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cricket Giving
local A lot still
needs to be done cricket Roger
Federer, the conqueror of tennis For
a review and due repair?
cricket A consensus candidate will be the best option. One hopes this time around the PCB makes the right decision -- even if it's just for the sake of change! With no cricket being
played these days by Pakistan off-field activities have assumed The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the selection panel seem divided over whether Inzamam be given a last chance to play Test cricket for his country or be ignored till he himself says goodbye to the game that meant everything to him for almost two decades. Previously the chief selector has hinted that Inzamam is still a part of their plans as far as Test cricket is concerned -- an area where Pakistan are still a bit exposed owing to an unsettled opening duo and an inconsistent, though experienced, middle-order. Right now Pakistan cricket is at a stage where it does need fresh blood. But that fresh blood must not be inducted at the expense of experience. No doubt Inzamam has played his best cricket, but at this juncture when we have a new captain in Shoaib Malik, who, according to many, himself is not an automatic selection for a Test berth, Pakistan need someone with the experience of Inzamam to take pressure off the younger lot and turn things around for a prosperous future. Apart from the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September, Pakistan are supposed to take on South Africa, India, and Australia in Test matches in the next few months, and all these are tough assignments by any standard even for an established leader leave alone Malik, who'll be captaining the side for the first time in Tests. Inzamam's presence in the Test team would certainly give confidence to Malik, who knows Pakistan have still not found a reliable pair of openers, and again, as has been the case in recent past, the middle-order -- which might include Yasir Hameed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Malik himself -- will come under tremendous pressure in the face of some hostile yet accurate bowling from both Australia and South Africa. And Pakistan's opponents will be keen to exploit that weakness as though Younis and Yousuf know exactly what is required against the best sides of the world, the same cannot be said of Yasir and Malik, who'll be far more occupied with the thought of keeping their places in the team intact. That makes Inzamam's inclusion in the squad even more significant and his experience will be of immense help against these sides as the former captain would not like to leave the stage without making a mark. In any case he would not be too interested in hanging on for too long if he succeeds in having a good series with the bat against the Proteas, who will be the first team meeting Pakistan as the fresh season starts in about two months time. One more opportunity to the burly right-hander will put the selectors in a better position to judge for themselves where he stands and whether he deserves to keep representing his country. Besides, it'll also provide Inzamam an option to know if his time is up and he should quit the game gracefully. The selection of coach for the national team has also become a headache for the PCB. The senior players of the team have apparently given their decision in favour of former Aussie paceman Geoff Lawson, whereas powers that be are supporting the more experienced Dav Whatmore. Interestingly, Talat Ali, the manager-cum-coach of the team, has also voiced his support in favour of the former, but has since termed his remarks as his 'personal opinion'. The players' contention that since Lawson is relatively new on the international scene, and driven by his desire to become a successful professional and make a name for himself, he would be putting in additional efforts does hold weight. On the other hand, Whatmore is not new to sub-continental players as he has previously coached Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with a considerable degree of success. Initially Whatmore was more interested in teaming up with India, who opted for South African Graham Ford instead. However, in an amazing turnaround Ford spurned the offer at the last minute thus leaving India in an embarrassing fix. It was only after India refused to sign Whatmore that the Australian turned to Pakistan -- a move that did not go well with Pakistan's senior players. In another interesting development former Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga has advised Pakistan against signing Whatmore. It's really surprising as Whatmore was Sri Lanka's coach when the Islanders had won the 1996 World Cup under Ranatunga's captaincy. To make things more complicated Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara has jumped to the defence of his former coach, suggesting Whatmore could be the best option Pakistan could have. It's a difficult situation and before making any announcement, which is tentatively due for July 16 (tomorrow), the PCB must do its homework properly and must consult all the senior players as it will be they who will be interacting directly with the new coach. If they aren't comfortable with someone and have strong reasons to back their fears regarding a certain candidate, the PCB can delay the announcement for a couple of weeks before finalising a person who is acceptable to all and is good enough to do the job for which he is being hired. Both Whatmore and Lawson have their plus points, but when it comes to picking between the two the playersí input must be given due weight as without the support of his players no coach in the world can produce positive results no matter how professional and influential he might be. After all a coach is as good as his charges. The panel, which has been entrusted with the task of picking the coach, needs to bear in mind the playersí reservations and demands before making any recommendation to the PCB in this regard. A consensus candidate will be the best option. One hopes this time around the PCB makes the right decision -- even if it's just for the sake of change!
Geo Super signed a contract last year with the PFF for a period of seven years. They signed the deal with an aim to boost the progress of the game in the cricket-mad nation Football is one sport
Pakistan that has not made any huge progress in their entire history Although efforts have been made with the support of international football federation when in August 2003, FIFA and their 'Goal Project' and the new management within the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) restructured the national football system. Efforts were made to hold more leagues and championships locally. The National Football Championship, which was the only tournament played in Pakistan before, was replaced in 2004 by the national football league, which was called the National Division A Football League. This tournament contained 16 teams from around Pakistan and was the first time Pakistan had a national league. A second division, like many other countries in the world, was also created in Pakistan. This was formally known as the National League Division B Football League before being named the PFF National League. This tournament contained 5 teams. The two bottom teams from the A league were relegated to the PFF league, while the top two teams in the PFF league were promoted in their place. But because of funding problems, relegation and promotion was an issue, as was the teams continued participation. This led to further changes in Pakistani football. Afterwards, after more reconstruction of the game, the National Division A was renamed the Pakistan Premier League, and the President's PFF Cup was reintroduced, which was postponed earlier, as the National Football Challenge Cup. The Pakistan Premier League now became a 12 team league, with the PFF becoming a round-robin competition. Although all these efforts were made but Pakistani football is still down and out and the team isn't performing as it should on the international level. Though football has been gaining popularity throughout and presently many amateur clubs are appearing playing quality football with the game becoming popular at school/college/university level, Pakistan's national football team still seems out of order. The tall claims of PFF have been exposed every now and then every time FIFA releases its fresh rankings. Pakistan now stands at 178th position. There are a total of 199 teams in the list of FIFA rankings and Pakistan just needs to lose a few more matches to reach their lowest-ever ranking of somewhere around 190th. According to the fresh FIFA rankings, Pakistan is going down day by day due to poor performances of the national team. Now what do you make of these stats, it's up to you. I guess we need more players like Muhammad Essa, Jaffar Khan etc to lift the team's standards up. But it won't be the players alone to lift the standard of the game in the country. What we need here is a proper infrastructure with the assistance of the game's governing body in the country. There are many organisations and people working for the development of the 'beautiful game' in Pakistan. One of such is the Jang Group team. As previously mentioned, football is at a rise in Pakistan. And in order to promote football further in Pakistan, the up and coming Geo Super TV (of the Jang Group) is launching a league -- Super Football League -- from the 20th of this month. Geo Super signed a contract last year with the game's governing body in the country -- Pakistan Football Federation -- for a period of seven years. They signed the deal with an aim to boost the progress of the game in the cricket-mad nation. And their hard work is about to be paid off now as the tournament starts with the official launching ceremony on 15th July (today), containing as many as five teams from all over the country, which would be attended by the PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat and Geo TV chief Imran Aslam among others. The opening ceremony today promises to be a colourful one and contains a fashion show launch of the shirt designs of all the teams. The tournament, like any other international event, would have a mascot, cheerleaders etc. As many as twenty matches would be played in the tournament between the local team Karachi Baazigars, Peshawar Tribe FC, Islamabad United, Lahore Lajpaals and Quetta Zorawar FC with each team playing each other twice. Like any other football team (club), teams participating in the Super Football League have their own kits, which have been especially designed by the organisers. The kits portray the cities' culture as well. Peshawar Tribe FC has a Barcelona-sort of kit which is blue, brown, red and white in colour. The blue colour represents the sky and brown the mountains which completely portrays the sceneries of the NWFP capital. Islamabad United have their kit a combination of yellow, green and dark green colours with a star embedded on it. It shows the greenness spread all over the Pakistan capital and the star shows how important Islamabad is for our country. Lahore Lajpaals have a very exquisite colour combination kit, all blue (dark and light shades), which shows that Lahore, which is in Punjab who is a land of five rivers, is the heart of Pakistan. Quetta Zorawar FC have a typical strong and dominating touch to their playing kit. Yellow and red is the colour combination of their dress. Yellow portrays the mountains of Balochistan. They have a creative logo on their kits as well which shows bull horns and footballs united with each other. The local team of the tournament, the Karachi Baazigars, have a kit similar to that of the Croatia football team. Black, red and white colours are used in the team's kit and shows a footballer, upside down balancing himself on his hands and having a football at his feet, conveying a message that no matter how tough the playing conditions are, how tough the opponents might be, the Baazigars of Karachi won't give and would try to win at any cost. Though the tournament will be played in Karachi -- at the People's Stadium near Mauripur road -- the format of the tournament still resides on home-and-away basis, with their kits differentiating them as home or away team. The tournament which ends on September 9th will be played under floodlights. There will be matches played on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The semifinals will be played on Thursday (6th September) and Friday (7th September) with the final on Sunday. The teams, who have beautiful-coloured kits and impressive logos, arrived here in Karachi few days back and are accommodated in the area of Steel Town. The response to this hard work of the Geo Super team has been enormous as around 3000 players participated in the training camps set up for selection of the teams which shows the growth and interest of the game in the country. The Super Football League will start with an aim to provide youth an opportunity and experience players the exposure to display their talents on local as well as on the international level. The main drawback which has led to the lack of interest in football in our country has been due to lack of exposure to the game as well as the players. There hasn't been any coverage of local football competitions nor of international events in which Pakistan has participated in. This time, through this tournament, it would be made sure that the game of football is given total attention as well and such a step surely would enable youngsters to come up and showcase their skills and get involve in the development of the game. All the five participating teams contain experience players who have played international football as well. The selection committee was given a hard task to cut down the probables list of each team to 20 which they have down without any act of favourism. The teams do not only contain players from respective cities their name belongs to but also from other nearby cities as well for example Karachi Baazigars have few players who belong to Hyderabad as well. Islamabad United, similarly, have some players from Rawalpindi participating for them. The organising team has decided that the next edition of the tournament would be on a different format with more teams and each city would be given a chance to enter the tournament with their own local players. This would surely create an Inter-City rivalry environment and every city would make sure they are up to the task to outclass their rivals. There aren't any age restrictions on players in the teams but minimum age of 16 has been pencilled in. Each team contains as many as 10 players aged Under-19 and ten players aged above-19. Another aspect of Super Football League, like any other international contest, would be for the teams to find an official sponsor for them. If they do so, they'll be provided more financial assistance and an air of competitiveness would be created among the teams as well as the sponsors. In any club-level football competition around the globe, player(s) signing is one of the most important attribute of a club's development and progress. And this strategy would be brought into Super Football League as well. Teams would be given the authority to buy player(s) of their linking from other teams (clubs) provided that the player(s) himself has shown his desire to join them and the approached club has given the permission to sell their player(s). It has also been touted that players from other international leagues would be brought into Super Football League. They would be signed from foreign clubs to make them play here and strengthen the local side. In the Super Football League, as many as four Nigerians and one American-born Pakistani would be participating, hopefully. The organising team hopes that their hard work would pay off and they are starting this league so that they can develop the budding talent into experienced campaigners who can do wonders for Pakistan in the coming years. The Super Football League organisers aim that they can produce such players from their tournament who can play for Pakistan and can qualify for the Asian Cup in the next four years and for the World Cup in the next seven years. Pakistan used to be the No 1 team in Asia in 1960s. But they are going down the rankings day by day. If the organising team's hopes are fulfilled and the league which is going to be started creates a boom locally and internationally, no wonder why Pakistan can not reach the footballing heights again. The
writer is a staff member at 'The News' Karachi shehnu@gmail.com Because of the weather here, it would be very hard for us to acquire lush green outfields but something needs to be done in this regard After going through a demanding rather daunting criterion yet another foreign coach will be assigned a task to assemble the shattered pieces of Pakistan cricket. Although we have not had pretty happy memories of previous foreign coaches but let's hope (what else can be done) this time around this well-tested practice turned up good for the Pakistan cricket. The three gentlemen short listed for the job are well respected, but according to news reports two names (Dav Whatmore and Geoff Lawson) are being considered. We also learnt that the cricketers have no objection over appointment of a foreign national as the team coach, however, a bunch of senior players have briefed the PCB authorities about their preference to Geoff Lawson over another frontrunner for the job Dav Whatmore. Let's hope for the better. Whoever is going to be chosen, I think the players' preference should be taken into consideration. I am personally not in favour of a heavy duty coach as in my previous articles I have been emphasising upon a strong backup pool to feed the team up in crisis situations. In the meantime the selection committee which is now being paid should pull their socks up and look for talent across the country. So far, they have done a fair job by inviting a few youngsters†in the recent training camps, but this practice should be continued, because consistency has been the problem. But the question is that will a bunch of three selectors be able to keep an eye on every domestic match?†off course†it is not humanly possible; we have to change the strategy a little. The selection committee should be bound to submit a detailed report after a certain amount of time about upcoming players in the domestic circuit, a member either personally go to the field if possible, or could take assistance from a video footage of a match. The local cricket organisations should be taken into confidence and bound to work under the selection committee to provide them with†the support in discovering talented players. To uplift the standard, the infrastructure should also be taken care of, because the status and number of cricket grounds in the country is an unhidden reality. How can we produce top quality fielders on rough surfaces, nobody would dare to slide on these violent surfaces. Unless this issue is addressed, we should forget about fielding skills like South Africa or Australia. I know because of the weather here, it would be very hard for us to acquire lush green outfields but something needs to be done in this regard. The issue of different kinds of pitches should also be taken seriously, because we have been facing problems on challenging surfaces, the latest example was the defeat at the hands of Ireland during the World Cup in West Indies. Therefore the standard should be uplifted by preparing different kinds of wickets to give the youngsters a better change to cope with the conditions abroad. As a keen cricket follower and a well wisher of Pakistan cricket, I along with millions of Pakistanis hope that the golden era of the Pakistan cricket would come back, but sincerity and consistency is the name of the game. The
writer is a freelance contributor mak374@hotmail.com Hectoring masters and timorous slaves Lawyers and managers working in the lavishly furnished conference rooms and lobbies at the ICC head office have to realise that this game is something more than just a money making opportunity What would you do if after
a few days you switch on your TV and find Ponting mauling Don't worry; the International Cricket Council (ICC) is trying everything in its force to leave you in awestruck wonder. If you do not agree, then look at what they are proposing by allowing a free hit as a penalty for bowling a no ball. When the 2007 World Cup ended leaving us all with recurring memories of insipid competitions, bizarre managerial efforts, Woolmer's death sorrow, widening the gap between the standards of international teams, then I heaved a sigh of relief over the fact that this World Cup will force the decision makers to think about the game's depreciating standards and especially dwindling bowling standards. I thought that the tournament spanning over 53 tasteless matches could be the final nail in the coffin of one-sided cricketing affairs. But now they are taking their hilarious decision making streaks to a totally new level. Going for a free hit on the following delivery as a reprimand for crossing the bowling crease with your front foot could be easily termed a 'free licence to kill' to the batsmen. The game is already becoming too much lop-sided in favour of the batsmen with all of their modern batting equipment, heavy bats, field restrictions, powerplays, smaller grounds, placid tracks, bouncers restrictions and now this free hit rule. Let me dare to call it as the well-designed 'genocide' of bowling talent especially the ones with rare pace and speed. Look at all the innovations the game has seen in last few years -- from field restrictions, bouncers limitation, and preparation of lifeless pitches to the introduction of Kookaburra ball on flat batting tracks -- you can clearly notice a pattern which is not favouring bowlers. Dennis Lillee put the whole issue very nicely by saying that the next target would be for them is to impose ban on bowling yorkers. Nobody knows who told the ICC that crowds come to the stadiums and audience in front of the TV sets to behold firm-footed, cross-batted, heavy-headed batting machos clearing boundaries thrashing bowlers all over the field. Lawyers and managers working in the lavishly furnished conference rooms and lobbies at the ICC head office have to realise that this game is something more than just a money making opportunity where people love this game because it is known as the great leveller not as a brutal murderer of persons running in all the way from the boundary to get hit for easy boundaries. Another thing which slackens the growing popularity of the game is the time duration which will add in case of this free hit rule to the already too lengthy and highly debatable game of cricket in an age where people are paying far more attention to fast, sweet and sharply interesting recreational activities than turning towards boring, time consuming time pass. Football and tennis are universal games because both attract audience from every part of the globe, and instead of turning the game into more viable and acceptable for the audiences all over the world, introducing ideas like free hit will prevent even the crazy and frenzied game support to lose its interest in the game because of its time demanding nature. Arguably, they are minimising the chances of making cricket as a global sport which definitely has the potential to climb up the ladder with more money coming in and its supporters multiplying in numbers with iota of time. This free hit rule will instigate more hitting opportunities which induce longer time periods to fetch the ball from across the boundaries which will all add up to lengthier innings duration and then who will pay for not completing allotted overs in time. Definitely captains will suffer. One more thing which has to be considered is that it can open up chances of match fixing in one way or the other which according to many experts is still spoiling the game in some form. Then what is the use of a rule which can taint the sport's image which is already under the threat of unfair means? Number of games and hectic schedules is already an issue which needs to be addressed as soon as possible because it is shortening the lives of international cricketers. Players from every nation are showing their concerns about growing and fatiguing itinerary. Australia will take part in 20 Tests in 2008 and somewhere as many will be played by other nations as well which is not helping players to sustain their effectiveness and efficiency in every game. And the people who are suffering mostly are the bowlers. Mostly, fast bowlers are prone to get injured not because of their fitness but because of the tiring schedules. But instead of going for any kind of relief for the players and especially the bowlers, they are proposing far more painful playing terms for them. If they are trying to achieve more discipline from the bowlers in terms of extras by introducing the rule of free hit, then kindly apply the same on the batsmen when they run on the pitch, use squash balls in their gloves to dominate, refuse to leave the pitch in spite of knowing that they have edged the delivery and exploit the mistake of umpires. Human errors can never be brought to the zero level in the game because to err is human, otherwise you can wait for scientists to provide you robots who may play cricket for you. Kindly seek to improve the game in other areas rather than making batsmen hectoring masters and bowlers their timorous slaves. Roger Federer, the conqueror of tennis After equalling Bjorn Borg, the unstoppable Swiss has set his eyes on Sampras's record It was a great moment in
the history of international tennis for which the Wimbledon While Federer's victory was widely expected, it would be by a so narrow margin and witness a see-saw situation during the final game was least expected. With this close-run final victory, Federer has set his eyes on the figure of 14 of Pete Sampras's all-time record with 11 Grand Slams to his credit now. While Federer is most likely to achieve this feat, it is, however, constantly endangered by the masterly professionalism of his immediate, and perhaps the only rival, Rafael Nadal. If Russian Marat Safin won the Australian Open by defeating Roger Federer in 2005, he could not keep up his winning status. It was his sole Grand Slam title. Starting with the Australian Open in January, a typical ATP/WTA calendar year comprises four Grand Slam tournaments with the French Open in May, Wimbledon in July and US Open in September. All the four Grand Slams basically differ in format as the Australian Open and the US Open are played on hard courts of two different types, considered faster in ball speed and lower in bounce, while the clay court of the French Open is slower in speed and higher in ball bounce, all contrary to the grass courts of Wimbledon characterised by fastest in ball speed and unpredictable in bounce. A tennis player who wins all four Grand Slam titles in the same year is declared to have won the Grand Slam or a Calendar Year Grand Slam, a title different from the Career Grand Slam that is achieved by winning all the four throughout his career, neither consecutively nor during the same calendar year. Swiss tennis professional Roger Federer is believed to be among the greatest tennis players in the history of the game with his 11 Grand Slam titles in 33 appearances, three Tennis Masters Cup titles, and 13 ATP Masters Series titles. Federer became the first tennis player in 2004 since Mats Wilander in 1988 to win three of four Grand Slam singles tournaments in the same year: the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. In 2006, he became the first and only male player to repeat this feat and also the first man in the Open Era to win at least 10 singles tournaments in three consecutive years (2004 to 2006). He is also the only player to have won both the Wimbledon and US Open singles titles in three consecutive years (2004-2006) – his Australian Open winning streak was broken by Russian professional Marat Safin and his dream of winning the French Open was always disturbed by Nadal Rafael. In 2007, when Federer won his third Australian Open title, he became the only male player to have won three separate Grand Slam tournaments at least three times. By maintaining his No. 1 ranking in the world since February 2, 2004, he holds the all-time record for most consecutive weeks as the top-ranked male player. On April 2, 2007, he was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for a record third consecutive time. Former World No 1 Bjorn Borg, who was present among the audience to see Federer equal his record, is regarded by many as the greatest player in the sport's history. Borg, during his nine-year career, is the only player to have won both Wimbledon and the French Open in three consecutive years. With his 41 percent victory figure in the Grand Slam singles tournaments the Swede entered (11 of 27), and 89.8 percent of the Grand Slam singles matches he played, Borg's six French Open singles titles are an all-time record. The 15-year long tennis career of former world No. 1 Pete Sampras comprises 14 Grand Slam titles in 52 appearances including Wimbledon seven times, a record shared with William Renshaw. His five US Open victories make him a record sharer with Jimmy Connors. Sampras finished as No. 1 on the ATP rankings for six consecutive years, a record for the open era and tying him for third all-time. If Roger Federer is the present champion, and Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras past champions, top Spanish professional 21-year old Rafael Nadal is the future champion. Nicknamed as Rafa, he has emerged as the top rival and almost the sole defeater of Roger Federer, capturing the No. 2 in the world tennis ranking, making him more prominent due to his unbeatable performance at the French Open since 2005 by defeating the No 1 Roger Federer three times consecutively, besides remaining unconquerable in all the 21 matches during the three years. This has made him the holder of lthe ongest winning streak among male players on a single surface in the open era. From April 2005 to May 2007, he won a record 81 consecutive clay court matches. In Wimbledon, Nadal reached his second final in a row, having previously been beaten by Federer in 2006. Immediately after capturing his fifth straight Wimbledon title and his 11th Grand Slam crown, Roger Federer joked that he was happy to win while he can "before Rafa takes them all". He was later asked if those were the words of a humble champion or of a man sensing a younger contender in Rafael Nadal breathing down his neck. "What I meant was that he came so close that I think he deserves a title here and, you know, he's not getting any worse," said Federer, who at 25i s four years Nadal's senior. Indeed, Nadal is getting better at a phenomenal pace.
Javed Miandad could not produce the desired results after developing differences with some of our star performers of that era and the PCB had to take the decision of sacking Miandad as coach The central contract formula which has been offered by the PCB has been rejected by senior players of the Pakistan cricket team as they are not feeling comfortable with what the Board is offering to them as we all know that the players are the main source of income for any Board as they attract not only spectators in large numbers as well as sponsors who invest heavily for the promotion of the game. So the hierarchy of the PCB should realise this very fact and do not create further bitterness and misunderstandings on this issue and sort out this problem amicably by paying due attention to the grievances of the players as this is very badly needed. We've seen in recent weeks that one after the other PCB is taking those steps which've not been appreciated by the players including their refusal of taking a strong notice of the Jamaican police's handling of late Bob Woolmer's murder case and the shoddy manner in which they were treated causing them enormous mental stress which was unjust keeping in view the outcome of the investigations, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif's doping case, and the latest one is the vice-captaincy issue. They first gave a very clear indication that Shahid Afridi will get the honour and we saw a very active Afridi during the Abu Dhabi event continuously busy in supporting the new captain on and off the field, but in a surprise have picked young Salman Butt only to worsen the situation further. In this scenario we saw an ugly and unpleasant incident occurring when Afridi confronted manager-cum-coach Talat Ali and the two got involved in a heated argument. A timely intervention by some senior players ended this whole affair otherwise we could have experienced another shameful scene where one could not have defended any one. So it is very badly needed on the part of PCB to negotiate with the players on pending issues and before making any cricket-related decision make it sure that the Board's top management first consults players and then take the decision including the most important one which is the appointment of a new coach. If the players are not very happy with the appointment of Dav Whatmore it is very unfortunate as the former Bangladesh coach is the most suitable person for this demanding job. But those who've kept a close eye on Pakistan cricket during the last years can say without any shadow of doubt that if PCB acted against the suggestions of the players then forget about regaining the lost glory as even keeping the existing one will be difficult as we all know that in this part of the world and especially in our society even people like Javed Miandad could not produce the desired results after developing differences with some of our star performers of that era and the PCB had to take the decision of sacking Miandad as coach. So keeping all these facts in their mind it would be better that our Board does not take any hasty decision and listens to the suggestions/grievances of the senior players seriously and should give due respect to them. As far as the selection of Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq for the Twenty20 World Cup is concerned which is going to be held in September in South Africa this is not the way to treat these outstanding players who have served Pakistan cricket with distinction for a decade as PCB is hinting at ignoring the experienced duo from the squad which will represent the country in the mega event. If the PCB is of the view that they are not required for this assignment, fine, they can go ahead but what is causing the damage and great unrest among cricket lovers across the country is that the top officials of the PCB are openly and very clearly stating that they are introducing this system for having a comparatively young bunch of players for the first edition of the Twenty20 tournament. The duo of Yousuf and Razzaq are not very happy with this development and this move will not be welcomed by their companions in the team as well. What the PCB is gaining from this type of situation and also their officialsí habit of issuing statements regarding the dropping of the duo from the squad in the national press on a regular basis is a million-dollar question. The PCB should have contacted the players first, taken them into confidence and then initiated this, but the PCB is very rudely discouraging the duo and this high-handedness will widen the gulf between the players and the Board and can lead up to a nasty situation. The players and Board should have taken lessons from our neighboring country where the trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly has voluntarily withdrawn their names from the list of those players who will be considered for the Twenty20 World Cup. By doing this they have saved their pride, standing and reputation in international cricket and avoided the ignominy of being dropped by the selectors and this move was fully supported and backed by the Indian Board. So the PCB should work as an institution and not in a wayward manner. They are running the affairs of Pakistan cricket as we saw most recently a statement of chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed in which he hinted that Inzamam will be one of the invitees for the third phase of the national training camp which will be organised in Karachi later this month. But there are strong indications that it may not be possible as PCB Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf has decided to settle all personal scores with Inzamam by not giving him a chance to represent the country which he served with extreme brilliance and full devotion. He is strongly opposing the idea of having Inzamam back in the Pakistan line-up. This is very unfortunate that a national hero is facing the wrath of an individual who is after him in every way. But it is not the right time for these sorts of decisions and Dr. Nasim Ashraf should show some maturity, flexibility and broadmindedness and stop putting hurdles in Inzamam's return to international arena as he is our national hero, pride of the nation. During the last several years the PCB has been headed by so many individuals that people do not even remember their names, but the likes of Imran Khan, Miandad, Hanif Mohammad, Fazal Mahmood and many other cricketers are still fresh in their memories. One can never ignore the triumph of the 1992 World Cup and the performances of Inzamam, Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and their team-mates. Those are the unforgettable moments of Pakistan's cricket history. The
writer is a freelance contributor akram.chohan@thenews.com.pk
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greater significance for the time-being. The future of former skipper
Inzamam-ul-Haq and the much-awaited announcement regarding the appointment of
new national coach have become the two most-discussed topics among cricket
fraternity in recent weeks.
and they are one of the minnows of the game. Football in Pakistan has
remained underdeveloped for decades due to mismanagement, lack of support and
corruption.
bowling machines, yes the bowling machines not bowlers, all around the park
in his usual merciless style? I bet you will start rubbing your eyes
flabbergasted at what you are witnessing on your screens.
courts waited for 27 years when Swiss tennis master Roger Federer equalled
all time great Swedish player Bjorn Borg's record of winning the Wimbledon
grand slam five times consecutively from 1976 to 1980.