England matching Pakistani injury lists knee for knee, hamstring for hamstring

Vaughan has flown back home to England. Shabbir Ahmed played a single twenty20 and Shoaib Akhtar just played for a couple of sessions of a test and both went home. Is anyone else a bit shocked by the spate of injuries that have befallen the English and Pakistani sides? I'm no doctor, but its safe to assume the amount of cricket being played today is reducing the shelf life of our cricketers. I remember supporting Gavaskar just last year when he ridiculed the complaints of modern players on being burnt-out.

"These players are turning out for their countries. It's an honour to represent your country. I would be willing to sweat 365 days in a year for India. Those who can't stand the heat should stay out."

At the time I thought it was silly for highly paid players to complain while they had the best health care possible provided to them. Mike Selvey's response to Gavaskar last year was apt and equally valid today. Some excerpts...

What Gavaskar fails or is unwilling to grasp is the idea that it is not the volume of cricket but rather the sheer intensity of it that creates the problems.

But this does not mean we should not listen to the rest of the world on this issue. When Brett Lee confesses that the petrol has run out and he is "bowling on fumes", it really does mean something. The home boards have a duty of care to state this in the strongest terms to the ICC.

The cricketing boards are really packing in the tours for commercial purposes, and the cricketers are feeling the adverse effects. I feel that the rift between team management and their respective boards with regards to player burnout is increasing. The management have no choice but to rest key players, and adopt rotation policies. New Zealand have implemented a rotation policy for a quite a while now. However, w hen you rest key players, the competition gets reduced, and the quality of match play goes down.

Woolmer, amongst others, recently spoke up against this hectic South Africa tour, and these collective voices against overburdening the cricketers are getting louder. No matter how good medical staffs are, it seems to me that they can't catch up to the pace of international cricket. Or maybe its just Pakistan that seems to be suffering a lot. Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed, Umar Gul, Razzak and Malik are all on the path to recovery from some ailment or the other. England also have Anderson, KP (though he was just unlucky), and Vaughan, who keeps finding new ways to injure his fragile body. The PCB has recently launched an inquiry into how these players are getting injured to often, and England, I'm sure, will soon follow and is also concerned.

We are concerned with the number of injuries we have had on this tour and we don`t want a repeat of this in future events," a senior PCB official said.

"The chairman PCB Dr Naseem Ashraf himself is going to look into this issue and we will have our medical panel examine all the players before the World Cup squad is finalized," said director, cricket operations, Saleem Altaf.

I never thought it would come to this for me, but there really is too much nonsensical cricket being played. The commercial aspects seem to have become the primary objective, and though the fans are getting what they pay for, injuries to players is undoubtedly the biggest side effect. It is also arguable whether the quality of cricket being played is deteriorating. Tim de Lisle's column in Cricinfo touches upon how this is changing the game we all love.

I love watching cricket so my suggestion is to have separate teams for separate forms of the game, thus each squad can focus on their specialty. Naturally some players are well-accustomed to several forms of the game, and they can be rotated. If twenty20 is the next big thing, then countries should develop pure twenty20 players. If the various boards develop a strong bench of players from which to choose from, not only will players develop their game since a lot more are seeing international cricket, but the fans are getting what they want. More cricket...

In a sense this is already being implement by most boards, and it is bound to become a staple for the cricketing nations in because in my opinion there is no way, the ICC will hold back on the amount of cricket being played. Its just not going to happen. Though I'm happy with our sport's success, I am worried about the people in charge and their obsession with Benjamins.

Shabbir Ahmed's action has been cleared

After serving a 1 year ban for an illegal bowling action, Shabbir Ahmed is close to returning to action. From the PCB website...

As per the preliminary report received by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) from University of Western Australia Biomechanics experts this afternoon, the bowling action of Shabbir Ahmad has been found within the legitimate parameters laid down by the International Cricket Council. The detailed report is expected after about a week's time subsequent to which the PCB will do the needful for getting Shabbir's clearance to represent Pakistan after his one-year ban finishes on 18 December, 2006.

This might have been just an afterthought to the cricinfo folks but this is actually quite a big deal. I briefly touched upon his importance prior to his departure for Australia for bowling tests.

Now that he has been cleared, he should probably make the squad for the South Africa tour. He is a talented cricketer and has a lot of potential. I hope his bowling action has improved somewhat, since it always looked a little odd to me. However, one must bear in mind that he had always been cleared scientifically. Its just that his action 'looked' strange which is why he was called a few times. I hope the umpires and referees bear this in mind.

With Shoaib and Asif out, this couldn't have come at a better time.

Shabbir Ahmed could possibly make a comeback

Shabbir Ahmed was banned last December for being reported twice within 12 months. How good was he? In my opinion he was better than Sami, Razzak, Arafat. But not quite in the same league as Mohammad Asif and Shoaib. I would rank his skills close to Umar Gul, who I respect highly. Using my reasoning, I suppose, it would be fair to say we need him desperately to lead our attack!

His return next month from his year-long ban could not have come at a better time. With Pakistan's 2 front line bowlers banned, he could really plug that gap that exists in Pakistan's toothless fast bowling reserves.

His statistics are impressive. In the past few years, Pakistani fast bowlers have relied more on line and length and lateral movement (Gul, Asif, Shabbir) and less on raw pace (Sami, Shoaib). He is a tall guy. Taller than 6 feet, and has a dangly action. He can extract plenty of bounce from pitches. I would estimate that he is a mix between Harmy and McGrath, though excelling in neither bounce nor line and length. He's done well, however, getting 51 wickets from his 10 test matches. I was definitely a fan and I am hopeful he can play for the country, perhaps even as soon as the South Africa tour which precedes the World Cup.

From SABCNews.com

"Obviously when you lose two key bowlers like Shoaib and Asif it does affect the team," Saleem Altaf, the director cricket operations, said via telephone from India. "Which is why we will be sending Shabbir to Australia on November 20 for biomechanics tests on his bowling action?"

Shabbir has been reported three times for his action, which can be reviewed again once the ban ends next month, Altaf added.

"We have done a lot of work on Shabbir's action this year and there is definite improvement. Hopefully, he will also clear the biomechanical tests under the supervision of experts in Australia," Altaf said. "If he is available with a modified action for the tour of South Africa and the World Cup it would be a big boost for the team," he added.

I sincerely hope they actually did work on his action over the past year. If they did, that is pretty good management by the PCB to insure that Shabbir is healthy and legal when he returns. He was worth the investment, and I hope he doesn't get called for throwing again. He could be a handful on South African and West Indian pitches.