Kamran Abbasi
A failure across the Boards
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
The fate of Australia's tour to Pakistan is sealed--or postponed as we are supposed to believe. I've already said my piece on why Australia should have toured Pakistan, and that argument still holds. Just ask Geoff Lawson, who has underlined the folly of the approach adopted by his fellow countrymen.
Ultimately, tours are the responsibility of the respective cricket boards. Cricket Australia has failed to ensure the viability of the international tours programme, which is an abdication of leadership from the world's strongest cricket country. As the general security situation in our world continues to deteriorate perhaps cricket will become extinct as countries refuse tours for unrelated risks? A truly global sport requires a stronger spine and broader vision.
Full postICL, IPL, what the hell?
However you look at it, these pantomimes are doing little more than milking the cash cow of cricket's popularity in India
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Consider me a Luddite but I'm getting rather fed up with this proliferation of cricket leagues. ICL, IPL, what the hell? However you look at it, these pantomimes are doing little more than milking the cash cow of cricket's popularity in India.
At some point, probably not too dissimilar to the point in last year's World Cup when most people stopped caring less, people in India--yes even India--will stop caring less. The advertisers, promoters, sponsors, and deal fixers will have to dream up a new concept. In fact, I've stopped caring less about these tournaments already, except for a mild curiosity about the prospects of the band of Pakistani rejects, better known as the Lahore Badshahs.
Full postMany a trip betwixt cup and first slip
A particular question has perplexed me for the last five years or so
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
A particular question has perplexed me for the last five years or so. It is a question that I expect to disappear during each U19 World Cup but instead the question hammers away even louder inside my cranium. The question is this: How can Pakistan be so consistently successful at U19 level yet so few of those young stars graduate to become full international cricketers?
Pakistan might stumble in this U19 World Cup or they might make it a hat-trick, either way they have done enough again for that annoying question to become even more annoying. What is going on? if we accept that bone scans and better record-keeping ensure that over-age players do not distort the results of this fascinating competition, we also have to accept that there is a rich seam of talent that the Pakistani cricket system fails to develop properly.
It might indeed be too much to expect to find a Javed Miandad or a Wasim Akram at every tournament but it is equally inconceivable that Pakistan can be so successful at two, now three, successive tournaments and fail to find a single genuine new star. An acceptable explanation would be the success of the national team, and we know how feeble that would be as an explanation.
Full postA letter to Australians
Cricketers have died or been seriously injured on the cricket field throughout the world while no cricketer has ever come to harm during Pakistan's "troubles".
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Dear Aussies,
We hear you swim with sharks yet you cannot walk the same earth as 160 million of your fellow men and women? Pakistan may be a country demonised by the world and dubbed a basket case by the world's media yet the ground reality is something very different.
Full postWhat lessons from the Zimbabwe series?
Five-nil should not look bad on paper but this one does
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Five-nil should not look bad on paper but this one does. The piece of paper in question is the team sheet, which has been rearranged so often during the Zimbabwe series that it is almost impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions. Pakistan's selectors will say that they have responded to the calls for new faces but they have betrayed their own uncertainty with such haphazard substitutions. Many of the young players were given solitary opportunities against Zimbabwe, an insufficient experiment to judge Pakistan's bench strength.
Assuming Australia do visit, Pakistan's only consolation can be that Ricky Ponting's team is enduring a few problems of its own although these are insignificant when compared with Pakistan's selection confusion.
Full postPakistan's selection sickness
A bad process, a management consultant would tell you, usually produces a bad outcome
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
A bad process, a management consultant would tell you, usually produces a bad outcome. Little wonder, then, that Pakistan's selection "process" rarely pleases anybody. The current bickering between board and team management is just another variation on the theme of internal division that prevents the key players in Pakistan cricket from developing the team in a coherent, constructive, and successful fashion.
At the heart of the problem lies a tussle for control, a power struggle that is eternally unresolved. Captain, coach, chief of selectors, and chairman of the board are all potential rulers of the rabble--and it will remain a rabble as long as the hierarchy fluctuates with a frenzied frequency.
Full postThis might become a regular event
Last year's World Cup plunged India and Pakistan into the world of minnows
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Last year's World Cup plunged India and Pakistan into the world of minnows. By the end of the Twenty20 equivalent, redemption was within grasp but the neighbours have followed opposite paths since. India stand on the brink of a phenomenal victory against the world's number one team while Pakistan can't be entirely confident of a convincing victory over Zimbabwe.
In many ways the difference in fortunes is reflected by the difference in leadership. Mahendra Dhoni and Anil Kumble have assumed their roles in reassuring fashion, inspiring more senior and more celebrated colleagues respectively to outstanding performances. India's batting remains strong but the bowling remains raw, hence progress was not a given.
Across the border, Shoaib Malik has flattered to deceive. Pakistan, with out of form unsettled batsmen and injured bowlers, might have more rebuilding to do yet their achievements since the Twenty20 World Cup have still been a disappointment. The best batting order remains something of a mystery and the production line of bowlers might not have dried up but it cannot decide which is this year's model.
Full postICC's giant stride towards irrelevance
The process of South Asian, and especially Indian rule, in international cricket has taken some time to reach a conclusion, but it has today with the removal of Steve Bucknor
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
If historians ever want to mark the period when power in cricket shifted to South Asia then this is it. Just over a year ago Pakistan clashed with Darrell Hair, now India have done battle with umpire and match referee. Both Test matches might have been lost by the complainant but they recorded landmark off-field victories.
Any Pakistan fan will have considerable empathy with the plight of Indians. They believe their team to be victims of fundamental injustices and they are unwilling to tolerate a slur on their reputation. Pride matters more than the result.
Full postLet it go, Captain Khan
Let it go, Captain Khan
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Younis Khan, suggest reports emanating from Bangalore, is about to turn his back on the Pakistan captaincy for a third time. We all know that Younis loathes nothing more than being somebody's dummy. We all know that the unreasonable reactions of Pakistan fans turn his mind from the captaincy. But if the reports are true and Younis does not lead Pakistan in Bangalore, he will be the dummy and an unreasonable one at that.
Admittedly, Pakistan's decision-making has defied logic. Yasir Arafat rushes in too late to play. Shoaib Akhtar leaves his hospital bed to open the bowling. Kamran Akmal remains Pakistan's wicketkeeper for his batting and not his glovework. Abdur Rauf is summoned but blocked by the board. Meanwhile, Pakistan's stand-in captain is an agitated bystander.
What power can Younis expect, though, as stand-in captain? He keeps the seat warm for his younger leader, and it is churlish to complain since this is a situation of his own making. The captaincy and the power could have been his.
Full postCornered tigers face extinction
I hate to say this but Pakistan's best bet in Kolkata must be a draw
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Pakistan fans have been wondering for over a year about what happened to the legendary cornered tiger spirit? The Twenty20 World Cup offered a brief reminder of what it was meant to be like but ever since Shoaib Malik's team has been cornered and cowering. The captain has faced criticism for his unwillingness to bare his teeth and his fellow tigers have barely raised a growl.
Encouraging performances have been sporadic and insufficient to revitalise Pakistan's tigers, young of age but weary of soul. As if a loss of spirit wasn't enough, the physical health of Malik's shrinking violets means that they are barely able to field a team in Kolkata. A psychiatrist would be examining the likelihood of psychosomatic illness.
Unfortunately for Pakistan it is the bowlers who are afflicted. By some margin they have been the better half of Malik's team, and it is the batsmen, who failed so miserably in the second innings of the first test, who must now carry the battle to India.
Full post