which have been reduced by two thirds. It thus goes without saying that If Mohammed Yousuf should come out of retirement, his ban would also have to be lifted.

Untouchables of Pakistan cricket: Innocent when proven guilty

With all that has come out of the inquiry and various player statements, it is clear that Shoaib Malik was one of the worst culprits. Unfortunately, with Malik still around, I can’t see Yousuf changing his mind and returning to the side. I know who I’d rather have back if I had a choice between Malik and Yousuf.

In some ways, the return of the players is evidence of the dearth in Pakistan talent with hardly anyone from the domestic game being trusted to be able to step up into the international side and keep these criminals out.  Many would say that this is something the punished players know and have been taking advantage of for some time. It is why, for most of the seven, it was important that the punishments were upheld, if not entirely, at least to some worthwhile degree. Right now the players must be inwardly laughing at the administration which governs and disciplines them. Ijaz Butt has denied that this will make the PCB seem like a soft touch to the players, but if everyone else thinks that is how it is looking then I’m certain the players are thinking likewise.

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Pakistan’s Twenty20 World Cup semi-final loss took Australia’s domination over Pakistan to 12 wins in a row in all formats. Whilst a lot of credit must be given to the Australians for their performance in the semi-final, I disagree with Pakistan Coach Waqar Younis who said “I don’t think we went wrong anywhere. We did a good job, but you’ve just got to give credit to the Australians….I thought we bowled pretty well”. I know that it is our batsmen that usually lose us games and not our bowlers, so we cannot be too critical of them. But some of the bowling in defending 191 in the semi-final was brainless. Even up until the last four overs, just two reasonable overs from four would have made it almost impossible for Australia to come back from and win the game. Yet both Aamer and Ajmal were guilty of bowling the wrong line and far too short. Saeed Ajmal was trusted for the last over as he had done a very good job when Pakistan were in a similar situation in the game against South Africa. Ajmal thought he’d proceed in doing the same thing whilst failing to realise he was bowling to Michael Hussey. Short, and to middle and leg, Hussey just picked him off for sixes. Ajmal should have realised after his first delivery to Hussey that the way to go was full and wide to the off side, but that would have meant thinking for himself.

In general, Pakistan did not deserve to retain the World Cup even if they had squeezed into the semi-finals. Every team had either stayed at the same level from last time or improved, apart from us and maybe India.

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Dr Kamran Abbasi has posted his latest article on cricinfo and it has provoked a lot of debate. The article is very critical of Mohammad Yousuf’s captaincy. His articles are usually very balanced yet this, which comes across as an emotional outburst, is a fair bit different from his usual posts. I don’t usually like posting long articles but I felt this was an important issue so do bear with me.

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

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Asked to suggest an extra fast bowler to accompany the squad for the Test series against Australia, Mohammad Sami would not have been the first name I would have thought of. Though a perennial underachiever, Sami has many of the attributes to be successful at what he does. With a decent build, raw pace, repeatable, uncomplicated action, and fire in the belly, he really should have had more Test wickets to his name.

Last chance for a talent unfulfilled

So why Sami and not anyone from our contracted players? We have Rana Naved, though not an out and out pace bowler, he has many strings to his bow. Rana is quite expensive though and this is probably the reason why he has never been favoured in Tests. Then there’s Sohail Tanvir and Yasir Arafat, both of whom can bat a bit and would have added strength to an already fragile batting line up.

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There seems to be more to the appointment by the PCB of Waqar Younis as bowling and fielding coach for the Australian series. It seems that plans are afoot to ease current coach Intikhab Alam out and appoint Waqar as full-time general coach. Reports are already circulating that Waqar’s contract is worth more than current coach Intkihab’s. This would seem a bit strange for someone who will just be assisting with the bowling and fielding for a single series. Have the PCB already give him a full contract with a view to making an announcement later on about him taking over?

Waqar Younis, may soon have more to juggle

Added to this is the fact that Pakistan already have a bowling coach in Aaqib Javed, current assistant to Intikhab. There’s been no mention thus far of Aaqib taking a break for the Australian series so what is it that he will be doing if Waqar is going to be bowling coach?

Stani Army were not the biggest supporters of Intikhab’s appointment as it seemed very much an old-school, backward step after the good work done by the late Bob Woolmer and former

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No, not Shoaib but Usain Bolt. Here’s a quote from the great man:

“When I was really small, I loved the Pakistan cricket team. Waqar Younis was one of the greatest bowlers ever, and I was a bowler so I really enjoyed watching him. I was a big fan until I got older, when I noticed that I should actually support my home team…when I was little, it was all about Pakistan.”

Now there’s a man who knows what he’s talking about!  Legend.

Bolt was a bowler! Could you imagine him bowling today? A man whose run-up was as fast as his deliveries, and that’s no insult to his deliveries.

You can hear what he had to say here.

If the recent Test series in Sri Lanka has left you depressed, here’s something to cheer you up. I received this email of some excerpts of commentary by the legend that is Waqar Younis. Have a read, it’s hilarious!

1) “Dhoni has got a beautiful head on his shoulders…..” – Waqar when praising Dhoni’s calm demeanour.
2) “The Virender Sehwag is really on the rampage tonight” – When praising Sehwag’s attacking batting.
3) “Oh…..he is a smart bowler! He has got a protection there” – When praising some bowler for field placing.
4) When Aamir Sohail praised Ishant Sharma saying, “Waqar, I think the reason that Ashant is getting all that extra bounce is that he is a big lanky lad” Waqar: “Another reason could be that he’s also very tall”
5) When praising Salman Butt, “All Salman did was just put bat on ball and timing was perfect. Beautiful play…….”
6) “Trescothick makes a room outside off stump”

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Pakistan set the tournament alight with a brilliant victory over a very good New Zealand side.

The game marked the return of Abdul Razzaq to the international side and his breakthrough early in the New Zealand innings was vital in what was to follow and thus cannot be underestimated. He had a good day with the ball (2 for 17) although he didn’t get going with the bat; still not being able to play spinners the poor sod.

The star of the show was obviously Umar Gul with his record breaking figures of 5 for 6. It was the first time anyone has taken a 5-for in International Twenty20. Amazingly, he was on a hat-trick twice but never managed to convert either. In his interview after, he spoke of working on the yorkers and slower balls with coach Aqib Javed and said that he watched videos of Waqar and Wasim and boy did it show. Those figures will take some beating, and the fact that he is also number 3 and 7 on the Twenty20 best figures list, shows it wasn’t just luck.

Afridi was once again mesmeric with the ball and took, in our opinion, the best catch of the tournament so far.

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