As autumn casts its withering shadows on a summer the English wont forget in a hurry, in the southern hemisphere there is the usual furious hustle, bustle and buzz as another busier than ever schedule gets underway with the One Day International between Pakistan and Zimbabwe kicking off at Multan tomorrow.

The memories of the late summer, since this blog was last attended to – First and foremost, the genius of Roger Federer as he swept all before him to win his third Slam of the year – a feat not accomplished for many a year. It was good to see Leyton Hewitt get his career back on track and crack the top five once again, where he belongs. Another player who also belongs in the top five but struggles with his determination and his temperament in general is Marat Safin. He was an early casualty in New York following on from the disappointment at Wimbledon.

In the women we had a titanic classic between the war torn Dementieva against the crowd darling Capriati following on from some wretched luck for Lindsay Davenport who was showed us some awesome tennis before an injury caught up with her allowing the tenacious Russian (another one!) with a powerful all court game to pip her at the post in the final set. Kuznetsova underlined her arrival the top most tier when she lifted the trophy and hit number 6 in the world. She has subsequently taken another title in Bali and made the final at Shanghai where she was beaten by Serena Williams who herself is trying to claw her way back to the higher reaches of the rankings having dropped to a lowly 11 of late. The rankings are rather farcically head by Amelie Mauresmo almost out of default rather than anything else. She appears to perform well at the non slam tournaments and also to be fair has done solidly at the slams too though each time failing to go the distance. Without a slam title to her name she has risen to the top of the ratings as Justine Henin struggles with her fitness though fortunately Kim Clijsters is due for a return to tournament play in the coming days. The women’s needs all its top stars to be fit and playing.

Which reminds one, whatever happened to Monica Seles? Did she ever officially announce her retirement from the sport or should we assume she has moved on?

Back to cricket – the Pakistan team has shown some improvement, tangibly so mostly in the fielding department and also to some extend the more positive running between the wickets. The bowling also has shown a touch more discipline and focus while the batting still has a long way to go. Yasir Hameed who the Pakistani team felt should have won the “upcoming player of the year award” at the recently held ICC awards has too flawed a technique that is regularly shown up as he also doesn’t have the mental discipline to not “go fishing” outside his off stump. He will compulsively do it and his swish from off to leg is far from convincing – lets just say he isn’t a Viv Richards! Also he tends to swat rather than stroke the ball with far too much emphasis on his bottom hand resulting in the pulling of shot from off to leg. He might as well not be using his top hand at all. Anyway, at times he has proven a fairly determined customer but he needs to produce some big scores to warrant a permanent place in the side as an opening batsman.

What a shame that the technically sound Wajahatullah Wasti has apparently gone to pot – he after Inzimam and Youhana looked like a classy discovery but somewhere somehow something went wrong and Pakistan lost a potentially excellent batsman.

Poor Younis Khan has been axed for no fault of his own and not for the first time either. His curse is that coming in at number 6 he doesn’t have the time to build an innings and normally gets out for 20’s or 30’s going for the run chase in the closing overs. On paper it looks like failure and so Younis is going to pay the price. It is a pity that he has been treated in this manner because he was a batsman who did possess the potential to become a mainstay of the batting order.

Bazid Khan has been brought in which is good news as he is also a potentially destructive batsman who is capable of scoring runs attractively and quickly. He also bowls useful lively medium pace swingers that could certainly come in handy in friendly conditions. Misbah also gets a recall which has been earned with some quality performances of late. Bazid too has come into the team entirely on his own form and though there have been cries in the press for his inclusion more than once, now when he has been selected he will feel good to know that it has been 100% on his own merit and absolutely nothing to do with his fathers influence or uncles past glories. Bazid is his own man and hopefully from tomorrow will be on his way to a career that will do him proud.

Meanwhile did any of you notice that not a single word mentioning that the ICC semi final defeat may have been something to do with a worthy performance by our opponents The West Indies... the team that went on to become champions after all. Nobody had it in them to suggest that the West Indians were capable of challenging let along defeating us. Perhaps it was this air of total unfounded superiority that also led to the cricket teams downfall in the tournament. It was taken for granted that the West Indians would simply roll over as they have normally done over the last ten years or so, but it wasnt to be. The West Indies team has a crop of talented and youthful cricketers who have shown that if they manage to gel, they are capable of tackling anyone in International cricket, more so in the abbreviated form of the game than at Test match level. Instead the local media went on their usual witchhunt - a sad and pathetic yet entirely predictable state of affairs!

Also, for all of those furiously trying to ascertain who the influential figure was that influenced the Pakistani team to reverse their decision about fielding first - it was a cricketer who has recently lost his place in the Pakistani set up but who obviously claimed to have inside information on the state of the pitch at the Rose Bowl. Sadly our think tank was blown off course by this untimely revelation.

Oh yes, and there was a small something called the Olympic Games that were held in Athens in August, but now the Cha Cha is too sleepy and the Games will have to be discussed on the next blog. Till next time then………….Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel!