Stani Army

An irresponsible captain is a bad captain

Earlier today we saw Pakistan lose the first of three Twenty20s to New Zealand, who got home with 2.5 overs to spare. Pakistan had got themselves into at least two good positions to make a game of it, only to surrender meekly.

Chief architect of the downfall was Captain Shahid Afridi. Whilst many would disagree and say he played well for his 20 of 17 balls, it was his gormless shot that triggered a signature collapse. Going at 10 an over after the first 4 overs, Afridi did not have the nous to take advantage of a fast start and begin to rein himself in, keep wickets in hand and then to accelerate later. It was as if he wanted to finish the game in that over. That was his intention, and his shot selection was even worse.

Were it not for Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz, who both made 30, Pakistan would not have ended up with a defendable total of 143. It was at the start of the New Zealand innings that Afridi made his second mistake by opening the bowling with Abdul Razzaq. Even at his best, Razzaq was an average bowler. Having aged and lost some pace, he has become easy pickings for batsmen. Any late good work done by Gul and Wahab was immediately wasted as Razzaq went for 15 off his first over. Suddenly, 143 off 20 overs became 128 off 19. A different game already and New Zealand’s tails were up.

The strange thing is that it wasn’t as if Afridi was limited in choice of who to open the attack with. Wahab, Akhtar and Gul were playing, and we had Ajmal, Hafeez and Afrdi himself to make up any overs remaining. There was no need to bowl Razzaq, even less need to open with him

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Akmal: "Being dropped is not an easy thing to take". Yes, imagine what the ball feels like Kamran!

With the World Cup fast approaching, and Pakistan choosing to send in a early preliminary list of layers to the ICC for vetting, Kamran Akmal has decided to come out into the open about his frustrations at being ignored. Having asked the ICC if he is under any investigation and been given the green light, Akmal is surprised as to why he has not been brought back into the fold after being dropped for his poor performances in England.

The belief is that Akmal is being shunned by the PCB as there are suspicions that he has been involved in match fixing. With the PCB recently being told by the ICC to clean up their act, they may just be playing it safe by keeping Akmal away from the international side, even if there is no hard evidence he has been involved in fixing.

So why is there this cloud over Akmal? Suspicions first arose during the tour of Australia when Akmal dropped four catches behind the stumps in the 2nd Test, three of them off of Michael Hussey, who was Australia’s only hope left in the innings. Hussey managed a century, and carried his bat with the tail with Pakistan eventually losing by 36 runs. This led to Akmal being questioned by the PCB, and he was later dropped for the Twenty20s against England in Dubai.

When Pakistan flew to England, Akmal was sent a notice by the ICC seeking information about events related to the 2010 World Twenty20 held in the Caribbean, as the suspicion in regards to Akmal’s performances continued. On the same tour, he was dropped for the 2nd Test against England after a string of missed opportunities behind the stumps and poor batting scores.

He was also recently named in a video by fixer Mazhar Majeed as one of six Pakistan players that Majeed had on his side, ready to engage in fixing games

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Whilst the shortcomings of our batsmen have in the past been covered to some extent by our bowling prowess, now that our bowlers are having a hard time of things, it’s obvious we’re falling even further short of the mark. Of all the specialist bowers, only Shoaib could claim to be bowling well at the moment and he seems to be stuck together with bandages and supports these days.

My team: Hafeez, Shafiq, Younis, Misbah, U. Akmal, Razzaq, Afridi, Zulquarnain, Gul, Ajmal, Akhtar.

A number of things need to come off for Pakistan to be challenging in this ODI series against a powerful and adept One Day South African side; a side which has won it’s last five ODI matches.

Firstly, our openers need to form a partnership of at least 50 even if it comes up in the 14th over. With wickets in hand and Razzaq and Misbah (hopefully) coming in lower down, the score can be accelerated later on. Wickets in hand will also allow Umar Akmal to play his more natural and attacking game rather than getting confused and stuck at the crease trying to throw down the anchor. Younis also needs to quickly find form and glue the innings together.

As for the bowlers; Gul needs to step up to the mark and help out Shoaib, and Saeed Ajmal needs to rediscover his wicket taking abilities. Maybe concentrating on conventional spin and bowling slower will help

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The ICCs deadline for submitting a provisional 30 man squad for the Twenty20 World Cup has arrived and the PCB has gone ahead and included some players involved with the ICL. The three players are Abdul Razzaq, Naved-ul-Hasan and Imran Nazir. With the tournament set to go ahead in June, this leaves about a couple of months for the ICC and the other world boards to come to an agreement in regards to the legitimacy of the Indian Cricket League. If this should not happen, Pakistan may end up carrying players they are not able to use.

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