Peaceful Strokes

It will be interesting to see what happens in India, when Danesh Kaneria starts playing in the Tests. He is now the top spinner in Pakistan, and is getting to be one of the better ones in the world. I think he will become a main media attraction - specially for Indian journalists.

I think Yohana and Danesh are now part of the Pakistan cricket team, on a long term basis. Yohana should be the next captain, after Inzamam, at a stage when all the young Pakistani players, including Danesh, will be reaching their prime. So Pakistan should have a good team, under him. Yohana is very highly respected everywhere.

Yohana is a pure Punjabi speaking Christian from Lahore. Christians and Parsis in Pakistan, in comparison to Ahmedis, are not discriminated against much (relatively speaking). In fact, Parsis are probably the most successful economic group in Pakistan. So I don`t think anyone is gunning for Yohana. Had he been an Ahmedi, it would have been a different story. I am not sure whether anyone is gunning for Dinesh. He seems to say, Inshallah`` a lot, in his interviews. So maybe someone is gunning for him (gunning being a relative term, also).

I believe the actual pronounciation of Yohana`s name is not You-haaa-na. It is Yo-hnnn-a.

Sadna

No, the comparison is absolutely correct. Your government also kills its own people whom it has been calling atoot ang for the past 56 years.

As a matter of fact it is the intellectual dishonesty and inherent prejudices of people like you that this whole region is miserable. Your government weaponizes itself against an enemy which is 10 times smaller and weaker by pushing half a million more prostitutes on the streets of Calcutta and bombay every year; whereas our government weaponizes itself against an enemy which is 10 times bigger and stronger by murdering its own people. Above all this, there is one heartless baniya who is making all the money out of our misery.

Jang #112

{{he would be called Joseph John like any good keralite.. or at least Jose Juan.}}

This is a digression from cricket. I have little interest in why Yousuf Youhana carries the name he does, and whether he would be safe if he was named differently. However, you are quite incorrect about Christian names in Kerala. There are multiple local equivalents of Joseph and John (and of other Biblical names, such as George, Matthew, Philip, Joshua, etc.); some of these are far less obvious and recognizable cognates than Yusuf and Youhanna and would completely elude someone who was not alert or not in the know.

Guys,

Please leave this board to cricket. Believe me, Kashmiris can wait till
the end of this series.

Dear Jang,

First of all you missed the point completely... Religion has nothing to do with Cricket.

Secondly the Urdu Bible has `Yohanna` for John. No Muslim in Pakistan is named `Youhanna`... Yohanna is a christian name. The Muslim equivalent is `Yahya`. Must the name be in keralite tradition a British one always? The question you should be asking is what was the name in Hebrew. My Christian colleagues and had quite the discussion yesterday about the Christian names... and they slammed my assertion that it would be much better if Yousef Youhanna called himself `Joseph John` ... saying that the great batsman is a son of the soil. Ironically my colleague`s own name is John, and not Yohanna.

As for Danesh Kineria... he is a hindu atleast that is what he claims his religion is... the name Danesh is actually pronounced `D-i-n-e-s-h`... though the idiots in the media now call him `Danish`, which the persian name ... and it is spelt `D-A-N-I-S-H` usually...


In any event the faith of our players has nothing to do with cricket... nor do we want to score brownie points with anyone.

-YLH

mumbaikar #125 It is really nice to see how warmly ordinary Pakistanis treated the Indian fans in their midst. However I am not surprised - as I have always said, the average Pakistani (the one hamidm ridicules as ``Abdul``, that Jay portrays as being filled with hatred towards India, and the one urstruly pretends does not exist) is in fact a decent, big-hearted, self-respecting, hospitable individual. The average Pakistani may be poor, but he will willingly invite you to share ``dal-roti`` with him.

Indian fans are finding out for themselves what I have been saying all along on chowk. Truth ultimately comes out.

Urstruly
``It is just like India in Kashmir who needs to keep an army of 700,000 to control 1500 insurgents. ``
Wrong comparison. These foreign militants in Wana were allies of the Pakistani army for 25 years, thats is why they got refuge there.

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Sadna

They are Paksitani citizens now. After the jihad in Afghanistan was over and soveits were defeated these people married among local families and started leading quiet lives. These families in turn are now trying to protect their sons-in-law. If they were outlaws then you don`t need a 60,000 strong army to capture them; just a jirga would have been enough. But an offensive of this scale can only be against the whole population of the region and not 400 outlaws.

It is just like India in Kashmir who needs to keep an army of 700,000 to control 1500 insurgents.

Urstruly
``The people who are dying are Paksitani citizens.``

And what are those 600-700 foreign militants doing there, meanwhile? Writing software for Intel?

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mohammad amjad

what has turned us into such remorseless murderers? Such malaise? Such indifference towards your fellow human beings and citizens?

This space was meant for cricket. Let us keep our sentiments confined to cricket only.

Sadna

The people who are dying are Paksitani citizens. No Paksitani governmental institution, especially army, has any right to use state apparatus against its own people. I think government is the most corrupt, most inefficiant and anti-human institution that human beings have ever invented and no government can be given such excessive powers.

According to current international standards what Na PAk fauj is doing falls under the category of `crimes against humanity`. When western imperialist thugs were preparing the case to attack iraq and capture its natural resources they accused Saddam of committing the same acts of `crimes against humanity` against his own people when he quelled rebellions against himself. Why the situation is any different in paksitan? In near future when these imperialists will attack Paksitan they will build their cases on these `crimes against humaity` wouldn`t they?

Romair:

You have no idea what you’re talking about. You should stick to what you know and stop commenting on cricket. But wait a minute, what do you know? It seems like you tend to come of with asinine gems no matter what the topic of discussion.

Nobody in their right mind would rank Dravid and Ponting ahead of Tendulkar and Hayden.

Regarding Laxman being the mentally toughest one since he performs so well against Australia… OK, so Laxman averages 63 against Aus in 12 matches. A small sample but fine, that’s great! But against all other opposition he averages 40, that’s less than Pravin Amre’s average! So where’s his mental toughness against Sri Lanka and England and Zimbabwe and the lot? Did it ever occur to you that the Australian brand of bowling and bowling strategy may be more suited to how Laxman bats and that is explanation of his anomaly with Australia and not some Zen master voodoo?

You say that Sehwag is comparable to Afridi and will lose his place in the side due to ‘inconsistency’. Huh??? Afridi averages 32 and has NOT PLAYED A SINGLE TEST MATCH OUTSIDE THE SUBCONTINENT! Sehwag averages 46 lifetime and 42 on the road. Sehwag has more centuries on the road than at home. At this point in his career Matty Hayden had scored half as many centuries and was batting an average 8 runs lower than Sehwag. Just because the guy is unorthodox does not mean that he is inconsistent. Better version of Afridi, my ass!

Regarding Ganguly being over the hill, a few facts. Ganguly averages more on the road (42) than at home (41). Ganguly’s last 10 road tests have been against tough opposition (4 Eng, 2 NZ, 4 AUS) and in these last 10 road tests his average is identical to his career average. So I don’t see a big dip in the performance. And as far as his low average in the few recent ODIs go, why conveniently pick a small sample? A team plays about 30 ODIs in a year so one would think that you’d at least go back about 30 games to the world cup to see a solid number. Well, Ganguly averages 45 in ODIs since the world cup. No one says that Ganguly is an all time great batsman, he’s a solid gritty cricketer who has streaky tendencies. But over the hill? Come on!!!

Statistics may not tell the whole story but they are very handy at exposing blatant lies and idiocies. You don’t know jack about Indian cricket so why don’t you go play battleship?

I think Dravid is now the best batsman on the Indian team. He is currently at his peak, while Tendulkar, is a couple of years beyond his peak. Dravid is technically the most perfect batsman in the world. He doesn`t make a mistake. I didn`t see him play a single incorrect shot in his 99. While Tendulkar, every now and then, does. I would rank Dravid, alongwith with Lara and Ponting, to be the top three batsmen in the world, at the moment. They would be followed by Hayden and Tendulkar.

The other really good bat in the Indian team is Laxman. Pakistan is lucky he got out early. I have no idea why the Indian selectors have kept him out of the team for so long. He didn`t play in the World Cup. In his current form, he is one of the top ten batsman in the world. I would put him in the same category as Yohana or Inzamam, in current form. And he is mentally the toughest batsman on the Indian team, since his best performances seem to come against Australia.

He is followed by Yuvraj Singh. He should play tests also. Pakistan is lucky he hasn`t done much so far. He is very young, and should be a permanent member of India`s side, in all forms of cricket.

He is followed by Sehwag. He is a better version of Afridi. However, I cannot see how he will last too long in Test cricket, if he doesn`t become more consistent.

I think Ganguly is over the hill, and has been for a year or so. He is only in the team for captaincy and due to his past heriocs. He is basically the Waqar Younis of the Indian team. If India loses this series, then I think he will eventually be fighting for a place in the team, since India traditionally has a lot of good young batsmen. He is averaging around 12 runs per innings in one-days, since Australia. He gave three chances in the last match. And the only good innings he has played, that comes to mind, is the 144 in Australia. He was great at one time, but no more. I think he is holding back other budding Indian batsmen, by occupying a permanent slot in the Indian side. His captaincy is an asset for India, while his batting is a liability.