Shoaib Malik - a poor choice for test captain - Bring back Younis

Well, the good news is that Salman Butt isn't the captain. Butt, naturally would be disappointed. After hearing his name as a possible choice in the media for a couple of weeks, he must have thought to himself, "Well, maybe I can get a game or two now, if they make me captain!" Well, that's not to be. Don't worry Salman, Imran Nazir will soon be out of the team, and you will make a comeback, score a 100, then a 50, then a string of zeros. But, that's not the point of this post.

Good thing Yousuf isn't the captain. Now is not the time to give the responsibility to another devoutly religious man with a beard till his knees. We need focus, we need direction and we don't need distraction from mullas or the tableeghi. We needed change and change is what we have gotten. Shoaib Malik is now the captain, and this blogger is pleased from the point of view of ODI's, but certainly not with tests.

This chap has 16 test matches under his belt, is by no means, a a test player, or a certainty in the squad and is now the test captain? Rubbish. Test match cricket is truly what cricket is all about and if the PCB have any sense of responsibility, they would do their utmost to convince Younis Khan to become the test captain. That would be ideal in my opinion. Shoaib Malik as ODI captain, and Younis as test, with neither playing playing in the other format, so there is no conflict. Shoaib doesn't deserve to be in the test team, while Younis is possibly, the worst 1 down player, Pakistan has ever produced.

Postmortem: Pakistan vs West Indies - Blame the batting, not Rana

Depressing game for Pakistani fans but an exciting victory for the West Indians. Again, I wouldn't be so ticked off if Pakistan had played better. A good game means both sides go back feeling pleased at the performance. But we had the game, and threw it away. The glaring holes in our squad are really beginning to come through. I knew the warm up games over Canada and South Africa didn't mean much and seems like we changed our strategy once again. We are missing Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar like no other.

It's easy for everyone to blame Rana Naveed for the loss. But he was just a part of it, and several players were to blame. So lets not Rana bash excessively and exclusively. Lets also put our bowling aside for a moment, and talk about the selection for the moment.

Though selecting Kaneria might have seemed like a stroke of genius to some, I am not convinced that he should even be part of the squad. I made my reservations to his inclusion quite clear in the past, but have since, been resigned to the fact, that what is done, is done. He is in the squad, will probably play till Afridi is back, and that's the world cup for him. A useless selection.

Kamran Abassi touched upon the second point with regards to this squad. If any of the batsmen gets injured, who the hell will take their place? Yasir Arafat? So weak...

Now Pakistan tried something new today and they must be given credit for it. They chose 4 specialist bowlers, including a spinner, and put faith in their batsmen. It is a good strategy and a sound one. Agreed, 2 of the bowlers were pretty crappy today, but the fact of the matter is, 240 was not unreachable. The batsmen are the ones who should be the ones scoring the bloody runs. Regardless of the bowling, the pitch was still good enough for 240 and they screwed it up.

We ALREADY know our bowling is weak. Which is why we bowl first. Our batting is SUPPOSED to be our strong point. Who was truly shocked that Rana and Kaneria got whipped? Not me. However, I was surprised that the meager pressure of a mere 240 runs completely fingered Nazir, Hafeez and Younis. I can understand a good delivery bamboozling them, and some tight bowling frustrating them. But I have no sympathy for retarded shots. Which brings us to...

Batting

Imran Nazir's time is up. I have joked about the rotation policy in the past, but this dude is a fucking idiot. He is far worse than Imran Farhat, and that is pretty insulting. Someone needs to bumjack him in the dressing room, so he can get injured, so that we can complain and whine to the ICC and send for Salman Butt. We could even help him fake an injury. It's been done before and I am sure there is an SOP lying there somewhere with the manager.

I can't complain about Hafeez. He did as well as he could, but the bugger needs to calm down and take it easy. He needs to stay for 10 overs at least, get his usual 49 runs and then bloody get out. What is the point of having openers who don't even get a bit of the shine off the new ball? What is wrong with the openers? Are they all on crack? Can they only slash and swing?

Our great one-down batsmen, Younis Khan, gets the most blame. Even more than Rana actually. What in the world was he doing? Did you see that shot? What the fuck? Ahh! I was okay with him being in the squad for a while, but dude, after this world cup is over, omarlovescricket is continuing its campaign to get rid of YK from the ODI team.

Yousuf got out to a frigging good delivery. What can one do? Inzi was unlucky with the decision. I think it was going over the wicket. Fuck what Hawkeye says!

Akmal is a choot. I hope Billu.net writes something up about this. I was about to throw my coffee into the aquarium when I saw him get out first ball.

Bowling

Rana is just about as good (or bad) as anyone else who can replace him. My argument is as follows. Can Sami, or Arafat, or even Azhar do a better job than Rana? I think the only advantage is that Arafat and Azhar can bat. Replacing Rana is not going to do the trick. Rana is out of form, but his potential as a bowler is far greater than the rest of them. I think Sami is decent, but even he is very expensive. Apart from Umar Gul, our bowling is bloody toothless in this World Cup, and we must remain resigned to the fact that Rana may just be as good as any other clown on the squad. We have no other choice people!

One could pad up the batting by selecting Arafat or Azhar, but that doesn't improve the bowling at all. Plus it releases the pressure on the batting. The top 6 batsman need to know that one of them HAS to score a bloody 70 or higher. They need to know that after Akmal (arguably before), there is no one else who can bat. Having a batting lineup stretching up till Mars is not the way we will win our games. We have to develop our bowling, give our specialist bowlers a chance to get into their rhythm, and lay the responsibility of scoring runs on the top order.

This squad is pretty weak and the gaps in our strategy are becoming a lot more apparent. Don't be too surprised if we're upset in the next couple of games.

Pakistan 108/4 versus West Indies

Pakistan needs a 134 runs to win at around 7 runs an over. Inzamam looks calm enough. Mohammad Yousuf just got out to a really nice delivery. He was totally set up for that one. I wish Yousuf had stayed till the 40th over or so. Lets see how this game pans out. West Indies definitely have the upper hand by a mile, but I don't think Pakistan are totally out of it just yet.

Shoaib Malik needs to play his natural game and accompany Inzi till the end. I hope we can make a match of it at least. I'd rather lose fighting than get all out for under a 150.

The crowd seems awesome though. It was interesting to see their reaction when MoYo got out. Perhaps there is a bit of respect/irritation that he broke Viv Richard's record a few month's back.

Our openers are shit as usual. Not much more to say till I write my verdict after the game is over.

Oh well. Inzamam just got out LBW. Maybe I'll be writing the verdict sooner than I expected...

The PCB reeks of double standards

Its interesting how Pakistan will play Mohammad Yousuf without a seconds thought but Shoaib Akhtar was sidelined from the first test match for 'fitness' reasons and lack of match practice. MoYo has not played any cricket since December. One could argue that he needs to play a couple of first class games prior to this. Mohammad Asif played exactly the same amount as Shoaib, yet he played the first test match too.

My argument is simple. Why these double standards? Its plain to see that there is something about Shoaib that management does not like. And they keep making excuses to sideline him. I agree that match fitness is crucial, then why don't those exact rules apply to other players? Inzi is far from fit, and was short of form, yet they persisted with him.

Shoaib is a proven match winner. The term match winner is thrown about a lot, so I'll explain what I mean. Shoaib has the ability to change the course of a game in a single spell. He has the ability to take 10 wickets. Of course he may not take any and might have an ordinary game, but when you have someone like him on the squad, who you know will cause problems for the opposition, why play around with his career, and the outcome of the game. Support the guy and give him the same treatment you give everyone else.

It was a stupid mistake to keep Shoaib Akhtar back in Pakistan playing with Rawalpindi. That cost us the first test match. The difference between the South African side and ours was that only 1 of our bowlers was decent enough to get a wicket. Umar Gul's injury or not, by flying Akhtar over on the first flight to South Africa, the selectors looked like complete idiots.

Once again, the PCB and the selectors have shown themselves to be a bunch of clowns, who don't have the best interests of the national team in their minds when they make their decisions. They claim the higher moral ground and speak against the arrogance of players and officials. Their dealings with Waqar, Mushtaq, Younis Khan, the ECB, all come to mind. Yet they are the biggest culprits of all. Their pompousness is ridiculous. They are there to advance the sport, serve the players and serve the nation. I feel like they're completely submerged in this gossipy world of 'he said, she said' type accusations and age old grudges against people who talk back against them. I agree that Shoaib think he's a real something something, but this comes with the territory. He IS a big shot. That's how he is supposed to act. He's our star bowler. I may not want to hang out with the guy and have tea with him, but I certainly want him to be wearing my country's colors and getting wickets.

People get fired, or get criticised, all the time around the world. Its not always acrimonious. Its not always mudslinging for days afterwards. The desi emotion driven bureaucracy at the helm of the PCB must be replaced by a professionals, who have a board in charge, so its not a dictatorship, some smart administrators with clear goals in mind.

Life without Younis, Yousuf, Inzamam...

With a 2-0 lead, we should be thanking our lucky stars that the series can't be lost! Tomorrows game, though not inconsequential, is going to be quite amusing, and unpredictable from Pakistan's point of view. If Razzak is made captain, it will be due to his seniority and nothing else. He hasn't exactly got the leadership credentials. Shoaib Malik, who has captained his domestic team in many games, would probably be my choice.

I have some concerns, however, about tomorrow's game against the West Indies. Not only is there no clearly defined leader left in the camp, but there are characters on the team that are louder than most. Afridi, if he plays, is not one to keep his opinions to himself. He has 200+ games, and quite rightly so, considers himself as a senior player. In fact, Afridi probably has the most leadership qualities that one desires in a captain....yet he is barely making this squad.

Cricket, more than other sports, needs a captain that everyone can turn to. I just hope the game doesn't turn out to be a free for all. Then again, its only 1 game. But I like to worry...

Anyway...

Regardless of captaincy, pressure will be on the batsmen to perform. There will come a time when Younis, Yousuf and Inzi will not longer be playing, and these fellows will have to start shouldering the burden. This is as good a time as any to see how good the Pakistani batting bench strength is.

Incredible Yousuf breaks Richards record!

From Cricinfo...

72.5 Collymore to Mohammad Yousuf, FOUR, that's it Yousuf becomes the highest scorer in a calender year, breaks the record of Viv Richards. It was on the middle and leg, driven well wide of mid on, the ball races to the fence. Raises his bat to the crowd, wonderful effort from him

...and he's still going!

What an amazing year he has had! This record couldn't have gone to nicer fellow. Critics can't even argue that the opposition bowling wasn't quality. England, India, Sri Lanka and the West Indies have faced him.

What an great run. Hopefully this continues for a while...

Playing South Africa away, on their surfaces would be a true test and challenge.