Umar Akmal

It can't bring back the World Twenty20 trophy, but Pakistan extracted some sort of revenge on Australia in their first meeting since the semi-final in St Lucia

Pakistan and Australia will spend the next month battling in the neutral territory of England and this Twenty20 at Edgbaston gives the teams their first glimpse at the opposition.

After the psychological scars inflicted by several defeats to Australia over the last 12 months, Pakistan face a tough battle this summer

It was more gloom and doom than 'Boom Boom' for star one-day batsman Shahid Afridi after Pakistan's enigmatic captain suffered a six-ball duck on the opening day of their second tour game against Kent in Canterbury

Umar Akmal's aggressive half century, combined with disciplined bowling efforts from Shoaib Akhtar and Saeed Ajmal, helped the Pakistanis to start their English summer with a six-run victory over MCC at Lord's

Plays of the day from game one of the Asia Cup, between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Dambulla

As was widely expected, the PCB has reduced or written off the punishments of four players who the board had only recently found guilty of various misdemeanours

Australia re-taught their opponents the lessons of four days in Sydney from earlier this year, the moral of which remains that till the precise moment Australia are out, they are never out

South Africa were knocked out of the World Twenty20 by living up to their reputation of coming up short in crunch matches

Umar Akmal, the Pakistan batsman, has picked up a side strain during the preparatory camp for the ICC World Twenty20 but is expected to be fit in time for the tournament which starts on April 30

The Akmal brothers, Kamran and Umar, have lodged appeals against the fines imposed on them by the PCB in the aftermath of Pakistan's winless tour of Australia

Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik or Naved-ul-Hasan were not awarded central contracts, but their fates shielded a number of very bizarre decisions taken by the board and selection committee in its picks

Pakistan's selectors have not named a captain in the final squad for the ICC World Twenty20 in April-May but have included Shahid Afridi and the Akmal brothers

The Pakistan Cricket Board has come down heavily on the national players, acting on the findings of an inquiry committee that looked into the team's disastrous tour of Australia

The inquiry committee looking into Pakistan's disastrous tour to Australia has recommended a string of harsh punishments against a number of Pakistan's senior-most players, ranging from heavy fines to bans

Cricinfo previews the two Twenty20 Internationals between Pakistan and England in Dubai

Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott, Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle and Umar Akmal were the cream of the crop in the nominations for best Test innings of 2009

Having bowled out Pakistan for 212, Australia were made to fight every inch for the two-wicket win that handed Pakistan their second 5-0 sweep in history

As another Under-19 World Cup gets underway, we look at the boys of the 2008 edition who are now men with international responsibilities