Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan

Shoaib Malik, the 25 year old Pakistani skipper hails from the city of Sailkot, the north eastern industrial hub of Punjab. A versatile performer on the field, Malik had been ear marked as a future captain in Pakistan Cricket circles much before his eventual appointment following the debacle of 2007 World Cup. His obvious cricketing talent however hasn’t always meant a clean bill of health in the disciplinary records.

Twice he has been reported (and subsequently cleared) for having a suspect action, so much so that captain now bowls only infrequently and almost never balls his contentious “doosra” delivery. His action however, hasn’t been the only polemic point of his career. Two years ago, in Pakistan’s inaugural domestic 20Twenty competition he had intentionally lost a match leading his native Saiklot Stallion team against the Karachi Zebras with the intention of engineering an exit for a rival side, the Lahore Eagles. The Eagles had earlier won against Sialkot in a game where Malik’s side was docked overs for poor over rate, despite, in Malik’s opinion, having an acceptable over rate. Malik’s actions as such were seen as something of a protest against them.

But the Pakistan Cricket Board (and very rightly at that) wasn’t the tiny bit impressed. Immediate actions were undertaken, that involved declaring the result of the match null and void and penalizing Malik with his entire match fee and handed a 1 test match ban. Malik’s punishment could have been even severe, but the fact that he had in due course apologized for his actions, admitting to have been caught up “in the heat of the moment”, probably saved him from further penalties. Rameez Raja at the time said the fiasco could have a lasting impact on Malik’s career, especially his chances of gaining captaincy in the future.

Though Raja’s fears failed to materialize when Malik emerged as an obvious contender for the job after Inzamam’s exit, the young man’s impassioned temperament, that has more the once led him to say or do things he later regrets, has resurfaced again. After winning many plaudits through out the course of the recently concluded ICC 20 Twenty World Cup for how he ably led a young, unrated side right down to the final, Malik landed in hot water over what would appears to be an apparent gaffe at the tournament’s last presentation ceremony.

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

There’s something about this Pakistan team and its recent string of performances in this spectacle of the ICC Twenty 20 World Cup that has really struck me. Its not so much that they’ve not really lost any matches so far (and lets be fair, you can hardly term the farce of the “bowl out” against India as a loss) but how they’ve actually played that’s impressed me.

Pakistan Cricket, never really short of activity as such, had been at its eccentric best in the lead up to this tournament. The ICC World Test Player of the Year, Mohammad Yousuf, was apparently dropped. While selectors maintained he was merely “rested” he and another absentee in Abdul Razzaq both signed up for the break away Indian Cricket League, apparently in retaliation to being dropped. There’s been some criticism of the players for this, for how they’ve supposedly fallen for lure of money in place of the honor of representing one’s country, but I’d be inclined to lay the blame flatly on Salu Bhai, Pakistan’s chief selector as he’s affectionately called. I don’t know what the ICL holds for the game for sure, but if it can end some of the monopoly Asian boards have over the sport, and bring in some much need transparency and accountability, it can’t as bad as I’ve been hearing from some quarters.

Back to Pakistan’s lead up, and if all that controversy over selection issues wasn’t enough on its own, Shoaib Akhtar decided on the eve of the tournament to dish up a little fight with Mohammad Asif, later sighting the no-less mercurial Afridi as the reason for the instigation. Asif and Afridi later both denied these claims and Akhtar was promptly send back home. Add in a new captain (Shoaib Malik) and an equally new coach (Geoff Lawson) into the mix and there you go: the typical feel of uncertainty that has become a norm with Pakistani sides of recent years, once again resurfaced. It’s almost as if some one up there has already predestined these things; if ifs not chaotic, it can’t be Pakistan.

But what was has been slightly different this time, is that once things have got out on the field, that chaos has evaded us. Well, part of it at least. The other part, as per Pakistani tradition, always sticks around, almost like they are bad omens in life, so you can learn to appreciate the good ones more. The perfect example of this can be seen in Pakistan’s top order which is still as erratic as ever. Imran Nazir, Mohammad Hafeez and Salmat Butt are all good fielders, and on the ground they add a really positive vibe to Pakistan’s fielding, which too has been uncharacteristically deft in this tournament, especially today, against the world champs Australia. But once they go out to bat, common sense ceases to exist. After two or three perfectly sensible shots, they’ll either feed a half volley down some fielder’s throat or take a big swing without moving their feet at all and pay the price.

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

Ladies and gentleman, please brace your self to get familiar with the names, identities, idiosyncrasies, weird theologies and even weired preferences of a brand new, and this time, fully paid, selection committee. The much awaited announcement of who would comprise and lead the new selection panel following the resignation of Bari and co. after the World Cup was made a few hours ago by the PCB.

Salahuddin Mulla Ahmed (more famously Sallu Bhai) who is a veteran selector that has previously been on the committee no less then 13 times both as a member and as the chairman, will lead the three member panel again. The other members of the committee are Shafqat Rana, who is also a previous member on three occasions, and the former Test left-arm fast bowler Saleem Jaffar, who is the only debutant in the panel. Jaffar is currently the coach of the Sindh team in the Pentangular Cup 2007, and he’s told Cricinfo he’ll try to put his local knowledge of domestic cricket into use. What’s more interesting to me then the actual committee however, is this so-called “new” selection policy. I quote from Cricinfo:

I think the players could well take P J Mir to court for this, and they probably should do to so too, I know I would have done so if such allegations were thrown at me. Now I know exactly why Inzi was as emotional as he was in his press conference last week.

So what has Mir done to outrage me this time? Suggested that the team’s early exit in West Indies was down to their focus being on ‘religious activity and preaching’ rather than on cricket.

“I could not disclose this fact before” he innocently told the performance review committee set up to investigate the reasons for Pakistan’s performance in the West Indies, “but today I inform the media that most of the members had no focus on cricket, their fixation was on preaching, affecting the team’s preparations.”

Now before I attempt to disclose the flaws in his argument, let me give a you brief idea of what exactly he means by “praying”. You see, as Muslims, we’re obligated to pray five teams a day; once just before dawn (fajr), once just after noon (zuhar), once in the afternoon (asr) when the shadows have lengthened, once just after sunset (maghrib), and then once in the night (isha).

Now I have to make an admission first, given there is still no concrete evidence what so ever of match fixing having anything to do with the murder of Bob Woolmer, I find the constant speculation in this regard increasingly annoying.

In fact I find the whole debate on match fixing annoying. It is not an aspect of our game I like to discuss. But given so many people have been voicing their opinions in this regard off late, and they really are, nothing but personal opinions, here I am blogging about it.

You expect people like Rashid Latif and Sarafaraz Nawaz to be making the noise, as Moin Khan said in response, Sarafaraz probably thinks every match is fixed. So I’m not sure we should take him too seriously, but off late the list of people with doubts and suspicious has seen an increase.

Michael Vaughan joined in by saying his gut feeling was that some corruption in the game still exists, Shehreyar Khan, the ex PCB chief, has now added that he thinks spot fixing (which involves, in case you didn’t know, fixing minor aspects of game, such as the number of extras bowled, as opposed to the entire result of a game it self) still happens and that it is something you can’t really prevent.

Mark Shields is now saying he let the Pakistani players go because the police didn’t have sufficient evidence to detain any of them, and because they couldn’t have held them in Jamaica against their will; he also told The Times that if he had forced them to stay it would have created a diplomatic incident, in addition to having an “extremely adverse effect on the World Cup”.

I’m really not sure what I should make of this. It contradicts the view expressed by Shields earlier in which he said that there had been nothing but co-operation from the Pakistani players and management, which is something I don’t have a very good feeling about at all.

Meanwhile, Shehreyar Khan, the former PCB chief, is in the news again, after telling the BBC yesterday that “he thinks” ( ) ’spot-fixing’ still goes on at the international level (more on this issue of match fixing later), he’s now written at Cricinfo, recalling his interactions with Bob during his reign as the PCB chief.

I had blogged last night about how Inzi and Mushtaq had been further questioned by the police as a part of the ongoing murder investigation, and as I had suspect, it was nothing more then a formal inquiry procedure.

We have official confirmation of that now, Mark Shields, Jamaica Police’s Deputy Commissioner, told a press conference before our departure yesterday, that along with Mushy and Inzi, the manager Talat Ali has also been questioned again to “clear up” any possible “ambiguities” given in the statements taken earlier from the team.

He also said that “Throughout this process, there has been nothing but co-operation from the Pakistan team”. One hopes sensationalist media organisations which have been very keen to orchestra conspiracy theories about how member of the Pakistani team, in particular Inzi, may be involved, take good note of what Mr. Shields had to say.

Mushtaq Ahmed, Inzi, the manager and an official from the Pakistani embassy in Washington, who had flown in yesterday, also spoke about the nature of the questioning deny that the players had at any point been detained or restricted from traveling, the BBC have a comprehensive report here. I suppose we’ll land here sometime tomorrow.

Its being reported now that the Pakistani players are now being questioned too in association with the investigation into Bob’s death. Cricinfo’s The Surfer has a media round up of all the speculation that has arisen since the inconclusive findings of the autopsy yesterday, but you’d be well advised to hear this audio link from the BBC. Its a mini interview of Bob’s wife, Gill, in which she refutes speculation that her husband may have taken his own life following Pakistan’s exit from the World Cup, in addition to slamming some of the other media speculation surrounding the reason’s of Woolmer’s death.

I hope the media show some respect for the family’s sentiments and not make a complete drama out of this, certain people have been linking all sorts of stuff to his death. GEO news yesterday I saw did an extended report full of rubbish about how his forthcoming book in which there were revelations about match fixing could have been a cause for him to be murdered. Other hyperbole creators have also been spreading rumors about how Islamic groups, or tableeghi jamaats as they’re called, may have part. All hogwash of the highest order. These people should realise how some of this speculation will make his grieving family feel. Just leave this matter alone I say, and let the investigation take its course.