Stani Army

What is going on in Zulqarnain Haider's mind?

In our last post in regards to Zulqarnain Haider’s actions, we raised some concerns about the manner in which he was behaving and argued that he needed to reveal more about the incident which caused him to flee Dubai in order to remove suspicion that he had conjured up this whole scenario for personal gain. Three days on and his pubic comments have done nothing to allay fears that Haider is taking everyone for a ride. After being interviewed by the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU), Haider was unable to give them any information about the person that had approached him in Dubai.

We are not close enough to the man to know if lying is any part of his character, but there is one trait in particular displayed by him which one would see in a compulsive liar, and that is wanting to be seen as a good-doer, a hero. This was obvious in an interview which he gave to the BBC, in which he came across as wanting to be the whistle-blower who cleaned up the game of cricket, and was willing to give up his career and a lot of money to do so. Surprisingly, for a 20 minute interview, it was remarkably lacking in any detail of his meeting with the fixer or his experience of others involved in fixing in the game, despite being repeatedly asked probing questions by the reporter.

It’s also been the case that in two separate interviews, whenever he is asked about the meeting, his mentioning of the death threat is almost an afterthought, as if it didn’t really happen but must be added on to the end as if to bring weight to what he is saying, with Haider putting the threat to fix games and comply with the fixers before it. Surely when asked ‘What did he say?’ when going through an experience like that, ones first response would be to mention the threat to yours and your family’s lives first? Unless of course it didn’t happen and you have to make it up.

Haider says he received the threat after the 3rd ODI, but he only chose to flee after the 4th match, four days later. His reaction in running was one that someone would make instinctively, yet the threat was four days before. Therefore there must have been some sort of planning and calculating going on by him

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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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With the emergence of Mohammad Aamer, would a fit Shoaib have a place in the Pakistan first team?

In the past, we’ve had to keep on going back to Shoaib because there was no one else fast or good enough to partner Umar Gul as the other of the two Pakistan pace spearheads. Maybe part of the reason for his bad behaviour was that he felt he brought something unique to the Pakistan attack so was thus indispensable and could do pretty much what he liked. His recent comment, “I am the fastest bowler in history and it’s not possible for everyone to bowl at 150 (kph)”, does give some indication of such a mindset. Yet now that we have Aamer, and due the reasons which we will now examine, I think Shoaib would find it very difficult to get a place in any of our sides.

His reverse swing and slower ball skills will not be missed as Gul has demonstrated that he is one of the very best exploiters of these qualities. His pace will not also be a miss as both Gul and Aamer are adequately fast enough. In most of our sides, barring injury, we will probably go with three main fast bowlers due to the strength of our all rounders and spinners. With Gul and Aamer a certainty, this leaves one place

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Another depressing display from the Pakistan team leaves them needing a win from their last game against the Netherlands to progress to the last eight.

It’s obvious that Pakistan are neither sure of their best team nor how to use many of their players in the line up. They need to quickly address the opening bowlers with Yasir Arafat once again opening and going for runs. The fielding was bad as usual with Salman Butt having a particularly bad time not only in the field but also with his style of batting. Butt, though a good player, is not someone who should be in the Twebty20 side. It was obvious today that he caused problems up top by hogging the strike and putting pressure on the other batsmen. One thing which he never fails to do is to consistently find thefielder with his shots; it’s uncanny.

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