Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan

In order to remove all traces of Nandrolone from their urine in record time, the PCB has launched an incredible and impressive secret campaign. Adbul Razzaq, an important, yet replaceable, member of the squad, conveniently fractured his knee just minutes before leaving for the Caribbean. In an interview, he appeared completely befuddled as to how it happened. Chloroform, anyone?

Meanwhile, the rest of the squad, including the reserves, and even a few spectators, have already pissed in cups and been cleared by some drug testing authority in Malaysia. Wasn’t the movie “Entrapment”, starring Sean Connery, filmed in Malaysia? Didn’t Connery play Bond for a while? Wasn’t “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” the worst film ever made? Exactly. That’s shady too.

This article at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan has been composed by Billu.net .

I may be the only one here to say this out, LOUD and CLEAR so that it reaches everyone.

Cricket’s NOW the God of all games for us Pakistanis.

But the recent announcement by our very dear Mushy, to reward each player with 5 Million Rupees, is something that at least I just cannot digest.

Even if any of Zainub’s reason do strike and they wins or if they reach till semi-finals, they’d be getting enough, for god sake. Is our hard earned money (and the huge tax deducted) is so worthless that 5 Million is to be given to 12-18 people.

With other sports still suffering – why are we so intent in rewarding the cricketers with utmost benefits and bulky monetary rewards.

Or maybe I’m forgetting that we are flourishing in a kingdom.

But Now I’ve a reason to be happy that this world cup will bring – almost 10 Crores would be saved – GOOD!

This article at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan has been composed by akm .

Using the 5 scoring techniques for wicket keeper contributions, it was possible to churn out data for different decades. Players that kept wicket for 5 years till 2000 and 3 years after 2000, were included in the 1990 decade. The groupings are presented below in the following ugly colors.

It seems as if Daryl Hair finally wised up to the situation and his lawyers have finally informed the Pakistan Cricket Board that they will not pursue any court proceedings against them, but the case against ICC remains on the block.

“I have been told by our lawyer Mark Gay that Hair has withdrawn the case,” Dr Naseem Ashraf, the PCB chairman, was quoted as saying in the Saudi Gazette. “Hair knew well that he had no case against us, what he has done is there for everyone to see. If any party had a case, it was Pakistan.” – Cricinfo

Good riddance, now we await the autobiography to appear sometime soon……

This article at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan has been composed by Teeth Maestro.

The Daring Doping roller coaster being run by the PCB Entertainment took another blow today when the ICC spokesman categorically mentioned that the random testing can and might be directed to certain players at the discretion of the ICC drug testing body.

ICC is likely to carry out testing in 16 matches with four tests (two per team) in each of the matches. It adds that while the tests are intended to be random and will not be announced in advance, the ICC will reserve the right to target test players.

So if Nasim Ashraf was hoping to play the odds and maybe sneak his two super star bowlers past the laboratory doors, he just took a big crap dump in his pants. I think we should mark this down in the ever growing list of Nasim Ashraf’s bloopers since he took over the reigns of PCB.

P J Mir, who played five ODIs for Pakistan before shifting professions to become a TV anchorperson, has reportedly taken leave from his TV commitments to take the job of the PCB’s media manager. On Friday, when he addressed his first press conference, there was such an irony extravaganza in his comments that I’m struggling to figure out where to start from.

Whilst announcing that the PCB has banned all its World Cup party, excluding the captain, coach and manager, and including the reserve players, from talking to the press he sought support for the team, calling on the media to ‘lift the morale of the team’ and refrain from ‘unhealthy criticism’:

“It has become a routine to criticise the team members and PCB before such a high profile event.

The press should behave in a more professional manner and avoid criticising the players as it affects their performance”

Image Credit – The Daily Times

That’s an official of indisputably the most unprofessional sports body in this country and possibly the world reminding the press of its professional responsibilities! What a perfect case of the pot calling the kettle black!

In one of my earliest posts, I applauded Michael Holding for sticking up for Inzi and pointing out double standards in world cricket. I also noted that this was against my better judgement; that he is, in fact, an idiot, but that his statement on that occasion had thoroughly impressed me.

Well, his statement du jour is no less impressive. Unfortunately it’s for all the wrong reasons. Mr. Holding is back to his old ways. The ways, in short, of a choot.

This article at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan has been composed by Billu.net .

Umar Gul is on track to be fit for the World Cup, reports Osman Samiuddin for Cricinfo. He’ll be attending the training camp being organised for the World Cup, starting from today. Dawn’s Mohammad Yaqoob is also reporting for that both Shoaib and Asif are now finally back in the country and they too are expected to attend the camp.

The Urdu daily Express though is speculating that only Asif will attend the camp. The News yesterday also quoted Woolmer as saying that both Asif and Gul are nearly fit or should be in time for the World Cup but it was Shoaib Akhtar’s injury that was the real cause for concern.

Both Asif and Shoaib have still not given their dope tests, and time is running out for them to do so considering the Pakistan team is scheduled to leave for the West Indies on 1st March.

Dawn also caught up with Asif, who was at the Gadaffi yesterday, along with Gul, Razzaq, Woolmer and some other officials, and after much persuasion, he finally gave a brief statement as follows:

“I am not allowed to talk to press and at the moment I am not in a position to give a reply to any question since the doctor advised me rest”

See, see, I told you, we’d win. And pretty comprehensively too. Sialkot, who resumed from an over night 175-3, were bundled out for 288, giving us an easy target of just 69, which we chased down, with the loss of two wickets, when perhaps we should have done it with the loss of no wickets.

But never mind, we’re the new champions! After five years! So this calls for celebrations and a relaunching of the “Bring back Hasan Raza” Campaign. Raza won the man of the match for his fantastic first innings undefeated century that set the game up for Karachi.

His domestic form has hardly ever stumbled, if some one like Faisal Iqbal can get a run as long as he had got in the team, then Raza deserves one too. He was last given an opportunity against England when they came here, but was dropped after just a couple or so of failures.

This guy has scored so many runs, he’s got be worth giving a proper run in the side at least if nothing. What do you say?

Media coverage: The News/Cricinfo bulletin & Dawn report

Cross Posted on Sundries

© Getty Images

See, I told you I wasn’t the only person on earth who thinks Pakistan can win the World Cup. Mark Waugh totally agrees with me. Okay, okay…so may be not totally. But at least he reckons we can win, right? And that’s all that counts.

This post is a part of the Why Pakistan Can Win The World Cup Series, all posts in this series are based on highly Panglossic theories that may or may not have relevance to cricket, taking them seriously is entirely optional
Cross Posted on Sundries

This article at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan has been composed by Zainub Razvi.