So, after the highs and heroics of the Indian tour and sleepwalking and cakewalking the One Day series against the West Indians, the Pakistan finally came to earth with a resounding thud. The thrashing by the West Indians at Barbados was total humiliation against a team that is easily the weakest of the major Test playing nations (Bangladesh and Zimbabwe not considered in that group). The West Indians put up a spirited display and Brian Lara’s majestic first innings hundred appeared to sap the Pakistan of all the positive spirit that they had carried over with them from the successful Indian tour.
Things started going wrong even before the Test match started with reports of Youhana having walked away from the team as he had felt humiliated by the treatment meted out to him by Abdul Razzak during the final one day international. Subsequently it has turned out that Youhana’s father has been very unwell but the excuse surely a smokescreen for the real reason. Worse was to follow as reports emerged of a heated bust-up in the dressing room when Afridi was asked to open the innings by Younis Khan. So, some bad blood has emerged and it is to be seen how well the positive team spirit can remain intact, especially as it would have been further tested by the abysmal performance of the team in Barbados.
The batting was primarily at fault during the Barbados debacle but the bowling and fielding wasn’t too far behind. The batting display in the first innings was profoundly awful with not a single batsman displaying the guts to grit it out against an attack that would hardly make even Bangladesh tremble. At the top of the order, Salman Butt, as is becoming increasingly evident is not the batsman one had hoped he was. He is far more of a dasher with a keen eye and even considerable talent yet his technique is only slightly less faulty than his powers of concentration. He certainly isn’t a bad batsman and has courage but he lacks a solid defensive technique and will struggle when faced with quality bowling. Yasir Hameed is another batsman not short of talent yet his batting is fraught with flaws and there is no way he is going to succeed against high quality bowling unless he sorts himself in a major way. He has a lot to work on least of all on his headless-chicken approach to running between the wickets. Is there a worse runner between wickets in the game at present? Very doubtful indeed.
Bazid Khan playing in his debut Test was out twice to similar incoming deliveries – the first innings it really didn’t look like he feathered the ball on its way to the keeper and was more than a little unfortunate to have been given out. This being the caught behind that the bowler Corey Colleymore didn’t bother appealing for! In the second innings Bazid was shaping up extremely well and looking a class act when the rain intervals arrived and upon resumption he was trapped plumb in front for what turned out to be a sadly abbreviated innings. None the less, while he was at the crease he exuded class and it was clearly apparent that he had loads of time to play the ball and never once appeared rushed into a shot. It came therefore as a rather sickening surprise to find Yasir Hameed preferred to not only Bazid but also to Salman Butt for the 2nd Test at Kingston. Sadly more evidence of our captains growing influence on the team and its composition as well as the clique-ism that is making a comeback to the dressing room in a big way.
Inzamam with his innate insecurities is busy building his clique of favourites, yes men and lackeys who are rewarded for their service in bolstering his position at the helm. The biggest threat to Inzi’s coterie is Younis Khan who much to the disgust of his captain, was a huge success on the Indian tour and clearly demonstrated his ability as a motivator. Inzamam and his close associates were initially sickened that Younis Khan and not bosom buddy Yousuf Youhanna had been named as the vice-captain for the Indian tour and it was sickeningly evident to viewers that Younis Khan was deliberately elbowed out on the field and never, ever seen to be consulted. Instead Inzamam would go out of his way to be cosying up to Youhanna on a regular basis. Younis Khan with his upright, no-nonsense approach is seen to be an upstart who is not one of the gang as it were. Inzamam and his chums are bent on doing their utmost to undermine Younis Khan whenever possible and the ugly incident in the dressing room during the Barbados test match was a clear example of this plan being in full swing. The plan being that Younis Khan is to be undermined at all times until he is humiliated by players such as Razzak and Afridi and forced to turn elsewhere in frustration.
According to the grapevine Inzi and friends plan worked beautifully and Younis Khan was all set to tender his resignation as vice captain even though the powers that be are ready to fight for his cause. Inzamam feels threatened by Younis Khan, Yousuf Youhana feels threatened by any middle order batsman who scores heavily and prime lackey Yasir Hameed is persisted with to embarrassing degrees despite. Bazid is not allowed in as he isn’t part of the coterie and worse, he may score a few and put heat on Youhana or Yasir. Yasir Arafat of Rawalpindi is not encouraged into the side as his inclusion could put some heat on Abdul Razzak. The coterie tried desperately hard to get Moin Khan back to the fold for this tour which would have been sublimely ridiculous. Moin pushing 40 being in contention due to his brilliant performance in the local 20/20 tournament!
Inzi is being allowed to get away with more influence on cricketing matters than he ought to be allowed and the sooner his career draws to an end the better it will be for the side on the whole, despite the fact that he is batting as well as ever at present. Sadly he is not capable of rising above and the sooner his reign is over the better it will be all around. Easily the most embarrassing aspect of play in both the test matches was the ghastly bowling action of Shabbir Ahmed who is incredulously being allowed to bowl despite having an action that makes one cringe with each illegal delivery. But then in a sport where the world record is being broken by one Muralitharan, the world’s greatest chuck merchant, it hardly comes as a surprise that Shabbir Ahmed is adding to his tally of Test victims. Poor Shabbir, how on earth was he allowed to reach the level of the sport he is at without being stopped along the way and sent back to square one. Now one fears its too late for remedial action and the genial giant will probably fade away rapidly, or then chucking will have to be legalized.
Another embarrassing if amusing aspect of the series was the battle for the unofficial title for the worlds most atrocious fielder – a keenly fought epic contest between Reon King of the West Indies and Danish Kaneria of Pakistan. Poor Reon King – what can one say about his fielding other than that it is almost bordering on the surreal. Yet the sheer drama of watching Danish Kaneria flailing and wobbling with remarkable lack of athleticism on a leather chase to the boundary…followed by the most ungainly swoop, more wobbles and then a throw that is likely to endanger any player on the field with its lack of radar. However, in that occasionally the ball does indeed land in Kaneria’s hands in the outfield does tilt the scales against him leaving Reon King as surely the world’s most atrocious fielder – dead or alive!
The umpiring was also none too sharp with Darryl Hair in pretty abysmal form while good old Shep has been on the decline for a while now. The Pakistani team has some months before regrouping for the series against world number 2 rated England in October. But in the meanwhile the PCB hierarchy would do well to think of how its going to tackle the growing influence of Inzi and his gang as well as the fact that they need to take a far stronger line against the arrogant, self-centred starry behaviour of Shahid Afridi and those who may have a tendency of throwing tantrums and behaving with a bloated sense of self importance. Afridi’s latest burst of success is sadly in danger of showing up his lack of class as a person and his performance in the dressing room deserves to be taken very serious note of.
The PCB faltered in recent times when dealing with indiscipline because they let Shoaib Malik get off with a laughable penalty for a pretty serious offence simply because they felt they couldn’t afford to lose him before the West Indies tour. After dealing firmly but fairly with Shoaib Akhter, and with Rashid Latif before him, it is imperative that the board not roll over in dealing with current team members and deal with cases in a uniform, equal manner. There resolve to do the right thing has already been found wanting with the way Malik was penalized and now it is to be further tested when they look for a way to deal with starry tantrums like the one Shahid Afridi threw with the complete backing of his scheming captain whose sole purpose was to undermine his vice captain. These are the seeds of doom for the Pakistani camp unless they are dealt with head on. Lets hope the PCB have the guts to tackle matters in the way they need to be handled and not be swayed by reputation or star power. Many a board has fallen into the same pitfall before, it remains to be seen how this board deals with the current prima Donna power that seems to be on the rise once again.
Finally another rather ugly aspect of the Pakistani team was the ridiculous over appealing that was irritating to begin with before becoming totally obnoxious. Also for bowlers to bristle with aggression is one thing, but for them to behave like Andre Nel – huffing, puffing, scowling and chuntering – is hardly the example to follow but sadly Danish Kaneria and to a lesser extent Shahid Afridi’s aggressive demeanour bordered on the hideous.
Meanwhile in the world of sports………..well, we had the ridiculous England v Bangladesh series which was as much a waste of time as had been anticipated. The less said about that rubbish the better, even though one talking point was provided with the less than English spirit displayed by wicket keeper Jones. The French Open tennis was also less than vintage this year with no match in particular causing a serious adrenaline rush, unlike last year when the final was an incredulous affair. That Rafael Nadal took the title was great for the game as it was beginning to turn into a rather boring one horse show with Federer so dominant at the top despite his hiccup vs Safin in Australia earlier in the year. Safin remains supremely gifted, second only to Federer but his mental resolve is several notches below. Nadal, despite his dress sense, brings exuberance and excitement and vitality to the men’s sport just when folks like Hewitt, Roddick, Nalbandian, Coria and company look like they are settling into middle age despite being less than 25 years of age each!
In the women’s game once again the French crowd was pretty disgraceful with its behaviour in the Grosjean v Nadal match. Not surprising as it was the same French crowd that roasted Serena Williams in such an ugly manner a couple of years ago – a performance that bordered on pure racism. This year Serena’s absence was sorely felt but her sister barely got a few claps in her victories before she fell to a rising star from Bulgaria. It doesn’t reflect well on the crowd when they behave in manner that puts them on a par with recent Indian crowds at Test matches when the home team is sliding to defeat. One has yet to witness the boorish, ugly behaviour of the French at Wimbledon where cheer as they might during Henmania, they have yet to resort to baiting the opponents in the predatory manner of the French. Below all that façade and style and glamour and gloss, the Roland Garros crowd is capable of revealing its real frighteningly ugly face once in a while and woe on the one who falls foul of the lynch mob that they are easily capable of turning into.
Anyway, these years women’s final with Mary Pierce pitted against a rejuvenated Justine Henin-Hardenne was a total yawn and no contest. Pierce was totally unable to mount any challenge and the match ended as a total non event. Lets hope Wimbledon provides more excitement and as well as the return of Serena Williams.
Meanwhile browsing the TV channels today I happened to come across the Pakistan v India football match and what an utterly turgid experience it was. It didn’t take long to understand exactly why both Pakistan and India are considered among the worst soccer playing teams in the world…..five minutes of watching their tussle was more than enough evidence of their awfulness. Clearly soccer has a long, long way to go before reaching even respectable standards in this region where the climate and the terrain is in any case totally unsuited to a sport that requires a player to tumble to the ground every few minutes or so. Only during the monsoon season is the terrain naturally soft enough to be able to play sports like Rugby or Soccer the way they are meant to be played! Better to concentrate on other sports.