The Glory of Pakistan Cricket

I think F Zamanov and Samb describe the current Pakistan cricket structure very well but i just want Zamanov and Samb to contact me on my email that is stinger.kh@gmail.com so that i can discuss some issues which i can`t mention on boards.
Cheers

Over the past few years top performers of domestic cricket as far as batting department is concerned are:-
1. Misbah-ul-Haq
2. Hassan Raza
3. Faisal Iqbal
True these players are good but as soon as they went onto the international scene they were exposed within a matter of couple of games, all of them had one thing in common was that none of them could play short bowling. Hassan Raza after scoring back to back 50s against Australia went down to Zimbabwe and struglled against their mediocre attack. That says alot about our domestic system. Youhanna is the only one of the current batsmen who came to international scene with an excellent batting record under his belt.
As far as Yasir Arafat is concerned the fellow is a medioicre bowler excelling in a mediocre structure. He was tried at international level but failed like many others. We are in the same situation as England is currently domestic record does not say much for the potential of a player.

Regards
Nauman
pakistanicricket.net Admin

re: Brother_Zamanov, samb

I couldn`t agree with your views more.

Many Pakistani stars of the 90s were in fact top performers in domestic circuit. Its a myth that Pakistani domestic cricket has failed to produce quality cricketers. Saeed Anwar, Saleem Malik, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, Waqar Younis, Aamer Sohail, Ijaz Ahmad, Aaqib Javed, Inzamamul Haq and Yousaf Youhana did not earn their selections through any shortcuts.

No doubt Imran Khan and Waseem Akram entered the national squad without playing in the domestic circuit. But they are exceptions, rather than the rule. Imran Khan also asserts that top performers in domestic cricket are ill-equipped to face top teams like Australia and South Africa.

But facts belie this assertion:

(a) Saeed Anwar: Scored the highest runs in national ODI championship playing for Pakistan Airlines in 1988. This earned him a spot in the national squad. Pakistan was desperately in need of a quality opener, having unsuccessfuly tried Mudassar, Mansoor Akhtar, Rizwan-uz-Zaman and Aamer Malik. Saeed shined in ODIs at Sharjah during 1989. And then during Pakistan`s tour of Australia, Saeed Anwar sparkled in the Triangular World Series against Australia and West Indies. Next year, he helped Pakistan win the Australasia Cup in Sharjah. From then onwards, his place in the national team was guaranteed.

(b) Inzamam: Played in the Under-18 Cricket World Cup in 1987 and helped Pakistan win that tournament in Australia. Later he joined the Multan Division Cricket Association (MDCA) and WAPDA. He was picked for the home series against New Zealand and West Indies in 1991 and played some decent innings. On his World Cup tour to Australia, he smashed two unforgettable innings under high pressure. Inzamam demonstrated that age is no bar to excellence.

(c) Waqar Younis: Played for United Bank Ltd (UBL). He was the second-highest wicket taker in domestic cricket in 1989 before being selected for the national team. During his debut series against West Indies and India are Sharjah, he proved his mettle with some rock-solid figures.

(d) Ijaz Ahmad: Of all the Pakistani batsmen, Ijaz has scored the most centuries against Australia. He was very erratic and unreliable at most times. But every once in a while, he would rise to the occasion and score a big knock. His unreliability had perhaps more to do with his ties to bookies, match fixers and Saleem Malik... than lack of class.

Clearly, whenever the PCB/BCCP has selected top performers from domestic cricket and given them a fair, ample chance... their decisions have been vindicated. PCB does not need to revamp the system. It just needs to be fair and honest in following the rules that it has itself created.

First, people who are selected to play for national sides will rarely get an opportunity to participate in domestic cricket due to playing for the national side and touring. After tours, they need to recover from injuries and charge their batteries in order to be ready for the next one. You cannot expect them to play domestic cricket.

Second, Azhar Mehmood played domestic cricket -- but in England :-) does that not count? In fact, to some people that is way superior to what passes for first class cricket in Pakistan.

Thirdly, it is not that there is such a big difference in cricketing talent between Australia and the rest of the world, it is the approach and the mental attitude that they bring to the game. Dicarding talented players because they failed mentally would not solve a problem but perpetuate it.

Finally, while Shoaib Akthar may be a match winner, he really does not make the others in the team perform better. He constantly whines and looks for special treatment. Not good from a team perspective. There should be no room for people who consider themselves above the team.

RE: samb#3

I appreciate all the readers of this piece and their feedback.....
Mr. samb....thank you for making your reply almost as long as my original piece :) It assures me that you read it whole-heartedly......I think if you re-read my piece you will realize that it`s not about individual players or personalities.....I am talking about the ``elusive`` system which will allow talents like Salman and S Malik to get selected consistently....Who knows which of the top 10 batsmen of the next season will become our next Inzi...the idea is to cultivate the performance of these guys and polish them in our academies before we unleash them on the cricketing world....If you notice, I mentioned that from among these top 10 in each category, 5 or 6 should be good enough to get an annual contract for representing the national team....Once selected they should be given a fair shot (assuming the academy has polished their skills, i.e. bowling actions, defensive technique, etc.) and their performance be judged based on the WHOLE season of their contract....This is similar to how the Aussie system works and there is no reason why we cant reward our best performers this way...Again, it`s about having a system which consistently rewards the best performers and keeps backups for our top 11 players in every category so we don`t have to rely on one bowler or batsman to win us the series....I am all for Mr Woolmer and his coaching but I would hate to see his selections be based on personalities....It should be about performance, day in and day out......I think every fan wants to see his team succeed, lets hope that the gods see the light and give everyone a fair shot....
best regards
FZ

Here is a link from todays DAWN.
http://www.dawn.com/2005/01/31/letted.htm#9


Shoaib Akhtar
Shoaib Akhtar takes forever to bowl an over, thus contributing to a slow over-rate that penalizes his team. He has neither the stamina nor the level of fitness to sustain his long run-up and when he does bowl he delivers a very high percentage of extras.

The Rawalpindi Express is the Anna Kournikova of cricket - known more for his activities off the field than contribution on it. The Pakistan Cricket Board has spent a fortune pampering him, yet he remains a rebel. It is time he was put out to pasture.

AKHTAR ISMAIL

Karachi

Cheerios

Had I read this article a year or maybe even a couple of months ago, I would have completely agreed with the author`s viewpoint. The PCB might be one of the worst organized and run sports bodies in the world. If the Pak team were an NBA franchise, the NBA would have stepped in long ago and dissolved the PCB. But is the PCB to blame for every ill that afflicts our team? Certainly not, in my opinion. Blaming the PCB is certainly the traditional thing to do but things are not as simple as that.

If there is a need to hire a paid, professional CE for the PCB and for it to be run by an executive committee and not some zill-e-elahi imposed by Hazrat Musharaff (RA), there is perhaps an even greater need for the average fan to be educated on the importance of consistency in selection and general stability required for building great teams. Most of the PCB`s perceived hasty ``actions`` which are trashed by armchair critics like us are only reactions to the effigy burning idiot fans who feel national pride is hurt when Shoaib Akhtar is prancing around with some aussie chick.

---

``Have a close look at these numbers folks! Not one player from the top 10 list of PCB’s own domestic season made it to the Australian tour. Some of these guys (Shahid Nazir, Hasan Raza, Yasir Arafat to name a few) have been performing year in, year out, and not getting selected while mediocre performers get the nod and the results are there for all of us to suffer through.``

Rana Naved, Ifthikar Anjum are in the team only because of their domestic performances. God knows they don`t have the sex appeal of Immy, the genius of Wasim or the willpower of Waqar. And unfortunately, it is also true that fans have absolutely no respect for them.

Rana runs in and bowls his heart out every single time he`s given the ball. The guy plays with the enthusiasm of a rookie every single day. He is given the new ball today and is dropped tomorrow. They make him bowl at the death overs which often spoil his otherwise decent analysis. But he doesn`t complain. Sure he is no early nineties Waqar Younis but give the guy a flipping break. Not every Pakistani bowler is going to be a Wasim or Waqar.

Same goes for Iftikhar. I read Woolmer`s QA website very religiously till some months ago. And I`d see these 15 year old kids log on and throw out all kinds of names that they wanted to see in the team. Iftikhar was the most popular player on the site and going by the posts on Woolmer`s site one would have thought he was a reincarnation of the King Khan. When Iftikhar finally got a game and didn`t take three consecutive hattricks like was widely expected, the SAME people actually had the gall to ask for the guy`s head after ONE flipping game.

Some other names you mention:

Shahid Nazir:

This guy was a terrific bowler. I remember his early days in international cricket. Started out brilliantly in the 97 World Series Cup. Used to bowl at a lively mid eighties pace but more importantly got prodigous swing if I remember correctly. Don`t know when and how he faded away from the scene. Now, I`ve read that the guy has lost a bit of pace since his heydays. Will our fans forgive the guy for this deliberate and heinous crime?

Fazl-e-Akbar:

The guy is widely renowned and rated as the best new ball bowler in Pakistan. Was given ONE game against an in-form Indian batting in the last match of the series. Unfortunately he didn`t take all ten wickets in each inning as was expected by our understanding fans. Our fans still haven`t forgiven him despite the fact the guy bowled with blisters on his feet. Unlike Shoaib Akhtar he didn`t cry off into the arms of his mommy at this injury. He stuck it out for the team. And yet the guy is banished into the quicksand that is our domestic cricket.

Riaz Afridi:

He got a game recently. Did okay. Needs to develop his game further (and desperately improve his action but that is a sidenote). The only thing I remember people saying that he did not have enough pace. So, the PCB selected the guy based on his stats and promise but if he is not fast enough for our fans, what is the PCB to do?

``I, for one, am sick of seeing Inzamam, time and time again, hang his head low as he walks back to the pavilion after another loss of his wicket knowing well that Pakistan’s chances of winning have gone down the drain with him. His slow and dejected walk says it all for the state of Pakistani cricket. His broad shoulders can’t take it anymore and neither should we be reclined to accept our fate as a loser team.``

I don`t think things are that bad. This was probably an accurate assessment maybe a year ago. We have improved a lot since as a batting team. It is our bowling that has regressed which is not too suprising given that we had two of the greatest fast bowlers opening our bowling till a couple of years ago. But the emergence of Shobby Malik has added a lot of steel to our flaky batting order. Youhana has also begun to slowly come into his own as a world class batsman. Inzi remains the giant who we still look to to save us from doom but Youhana and Malik are coming along.

Now lets look at Malik. How many fans and experts were in favour of Malik batting at #3? Not a single one (!) including me though I always had a lot of respect for his game. But Inzi and Woolmer stuck to their guns and Pak fans should be thankful that they did. Malik has since transformed his game such that he went from being an offspinner who could bat usefully to a full-fledged match-winning batsman (at least in ODIs).

``I ask the cricketing gods this: How many Chairmen of national cricket boards in other countries run to the President’s Secretariat to select a Committee member, or captain of their cricket team? Is that the system we are destined to live in? Is this part of our golden mantra of “Enlightened Moderation” where a Chief of Army Staff-cum-president-cum-savior of the nation, picks every lowly member of a sport’s administration team? Does El Presidente have nothing better to do?``

This I agree with. All this running off to the presidential mehal every time Pakistan loses is absolute BS. Musharaff should stick to walking the political tightrope and leave cricket to those who understand it.

``Wake up my fellow Pakistanis.``

Amen. If they don`t, the PCB will continue to succumb to the immense pressure imposed on it by a cricket loving public that even after fifty plus years as a nation has not learnt to take victory and defeat in the right stride.

``you pick the top 10 performers of every season, run them through the national cricket academy, and select the best among them to play for the country.``

Again, only if the fans allow it.

To give yet another example - I think most people will agree that Salman Butt is possibly the biggest batting talent out of Pakistan since one of my favourites (Youhana) came into the team. The guy has shown outstanding potential. Sure he has weaknesses on the leg side etc. But he thinks about his game and grows and learns every single game unlike Sami and Shoaib who seem to unlearn even the basics with growing experience. And I`ve seen people actually call for Salman`s head after maybe three or four failures in the recent games. They`ve forgotten how he stood up to the relentless machinery of McGrath and Co in the tests concluded LESS than a MONTH ago.

So, let us first develop the patience that is needed to see great teams evolve. Champions are not made overnight. Legacies are built by being consistent with selection and by showing faith in the selected players - two things that the average fan is incapable of understanding or conceding.

After nearly a decade of following this team, I can say that Pakistan is finally headed in the right direction (at least for me). We`ve got a decent PCB head, a chief selector who is consistent in selection even if he is forced to be so by the coach and captain, a great coach and some good young players who don`t think they`re superstars and don`t have the emotional baggage and scars that some of our veterans carried. We`ve put the matchfixing scandal behind us, most of the prima donnas have retired or are injured and will be hopefully be on the way out soon. Only areas where we need to pay more attention are finding a replacement for Shoaib Akhtar, trying to develop good fasties and grooming a captain. Otherwise things have never looked as good for Pak cricket as they do now.

And that is my brief two cents. :)

The problems that the author is referring to, is true for all cricket teams in South Asia, although the problem seems to be acute in Pakistan. Nothing`s going to change until the cricket boards do their job with accountability.

Good Article , I myself captained my school team later college team ( Inter-Collage ) and now University Cricket Team and been quite active in organization of tournaments in Karachi my conclusion about cricket in Pakistan is that we need to take cricket and every other sport - seriously - in past we ignored merit examples of that we lost lot of good cricketers especially from Karachi - where our youth is systemically ignored in past years - Basit Ali is one of the best example of a lost talent - KCCA and other regional organizations are totally ignored by PCB and Co. - on Pakistan Cricket Team(s) performance , It was something which was expected -Shoaib should be made a example - plus we seriously need to re-think our batting order - I don`t blame Woolmer , he is doing his best but our batsmen just cant understand don`t know why - we need new blood in batting order . My conclusion is we need to teach our team one thing which is `DISCIPLINE`