Mohammad Amir should have immediately been safeguarded from the influences of Butt and Asif after the fixing scandal

Immediate thoughts after the scandal were that Amir should try to distance himself from Butt and Asif, in that this would give him a better chance at receiving a more lenient sentence if found guilty. He did not necessarily have to become informant in some kind of plea bargain, but just had to stop being associated with the captain and senior bowler that allegedly coerced him into the dirty world of fixing.

Yet not only has Amir shown no contrition, but he also appealed his provisional suspension along with Salman Butt, and foolishly also joined him in criticising the decision of Michael Beloff, the ICC code of conduct commissioner. Both were then critical the make-up of the tribunal that will this month decide their fate. Amir has also been filmed recently playing cricket with Butt, as revealed in an exclusive report by Sky Sports News’ Bryan Swanson. Swanson travelled to Pakistan and managed to speak with a confident looking Salman Butt at his residence in regards to the fixing allegations. Yet he was unable to get anything from Amir, who shied away from the cameras. That alone would tell you a lot about the relationship that existed between captain Butt and young Amir during their alleged fixes.

Amir has had time to think, time to question himself and his actions. He has had time to take good advice yet he has continued to stick to the story that they are completely innocent despite the evidence, and has continued to associate himself with Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif. As the teenager influenced by his captain, there was a lot of goodwill in the cricketing world for Amir. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should also have been quick in getting to him and getting his head straight yet they left him to these vultures. Did they not recognise they could save the biggest talent emerging form Pakistan since Wasim Akram from disappearing from the cricketing world at such a young age? But with a slap on the wrists from the ICC due to their years of ineptitude, the PCB were busy trying to put their own house in order and look good to the ICC in fear of any action against the board and it’s Chairman.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England is at the same time considering bringing a criminal case against the three. Whether or not they are charged by the police, it should not necessarily affect the ICC’s own investigation and tribunal. The ICC just need to prove that the players acted on fixer Mazhar Majeed’s instructions and did not play honestly and to their best ability, and that would be enough for a guilty verdict. The video footage from the News of the World, if legitimate, would be proof enough it seems.

It is getting to the point where a life ban for all three of them, for the share cheek of their claims in the face of all this evidence, is deserving. Butt, with his denials, seems to be operating by the old adage that if you say something enough times then people will begin to believe it. Even now, I don’t think Amir at least quite realises the gravity of what he’s done. Maybe he needs a harsh punishment for him to realise. I hope not. If he does disappear from cricket, you would have to wonder what other skills he has as means to earn a living. It’s ok for many of us living in developed countries with decent educations; we can do bad, get punished but then find other ways to earn a living. But for Amir, that may just be it. If this is the result of banning him for life, would the punishment outweigh the crime even though the crime was such a serious one? If Amir does get banned for life, then he only really has himself to blame.

The only evidence of ball tampering in the fourth ODI at Lord's as Paul Collingwood uses the wrong ball (his own) to knock off the bails

So what’s the next accusation the English media have in store for Pakistan? Whilst they’ve broke three match fixing stories, the next one will probably be about how Umar Gul was able to reverse swing the ball so much in engineering England’s downfall in both the last two ODIs.

In both matches, there was a sense of inevitability as Umar Gul and Shaoib Akhtar  began to reverse swing the ball as English wickets tumbled. It was as if the hand of God was guiding the ball down the wicket and giving it a little sideways nudge at the end. It was signature Pakistan. No other bowling attack in the world could ever attest to showing such quality swing bowling in cleaning up a batting line up.

As the whiter ball came into play in the 35th over of the fourth ODI, you could see the cameras starting to zoom in on the Pakistan players’ hands to check if there was anything untoward going on. There was even a comment by one of the commentators at how remarkable it is that a newish second ball can begin to reverse in and around the 42nd over, just 7 overs after it had been taken.

The ball tampering accusations were hurled at us in 1992 with Waqar and Wasim and it may happen again, but as Geoffrey Boycott said back then, “they could have bowled England out with an orange”.

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.

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.

Thankfully, the youngster Shahzaib Hasan was given another chance after his zero earlier in the tournament and he didn’t disappoint with his 35 of 28 balls. It was pleasing to see Afridi the batsmen smash 29 off 18; his performance clearly the result of a team feeling good after playing to their abilities.

Though we probably lost two wickets too many, it was more important that we got to the target quickly as possible as run rate will make the difference in what is a very close group now.

I hope the Pakistani players realise the happiness they bring to their people when they play like this. Even those not connected with Pakistan could not have felt anything but appreciation for the talent on display.

The highlight of the day for me was Sanjay Manjrekar who after witnessing the Pakistani performance said something along the lines of “this is why Pakistan needs to be playing international cricket”. Brilliant.

Next up, we lose to Ireland on Monday. Who’d be a Pakistan fan?

Yes, home advantage is fair but how far should this go?…far enough to spoil a Test match? Should the home fans and other conditions (apart from the pitch) be home advantage enough?

We’ve seen many examples where a home team, having drawn the first match and won the second is now  1-0 up coming into the last Test of a 3 match series, and they ask for a flat wicket and then fill the team with batsmen in order to play for a draw. We’ve seen such a tactic employed by sides such as India who have arguably the best batting line up in Test cricket so make full use of it. Of course, it is their right but is winning worth so much that a spectacle for the fans does not even come into the equation?

How much of a say should the home team/captain have on the pitch or should the ICC implement certain rules to encourage results in Test matches. It would be difficult but twenty20 is already harming Test match cricket enough without Test match cricket harming itself.

“Muralitharan is a great bowler and he deserves the record – which are there to be broken. I noticed his progress in 2003 and realised he was the only man who could break my record.”

“At times I jokingly told him not to play one-day cricket, so that my record would remain intact”

“No matter what type of surface he has played on, no matter in which country and against which team…he is simply great and more than a good bowler, he is a good human being.”

“I don’t think any bowler will be able to break his records,” he went on “If he continues to play for another two or three years, he will cross 1,000 in Tests and 600 in ODIs, which will be tough to break for anyone else.”

Praise indeed from the great Pakistan lefty.

This will be a great time for Murali, who has battled continuous questions over his action and in the past had run-ins with the Australian leggy Shane Warne. It is for those reasons that many have felt that Murali has not been getting the credit he deserves from Australia , England and from the ICC who left him out of there 2004 team of the year in place of Warne though Murali was the better performer. The remarkable thing was, that for more than half the period in question, Warne was serving a drugs ban.

In March last year, Warne was promoting an alcoholic drinks sponsor of his with a doll they had launched. On revealing that the doll was missing a pick up line, he said “I wanted it to say ‘chuck us a VB, Murali’,” as a reference to Murali who had been accused of chucking. Yet the smiling assassin continued quietly on his merry way.

Murali’s wicket taking started off slow until he added his variations especially the doosra, invented by Saqlain Mushtaq whose career has been ravaged by injury. It is certain that Saqlain would have been up there with Murali were it not for his injuries. From bowlers with at least 150 ODI wickets, it is only Saqlain who has a better average than Murali.

But today was about Murali and Akram, who funnily enough, have both taken more wickets against each others nation than against any of the other countries in world cricket.