Team Preview : Pakistan

This time its turn of Pakistan to be previewed. Pakistan, the most controversial, most unpredictable team of the top 8 teams in the world cup. They are just jolted from the lengthy bans handed out to the 3 idiots of England tour, but then that was anticipated and the team seems to have moved on from that.

Trivia:

• Pakistan have not reached beyond 1st round in last 2 world cups : 2003 and 2007.
• After they won in 1992, they reached QF in 1996 and ended 2nd best in 1999. Since then its been a downhill for them.
• After 1999 they have not played with a same captain in 2 consecutive world cups. Wasim Akram in 1996 and 1999 was last one after Imran Khan in 1987 and 1992.
• Waqar Younis, the current coach was a flop in the world cups. He missed 1992 edition to injury, was off color in 1996, injured in 1999 and had a disastrous outing as captain in 2003.  Lets c how does he fare as coach in 2011.
• 2007 was most tragic world cup for Pakistan, they lost to Ireland and West Indies and then they lost Bob Woolmer forever and Inzamam retired from ODIs after world cup and from tests later in 2007.
• They have not yet beaten India in 4 world cup appearences to date. They lost out in 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2003. 1999 was most anticipated game as it was played during Kargil war backdrop and 2003 game was first one after the asia cup game in 2000.  If they play in this world cup, it would be first in a year and just 3rd in 3 years.
• They have never lost to SL in the world cup and we'd expect them to do the same this time too.

Team composition:

Afridi, Younis, Hafeez, Misbah, Razzaq, Rehman, Gul, Junaid, Kamran, Umar Akamal, Ajmal, Wahab, Akhtar, Shafiq, Shehzad

Opening Pair

They had good opening partnerships in their last series before the world cup. Shehzad and Hafeez might not have flair, but they are solid and if one of them sticks around and plays over, they could go long distance. Kamran Akamal is other option to go with the opening as he has had decent success with bat in that position. Many times he has had batted at no 3 as well and many times lower down the order.

Middle Order

Younis Khan at 4 and Misbah at 5 provide the stability and cool head when needed. Umar Akamal at 6 and maverick Afridi at 7 followed by Razzaq at 8. Batting seems long and dangerous untill they dont self implode or explode on their own.

If anybody out of Razzaq and Afridi gets going in the final 10 overs then the team could be expected to notch high scores. But the main problem is consistency. You never know which Pakistan side would turn up on a given day, which player would be a hero one day, villian the other day and flown the other day and banned the other some day. Shafiq has been replacing Umar off late though.

Bowling:

They dont have Asif and Amir, but they have Gul and Akhtar. Gul is one of the best bowlers today with the old ball and he has had good success in ODIs off late (England tour he took consecutive 4-fors). Akhtar, if fit can deliver 140 + balls consistently, can go for runs and also implode with wickets.  Junaid Khan is unknown commodity. Wahab Riaz has had decent success with the ball too.

Abdur Rehman, Ajmal and Afridi along with Hafeez form the spin department. Ajmal is the trump card of Pakistan and if he is conquered then it wont be long to demoralise the others in the pack.

Expectations

Controversies apart and given that Ijaz Butt keeps his butt away from the team and there is no other controversy, the team should find easy way to go through to the quarters. Hopefully they would beat Sri Lanka big time.

Game Changers :

Already covered in other post.

Negative Influence:

1. Kamran Akamal

2.  Shoaib Akhtar

3. Younis Khan

and

Ijaz Butt

Ban 3 idiots

The cricketing world awaits the verdict on the 3 idiots of the Pakistan cricket team including a prospective young star fast bowler, a serial drug peddler and a captain who also led in the wrong doings. They already have been slated to face prosecution in England in March by the CPS and today's ICC verdict is going to nail them further.

The ICC should hand them no less than many years ban so as to act as a deterrent for the other players who would otherwise step into the murkier world of spot fixing, cheating.

However their fate has got nothing to do with the mercurial Pakistan team who now has registered a Test and ODI series win in long long time even if the team against it was Kiwis. The team seems to have moved on from this 3 players and have been winning quite easily without the 3 idiots. 

They took England and SA to the final game of the ODI series, they won here in Kiwiland and drew with SA in the Sheikhland.

They wont be favorites in the world cup, but they wont be pushovers either. They at this moment look good to advance beyond first round after 12 years.

Coming back to the 3 idiots, they should now give up the dream to play for their country again, but then stop. Its Ijaz Butt and the PCB. Anything is possible and the drama is not over yet unfortunately!!!

Mr and Mrs ten percent

ICC has sent notice to Kamran Akamal indicating he is under scanner for his suspicious activities all this year for Australian tour, England tour and Asia Cup activities.  TOI reports that he had been notified before the Lord's test too and he had replied to the notice. But the notice reply were found to be ridiculous and so he was charged once again.

This time the PCB was ignored. The notice was sent directly to the rogue keeper.

PCB chief returned to his homeland and received jeers. Still unfazed he declared he wont have any investigation as ICC and Scotland Yard investigation are already on. Actually he meant this

We are incompetent, impotent and idiots. If we launch any investigations then all we are going to do is say "Where is the proof" ? If proofs are unearthed we would ban and fine the players. And then have them submit the appeals and finally revoke the bans and fines. We would turn a blind eye to what the players do while on the tour, whom they meet, how much cash they make, whether they play cricket or do anything beyond that. We are incompetent, impotent."

So in the end its back to the square one. Laughing stock. Amazingly, still nothing would happen. Butt, the bil of Pak defence minister shall continue to be  the pCB chief and continue to say "Where is the proof" and "Innocent until proved guilty". He would be "impotent until proved potent".

If Akamal is charged then why is he playing ?

A search for Ijaz Butt on twitter yields some hillarious tweets even from his own countrymen like "trading off Ijaz Butt" and stuff like that.

Irony is that who is going to kick him out ? The patron ? Mr 10 % :D. Who knows he might be getting some slice of the spot fixing payment from the bookies !! And Ijaz Butt would be getting his share too. Probably that explains the reason why this two buffoons are still in place.

ICC suspends Pakistan captain, premier fast bowler and Veena Malik's ex bf

Start of the day : PCB withdraws  the 3 players on grounds of mental torture from media, bloggers, ex-cricketers and fans. Pakistan envoy to Britain confirms this proving that he is cousin of Ijaz Butt in terms of mental health and wisdom.

Later in the day : ICC suspends 3 players on grounds of corruption under ACSU.

Welcome step.  Some action had to be taken and ICC was the only one who could have taken this action given how impotent and inept PCB is.

What happens to Kamran  Akamal ? He was implicated too right ? Did Shahid Afridi save his ass as Akamal constantly rants Shahid Bhai Shahid Bhai ?

By the way collage below (courtesy : ndtv.com and mid-day.com) should be good enough to nail Salman Butt and Kamran Akamal.  A fitting reply to those who are asking for proofs. Nothing can get bigger than this pictures and the video footage shown by NOTW.

Spot Fixing Stake Holders

Trying to draw a picture who's on what side of the spot fixing scandal. We've had truckload of tweets on the spot fixing stuff, lot of media articles across cricketing nations and conspiracy theories. A lot of turning blind eye stuff, demanding of proofs when they are damning present in the video, linkage to RAW, linkage to India, linkage to corruption within that country, conspiracy from ICC chief and what not.

Backers and Movers

*

Geoff Lawson

*

Rameez Raza

*

Michael Atherton

*

Ijaz Butt

*

Shahid Afridi

*

Mohd Ijaz

*

Salman Butt

*

Yawar Saeed

*

Few Pakistani bloggers

*

Daily Mail

Against

* Indian bloggers

* Indian tweeters

* Indian media

* England team

* English media

* Imran Khan

* Sarfaraz Nawaz

* Javed Miandad

* Few Pak bloggers

* Australian team like Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson, N Hauritz

* Micahel Vaughan

There have been few crazy mongers who have gone onto blame Indian establishment for the spot fixing stuff :

* Daily mail linking RAW, ICC, Indian commision (in UK) and BCCI to ruin Aamer's career. I was typing character, thanks to Sangakara overdose.

* Veena Malik, their Rakhi Sawant who's blamed entire Pak cricketing fraternity involvement in match fixing.

* Ijaz Butt who still asks "Whers the proof. Show me the proof."

* Mr 10 % who's asked for interim report from Ijaz Butt.

* Gilani who feels Pak head is down in shame

* Zakhrani and Malik who change their views every single day.

* Haroon Lorgat who feels ACSU is doing good job but it is a powerless and toothless body.

* ICC chief Sharad Pawar who himself is in a mess pledges no action.

The win-win situation to deal with this spot fixing stuff could have been

"Temporarily suspend the named 3/4 players till investigations of Scotland yard are done and some premises either way are established. The tour could have gone ahead."

This also would have set some credibility on PCB's part showing that they were keen to get this mess out of their system. Albeit it was never to happen and there has been same predictable reaction to this entire episode. Those 3 players would still go on to play the ODIs and as Pak would lose 0-5 it would be very difficult to tell which ones were a genuine losses and which ones were spot fixed.

PCB wont take any action on Cheaters

ECB has said its players are reluctant to take on a team which has spot fixer tainted players in the ODIs and T20s.

Mr Sharad Pawar has said ICC wont step in till the investigations are done. That is, the 4 players would continue playing T20s and ODIs leading to more fixing.

The Buffoon at PCB has said

"This is only an allegation. There is still no charge or proof on that account. So at this stage there will be no action taken"

As expected Buffoon turns his eye off on the erring players. There are reports in ToI which suggest that the PCB has a nexus with the bookies responsible for the spot fixing. So its obvious the head of PCB wont act on the beneficiaries of the booking gate.

ICC now signalling that it may suspend 4 players (CNN-IBN).

As of now the fact is the 4 suspended players would continue playing and none of ICC, PCB would act on the players.

Another indication that the spot fixing stuff would be rubbed under carpet.

Spot Fixing would be buried under carpet

The Pak squad has left for Taunton amidst the slogan of thieves. And Majeed Mazhar has been released on bail too. ICC is dysfunctional, PCB is hopeless.

It gives a feeling that this episode is also going to be pushed inside carpet and the named culprits are going to continue in the way previous ones have done over decade and half.

Worst thing is that this episode has come right around the world cup and ideally the ICC should act stern to fix the problem of fixing for good.

Thats a realm of speculation and very unlikely it would happen. The worst thing is the 4 cheats would still be playing the T20s and the ODIs. Best thing could have been suspend the 4 players at least till the allegations are proved / invalidated. 

Pakistan cricket needs to be isolated !!

For the first 2 or 3 days of Lord's Test it seemed that Pakistan are back to being a decent Test team until Broad and Trott had the record shattering 332 run partnership for 8th wicket.

And then the hell broke loose.

Spot fixing allegations came out in open after News of the World broke the story how Mazhar  Majeed paid the talents of Pakistan cricket to ball no-balls during the ongoing Lord's Test.

Since then the world of cricket has just been flooded with the shock and awe.

Its nothing new on the Pakistan's part to be coping up with this allegations. They have had a history of such misdeeds and the current cricketers have illustrious seniors to look up for spot fixing and stuff like ball tampering, match fixing. Many of them are coaches now, have gone on to become highest ODI wicket takers and what not.

Salman Butt, Aamer, Drug Peddler Asif and ugly slut Kamran Akamal are the players indicated in this spot fixing stuff.

The English media is overboard with how Test cricket was killed at the home of cricket, the Pakistani media is yet to come to the terms with the reality. Poor they, they have had to cover a lot of such stuff in last 3 years. Mush, 10 %, Buttology, MoYos, Younises, Afridis, Butt again, Akamal muck,  spot fixing, T-e-Ts, floods, war against homegrown terror and what not.

PakPassion.net had glorified the Mazeed brothers having a dedicated section on the website named as "Agents Corner". The Pakistani bloggers are quiet in the shock. Feel for them. Why do they even follow Pakistani cricket ?

As long as Pakistan is going to play cricket, this dirt and muck is going to be around. No matter how strong we have units like ICC ACU, Qayyums and stuff, the crooks of Pakistan all round the world are going to lure the poor Pakistani players who when debut do not even have manners (accent) or money to be correct on foreign tours. So its easy for them to be lured to petty temptations and sell their integrity for some pounds or dollars or Pakistani rupees.

When the country itself is deep in immorality of terror, home grown insurgency, floods and anti-world mindset its futile to expect this young cricketers to have any kind of integrity and morality.  And when the Ijaz Butts rule the PCB and act in a weird way to ban, appeal and overturn, its futile or better to not expect the PCB or Mr 10 % to act on the latest dirt from Pakistani cricket closet.

Best way would be to ban Pakistan from playing all forms of cricket till their administration comes clean on the laundering,  cheating and fixing. Worse even do not invite the cheats from Pakistan to play anywhere in the world for they would bring a lot of unwanted publicity and attention where they go. Let their team play within their own country.

Cricket wont die due to a misgiving from a rogue country. T20s wont die, Tests and ODIs wont die. Normal business shall resume. When its a normal of a Pakistani cricket to be corrupt then why pretend to be shocked and write obituaries for cricket when its in a good state though bruised a little bit. Just a bit.

The ODI series and the T20s to follow in England now become irrelevant and we should get our popcorn and coke to watch out the theaterical drama unfold in Pakistani cricket circles with Ijaz Butt being the old hero in centerstage. Just hoping that ICC would act strong this time to kill the virus of fixing forever and come too hard on the erring players, administrators and bookies.

Lights camera Action!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!