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.

The Second VB Series Final:

Has predictably ended in victory for the all conquering Aussie cricket team, yet despite the wild celebrations, it will be remembered by most lovers of sport as a particularly dark day for Australian sportsmanship with (not for the first time) Star pin-up wonder-boy Brett Lee being responsible for producing some more of the most unsavoury sights in sport witnessed in recent times....the ugliest since his last round of similar unsporting behaviour against the South African tail ender Makhaya Ntini not so long ago.

That time Brett Lee had deliberately targeted a batsman who cricket followers know has little or next to no ability with the bat, yet Lee followed him down the leg side with deliberately aimed bouncers attempting to cause Ntini physical injury with bouncer after bouncer. It was a sickening sight for any sports fan and those who witnessed it will never forget the ugliness of the moment.

Today, in front of his swooning adoring home crowd he reverted to form showing the world the exact meaning of the word "ugly". In today’s second VB Final match Pakistani all rounder Abdul Razzak, considerably less rapid in pace than Brett Lee managed to bowl Lee a "beamer", around chest height that the batsman managed to get a bat to, if only just. Razzak immediately apologized for his transgression and the millions watching the match of TV witnessed him actually approaching Lee, patting him on the back while making his apology, but Lee rather than graciously accept, bristled muttering a few obscenities under his breath right under the nose of observing umpire Rudi Koetzen who didn't waste a moment in banishing Razzak from the bowling attack as he had every right to. Razzak had earlier sent down a similarly directed slower ball that had been smacked by Shane Watson and would have been a six had it not landed in the hands of Shahid Afridi lurking on the mid wicket boundary.

Later in the match when Razzak was at the crease trying to rescue a Pakistan innings left in tatters by their typically suicidal batting faced up to a snorting Brett Lee who sent down a beamer as fast as he could hurl deliberately aimed at the batsman’s head which was obviously a calculated and totally deliberate reaction to what had gone on before. But while Razzak had immediately reacted with an apology when he had erred, there was not the slightest even hint of an attempt at an apology by the Australian bowler, clearly acknowledging that his actions were entirely deliberate. His captain Ricky Ponting, remembered in his earlier days as a bit of a scrapper, also made not the slightest attempt at admonishing his boorish fast bowler thus showing that he passively accepted the action as being within his definition of the way sport should be played. One can also recall an incident several years ago in Sharjah when a pumped up Ricky Ponting had been dismissed by a 15 year old Harbhajan Singh and then administered a “body check” to the bowler on his way back to the pavilion. Wonder if Ponting would have reacted the same way had the bowler been of a colour similar to his own. Fate is indeed strange though as Singh returned to torment Ponting on his subsequent tours of India. However yesterdays inaction from the captain was unsurprising coming from a man with a history of erratic behaviour the less said about which the better. One had forgiven Ricky Ponting's earlier follies as part of "growing up" yet his inaction today showed the world that some things never change.

Though Australia added yet another trophy to their burgeoning collection, the match will be remembered by millions who viewed the antics of one of their cricketers as providing an ugly slur on what is considered sporting behaviour. They may have won the cup but they lost millions of supporters of sport along the way. Brett Lee is indeed a fine and exciting match winning cricketer and might well be the poster boy of a sports obsessed nation, but to many he represents everything that is ugly about sport and today he displayed exactly why.

Now the match itself - the first Final had been blighted by some of the most atrocious umpiring seen since the era of the neutral umpire began. Though an off day for umpires is accepted as being a part of the game, somehow when all the decisions weigh against one side alone, it suggests a certain bias. To put it bluntly, Pakistan were cheated by the abject umpiring in the first Final in order to keep the Aussie air of invincibility from being deflated in any way. Had the same quality of umpiring come from an Indian, Pakistani or Sri Lankan umpire, all hell would have been let loose and the umpire would have been hounded off the international circuit within hours. Yet when Steve Davis transgressed time and again, nobody appears to have batted an eyelid...but again, some things never change.

Today the match was won by Australia in the very first over when Adam Gilchrist was palpably struck in front of the stumps only for Rudi Koetzen to pander to the old boys club and ruin what should have been a wonderful sporting contest. Television replays clearly showed the umpire up and even the normally diplomatic TV commentators couldn't find any legitimate excuse for what turned out to be a match-turning blunder by an umpire who is known in South Asia as being a bit of a relic of the "Springbok" mentality. That Pakistan eventually lost the match by a handful of runs and that Gilchrist went on to score a telling 40 - well one need say no more as to what effect his judgement had on this particular match. The old boys club had struck decisively and the colonial lackeys were left licking their wounds yet again. Koetzens "error" effectively killed the match as a contest in the very first over of the day.

Gilchrist, reprieved from failing in front of baying, adoring fans could not be allowed to fail and so it was to be. He went on to blast a quick fire 40 and got the home team off to flier that they hardly deserved. The Pakistan bowlers, demoralized to the depths by the shoddy umpiring made a determined effort to claw their way back into contention but in the end their own lack of ability to cope with pressure situations was another key factor in the inability to snatch victory despite the odds.

The primary villain this time around was Shoaib Malik who played an inexcusable injudicious shot for a man of his experience literally gifting the home team the Cup on a platter. Though he and Yousuf Youhanna were well on the way to setting Pakistan back on track, just when it appeared that they could make it at a canter, first he decided to attempt a suicidal run and didn't even attempt (as is his right) to come between the stumps and the bowler who was attempting to throw them (the stumps) down, but appeared to make room so that Jason Gillespie had an excellent view! As if that aberration wasn't enough, in the next over, with seven runs already in the bag which were more than the amount that were required at any stage, Malik received possibly the worst ball of the day and proceeded to plonk it straight down the throat of a fielder who didn't have to move two inches to complete the easiest of catches. It is times like this that conspiracy theorists wonder if certain cricketers are still involved in match fixing and it’s not too difficult to see exactly why. This was a shocking and match losing performance by the normally sensible Malik and it was sad to see a lad who most of Pakistan cricket supporters view as a potential leader of the team make such a horrendous hash of things so needlessly.

Another villain, though of a lesser degree was Taufeeq Umar who admittedly was only playing his first game of the tour but having looked totally comfortable against the Australian new ball bowlers he was suddenly possessed by the same crazy rush of blood that his predecessor Salman Butt had just been dropped from the side for. Though not a renowned hooker, Umar went for an expansive hook shot and ended up presenting the grateful Aussies with his wicket in what was another disastrous choice of shot. Inzamam was due a failure and there can be no complaints about the umpiring when the ball thudded into his pad dead in front of the stumps, yet Adam Gilchrist had been reprieved, why not Inzi? Perhaps had the match been played in front of Inzamam's adoring public in Multan things may have been different? Pure conjecture.

Gradually the rest of the Pakistani batsmen threatened then perished falling tantalisingly short and tellingly the side ended up losing by less than the margin of runs that were gifted to Gilchrist courtesy of Rudi Koetzen who clearly though that he ought not to ruin the day for the ticket paying Aussie crowd by sending their hero packing in the very first over of the day. Sadly his decision ruined what would have been a classic encounter and in the end the match will be remembered more for his dreadful (and deliberate?) error of judgement as well as the hideously unsporting behaviour and antics of Brett Lee - a supremely gifted cricketer but a vile black stain on Australian sportsmanship.

THE FIRST VB FINAL played at the MCG on Feb 4th, 2005

That the first final of the VB series got underway at all considering the drenching the MCG received over the last 72 hours was due to the grounds superlative structure and the untiring efforts of a thoroughly professional ground staff who worked miracles to provide what turned out to be perfect playing conditions. Sadly it seems as though a large section of the potential ticket buying public weren’t convinced as the ground bore an unusually bare look for what promised to be a stirring encounter between the all conquering Aussie juggernaut and the slowly but surely rejuvenating Pakistani outfit.

The Australians have had a breeze of a summer down under thrashing to a pulp any team that they have locked horns with: first New Zealand were thrashed to a pulp and subsequently the Pakistani team have been pulverised in similar fashion with the West Indies also tasting a few stinging defeats in the one day VB series even though rain did deny them on one occasion. Pakistan having lost their has-been ex fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar have been improving ever since his departure from the playing field.

Slowly but encouragingly the team has begun to display a spirit that it seemed quite incapable of until very recently. Captain Inzamam ul Haq, stung badly by the criticism dished out by Imran Khan has come out of his sulk with a new found determination to prove that he does indeed command the respect of his young brigade and to a large extent has let his bat do the talking with admirable results. He has been batting with a resolute authority that seems to have rubbed off on his wards and they have responded with enthusiasm and a willingness that seemed to have been shattered by the thrashing received during the Test series.

The less experienced members of the team have responded very encouragingly of late and no one has embodied this new spirit than the likes of Rana Naveed ul Hassan and Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi and a miraculously transformed Popeye Abdul Razzak. Yousuf Youhana has leant an important hand once in a while and Inzamam has been rock solid. Still, despite Inzamam’s new resolve it still remains a tragedy that his commitment to the cause still remains in question because for reasons best known to himself and his soothsayers back in Raiwind, he utterly refuses to take on the responsibility of leading from the front – in other words, his utterly refusal to take on the number 3 position in the batting order which would not only silence his critics but also give the batting a huge boost by stabilizing the batting as he does near the top of the order rather than always be propping up a collapsing pack. Only he knows why he absolutely refuses to take on the responsibility of the one down position even though his team is crying out for him to do so. It is as though he has sworn never to bat one down and this stubbornness to keep arriving at the crease when half the innings is over is beyond mystifying and frankly the questions of his commitment to his cause will keep nagging him as long as he continues to thrust lesser players into the position that should by all accounts be his.

Yousuf Youhana has better reasons not to bat at one down as his technique is nowhere near as solid as his captains and as today’s match showed he is rather vulnerable when faced with a rock hard new ball and the searing pace of a Brett Lee. None the less, the team has shown the admirable ability to pick itself up from rock bottom and to truly begin to challenge the awesome Aussies and even give them a shock or two along the way.

Today’s first final was more evidence that this team is growing in confidence and stature with every passing match and had it not been for some grotesque umpiring by Steve Davis, they might well have gone one up with two matches to play, but it wasn’t to be and though they strived hard they were unable to withstand a withering opening assault by Brett Lee and the wily Glenn McGrath who literally ripped the heart out of the batting in the very few opening overs dismissing Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal and Yousuf Youhana in quick succession followed by Hafeez who is totally out of his depth coming in the position that his captain ought to.

It would be churlish to blame the umpiring as being the sole reason for the defeat but it would also be ridiculously over diplomatic to pretend that it didn’t have a major impact on the outcome, as each ghastly error had a deeply morale sapping effect. First of all the third umpire refused to give the darling of the Aussie crowds Adam Gilchrist out when the entire ground could see clearly that he was short of his crease when Kamran Akmal disturbed the bails…..Gilchrist seemed almost embarrassed at the reprimand. A few minutes later the Aussie captain Ricky Ponting was to benefit when he was struck on his pads bang in front with TV replays confirming that the middle stump was being struck, but umpire Davis stunned neutrals with his judgement and was to do so time and again during the course of the match. Andrew Symonds who came out of a horror bad patch was also indebted to Davis who salvaged his innings when he was palpably caught in front of his stumps half way through his match winning innings with TV technology showing the umpire up rather badly, but that wasn’t to be the end of it by half.

Davis later proceeded to make a total ass of his judgement by awarding a wide to a delivery that the batsman actually gloved along with a rather audible sound. Once again technology showed that the umpire had made yet another glaring error and single-handedly slashed the visitor’s chances of making a match of it on this occasion. Not satisfied with the havoc he had caused, it didn’t take him a fraction of a second to send Pakistan’s Salman Butt on his way despite their being a large suspicion of an inside edge, but this one was acceptable as it was no where near as obvious as the previous stinkers had been.

The Australians are a quite brilliant outfit but their sheer brilliance was rather undermined by the help they received from their home umpire today and his inability to judge in a fair manner left a rather poor taste in the mouth. Surely the Aussies are too proud of their own capabilities to have them undermined in this manner by a man who was bent on sending the sparse crowd home happy and to ensure that the adoring publics perception of their invincibles was left unblemished, They are a superior team in every department which makes it rather embarrassing that they had Davis helping them along to the best of his ability. This was the most shocking umpiring seen on a centre stage (barring the ghastly errors of the Indian Jayaprakash) since neutral umpires came into existence but to be fair, even the normally efficient Billy Bowden, despite his eccentricities was also found wanting on the day on more than one occasion.

Maybe it was just one of those days and the dice seemed to roll against the Pakistani’s each and every time – whatever the reasons, it had a telling impact on the morale of the visitors who having raised themselves from the depths of despair and were desperately keen to at least compete on equal terms. Today they were denied, not only by a brilliantly honed champion Australian team but also by some highly dubious umpiring along the way. It will take some miracle for the visiting team to conjure the confidence to make the second final a contest and if the same two umpires officiate in the same form they were in today, it might just be a totally futile exercise.

None the less, it was a sterling effort by the Australian team who are worthy World Cup holders and Test cricket World Champions – a team so extraordinarily brilliant that they can work miracles without the kindly intervention of erring umpires. It was an exceptional cricket match by all accounts but sadly will be remembered for the hideous incompetence of the umpires Davis, Bowden and the third umpire whose reluctance to send Gilchrist back as run out was quite astonishing. Australia marched away with yet another victory, thoroughly deserved, but Pakistan left the field defeated but with the total sympathy of the neutral spectator.

On this evidence, surely home umpires must be dumped for One Day Internationals, especially if they happen to be Finals.

Ok, taken that Shaharyar Khan is bent on the destruction of Pakistan cricket as we know it, but what of the motives of those who are shedding tears in lament?


A couple more highly amusing if predictable blasts in the local press against the PCB, one from “world renowned commentator” Mohammad Ilyas and the other from a man driven by his total devotion to the welfare of Pakistan cricket Mr. A.A.A – a man who is in obvious turmoil as he cares so much about the state of the sport in Pakistan that he can hardly bare the pain any longer and is prepared to spill blood for the salvation of the game. In actuality here is a man so consumed with jealousy that his each whinging salvo exposes him as being nothing more than a disgruntled opportunist who is using his every means to try to suggest himself as a potential saviour.

Mohammad Ilyas aka father in law of Imran Farhat is indeed a magnificent commentator, especially when he demonstrates his eloquence and dazzling command of the English language while commentating. Being a connoisseur of the absurd one was immediately drawn to his words on the idiot box as his eloquence has the singular power to induce guffaws like none other in recent times. I recall tuning into an inconsequential match on TV lately simply in the hope that a relatively dull day at the office would be enlivened by the sheer brilliance of Ilyas’s stunning use of the English medium and in that regard, one has yet to be let down. That he has now assumed the accolade of “world renowned” commentator must mean that the domestic matches played here in Pakistan must be watched all around the world – wonder how that happened. It does suggest that the appeal of Pakistan’s domestic cricket has a pulling power far greater than one could have ever anticipated – well done Mohammad Ilyas for using your gift of the gab to widen the appeal of Pakistan Cricket – Bravo! Let us also hope that he soon establishes a training school for commentators and that some sensible people in Pakistan follow suit (of our neighbours) and start a campaign to find the next Ilyas.......as in “Harsha ki Khoj Meain”. Just as the world evidently needs more jumped up buffoon-like geeks a la Harsha Bhogle (or indeed airhead experts such as Mandira Bedi) we could certainly do with the discovery of budding young Ilyas’s.

One of the truly excellent points that Ilyas raises about the state of Pakistani cricket is in the problem with the current coach Bob Woolmer who he states that “Woolmer himself was not fit then how he can coach Pakistan team”. The words of a man who clearly has unfathomed depths to his thought processes. So, according to Ilyas the coach of a team can only be fit to coach a team if he is physically fit himself! Duncan Fletcher doesn’t appear to be doing too badly despite the volume of his girth, but clearly Ilyas has an insight few of us could even dare to contemplate.

Then there are other ex-Test cricketers who are caught up in a time warp and consider their methodology to be the blue print for all times to come claiming that a system that produced such greats as Zaheer Abbas, Mushtaq Mohammad, Sadiq Mohammad, Imran Khan, Wasim Bari, Majid Khan, Intikhab Alam (great?) etc should be left unchanged as it was 35 or 40 years ago. To these people it seems that the game and its conditions, rules, techniques haven’t evolved or changed at all in the 35 years that have passed. This is the same thought process that claims that the Muslims, once the proudest swordsmen and horsemen of the world should abandon modern technology (cars, tanks, aircraft, missiles, ships, guns) and go for glory on horseback once again if they are to assume leadership of the world as they once had. Even ostriches with their head buried feet under the sand would perhaps realize that change and time and ageing are those commodities that cannot be stopped or frozen no matter how hard one tries. Resistance to change has always been the downfall of leadership that has remained intransigent. We may not like or approve of what changes bring but to try to halt change? Good luck to those wanting to live in a fools paradise where time apparently stands still and change is an alien concept.

Meanwhile people like Haseeb Ahsan claim that they had never even heard of Bob Woolmer in their playing days but Haseeb played his cricket in a different era than Woolmer and his career was virtually over when he was sent back from an England tour for being a “chucker” when Bob Woolmer was still in school! (oops, I really didn’t mean to reveal your true age Mr Ahsan). Woolmer may not have set the world alight as a player though he did manage to score 149 against an Australian attack containing Lillee, Thomson and Max Walker which is more than most could muster during the 70’s in the pre helmet days. It’s remarkable how selective amnesia creeps into the mind of those feeding on a diet of sour grapes in their chat masala!

Haseeb Ahsan’s numerous rants when he went on tour as a manager of the side in the 70’s and 80’s suggested that the man has a considerable chip on his shoulder, no doubt emanating from the fact that his bowling action was considered unlawful by the nasty “goras” who struck down his career just when he was about to become the greatest off-spinning legend the world has ever known. No doubt a conspiracy against him because of his massive talent and that he alone was going to take the Pakistan team to heights never dreamt of before. And finally, given that our team of “greats” including Zaheer, Majid, Sadiq, Mushtaq, Bari, Inti etc were as great as they claim they were – how come they hardly ever managed to win any series other than the then lowly New Zealanders or then strictly at home in the days when umpiring was little more than a joke in a home series? Doesn’t speak much for their collective greatness somehow? It was only under the leadership of Imran Khan in the 80’s, when the “greats” were on their way out that the Pakistan cricket team started enjoying some success in series away from the cheating local umpires. Before that we were a bunch of rather toothless paper tigers and burgeoning egos.

Accepted that Shaharyar Khan is bent on destroying everything about Pakistan cricket as we know – what else could be expected from a “retired diplomat” who supposedly knows nothing about the sport!? Meanwhile, since when did it take a P.HD to understand the nuances this sport? Its just another sport just like any other including tiddly-winks and in a country besieged by real social and political problems it smacks hideously of bad taste to be making a mountains of a molehill........our priorities have always been asinine as a nation and the ridiculous overemphasis on cricket is a glaring example.

And poor disgruntled A.A.A – anyone who reads his increasingly rabid laments and his outcry of concern about Pakistan cricket can also read between the lines that the man’s jealousy has already consumed him almost totally leaving him not much more than a spitting cobra with nothing but ample gobs of venom to spew.

Anyway, far more importantly, do you have it in you to be the next Harsha Bhogle? - What a world, what a world!

A New Dawn!

Famous words uttered by a very wise man...yet there’s nothing new about the rabid reaction that occurred in various quarters to Pakistan’s Ist Test Match annihilation at Perth a few weeks ago. The miserable capitulation to the rampaging, all conquering Aussies seemed to have such a devastating effect on an element of the local populace that they took to torching the effigies of Inzamam Ul-Haq the captain, Wasim Bari the chief selector, Bob Woolmer the coach and the PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan.

Than there was Senator Enver Beg who became so exasperated at the recent defeat that he lost all his raspberries (again). Not satisfied with physically grappling and assaulting his fellow Senate Members including throwing a juicy left hook or two Beg has (like clockwork) demanded (yawn) that heads must roll! So it seems the great Beg along with those heartbroken, distressed-for-the-honour-of-the-nation young gentlemen who burned the effigies had expected Pakistan to vanquish possibly the strongest Australian Test side of all time on a pitch that other than the odd blemish here and there, they utterly rule the roost on? Apparently so, because how else can one possibly explain the levels of disappointment (read foaming hysteria) displayed by these humble patriots.

Perhaps it wasn’t the defeat so much but the manner of defeat that caused the outcry, for that would be a touch more fathomable. However, remarkable all the same because where else in a world where people are being torn apart by devastation of one form or the other do people have the spare time to go about burning effigies, unless it is a paid publicity stunt maybe? Sad that they shouldn’t feel the same patriotism when it comes to all other spheres of life in the country. Also sad that people should lose total perspective about what things are more important in life......Test Matches in Australia or anywhere else for that matter pale into the insignificance they deserve when thousands of people of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India etc are swept away by killer tidal tsunami waves. But sadly hysteria seems to have become a personality trait so deeply ingrained, perhaps because trying to view things logically and analytically takes more effort than shouting at the top on one’s voice and torching effigies. Taking to the streets to burn effigies because of a defeat in a cricket match, what can one say...Why not light torches against something meaningful for a change?

They say that cricket is a game of passion in India and Pakistan so may be the case but surely there is a fine line between passion and sheer bombastic idiocy. Cricket is a sport; perhaps one of the great sports for a variety of reasons and I have spent the best part of my life following the game with as much passion as anyone I have ever come across, yet let us not forget that it is only a sport.. The hysteria that it seems to generate in the Sub-continent reflects a truly warped perspective of life yet the same can be said of the Latin’s and Soccer.....but hell, who am I to suggest that famine, illiteracy, terrorism, poverty, global warming, AIDS, the suffering and injustice in Palestine, the murder of women in the name of honour are perhaps worth maybe even half a smouldering effigy every now and then rather than defeat in a cricket or soccer match?

The other grouse I have is that in a country where pirate DVD and heroin factories are the only areas in which we lead the world or compete on a global basis (though we also have the enviable reputation of being the finest finishing school for any terrorist worth his salt) how is it that the nations cricket establishment is expected to compete at the highest level while all other spheres of the country flounder? While the other sports we were once dominant in such as Hockey and Squash have seen even more of a drastic decline there is no frenetic hysteria and burning effigies? Why do we expect mountains from our cricketers when the rest of the country wallows in abject mediocrity? Is it rational or logical to expect excellence from our cricket establishment and not expect the same world beating excellence from all spheres of the country? Anyway, before one gets carried away in torrents of disdain one should come back to the word logic as it obviously features in the minds of such great thinkers as Javed Miandad and the irrepressible Sarfaraz Nawaz aka Big Sarf or is it Big Moose?

Javed Miandad has been seething about the innuendos that have been cast against him by the PCB chairman when he said that there were “other reasons” for his ouster. Miandad immediately retorted that he would take Khan to court because his statement suggested he was involved in match fixing. He claims (pinch of salt handy?) he has never been involved in such dealings and of course we all believe him as he is after all a fine upright gentleman, a man of honour and dignity who represents righteousness through and through – just like that other knight in shining armour Sarfaraz Nawaz who has claimed that he has the ability to turn the team’s fortunes in a matter of weeks if put in charge! Who can argue against the great man’s claims?

The latest news is that Miandad’s lawyers have indeed served the PCB chairman with a legal notice demanding a public apology in order to salvage his reputation as he felt it has been tarnished by the manner of his ouster. Excuse me, but what reputation exactly are we talking about here? Anyone who has had any sort of contact with Javed Miandad knows exactly the way the man operates and the motivations that make him do so but beside that, one would actually do well to remember that Miandad is not in fact qualified to coach at any institute let alone the National team as he has no degrees and no qualifications in this sphere and never has done. He was basically appointed on the laurels of his own international Test career which in no way means that he is coaching material. A coach in this day and age must provide the proper qualifications in his field from recognized institutions and not wave his glowing record as a player as his claim to fame. Miandad may well have been a superb batsman in his time but your battings skills of years gone by hardly means that you are qualified to coach at any level let alone the highest level. For that one requires true coaching qualifications, and by this criterion, Miandad is a non starter as would be Hanif Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas, Sarfaraz Nawaz and other coaching wannabe’s who have zero credentials to support their claims.

Incidentally Miandad also has recently lashed out at the PCB administration for concentrating on the “international XI rather than worry about cricket in schools and colleges”. A perfect example of a forward thinking man as clearly concentrating on schools cricket and college cricket is hardly going to win you the upcoming series against India or England next year, yet again there are many of us who would argue that our current decline is due partly to the fact that cricket at the grassroots level has been totally obliterated. Shaharyar has gone for a long term approach, one that may not win him any matches nor the World Cup during his tenure, but one would be a touch myopic not to be able to see, that right or wrong, he is doing a significant amount to make things smoother for those who may be in his position in 8 or 10 years when the fruits of concentrating on the grassroots will slowly start to pay off. This of course unless somebody as far sighted as Javed Miandad or the majestic Sarfaraz Nawaz scuppers the long term thinking for immediate payoffs and further bouts of mud-slinging and blame shifting.

And what is this business about it “not being our culture” to be able to have a foreign coach? An amazing statement that accepts that one’s culture is so utterly closed to fresh ideas and new ways of thinking and new techniques and so incapable of adapting to a rapidly changing world and sport that we can only employ the tried, tested and increasingly useless techniques of years decades of yonder. The mind boggles that this mentality should prevail, yet we would do well to remember that we were the folks who spawned the back-to-the-future Taliban after all. Once again one is reminded of the classic scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark (yes, another of those Israeli-American anti Islamic propaganda films) where Indy Jones is confronted by a spectacularly talented swordsman who swishes and twirls his blades with incredible menace, yet is blown away by the single shot of a pistol despite his glorious traditional skills.

In this modern world you can either adapt or then fall by the wayside and even though Bob Woolmer is no panacea to Pakistan’s cricketing problems, at least he represented a sincere effort on the part of the PCB administration to try to remain in touch with the times and not head back to the caves hand in hand with the likes of Javed Miandad gesticulating along the way as he does from the dressing room. Pakistan cricket is going through an extended slump and there is no magic wand that can suddenly be swished to make the bad times go away. These bad times are a direct result of us not bothering to get our house in order over the last ten to fifteen years and refusing to make sure that the system was producing talent from the junior levels that could be fine tuned to perfection for International duty. Our system had been a little bit left to fate with numerous admittedly heart-warming stories of unknown gawky lads showing up at the nets and being drafted straight into the team a day or so such being their amazing talent were almost the norm rather than the exception. However in times when cricketers appear to be groomed by professionally run Academies, our Academy doesn’t yet know what its true purpose is and why it is functioning at all. Let’s put it this way and keep to the point...how many cricketers in the current Test set up have emerged after polishing up their trade at the Academy? Point made? So, what is our academy up to and what is its purpose? There are scores of Academies functioning up and down the country now, mostly privately run with little or no regulation at all and no other aim but of filling their coffers at the expense of infatuated parents.

How many cricketers have actually benefited or are benefiting from the National Cricket Academy or is it just serving as a clubhouse for serving fringe and Test cricketers. In actuality, if the Academy was at all serious about achieving results and performing a service, only young cricketers less than the age of 20 would be seen at the establishment...instead we have players who have been on the International circuit for ten years exercising or having a massage or physiotherapy at the Academy. Surely the Academy is not meant to be a clubhouse but a finishing school for raw, youthful talent? Perhaps Mr Miandad would care to differ and suggest that only the International XI should be concentrated upon. Could someone please explain to this man that a plant can only grow to fruition if it has healthy roots!

On a lighter note, what a joy to listen to the inane ramblings of Waqar Younis who is the “expert” guest commentator down for this year’s series for here is the first man who is able to make Shoaib Akhtar seem eloquent in the English language. Poor Waq’s stylish cultivated Surrey accent (with words like “blokes” included) fails to camouflage the mans total lack of comprehension...but its rather charming and typically Pakistani to be referring to players like the nearly 30 year old Yasir Hameed (indeed a mere couple of years younger than Waq himself) as a “youngster” – surely a pet favourite word of all Pakistani commentators.

I wonder what constitutes a “youngster” and I wonder if a player like the increasingly paunchy Azhar Mahmood (who is also less than 30) qualifies as one of them or Shahid Afridi who was evidently just out of diapers when he was selected to play for his country? Pakistan is the land of flowering “youngsters” and hearty congratulations to Shahid Afridi on finally achieving the ripe old age of 24 in 2004/5 - a feat that is practically a miracle of nature.

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!

Time for more Cha Cha isms from the Cha Cha kirr kut himself.

First up, as exciting an era as ever beckons Pakistan cricket with the announcement of Bob Woolmer as the new coach. For the younger generation of cricketers to experience what good coaching is all about....Woolmer will hopefully be able to evolve a new work ethic that the younger lot will enjoy and benefit from and hopefully the younger lot will refuse to go back to the archaic ways of the past. Meanwhile it is expected that some of the senior and pampered cricketers may not find a new envigorating regimen to their liking and it is more than likely that plots and schemes will be hatched and campaigns of silent non-cooperation will ensue. Hopefully the old guard will wither away in time to come and the newer lot wont stand for any of it.

Meanwhile much to the credit of the PCB, the loudest protesting blast to be heard thus far in response to the Woolmer signing has been that of that universally recognized genius Sarfaraz Nawaz who has bellowed in his typical manner that our "boys" will not be able to understand the language of the English Bob Woolmer and the language barrier will be insurmountable. Perhaps Sarfaraz Nawaz doesnt realize that teaching a batsman how to grip a cricket bat properly or to hold the seam in a certain way or to pitch a ball on a particular spot, however intricate a science isn't quite on the same level as explaining the philosophies of Plato, Socrates and Aristotle.

It might be inconceivable that a German speaking man discuss politics or history with a punjabi speaking audience, yet if a German hockey player discusses hockey with punjabi speaking hockey players, despite the language barriers, he is going to be able to get most of his points accross even though the languages might be totally incompatable. Musicians likewise can talk music even if they dont speak one anothers language. Cricketers, soccer players, tennis players and most athletes can easily "discuss" their sport with people from similar backgrounds because of the "shared" language. This rather simple point can't possibly occur to someone of the mighty intellectual capacity of Sarfaraz Nawaz, but as I mentioned earlier, when Sarfraz lashes out in protest against your policies it means you MUST be doing something right. When people like Sarfaraz Nawaz are your supporters, you ought to see the warning lights.

In today's press, self avowed expert on cricket (not unlike myself!) has berated the current PCB chairman for not knowing a thing about the game and thus being led like a blindfolded idiot down dangerous alleys by his cunning advisors! Anyone who knows Shaharyar Khan at all well will be well aware of his prowess as a sportsman during his youth - it was his choice to aspire to become a distinguished diplomat for his nation, something he achieved with distinction. That the man could have played Test cricket for Pakistan is immaterial though those who know him well would argue his case with vigour, yet it is not the ability to play at the Test level alone that bestows a man with knowledge about the game.

What is cricketing knowledge? Is it someone like Sarfaraz Nawaz who has played tens of test matches all over the world but who doesn't know who Douglas Jardine was? So what constitutes cricketing "knowledge"? Is it that one has to have played 50 test matches to be knowledgable enough, or does it have to be 100 Tests? Or how about somebody like the school yard nerd turned commentator turned cricket expert Harsha Bhogle who must have at least dreamed of playing 100 Test matches? He writes long columns as a cricket expert for leading newspapers and is taken as a leading "expert" on the game. So what then is cricketing "knowledge" Mr Salahuddin (himself a veteren of 5 Tests)? Clearly you would know better.

What about Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, the head of the Indian Cricket Board - he never played Test cricket either. According to Salahuddin, does that mean he too has no understanding or knowledge of the game? Likewise Malcolm Speed the head of the ICC. He too never won a Test cap, never came close...does that mean he too has inferior knowledge than people like Sarfaraz Nawaz and Curtly Ambrose who have played nearly 150 Tests between them? Obviously Mr Salahuddin feels the need to grind an axe and continues to do it with such subtlety that it destroys what little credibility he may once have enjoyed. It is the same mentality that reckons that since Javed Miandad was Pakistan's best batsman of his era he must naturally be the best coach as well. The same thinking that reckons that since Hanif Mohammad was the best batsman of his era, he automatically makes for the best choice as coach despite the fact that he might not have any qualifications or credentials as a coach. This is the same mentality that reckons that Fazal Mahmood (a man who never played a One Day International nor ever reverse swung the ball) would be the perfect choice as a coach as he was once the best bowler in the land. All these cricketers were indeed worldbeaters in their day but it certainly doesnt mean that they would make world beating coaches...it just doesn't work like that - but some people just dont get it.

I am reminded of that classic scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy Jones is confonted by the sword waving Arab who confounds Indy with his dazzling sword skills........but then, all it takes is one bullet from a pistol to blow the gallant (stupid) Arab and his artistry away. Point being, that however dazzling one's skills may have been in a certain era..........one has to change and adapt to an evolving world...and pride and stubborness are just huge obstacles.

Bob Woolmer's appointment is the start of one of the most exciting era's in Pakistan's cricketing evolution and all power to him to set things right. Lets hope that the board, the public and most of all the players react with similar wholehearted support and let us not expect overnight results - it will take time, but finally Pakistan cricket has taken a giant step in the right direction.

Now thoughts drift to Wimbledon Tennis....our predictions for Paris weren't too wildly off. Agassi flopped and one of the Russian girls lifted the title, not exactly what we has said, but not far off. So rather puffed up by the success of not making a total idiot of myself here goes with ones predictions about Wimbledon. In the men's draw, once again the overriding favourite must be the sublimely gifted Roger Federer who will be far happier playing on grass than he was on the slow clay of Paris. Federer is clearly a class or two above the likes of Andy Roddick and Leyton Hewitt but if he is less than his best, these two opponents can certainly be combative enough to take advantage. Roddick and Hewitt must be consdired serious title threats though the burning intensity seems to have ebbed from Hewitt's game of late and he seems to make errors where it was unthinkable that he would have done in previous seasons. With a game like his, being a counter puncher, he really cannot afford to gift away free points with unforced errors of his own racket.

Tim Henman was playing the best tennis of his career in Paris and despite his early Queens loss, surely he has a better than ever chance of making it to the semi's again and perhaps even a step further. It ought to be kept in mind that he is one of the few players who managed to take a victory off Federer earlier in the year. Other dangerous players are the crazy Russian Marat Safin who is so hugely talented but so erratic and so emotional that he really cant seem to put together a serious challenge, though he did put together some fantastic performances at the Aussie Open earlier in the year. He will always remain a threat due to his sheer talent alone. The clay courters of Paris wont find things to their liking and though it is brave of players like Carlos Moya to show up at all, dont expect the Latin-Spanish wave to cause any serious threats on the grass of SW 19. Guillermo Coria might make it to round three or even further but we really dont see the others making it too far. The one exception is David Nalbandian who has a good track record at Wimbledon and who appears to have a game that is just as effective on any surface be it Hard court or grass or carpet or clay. Though he has put on a bit of weight around the belly of late - quite amazing that a top flight tennis player can afford to be not physically in 100% shape and yet be a consistent threat in the top 10 players of the world. Nalbandian is hugely talented and we've said this before, surely it is a matter of time before he can crack a Grand Slam title. He has more flair than Roddick and Hewitt but isn't perhaps as dogged or resiliant. Sadly David Nalbandian has just announced that he has pulled out of this years Wimbledon due to a abdominal muscle tear, and there we were thinking it was fat! Anyway, the tournament will be a touch paler without his presence.

I had expected players like Martin Verkerk to do well at Wimbledon but it seems that he needs too much time to prepare for his big groundstrokes and also he isnt the most agile player in the world and these prove telling factors in his inability to be a serious threat on grass, pity. Agassi has wisely pulled out but bizarrely said that he is looking forward to returning next year! Why is this very intelligent man having such difficulty reading the writing etched so clearly on the wall reading TIME TO CALL IT A DAY. It is a sad sight to see him being whipped by people ranked closer to 1000 than 1, but sadly that is what it has come to of late.

In the womens draw things are fairly open because the Williams sisters have lost their aura of invincibility and the Belgian girls are absent. Though we agree with the seeding committee that Serena Williams should be the top seed, she is a very dodgy top seed who is very beatable on current brittle form. Once again the Russian girls can cause serious upsets along the way though one of the girls who was shaping up best of the lot in Nadia Petrova seems to have gone off the boil just a bit of late. However the likes of Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva (despite that horrendous serve)and of course the newly crowned French Open champion Anastasia Myskina will be very dangerous opponents. Somehow, I can't see Myskina taking the Wimbledon crown ahead of the Williams girls this year. I also don't agree with Martina Navratilova that Amelie Mauresmo can go all the way this year........she certainly has the game but her nerves have proven as fragile as her body and her belly-flop in Paris will still be haunting her. Jennifer Capriati turned in a bizarre show in Paris recently. She was superb against Serena Williams but then was horrendous against Myskina. She has a tendency of blowing so hot and so cold that it is increasingly difficult to see her putting together a string of matches together to lift the title.

So the Cha Cha reckons its going to be Roger Federer who takes the title but the contenders are Roddick, and to a lesser extent Hewitt and Henman. Among the women, Serena Williams should manage to defend her title, if not watch out for a player like Svetlana Kuznetsova. We havent forgotten Linsey Davenport who is always a contender, but only if her dodgy knee holds up which looks like an increasingly unlikely prospect. Expect half the seeds, especially the clay courters to go out in the first couple of days. It should hardly be a surprise that the likes of Coria, Moya, Costa, Chela, go tumbling out within the first couple of rounds and the likes of Mardy Fish, Taylor Dent can prove more of a threat.

so in the Men's Final, it will be Federer defeating Roddick in 4 sets. In the women's draw it's a bit of a shot in the dark really but how about Serena Williams defeating Kuznetsova, Myskina or Mauresmo in the final in straight sets.

Meanwhile.....which team looks the most impressive at the Euro 2004 Football so far? We reckon the Czech team is a joy to watch, the French look great on the ball but can't seem to convert very easily and the English and the Spanish look fairly sharp without surely looking like tournament winners....the Swedes would be in the same boat and Germany look dull but you never know with them! All will be revealed on the 4th of July........

the Cha Cha has spoken

The State of Pakistan’s Cricket - How bad are things?

Amidst the hype that preceded, and the furore that followed, Pakistan’s loss to India, it is not surprising that it has been difficult to sit down with an uncluttered mind and come to some conclusions on the state of Pakistani cricket.

Firstly, if we keep things in perspective, it is clear that the better team won the series. India, under Saurav Ganguly and John Wright, have developed a team that is rightly seen as most likely to topple the mighty Australians from their perch. They almost did that during India’s last tour Down Under and the team since then has been further bolstered by the emergence of Irfan Pathan who showed in Pakistan that he is the brightest young fast bowling prospect since Waseem Akram hit the scene in the 80s. Considering that Pakistan have not come close to beating Australia – the fearful hiding we received in Sharjah was our last effort - a 3-2 result in the one days and 2-1 in the Test Matches against India represents a fairly commendable performance, particularly for a team that has underperformed at home for years. But it may also represent a flattering result against opponents that were, in their preparation, outlook and focus by far and away the better team.

In the past, Pakistan cricket has had the luxury of drawing on a pool of talent that allowed the team to excel on the international stage. Unfortunately, in the last year the team has suffered a cumulative loss of talent and the failure to nurture younger players over the last 4 years has meant that replacements are not coming through.

Pakistan’s feared bowling attack fell well short of expectation in the India series – partly because of the below par performance of Mohammed Sami and Shoaib Akhter and partly because an attack of Sami, Shoaib, Shabbir, Umar Gul and Abdul Razzaq is a substantial step down in class from an attack spearheaded by Waseem and Waqar and supported by the Shoaib, Razzaq, Mushtaq and Saqlain of 3 years ago. In fact it is debateable whether Pakistan possess a particularly strong fast bowling attack today – especially considering that India have Zaheer, Irfan, Balaji, Nehra and Agarkar; England have Harmison, Jones, Flintoff, Anderson and Hoggard, as well as a useful British Asian prospect in the wings in Sajid Mehmood; West Indies have discovered a new crop of quicks led by the decidedly slippery Tino Best and Australia still have Gillespie, McGrath and Lee to call on. Yes, Sami has come on in the last 12 months but Shoaib, apart from breaking the 100mph barrier, appears to have lost both the ability to swing the ball and the steel that is needed at the highest level against tough opposition. He is also considerably heavier and more muscled than in the past not that this has improved his fitness record. Shabbir Ahmed lacks aggression and zip and continues to under perform in the English county season looking decidedly less impressive and less quick than Mohammed Akram who now plays for Sussex as a local rather than oversees player. Razzaq’s loss in bowling form has been dramatic and inexplicable and Azhar Mehmood, despite his recent outburst about the Pakistan cap being worthless, is not the bowler he was 4 years ago. It is also clear that Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed are well past their best and will never be the forces of old.

In the batting department, it is enough to reflect on the fact that since Yousuf Youhana’s debut, Pakistan have failed to produce a genuine world class batsman. There is clearly a shortcoming somewhere along the line that sees genuine talent break into the test match arena and then just stagnate rather than improve. The Imran Nazir’s, Shahid Afridi’s, Azhar Mehmood’s, Wajahatullah Wasti’s etc. (the list can go on and on) have shown real promise only to remain at that level and in some cases regress.

The current Pakistan team, then, is not the force of old and the rebuilding process requires focussed attention. Even the greatest teams of the past have found it difficult to avoid a dip in form after the retirement of key players. Australia suffered years of mediocrity after Lillee, Marsh and Chappell retired. Similarly the West Indies have yet to recover from the loss of Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Marshall, Garner and Holding. But the contrast between the fortunes of the present day Australian and West Indian teams illustrates the importance of forward planning and tough decision making. Australia regrouped and instituted what was then a revolutionary method to their cricket - applying technology to coaching and thoroughly modernising their approach. But this was not done at the expense of the foundations of the game. In fact, the basics were strengthened – play straight, bowl wicket to wicket from close to the stumps, run your singles hard, and approach fielding as an equally important facet of the game. Much of this started under the captaincy of Allan Border and the coaching of Bobby Simpson – the man who transformed the likes of Steve Waugh, from a useful allrounder into one of the finest batsmen of the modern era. Furthermore, the zero tolerance approach towards indiscipline and complacency was apparent. Ricky Ponting, for example, was warned that his off the field antics (drunken brawls and a serious alcohol problem) would see him lose his place in the team. He cleaned up his act and is today captain of the team. Dean Jones was another who was axed for his quirky behaviour. Players were chosen for their talent, commitment and mettle. There was no place for those that were not willing to stick to the work ethic that had been inculcated in the team. The result was a fiercely competitive unit that took nothing for granted. Australia have reached the position they are in at the moment through talent as well as sheer hard work. Players like Steve Waugh, David Boon and Geoff Marsh were not world beaters when they entered the world stage. They became the players they did through determination and hard work.

In contrast, rampant indiscipline and complacency borne out of the incredible ‘talent pool’ that the West Indies used to be able to call upon in the 70s and 80s has left them today battling Bangladesh for Test victories. Pakistan must take heed of this and arrest and eradicate the indiscipline, inconsistency and instability that has in the past blighted Pakistan cricket. There are hopeful signs – The PCB has made no bones about imposing discipline and ensuring that unless a player is fully committed there is no room for him in the team. Whether the inquiry into Shoaib’s injury proved conclusive or not is besides the point. What mattered was the fact that every player should be aware of the fact that giving less than 100% on the field is unacceptable and certainly as a spectator I found Shoaib bowling on the first morning of the crucial Lahore Test, off half his normal run up, shocking. The selection committee led by Waseem Bari will bring consistency and stability and a chance for players and captain to build a committed unit. Furthermore, Yasir Hammed, Imran Farhat, Taufiq Umar, Asim Kemal, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria and Mohammed Sami represent a talented core of players. There are others knocking on the door – Bazid Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Hassan Reza to name a few. What is now required is to identify individuals that show both the talent and the will to succeed and to persist with this group. Players who show no inclination of improving themselves, who lack the hunger for hard cricket will never make for a tough, competitive unit.

This will also require a qualified coach and support staff that can instil the required discipline and professionalism that must complement the natural talent of the players. It is highly questionable whether Javed Miandad is capable of undertaking this task. What is required is a fully qualified coach who has no previous personal history or involvement with the players; someone who can sit down with each individual, identify problem areas and then work methodically on eradicating faults and thereby showing a steady improvement in each player. Miandad was a great batsman but that does not necessarily mean that he is qualified for a modern day coaching role. Bob Woolmer, Dav Whatmore, Duncan Fletcher, John Buchanan, John Wright – none of these individuals were ever world class players - but clearly they have an eye for technique and are fully qualified coaches. It is time to drag Pakistani cricket into the modern age to give ourselves the chance to fulfil the promise that our young players show. A word of caution though - results will take time – Australia faced 5 years of mediocrity before coming out as the force they are now. But at the end of the day, investments now will make for a healthier, stronger team in the future.

Before ending, a word about the Senate hearings. It is now going beyond ridiculous that politicians should be calling PCB officials for multiple hearings to explain the defeat to India. Most genuine cricket followers accepted the result and moved on – there was little public outcry – no houses being stoned, effigies being burnt. Perhaps the public was simply happy to have a chance to see some excellent cricket and world class cricketers of the calibre of Dravid, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Kumble and Laxman for the first time. For this we have to thank both the governments and the PCB for making the series possible. Furthermore, the series was played in the best sporting tradition and as such was an enormous success – as a sporting spectacle, financially and politically. But the Senate Committee is a farce – while Karachi burns, Al Qaeeda operatives remain active, an English teacher is shot dead in Multan – our senators are busy asking why we lost a cricket series to India! England have not beaten Australia for over a decade now but parliament In London has not come to the point of launching inquiries. Maybe the Senate Committee members ‘inspired’ by Donald Rumsfeld’s grilling at the hands of American Congress see themselves undertaking a similarly noble task. Somehow though, the torture of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison and the loss to India don’t seem to hold quite the same importance. The last thing that Pakistan cricket needs is the involvement of this group of individuals. Give it a rest.

In the meantime England push for a whitewash against a New Zealand team that lacks firepower. On the first day of the third and final Test 3 decisions went against the home team. I hope – having read some of the questions that the Pakistan Senate Committee demanded answers for from the PCB - that a conscientious MP has put through a call to the English Cricket Board and insisted that the umpires be reprimanded and changed immediately.

This post has been submitted by Fish Fingers

It’s been a while since old Cha Cha ji blabbered about this and that.....and things he ought not to be blabbering about, but who cares!

First up, tuneless trumpets I am afraid for World Record busting Muttiah Muralitharan, who has been in the news for all sorts of reasons lately. Tuneless because we have always been among those who have felt that though Muttiah is a thoroughly decent and likeable fellow, unfortunately birth defect or not, his bowling style contravenes the laws of the game of cricket and therefore he should never, ever have been allowed to bowl a single over (with that bowling action) in a proper school or university cricket match let alone a first class match or Test cricket. The ICC have been weak in taking a stand against Muralitharan's palpably illegal action and have now belatedly stirred a hornets nest of their own making by outlawing the bowlers "Doosra". What a fine mess it is! That Murali will always be remembered as the great world record busting off spinner is without doubt, yet he will also equally be remembered for his action and not because of its beauty. Anyway, three cheers for Murali, three cheers for the Asian cricketing brotherhood for supporting a brazenly illegal action and three cheers again to the same Asian lobby for backing Bangladesh's Test status which brings one to subject number two on today’s blabbering session.

Very soon something has to be done about the fact that Bangladesh and Zimbabwe (with or without Rebels) and arguably the West Indies are performing at such a abysmal level these days that they are simply serving as fodder for a host of World Records that are being set against them and will continue to be set against them unless this issue is addressed. Though this will create hideous logistical problems, perhaps it is time to create an Elite division of Test playing nations and a Second division which will be playing four day first class cricket rather than five day Tests. The champion team from the second division should be promoted to play Test cricket for a period of two years and the team that finishes at the bottom of the Elite division should be relegated to joining the lower rung until they might be promoted again two years later if they win the lower division title. On current form Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Kenya and if the ICC wants so desperately to broaden the games appeal, then they might include Canada, Namibia and Holland and Nepal to begin with. These teams ought to play each other to decide who gets the right to play Test cricket while the Elite group should start with the top eight which should consist of Australia, India, South Africa, England, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies. This would put huge pressure upon teams like the West Indies and even Pakistan to perform to risk being relegated to two years without Test cricket. Also as basic criteria the ICC should not allow countries lacking a domestic first class structure to play Test Cricket and therefore Zimbabwe and Bangladesh would automatically be disqualified from the highest rung until they set up a domestic first class cricket infrastructure. This may sound radical, but at the moment there is an enormous yawning gulf between the better teams and the awful teams and it devalues Test cricket when Australia have to play against Bangladesh and all sorts of records are obliterated. Likewise who has got the time to invest six hours of watching Australia play Bangladesh, surely nobody but retired folks and most probably they would rather read a good book or snooze! And to pay to watch Bangladesh take on Australia.....now that is really does take the cake! To put it into a nutshell, by all means broaden the appeal of the game but by awarding Test cricket status to countries that lack a proper infrastructure all one is doing is devaluing the status of Test Match cricket which is sad as watching a bowler with a palpably illegal bowling action devouring all sorts of bowling records! Something must be done about both.

People will argue that once upon a time India, Pakistan and New Zealand were Test match pushovers and that is certainly true, but to counter that argument...each one had a first class structure in position and therefore (it can be counter argued) it didn't take them very long to start producing at least decent quality teams especially when playing in home conditions, these teams were capable of taking on the best. The same cannot be said of Zimbabwe well over a decade after playing Test cricket and also Bangladesh who continue to perform woefully.

The decline of the West Indies is also something that is tragic and seems a terminal case - there can be no turning back the clock it seems and the glories of the past will remain relegated to history books, anecdotes and fading video tapes. Other sports have sapped the talent that once would automatically be snapped up by cricket, and though the occasionally brilliant lad will still come through the ranks, it is with far less frequency than in days gone by. The other crippling problem seems to be one of attitude - the current West Indies team strut around like they are walking on water.......supreme world beaters from another planet with their heads so swollen that they are floating in the clouds rather than walking with their feet firmly on the ground. There is no will to improve......when was the last time you actually saw a West Indian cricketer improve his game?? There is also no will to fight and no collective pride. Gone are the days alas and very sadly it doesn't seem as though they will return in a big hurry either, if ever again. The demise of the West Indies has been a huge loss to the sport as their teams could be relied upon for exhilarating entertainment and skill year after year after year...The chapter is sadly closed.

At home the PCB boss has made several changes about making changes but his words have yet to be followed up by substantial actions. The Indian series is over now and the house needs mending! Money shouldn't be a constraint after the windfall of the Indian series. Meanwhile it is nothing short of sickening when the Chairman of the PCB is "summoned" like a criminal to explain the debacle of the national teams loss to India recently.......sickening because the politicians of a country beset with social, economic and political problems should have little time for such relatively trivial matters and secondly everyone with half a wit knows that India won the series because they had a far superior team that performed in a far more professional manner than the Pakistan team. However what the senate no doubt wants to hear is that there was a Zionist plot to discredit Pakistan or that huge amounts of money were paid under the table to unscrupulous PCB members and the cricketers to under perform etc etc etc. The usual conspiracy theory monkey on the back that this country is afflicted by. What utter hogwash.........the politicians should feel insulted that they are expected to spend valuable time discussing "why we lost the cricket series" and not try to grapple with issues that actually make a difference to the quality of people’s lives. Isn't that after all what the politicians are voted in to do?

This whole thing about the PCB chairman chasing after naughty boy Shoaib Akhtar is now bordering on the comical. Shoaiby, realizing that the bossman was not too happy with his antics at the end of the Pindi match raced off to India and made sure that shots of his visiting sick children in hospitals made the press! He has toured with Khan on two previous occasions and has learned exactly which strings to pull and by appearing at hospitals he showed that at least his brain still ticks over when it needs to. Meanwhile he also managed to somehow make sure that pictures of his partying with Bollywood starlets and the like didn't leak. The PCB went belatedly ahead with their medical tests to find that Shoaib was indeed injured.......and so public opinion turned against the villainous PCB for supposedly persecuting the only match winner that the team has! However things seemed to be sorted out in an amicable meeting between Khan and Shoaib when Shoaib supposedly promised former that he would not play for Durham for a couple of weeks upon reaching England, but before you could say Muttiah Muralitharan, Shoaib is out on the field for Durham not weeks but a mere day or two after reaching England. Khan raises his eyebrows and asks for an explanation.....the world waits with baited breath for the next move!!!

What else is there to blab about........the upcoming Tennis Grand Slam summer....well, we are famously known for being utterly wrong about all our tennis predictions and in fact whenever a player is tipped, he or she usually ends up going out in the very next round. However it is just so much fun to play armchair mastermind and so here goes the predictions for the French Open Tennis Championships just around the corner. Firstly, Agassi surely doesn't stand a chance. He has slowed down half a step in the last nine months or so and will continue to do so. When he lost to Coria at last years Open it suggested that his number was up on clay and now he will probably be a fraction slower still. However much he fights it, age will take its toll and amazing though he is for a man his early 30's, he is going to find it very tough competing with younger, fitter and faster players. The obvious favourite is Roger Federer who has recently put all his serious challengers (on clay) to the sword including a pasting for Carlos Moya followed by a pasting of a resurgent Lleyton Hewitt and an easy stroll in the park against nearest competitor Guillermo Coria. So, it seems as though Federer is indeed in a class of his own. It just remains to be seen if he can produce seven matches of high quality in a row as clearly when he is on song, currently there is nobody who can live with him. Unfortunate that Juan Carlos Ferrerro seems to have fallen away lately but the progress of David Nalbandian is exciting and surely it is a matter of time before he wins his first breakthrough Grand Slam title. Andy Roddick may not be considered a serious clay court contender but he should not be underestimated either. Marat Safin...well he can be utterly brilliant one day and utterly horrendous the other - the volatility hasn't changed much even though he has been putting together some pretty decent results of late.

The women’s event appears to be a little more open this year because defending champion Justine Henin cannot surely be considered a major title threat due to the fact that she lacks match practice and has been out of the game for weeks with a virus. Though she is an incredibly tough nut as one has seen time and again, surely even she cannot come out as champion after a considerable lay off as she has suffered. Meanwhile the usual competitors also have question marks against them. Serena Williams herself hasn't been back too long and there have to be serious doubts about whether she is yet on song enough to start reaching Grand Slam finals again. The same can be said of older sister Venus but one player who might be considered a warmish favourite is Amelie Mauresmo on the basis of two very fine wins in consecutive tournaments leading up to Paris. However Mauresmo has her own injury problem to conquer and it remains to be seen if she can last a tough two week tournament without breaking down once again. This does look as though it could be Mauresmo's finest chance to become the newest French hero. Capriati is stringing some decent results together as well though it seems Anastasia Myskina has gone off the boil. The dark horse has to be Lindsey Davenport who nobody talks about as being a serious contender any longer. But she has also put some solid results behind her recently and stands a good chance of going into the later stages of the show. The tournament usually throws up a couple of surprises, who will it be this year? Will it be one of the Russian girls, at least two of whom made the late stages of the tourney last year? I wouldn't count against it.

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.