Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan

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 finally come in Pakistan’s fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has been banned for five years by a disciplinary committee of the PCB for violating the players’ code of conduct. The ban extends to cricket for and in Pakistan but will leave him free to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which begins later this month.

Shoaib had appeared before a disciplinary committee in February after being charged with publicly criticising the Pakistan board for offering him a retainership instead of a contract. The board had offered contracts to 15 players, based on a formula that took into account their performance, but Shoaib was demoted to a retainership from the Category A contract he held last year.

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

The tussle between ICL and ICC continues to no end – yesterday the players association entered into the fray by issuing a statement which generally supports the players rights to play in the Indian Cricket League. I can only suspect this will aggravate things even more considering the extremist attitude adopted by the national boards

Cricinfo – Tim May, the chief executive of FICA, the international players’ association, has expressed his concern over attempts by national boards to impose bans on players who have signed for the unauthorised Indian Cricket League.

Making clear that FICA “neither supports nor rejects the ICL”, May said that his organisation’s primary aim “is to ensure that players rights are upheld and that governing bodies do not unreasonably restrain players from plying their trade”.

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

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 .

It has just been reported in DAWN that Kolkata splashed out $425,000 for Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar Wednesday in a player auction for India’s Twenty20 Indian Premier League starting in April. Akhtar’s base price was $250,000.

Retired Australian spin-bowler Shane Warne was the first player to go under the hammer in a five-star Mumbai hotel conference room filled with Indian sportsmen, celebrities and tycoons. Warne fetched his base price of $450,000 and was bought by Jaipur.

Australian Adam Gilchrist went to the Hyderabad franchise for $700,000, but Dhoni was the costliest purchase, going for $1.5 million.

Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan went to Chennai for $600,000. Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene was bought up by the Mohali franchise for $475,000. The player contracts are for a period of three years.

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

When I first heard of Harbhajan Singh being banned for three tests following his alleged racial remarks at Symonds in the last test match between India and Australia. The first thoughts that came to my mind were a feeling of déjà vu ala Oval gate. As was the case back then, proven later on in court much to the chagrin of the holy supporters of cricket in England. A sub continental team was hung at the gate without any proper evidence.

The team this time around is India, who although having an emotionally charged series with the Aussies when they toured India, do still come across as a much more demure team than the Aussies. Or perhaps that is the case to me since I am from the sub continent and thus understand what we consider insulting while Australia does not. Harbajhan Singh is reported to have called Symonds a monkey on field, which he and his team mates vehemently denied. Thus the case before the match referee was specifically Symond’s and his Aussie team mates saying Bhaji did it while Tendulkar and the other Indian players saying he did not.

What then made the ICC Match referee decide in the favor of the Australians? Without any proper footage or audio evidence to have suggested that Bhaji actually made those remarks. While nothing was done by this body when the Aussies “pushed off” an Indian official from stage after winning their last tour? This is the point which has now been taken up by the BCCI and the Indian team management and the current tour lies suspended. Ponting and his men on the other hand are acting like their normal holier than thou selves and claiming they have done nothing wrong and that it is not a big deal. The whole point is the Referee believing the Aussies over the Indians is much more of an “insult felt” to the Indians then the actual disciplinary action.

As far as sledging and on field antics are concerned, although Team Australia has gotten less disciplinary actions against them on the record, they are second to none in this facet of the game. They are known to use sledging and any psychological tactics necessary to dismantle an opposition’s concentration and take a winning edge on the field. So was this basically another aggression on the Indian Physic which went wrong? Or did Bhaji actually say something to the effect?

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

This piece was originally written about six months ago for my previous blog, that I am unable to access due to technical glitches, http://balltempering.blogspot.com and was also self published on www.chowk.com

Fast Bowling Resources in India & Pakistan
It must rank right up there with the mysteries of the world, that two countries with same race, similar people, resembling culture and almost equal fervor for sport of Cricket, the mystery being, how come Pakistan has and continues to, produce fast bowlers where as India is yet to produce even one quality fast bowler. Javagal Srinath was fast in the initial stages of his career but later on he also became medium pacer, Kapil was a medium paced swing bowler from day one although India has over 1 billion people, about six times more then Pakistan, and equally passionate about their cricket but still not a single fast bowler.

It is an interesting and intriguing study to compare these two countries and the reasons that have contributed to such anomaly.
There are no apparent reasons for that; no one has been able to put a finger on any such element that can explain this oddity. Many theories have been mooted by many an expert and respected players, ranging from Geoff Boycott to Dennis Lillee, Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz and Aqib Javed, have all tried to explain this phenomenon in some detail. Some of these theories have some substance and make sense but still do not explain the vast difference in its totality.

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

The Pakistan Cricket Board has banned players who participated in the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL) from playing in the ongoing domestic season. Six Pakistan players – Inzamam-ul-Haq, Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzaq, Shabbir Ahmed, Imran Farhat and Taufiq Umar – appeared in the inaugural tournament of the ICL earlier this month.

Nasim Ashraf, PCB chairman, told the players on Monday that they cannot represent Pakistan or play domestic cricket at home. “When those players signed up to play in the ICL and went to India to take part in that tournament they were fully aware of the consequences, It is a policy decision that players who play in unauthorized leagues cannot be allowed to play in any domestic competition organized by the PCB,” Shafiq Ahmed, the PCB domestic cricket general manager, said. “We cannot allow violation of our rules and regulations by anyone. We don’t think it is a harsh decision.”

Reacting to the ban, Farhat told Reuters, “Cricket is our bread and butter. This is a violation of our fundamental rights.” He said the players would take legal action and try to obtain a stay on the ban.

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.

They say that before a great battle commences, the subtle march of thousands towards the battlefield, producing a humming sound, vibrating the grounds, enters the ears of the brigade already waiting to meet their end. And up above the higher grounds, a vision of the armies of the foe beyond the horizon becomes “before the horizon” and intensifies the nerves of those in the higher grounds who although are resting on firm grounds feel the shiver of the moments to engulve them soon. The earth knows it when the battle will commence and signals the sky red. And what bloodier venue for a blood striken sky than the plains of Africa, home of the lions, the predators at pray which at sunset render the sky bloody red.

We shall go down south where Pakistan awaits India tomorrow. Who’s the predator and who’s the pray is a matter of context. Both have been ruthless, both have been mighty hungry as their recent downfall in the Carribeans thrusted their thirsts for the coming bloody battle that awaits us tomorrow dusk. So who shall be the king of the jungle tommorrow at the inaugral World twenty20 Cup?

This article at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan has been composed by Atif Abdul-Rahman.