Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan

As if the morale of the Pakistani nation could not be taken to another embarrassing lowest point on earth. Shahid Afridi was caught on TV actually biting the cricket ball, aka tampering to help his bowlers win matches. The 3rd umpire, Ranjan Madugalle caught the irregularity and instructed his on field umpires to confiscate the ball.

After the match, Afridi was called into a hearing with the match referee Ranjan Madugalle immediately after the match. Afridi pleaded guilty to the charge admitting to have tampered the ball but added that the practice was common among all teams.

“I shouldn’t have done it. It just happened. I was trying to help my bowlers and win a match, one match, There is no team in the world that doesn’t tamper with the ball. My methods were wrong. I am embarrassed, I shouldn’t have done it. I just wanted to win us a game but this was the wrong way to do it.”

As the year 2008 is ending, I have made an attempt to summarize the major happenings of the year in Pakistan cricket

• Pakistan suffered a test-less season this year. However they managed to play 21 one-day internationals but mostly against minnows like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
• Punjab Stallions won the RBS Pentangular One Day Cup. In the final they defeated the Federal Areas Leopards by eight wickets.
• India refused to tour Pakistan for its scheduled tour of January 2009 citing political reasons.
• Lahore Badshahs won the ICL 20-20 Indian Championship in November 2008 beating Hyderabad Heroes in the finals. They lost to the same side in the finals earlier this year in April 2008.
• NWFP won the RBS Pentangular Cup by beating Baluchistan in the final by 28 runs.
• Pakistan comprehensively defeated West Indies registering a clean sweap in a three match one day series in Abu Dhabi.
• Muhammad Yousuf signed up for the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL).
• Geoff Lawson was sacked from his position of the coach of Pakistan.
• Pakistan took part in a four nation T20 tournament in Canada where they lost to Sri Lanka in the finals. Zimbabwe and Canada were the other two teams featuring in the tournament.

Well its been finally decided that Pakistan will host the Champions Trophy as the ICC board finally decided to Pakistan as a host ending months of speculation over the venue due to security concerns.

However, it must be noted that seven of the ICC board’s ten Full Members, lead by India, expressed their overwhelming support for Pakistan, while the three dissenting votes were from England, Australia and New Zealand (South Africa ??)- who have now in turn decided to play a sore loser and have informed the governing body that their players “don’t want to” play in Pakistan due to the prevailing security climate there”.

This bunch of sore losers have joined hands yet again to yet again isolate the eastern block, initially such a rift was seen during Daryll Hair’s scandal where the same cricketing boards had bunched together and face off with the Asian bloc

Australia’s foreign minister has dismissed suggestions that his nation’s tour of Pakistan was scrapped because of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The world champions announced on Tuesday that they would postpone their tour of the troubled country, which has witnessed a spate of suicide bombings since the general election.

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This article at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan has been composed by S. M. Faisal .

India one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds were among the players to attract big-money bids in the Indian Premier League player auction today.

Chennai paid US dollars 1.5million for Dhoni early on, while Symonds became the most expensive overseas player in the third round of bidding when Hyderabad forked out US dollars 1.35million for his services.

Retiring Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist attracted a bid of US dollars 700,000 from Hyderabad, who also acquired South Africa batsman Herschelle Gibbs and Pakistan spinner Shahid Afridi for US dollars 575,000 and 675,000.

IPL chairman Lalit Modi was surprised by the lack of interest in some players.

He said: “I haven’t had the opportunity to really judge player value before, but some of the players have gone so well, while some have gone for much less than I expected.

“Players like MS Dhoni and Andrew Symonds were bid aggressively (for) by all the tables.

This article at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan has been composed by S. M. Faisal .

People of Pakistan are abuzz with the tickling thought of another world cup victory. It may not be the World Cup of the fuller version 50 over game but its still a trophy to carry home with pride. There are flashback fond memories of a nation huddled in prayer during the months of Ramadan back in 1992, yet again its Ramadan and Pakistan is on the verge of conquering this beast yet again.

Pakistan batted well, it trumped Australia a few days back more so as I feel the Aussies underperformed, dropping catches and coming through with average style bowling. Today with New Zealand it was yet again the same story, dropped catches, poor batting and average bowling. I do not mean to steal the thunder from the Pakistan Cricket team, but I feel luck was in their favor and would have to bat out of their pants regardless of who emerges from the second semi-final.

Guest Post by Faisal Sherdil

I have calculated the points and here is the current status of world cup teams.

1. Ireland, Bangladesh and West Indies are already out of the cup. There is no way they can quality to Semis. Australia is confirmed in the semis (though they have to beat one of Ireland, Sri Lanka or NZ, which they will).

2. The next Borderline team to get out is England. They have 2 more games, against South Africa and West Indies. They have to win both the games. If they lose any, they are out. Then the Semi Finalists would be (Australia, NZ, Sri Lanka and South Africa).

3. However, if England wins both its games (unlikely though), then still they do not qualify directly, but rather fall in a Triangle with two other teams. In that triangle, two of the three teams would qualify. This Triangle can be one of the following two:

Triangle 1: If Today NZ wins against Srilanka, then NZ qualifies. Then the 3 teams in Triangle would be Srilanka, South Africa and England. Run-Rate will be used to decide the top 2. (Note that in such a scenario, it would be like this: South Africa beat Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka beat England, and England beats South Africa. So run-rate needed)

Undoubtedly, Pakistan can amaze any living soul when it really comes out to play but with the glooming issues in fitness, fielding, wicket-keeping, amid “other” problems, I was quite amazed to see this statement made by the former skipper and key fast bowler, Wasim Akram.

Pakistan may surprise Australia in next month’s World Cup provided the team improves their fielding and key players hit form, said former skipper Wasim Akram.

The former bowling sensation was answering reporters’ questions after signing in as “Mobilink Cricket Ambassador”.

“Australia look favourites to win the World Cup in the West Indies because of their recent form as they have been winning continuously but it is becoming rather boring for the spectators,” Wasim said. “However, if any team can beat them in the Caribbean, it surely is Pakistani,” he expressed.

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