Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan

On the day Geoff Lawson was supposed to arrive in Pakistan to take over the reins of the team, it seems that the entire enterprise of international Pakistani cricket is threatening to fall apart.

For the last few days, there has been a reasonable amount of drama, with Shoaib Akhtar and his fines, and then the supposed threat by Shoaib Malik and a few other players to not participate in the Twenty20 cup. While these have been fairly concerning, not much has made it into the media since the first rumours came out. Yet, todays news turns all of those shenanigans into minor brew hahas.

First came the news that Razzaq had announced his retirement from international cricket, due to his unhappiness over being dropped for the Twenty20 cup, followed very shortly by his signing a County Cricket contract. Then came the ICL announcement of the players signed to date, and within that list were Razzaq and Farhat, which we knew about before. Yet, the list also included Inzamam and Mohammad Yousuf.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has yet again started to embroil itself in petty issues specially in the few weeks with its obsession with countering statements of ex-cricketers stepping across the border to India to maybe make a buck or two from those weary legs.

In a statement today to The News PCB has brushed aside the possible repercussions of some of their cricketers joining the Indian Cricket League (ICL), saying that they have enough talent among the reserves to fill the gaps where some of the senior players – including Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq – had received offers to sign up for the ICL.

The PCB’s director of operations, Zakir Khan said “Our policy is our clear. If any of our players appears in the ICL, he would not play for Pakistan again”

Despite a strong Pakistani patriotic spirit crushed into me to the bone, I do not feel any hatred and animosity when a few of our top cricketers who have given their prime years for Pakistan, can later find a source of income hoping to make final use of their aging bodies to play a little more cricket.

Being sat at “silly-point” to Salahuddin Ahmed, chief selector, as he announced the team for the Twenty20 World Championship, I couldn’t help much notice he had come prepared to face the reporters’ wrath. Why? Because he, along with his fellow selectors (and unwanted peers) had decided to “rest” Mohammad Yousuf and omit his name from the plane to South Africa.

This Mohammad Yousuf is the same MoYo who had simply blasted opposition bowlers to every inch of the boundary rope last year. The same MoYo who had surpassed Viv Richards’ record for most number of Test runs in a calendar year and had broken (or equalled) many a records. The same MoYo who received praise and financial rewards never levied on any Pakistani cricket before.

The decision sounded all the more fishy when Sallu commented that “we have decided to rest Yousuf and bring in young and new players” and that “Twenty20 isnt all throwing the bat around and we need someone who can stay round for 20 overs”. How does Misbah-ul-Haq, Yousuf’s replacement fit the “young and new” bill (he’s actually older than Yousuf) and couldn’t Yousuf be a better choice to “stay around for 20 overs”…?