Kamran Abbasi
Storm over a sweep?
Ask who invented the reverse-sweep and many cricketers will claim the honour
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Ask who invented the reverse-sweep and many cricketers will claim the honour. Ask who plays it best and most cricket fans would surely point to Kevin Pietersen. Cricket is an odd sport in that there are the laws of cricket and then there is the spirit of cricket. What is outside the laws cannot be allowed but what is within the laws and outside the spirit of cricket causes anxiety.Cricket has so many intricacies that it is impossible to legislate for all of them.
The ideal situation, now that cricket is so long established, is that the laws are seldom changed and only occasionally tinkered with. In addition, the laws should not become a needless barrier to invention and innovation in cricket. Which leads us back to KP's reverse-sweeping and the vexed conversations among MCC's Panama hat brigade.
Full postFrustrated Ashraf fires a scattergun
Much of Ashraf's scattergun email at the team management fires bullets at targets that are outside his zone
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Some companies have a policy of avoiding emails to tick off employees. Emails often read more angrily than they were written. Cold words, delivered without the benefit of emotion or inflection, can sting and wound. But perhaps that was Dr Ashraf's intention with his furious email to Talat Ali about Pakistan's dismal performance against India?
As chairman of the board, Ashraf carries the ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of the national cricket team. He has a duty to hire and fire, encourage and admonish in the pursuit of excellence and a return to glory days. On the evidence of Pakistan's recent form and this email, don't expect anything glorious anytime soon.
Full postFrom McGrath to mug
Mohammad Asif is a passionate cricketer
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Mohammad Asif is a passionate cricketer. He demands wickets. He fumes and rages to unsettle his opponents. His attitude combined with exceptional skill at the beginning of his international career quickly established him as the beanpole star of Pakistan's bowling attack. Yet injuries and drugs have just as quickly brought him to his knees. A thrilling prospect has crashed into a bittersweet reality.
The IPL was meant to reinvigorate Asif's career, as well as his bank balance. The theory went that the McGrath of Sheikhupura would learn at the right hand of the McGrath of Dubbo. Yet it seems that any skill and discipline that Asif might have learned on the field was not imitated in his private life.
Full postThe genius and the dirt of IPL
The genius of the Indian Premier League is not only has it created an international buzz, but it has also opened up a whole new world of possibilities for cricket
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
The genius of the Indian Premier League is not only has it created an international buzz, but it has also opened up a whole new world of possibilities for cricket. Let’s be clear, the Indian Premier League has hijacked the original idea of the Indian Cricket League and ground its competitor into the dirt. The current formula is problematic, mainly because of the sheer volume of matches crammed into too many weeks.
The execution, however, is a different matter to the concept, and indeed there have been many positives, not least the colour and glitz of each T20 spectacle. Indian fans have enthused about suddenly flung together teams and Indian cricketers have seized an opportunity to shine on a different kind of international stage.
Full postI'm with Malcolm
How many of the other cricket boards have financial skeletons in their bookkeeping cupboards?
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
As Malcolm Speed departs the stage I finally find myself agreeing with him. Financial irregularities are a cardinal sign of corruption, and while corruption has many tentacles each poisonous limb has to be amputated at every opportunity. The affairs of Zimbabwe and the poverty of its people are dismal enough without the international cricket community tacitly endorsing financial irregularities in Zimbabwe's cricket board.
The case for playing cricket against Zimbabwe is tenuous enough, it becomes almost unsustainable if there is no financial probity.
Full postIt's a record Shoaib, but not as we know it
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Shoaib Malik's Pakistan have set a record of successive wins in one-day cricket. A few more home series against sub-standard opposition - before the ICC Champions Trophy - and the record will be unbeatable. This is a Pyrrhic victory made possible by the decimation of Pakistan's international itinerary. To compare Shoaib's captaincy with Imran Khan's is unworthy.
Indeed, the decision-making during the series has created plenty of controversy. Why were the new batsmen given little opportunity to play a substantial innings? Why were the new bowlers under bowled?
Full postSuperficial stars of a failed system
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Today, a reader sent me a message arguing that it is my social responsibility to start a new thread on Younis Khan, as cricket fans are poised to comment on his extraordinary withdrawal from the current series. An excuse of fatigue is hard to believe. A fit of pique (at the visit by the anti-corruption unit) would be more in character. A statement explaining that he is tired of playing the world's less challenging teams might be understandable. An expression of irritation at Shoaib Malik's captaincy would play to the gallery.
You decide.
Full postNo way back for Ashraf
Instead of him suing Shoaib, the many millions of people around the world who hold Pakistan cricket dear might feel justified in a legal action against Ashraf for damaging the reputation of Pakistan cricket
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
You might not have imagined it but it has happened. After finishing Shoaib Akhtar's career with a punishment that didn't fit the crime, Nasim Ashraf should really have expected a backlash from the cricketer himself, his fans, and most neutral observers.
Some of Shoaib's retaliatory comments might have hurt. They might have even crossed the line of what is fair, decent, and lawful but leading any organisation, especially a high profile one, requires a healthy dose of judgment and wisdom. By choosing to sue Shoaib for a multi-million dollar payout, Ashraf has confirmed that he has neither in sufficient supply to head a nationally important organisation.
Indeed, instead of him suing Shoaib, the many millions of people around the world who hold Pakistan cricket dear might feel justified in a legal action against Ashraf for damaging the reputation of Pakistan cricket. This farce has become an international joke. The patron of Pakistan cricket has to bring this stupidity to an end. Earlier this week, I said--with irony--way to go Dr Ashraf. I'll amend that to: Time to go.
Full postAnother stupid end to Shoaib's career
Few careers could have finished more often than Shoaib Akhtar's
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Few careers could have finished more often than Shoaib Akhtar's. Ironically, this end is probably the least deserved. A five-year ban for breaching the code of conduct of a cricket board that fails to demonstrate any high standards of its own is farcical. Pakistan's cricket board has lost all perspective if it believes this ban to be reasonable. A five-year ban will certainly end Shoaib's international career and, if it does that, the blame will rest as much with the cricket board's mismanagement as it does with Shoaib's unprofessionalism. This is another sad day for Pakistan cricket, which is now firmly establishing itself as an irrelevance on the international stage. Bravo Dr Ashraf and Co. Way to go.
Full postHair today, gone in a year
It is the time of year for resurrections and Darrell Hair has risen again to delight his supporters and spread fear and anger among his enemies
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
It is the time of year for resurrections and Darrell Hair has risen again to delight his supporters and spread fear and anger among his enemies. What Hair's rehabilitation programme involved requires greater explanation from the ICC? But the decision to reinstate him has certainly reinforced the persecutory complex of Pakistan cricket.
I am sure Hair's reinstatement will be justified by some high principle but there is an alternative explanation. Hair is a habitual litigant. Pakistan have little international cricket over the next year, at the end of which Hair's contract runs out. From an employer's perspective it is far cleaner and more convenient to let the contract run its natural course instead of spending the next few years fighting a nasty legal case.
Full post