The Post Mortem

First up, huge and hearty congratulations to the Indian cricket team for their thoroughly well deserved victory over Pakistan – their first series victory on Pakistani soil. It is quite remarkable how the tables have turned in a short span of four years. It may have taken four or five decades too long, but this team has finally ‘matured’ and arrived on the international stage.

Traditionally India had always been a reasonably feared team, but only on Indian soil. Abroad they were a pushover. This phenomena was taken for granted for ions and continued until the turn of the millennium when there was an awakening of sorts – a sense of self belief as a cricket team (and as a nation) which slowly but surely began to translate into the results that have made the current captain the most successful in the country’s history. The batting line up just four years ago had pretty much the same key faces yet in those days once Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket had been prized out, the rest usually folded without too much of a whimper. Now there is a new, unprecedented resilience to the team and if Sachin fails, Sehwag won’t or if both of them somehow don’t get firing, then undoubtedly Dravid or then Laxman will if not Ganguly himself.

This current Indian batting line up is second to none at the moment though it ought to be remembered that when Pakistan last toured India in ’99 they had the services of a far more penetrative bowling attack spearheaded by the incomparable Wasim Akram. In that series in India Saqlain Mushtaq was at the very peak of his powers and was able to almost mesmerize the local batsmen time and again. In their support was the swerve and distinctly sharp bowling of Abdul Razzak who used to swing the ball prodigiously back then and had a couple of yards more pace. Not even required until the last Test of the series was a fit and robust looking Shoaib Akhtar, looking half the age he does presently. How on earth has he managed to age fifteen years in the last three!? He looks haggard and burned out and more than a little heavy around the mid-riff. Unless he is able to conjure thus far unfathomed reserves of discipline, it looks as though it’s all down hill for the Rawalpindi Express from now on.

A word about the beleaguered and hapless selectors, thrust into a no win situation where all they can ever do is wrong. They took a battering from a nation of arm-chair expert-cum-selectors during and after the ODI series and then a huge pasting after the debacle of the Multan Test and naturally the knives were out for a final crucifixion after the Test series was lost. Strange how not a single article in any of the national rags managed to point out that the selectors had indeed done rather well with their astute selection of the side that played in Lahore. No credit whatsoever received for bringing in Asim Kamal who performed admirably and more glaringly none at all for selecting Umar Gul in front of a battery of bowlers who had performed at least as well during the domestic season.

It is so easy to criticise the selection of Fazal e Akbar for the Pindi Test, it must be just as easy to dismiss his claims as being the premium pace bowler at the domestic level for the last three or four seasons in which he has bagged over 350 first class wickets at an average of 21 which is a staggering feat for a pace bowler plying his wares on the baked and lifeless wickets of the sub continent. None the less, there have been howls of protest upon his selection…….the authors of the criticism naturally waiting till after the match to launch their tirade just in case Fazal might have snagged a few scalps in which case of course they would have been writing that he should have been picked months ago! You can never win when the whole object of the exercise is to criticise and try to promote yourself as being the latest know-all in the trade. Let’s face it, the selection was largely spot on give or take a couple of errors of judgement such as the inclusion of the woeful Saqlain for the first Test based purely on his past reputation.

Again, like it or not, we are stuck with this lot of cricketers and there is no way that wholesale surgery will bring about better results. The biggest problem facing the Pakistan team is infighting, jealousy, prima donnas, and an archaic system of coaching and management based on getting ex cricketers to run all facets of the game based on their cricketing expertise rather than their administrative capabilities. It ought to be kept in mind that Malcolm Speed who is doing the most efficient job of arguably all previous ICC presidents is actually a lawyer by profession and never came close to playing Test cricket. To handle a corporation or run an office one requires administrative and management skills not cricketing brilliance and the sooner we recognize that the better it will be for us. Meanwhile there are players openly trying to blackmail the board but no single player is greater than the team and it should be made very clear that there is no room for Prima Donna’s on the team or for any body who feels as though the require extra attention. All pampering does is cause weakness and fuel jealousies and resentment and therefore it is good to see the team Dr. who had been appointed specifically to look after the teams prime Prima Donna leave the set up for good.

This team needs steel, mettle and tough resilient cricketers who are proud to wear their green cap and will fight like hell to honour it. This team needs guts not wishy washy stroke players who will hit a shot laden 35 and chuck their wicket away without a care in the world. We need gritty, determined characters that have the mental capacity to apply themselves to a cause with fierce determination and courage. This commitment, courage and honour is what is seriously lacking in the cricket team these days…….but then one comes back to the old theory that why judge the cricket team on a different pedestal then any other profession in the land? Why should we expect excellence from our cricketers when everyone else in the country is corrupt? Why the double standards?

Interestingly this mornings Rashid Latif column calls the current Chairman of the Cricket Board a “weak man”. I wonder what he means exactly………weak in that he doesn’t move around with an armed posse or bodyguards like Mr. Latif is known to do? Weak in that he doesn’t command ‘agencies’ and Student Federations as means of coercion. Weak in that he not drive around in a flash Pajero with the regulation armed guards as a show of the power that Mr. Latif is possibly referring to? Polite in this society equals weak, decency in this society equals weak, being soft spoken in this society equals weak……..clearly Rashid Latif’s ideas about what is weak and what is strong are based on the type of life he has had. Strange that the same Rashid had just sent the “weak” chairman a grovelling hand written letter about how sorry he was about being “misquoted” about the match fixing allegations he had made on TV recently when he had smugly declared that the “body language” of the Pakistani cricketers was a dead giveaway as to the matches being fixed! Latif ought to be snapped up by the FBI as he has the uncanny ability of recognizing people’s intentions simply by observing their body language – the man’s genius and inspiration is clearly in a class of its own.

That said, the PCB chairman has now been in office for five months now and though it is perfectly understandable that he chose not to rock the boat immediately upon assuming office due to the India series, now that the jamboree is over with, there are plenty of issues to be looked at cold heartedly and some tough decisions to be made. More than anything he and the nation should realize that there can be no magic wand or holy beads that will suddenly transform a truly ragged outfit to world-beaters in a few months. However, he needs to select his team of workers carefully and not let his focus shift from what he believes are the issues that need to be tackled. When it comes to the national team, immediately those team members whose attitude is questionable in any way should be made to clear the way for fresh blood. There is no room in a team for members unwilling to give anything less than 100% to the teams cause and it shouldn’t matter if they are the fastest bowlers in the world or people who have amassed 50 averages based on big innings accumulated in pressure free situations when the match was drifting to a certain draw or defeat. We need determined lads like Bilal Asad of Islamabad who is full of the courage, resilience and fierce never say die attitude that this team is crying out for. Bazid Khan ought to be given a go and Younis Khan must be brought back and groomed as the man to take over from Inzaman ul Haq.

The Indians have indeed come a long, long way in the last four years while Pakistan has regressed having lost the irreplaceable W’s and Saeed Anwer all in close proximity to one another. Yet, all is not lost as there is an abundance of talent in the country…what remains to be seen is how effectively this talent is recognized, tapped and nurtured. The worst aspect of Pakistan’s defeat was not so much the margins of defeat but the attitude that the team displayed in going down. This team was totally bereft of spirit and determination and seemed to be merely going through the motions, totally uncaring of the outcome. The fielding was at an all time low while the batting lacked the most basic application and concentration that it takes to survive at the crease. The bowlers who were supposedly among the most feared in the world turned up toothless and hopeless, embarrassed and totally shown up by their much younger, less experienced opponents who bowled intelligently and capably through most of the series. The Pakistani pace bowlers huffed, puffed grunted and glowered and snorted yet it just didn’t happen for them. Other than Umar Gul’s match winning spell in the second Test at Lahore it was a diet of garbage from the assortment of Pakistani bowlers on display.

Saqlain Mushtaq was horrendous in the first Test and will need major corrective surgery if he is ever to return as a potent force of any kind. It was shocking to see how his bowling has completely fallen away in the last two years or so – this deterioration is far more than just a lack of form or confidence. Shabbir Ahmed produced one remarkable spell on a very helpful track in one of the One Day matches but appeared no more than a trundler whenever else he was on display. Abdul Razzak’s bowling continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate – quite remarkable considering his is all of 24 years old. He has lost all his swing and is now playing as a batting all rounder rather than the bowling one that he gained his reputation as.

The press meanwhile has been full of the expected rabid hysteria that one has become rather accustomed to over the years. The only balanced, non-foaming-at-the-mouth analysis is found in Omer Kureshi’s excellent column in Dawn and elsewhere. Here is a man, who one may not agree with on every aspect, but at least whatever he points out, he does in a clear headed, sensible and non-hysterical manner. Sadly the same cannot be said for the majority of ‘experts’ who spout abject excrement each time they open their mouths or put pens to paper. The News is a paper that continues to slide into tabloid territory and its cricket correspondents and ‘experts’ continue to acquire a reputation to match. The likes of Mr. Shakil Shaikh underline their worth (worthlessness?) as serious journalists each time they attempt to bark a point - and he now enjoys about the same level of credibility as the infamous Sarfaraz Nawaz – renowned paragon of upright humanity and class.

One could go on and on singing the praises of Sarfaraz, Shakil Shaikh and their ilk but for the moment let’s stick to a post mortem of the current series and a man by man analysis of Pakistan side: Inzamam Ul Haq: felt the strain of leading a mediocre and less than 100% committed side and lost his deputy Moin Khan after the Multan Debacle. Inzamam may not have enhanced his credentials much as a skipper but his innings in Lahore showed his team-mates what grit and commitment is all about. Pakistan’s best batsman by a mile perhaps Inzi would benefit if he wasn’t burdened with the captaincy, yet there is little that can be done at present as Inzi has been appointed for a year at least.

Imran Farhat frustrates because though he is a player who seems to possess a fair amount of talent, the courage and guts are not particularly evident and he has a glaring fault that he plays entirely from the crease without really ever taking a full stride forward in his forward stroke nor fully back on his back footed shots. A fault that will land him in horrendous difficulty wherever the ball might move around even a shade. Also though he scored a fine hundred at Lahore it was disappointing yet totally predictable that he would throw his innings away the moment he reached his personal landmark. Not quite a Dravid or a Tendulkar for whom a mere century almost seems like a failure!

Taufeeq Umar was a disaster and surrendered meekly without a hint of a struggle or taking the fight to the opponents. He will be struggling to retain his place unless he shows a resilience thus far lacking.

Yousuf Youhanna plays gracefully and with ease when there is no pressure in the match however the moment he is required to perform when the chips are down you can bet your life on it that he will fail – a sort of Zaheer Abbas of modern Pakistani cricket who produces runs when they are worthless.

Abdul Razzak sadly continues to go backwards and his bowling is now devoid of its swing and its zip and pace rendering him a bit of a trundler really who won’t be causing any batsmen any sort of nightmares at all. Quite inexplicable that his bowling should have fallen away so alarmingly despite his young age. However he must be persisted with and somehow worked on so that he is able to recapture the form of a couple of years ago.

Younis Khan should never have been dispensed with – he scored useful runs in the middle order during the ODI’s and is an intelligent, thinking cricketer. The Pakistan team is far weaker due to his being overlooked – a bad blunder by the selectors.

Asim Kamal showed the type of courage and temperament that the Pakistani team must be built around and the selectors ought to start searching for more such gritty, gutsy characters.

Shahid Afridi’s limited intelligence renders him incapable of improving which is very sad indeed as he is a fearless, brave cricketer who fields excellently and was simply brilliant with the bat on the Indian tour of 1999. Nobody played Kumble better on that tour and his ton in Chennai was one of the exceptional innings in recent Pakistani history. His bowling too was underrated and very useful…but it seems his inability to work on his weaknesses may prove his undoing.

Yasir Hameed is another who needs to learn how to graft and struggle for runs. He swishes away merrily without a care in the world and was out ceaselessly to that horrendous poke outside the off stump that he seems to be mesmerized by. The way he played without a care in the world in the second innings of the final Test match suggests that he too was one of those not giving their best for their country. Frankly his innings and some of the others on display were a sickening display of gutlessness.

Misbah Ul Haq has a reputation of being a tough customer and thus must be given a chance to show his worth…after all it is the tough nuts that the team requires at this stage. People who value their caps.

Moin Khan has been a brilliant servant of Pakistani cricket but his time is clearly up as his reflexes have slowed down rendering him a shadow of the cricketer he was. No fault of his own, but time catches up with the best of us and Moin should hold his head up high for distinguished service for his country. Sami was one of the flops of the series, not that he didn’t try, but it just didn’t happen for him and he suffered from a loss of confidence and his action seems to be falling apart just a bit and his priceless outswinger seems to have deserted him.

Sami must be persisted with and nurtured carefully without receiving the Prima Donna treatment that has been reserved for Shoaib Akhtar who clearly reckons he is far more important than his team. The team might well be better off without this tantrum throwing star whose commitment is only to himself and his endless self projection.

Time to let Shoaib earn his millions as a star playing for the Lashings Club or whoever will grant him the importance he so desperately craves. His days are clearly numbered and his best is clearly well behind him. Young Kamran Akmal is bright eyed and sprightly which comes with youth but his keeping is far from tidy and his batting is a liability. That he is the best keeper in the country is a depressing fact and likewise that Danish Kaneria is the best spin bowler in the land is another deeply depressing fact. There is loads that needs fixing in Pakistani cricket and all this hysterical media reaction and vitriol hardly helps……….the only positive, constructive and healthy criticism comes from the lone column of Omar Kureshi – bless him for being the sole voice of sanity in a maelstrom of madness.