Loud Thinking

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How the Asia Cup was lost?

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Published by the daily “Pakistan Observer” Tuesday, April 22, 2014

– THERE is no shame in going down fighting. As they say, if fate has ordained defeat for you, give it a good fight. However, any team is as good as its leader. And there can’t be a better saying to describe the importance of a leader, than the one associated with Alexander the great, quoted as below:

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

What happened in the Asia Cup final at Dhaka on Saturday, 8 March, 2014 is a classic example of mental bankruptcy of the Pakistani cricket teams think tank, or the tour management committee, consisting of Messrs Zaheer Abbas, Zakir Khan, Moin Khan and Misbah ul Haq.

At the out set, two basic and important decisions (team selection and the decision to bat first) were wrong, where we made sure that the match was lost, even before a ball was bowled.

Always the basics of team selection stipulates that only fit players are selected. The whole world knew that Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Sharjeel Khan and Shahid Afridi were not 100% fit. If at all, we had to take chance with an unfit player, only Shahid Afridi was the person, where the gamble was worth taking. Otherwise, Suhaib Maqsood and other two fit players viz., Bilawal Bhatti and Anwer Ali should have played, for the unfit Umar Gul and Junaid Khan.

Now, coming to the batting first decision, again the whole world knew that we earlier won very close matches against India and Bangladesh, by chasing the target. May be the long list of unfit players included in the team, was the reason for the surprise decision of batting first, so that the injuries does not further aggravates, in fielding first.

After the disastrous top batting order collapse (exclusive responsibility of which falls on Zaheer Abbas, the chief batting consultant), Misbah and Fawad Alam, almost consecutively played four maiden overs, which practically reduced our innings to 46 overs. Such type of defensive approach is never adopted in an ODI match, under any circumstances; because of its limited overs nature. Yes, Test matches are saved under such type of circumstances, but in an ODI match, game is only played for victory; and victory can not be achieved by playing record number of dot balls, even if there is a collapse. How can any team forget the adage that offence is the best defence.

Furthermore, unfit Shahid Afridi was not played for his bowling prowess. Obviously, he was included, keeping in consideration his tremendous batting form. As such, at least for the last five overs Fawad Alam should have been called back, as retired hurt, to allow Afridi to have a go. Afridi was our nuclear weapon and the enemy was allowed to conquer us with, worlds most potent weapon in our arsenal, unused. We could not have given a bigger gift to our enemy, that too, in the most important final match.

In the bowling department, we perhaps wrongly believed that only one fit bowler i.e., Saeed Ajmal will single handedly take ten wickets in his ten overs. After all, the Sri Lankans were not in the finals for nothing.

The most pathetic and abysmal performances were given in the fielding and wicket keeping departments. Our teams fielding just gave a look of a third rate club team, if compared with the fielding performance of the Sri Lankan team.

As such, not only Mr. Shoaib Muhammad, but all those PCB stalwarts, who selected and appointed him as a fielding coach, must be debarred from handling any independent and important assignments in future. Pakistani team gave a much better performance in the fielding department, during the last UAE series matches. This proves that our fielding coach practically contributed in the down fall of the teams fielding levels. Hence, he also deserves to be banned from any future PCB assignment.

Misbah ul Haq, has again proved that he is not at all capable to lead Pakistani team to the victory podium of the 2015 ODI World Cup. He is being retained as captain, at our own peril. If Sachin Tendulkar, Younis Khan, Kumar Sangakara and so many other legends can play under their juniors, why can’t Misbah ul Haq be asked to play under a junior player?

Once bitten twice shy..!

We may have many differences of opinion, about the way late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto ruled Pakistan. But, there are no two opinions about his financial integrity and loyalty with the country. It is a known fact that the USA’s government at that time, used every bait and pressure tactics, to force ZAB to cancel Pakistan’s agreement of Nuclear Reprocessing Plant with France. A time came, when ZAB was forced to utter the following historical words, to the then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger:

“If you spit and ask me to clean it, I will clean it. However, if you spit and ask me to LICK it? I will not”

The moral of the story is that the cricket lovers of Pakistan, can not imagine in their wildest dreams that the honourable members of the top PCB management, also headed by an honourable person Mr. Najam Sethi, will commit the same mistake again, of putting their hands in the same hole, from where they have been already bitten once.

There are reports that Mr. Moin Khan, is being again taken back into the folds of the PCB, for either the role of the chief selector or as a cricket manager.

We are at a loss to understand, why PCB wants to bring back the same person, who miserably failed, during the last many months in not just one capacity, but also in various positions as a chief selector, manager and the head coach, as well.

During these stints of Moin Khan, Pakistan lost an ODI and a Test match against the lowest ranked team Zimbabwe. Then, we lost a Test match in UAE against the South Africans, which was very winnable. Finally, our team’s dismal performance in Asia cup and the T20 World Cup tournaments, is so fresh in the minds that it needs no repetition. However, the lowest score world record (13/4 in 6 power play overs of a T20 match), our team created under the management leadership of Moin Khan, playing against the West Indian cricket team in Dhaka, will always haunt the Pakistanis and can not easily be erased from our shell shocked minds, for a long time.

As a manager, Moin Khan is also singularly responsible, for the irreparable loss to the Pakistani team, due to the side-lining of pacer Muhammad Irfan, because of his injuries, which were caused from the overplaying of this precious bowling asset.

If, the PCB is hell bent to take back Moin Khan after all these shameful and abysmal performances of our team, where he was part and parcel of all the botched selection of some of the known nincompoop players, as well as, the non selection of Anwer Ali; and also including Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal, in the playing eleven, then why not call back Zaheer Abbas and Muhammad Shaoib, as well?

Here, the air must be cleared about the flimsy argument that Moin could not produce results, as the time was too short for him to prove his skills. No Sir, his incompetence has a very long story of our team’s failures, dating back since Mr. Najam Sethi took over. And also, if he was unable to give the desired results in this stint, then at least, the performance graph of our team, should not have fallen to a third class club level team. Who else except Moin Khan is responsible for this down slide?

Under the circumstances, if the PCB top notches don’t like the faces of some of the men of professional excellence, repute and integrity like M/S Javed Miandad, Wasim Bari, Muhammad Yousaf, Abdul Qadir and Amir Suhail; then at least they should consider Mohsin Hassan Khan, for the position of chief selector, coach or the cricket manager, who is equally renowned, famous, honest and proven successful person.

Mohsin Hassan Khan, is the man who delivered AMAZING results as a chief selector and even more AMAZING results as a coach, in much much lesser time than Moin Khan. Moreover, he is also the man, with most clean reputation. He has never ever being named in any match fixing scandal of Pakistan, the ICL (Indian Cricket League) or the IPL.

I don’t know why, but on this occasion the following couplet of the famous poet Mirza Ghalib, comes to my mind:

KA’BA KIS MONH SAY JAO GAY GHALIB ( How will you Ghalib Ka’ba face, )

SHARAM TUM KO MAGAR NAHI AATI (Ashamed of self you do not seem.)

A blue print for the PCB’s revamping..!

Pakistani cricketers always bear the burden of representing the image and the hopes of millions of fans. Their on and off the field behaviours, have a social and political significance, that goes well beyond the field and enters into the homes of all the citizens and the most powerful institutions. The victory in a world cup ODI or T20 contest, can move nearly all sections of the Pakistani nation, in an incomparable manner.

Thus, for the ordinary Pakistani cricket fan, PCB is not just an organisation; rather, it is looked upon like the institution of the Pakistani armed forces, where they can’t imagine, any compromise shall be made, on the image and reputation of the country; and where rather than lowering the national flag and pride, our sons sacrifice their lives.

Hence, the PCB and not the players…. needs a turn around..!

We should not be so naive to expect production of a Mercedes car from the manufacturing plant of a motorcycle. Moreover, as Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” As such, we must not expect miracles by sending players to army institutions, for some rigorous training. If that was the case, why armed forces sports teams world over and in Pakistan, are NOT the number one teams, in all the sports they participate?

Nowadays, like the management, sports is a science and the role of the amateur handlers is over. Only QUALIFIED professionals can train sportsmen, for producing world beaters.

Until and unless, PCB itself is turned upside down, our cricketing standards will keep on sliding into the abyss. The culture of taking work from the qualified professionals can NOT be handed over to the existing SENIOR staff of the PCB, who can’t even develop a multi-media presentation. Everyone knows how many managers and above in the PCB, can truly handle the computers, beyond the emails reading?

It is suggested that PCB must be totally revamped (with a vision statement of BETTER THAN THE BEST) from the top to the bottom, to make it function like a top class world level organisation, with zero tolerance for old amateur and bureaucratic style of working, which breeds intellectual, moral and financial corruption, nepotism and favouritism, in each and every sphere of its operations. Right now, PCB has become the last and final resting place of the great nincompoops of Pakistan.

However, the greatest harm the PCB is doing to the nation is that it is being run on a system, which is doing double damage; in the shape of production of mediocre run of the mill players; and at the same time, talented players are facing hurdles, in coming into the lime light.

If the PCB wants to survive in the fast changing world of competition, it must change its old habits and rebuild itself inside out. PCB must know that a professional organisation is “of and for professional people”

For the inside out rebuilding, the PCB must come out in a crystal clear manner that “how it want to be thought of” and then consider every thing that the PCB “say and do.”

Every PCB department must also be converted into a “cost center” responsible for its revenues and expenses.

Side by side, the PCB must also shun its CULTURE of politics and self serving policies. This is absolutely necessary, because culture of an organisation is the environment under which all it’s employes perform their duties. What is needed by the PCB is to create a culture of team work, which stimulates the employees for working with absolute honesty and recognises and rewards employee efforts and permeates the entire organisation.

While chaos, politics and leg pulling is rampant in the rank and file employees of the PCB, how it can be expected to produce players, who will not be equally, if not more, afflicted by these malaise? As they say in the IT jargon, garbage in garbage out, or output can not be more than the input.

However, the top notches of the government and the PCB, must know very clearly that the PCB can not be turned out into a first class world level organisation, by just transfers, postings, change of designations, hiring or firing of employees. In fact, such steps breeds even more discontent and ill will, among the employees and the general masses. To achieve the desired results, PCB needs a total and complete overhaul, disregarding any political or other pressures for serving any vested interest(s), examples of which (running the organisation on an absolutely 100% merit basis) can be seen in many Pakistani organisations like LUMS, SKMCH & RC, IBA and the GIK etc.

Till such time, the PCB itself is turned into a center of excellence, it can’t produce a bunch of players, who can be the world beaters, on a consistent level.

In any team game, a team do not need champions like Don Bradman or David Beckham to be the world beaters. But, greats like Don Bradman and David Beckham in any team, can not excel, without the cooperation of other team members.

For our players to consistently excel at the international arena, PCB coaches need to repeatedly hammer into the minds of the players, the following famous quote of Aristotle.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”

Now world over competitive sports is not considered just a past time hobby or entertainment and fitness activity. Rather, sports activities are considered and handled as a science. As such, the PCB must shun business as usual, decades old approach. Moreover, the PCB think tank must “PLAN FOR SUCCESS” with clear and measurable objectives.

The PCB must also not forget that the world’s best and most expensive coaches are NOT the recipe for the success. If this notion was true, rich countries like the USA and the Saudi Arabia, would have been the world champions, in many sports like football etc.

The recipe for success mostly lies in the smooth working of a well defined system, lead for which must come from none other than the PCB chairman.

Gone are the old decadent ways of assembling players for a camp, just before the tour to show their fitness and playing abilities. It must be the specified duty of the think tank and the selectors to devise a plan to monitor 24/7 the health, eating habits, general behaviour and performance of the CONTRACTED players, in a scientific manner. These contracted players must not be allowed to have a free reign, even during the off days, as they are almost like paid employees of the PCB.

Moreover, the FINE TUNING and grooming of the marked pool of all the talented and upcoming players (non-contracted) should be the SPECIFIC responsibility of the NCA staff, who must constantly produce, highest calibre five players, for each position of the game, both for the men and the ladies teams.

As such, rather than hiring a foreign coach for the national team, we need to hire an experienced and QUALIFIED foreign expert, who has the experience of running the sports academy on professional lines, may be from Australia. This expert should be assigned the task to turn the academy into a center of excellence.

It will not be out of place to conclude, by mentioning the quotes of the two famous sports coaches, for the motivation of our players, who are under tremendous pressure to perform on a consistent level.

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.”

– Vince Lombardi

“When you’re playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you’ll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.”

– Pat Riley

Pakistan cricket team always had the potential and talent to win, any and all of the past cricket ODI world cup tournaments. As such, there should be no doubt, about its chances of winning the next cricket ODI World Cup scheduled to commence from February 2015, to be played in Australia and New Zealand.

In this regard, PCB must prepare a plan named ”Vision 2015″. This plan should be a fool proof strategy with specific focus on winning the 2015 ODI World Cup tournament, considering all risk factors, like sudden unavailability of any player due to various reasons, at least five umpiring decisions going against us (two in batting & three in bowling innings), dropped catches/missed run outs and failure of main bowlers and batsmen etc.

We should remember that plans never fail, we fail to plan. Moreover, the PCB “Vision 2015” must state that “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.”

The broad outlines of the “Vision 2015″ are defined as below.

1. A pool of 50 talented, but mostly youthful players, having world class potential (like Sami Aslam, Awais Zia, Anwer Ali and Usman Shinwari {who has already attained 150 KMPH bowling speed} should be immediately called at the NCA, to be throughly trained in all the aspects of the game, for later stage short listing of 30 and final selection of 15 players, to represent Pakistan in the World Cup 2015.

2. 4-5 youngsters from the pool of 50 players should be selected for the future 7-10 years captain’s role. This set of future probable captains should be throughly trained and groomed for leadership role by the professional leadership trainers, from the civil and military field.

3. Before deciding the future captain and vice captain of the national teams, these short listed players should be assessed by a board of civil and military psychologists, for providing their opinion about the potential leadership abilities of these players. This will help the PCB, in easily deciding to hand over the reins of the team to a player, as a future captain and vice captain, for a longer period.

4. As is practised in football and few other games, PCB should revolutionise the role of the head coach or cricket manager, by shifting to him almost all the responsibilities of the captain including even the selection of the playing eleven and decision of the batting order etc. Captains role should be just limited to leading the players during the fielding, that too under active supervision of the head coach or the cricket manager. This change will also eliminate the rampant politics and blackmailing of player power, which is highly visible in our cricket team players. Plus it will also minimise the chances of spot or match fixing from our team.

5. A visionary cricketer (who must have the reputation of an unsaleable commodity) of an ultra high calibre, should be appointed the coach or cricket manager of the Pakistan cricket team. This time the head coach or the other support staff must NOT be selected on the likes and dislikes of the coaching staff selection committee members, as was done in February 2014, when almost 100% recommendations of the committee proved wrong and Zaheer Abbas, Moin Khan and Shoaib Muhammad were recently sacked ignominiously by the PCB. Here, the argument of the committee members that these coaches could not perform in a short period of two months, does not hold water, because what happened with the wrong selection on likes and favouritism was, that, for the first time in the history of the T20 World Cup, our team failed to reach the semi finals stage. If these coaches were handicapped by the short time, at least our teams performance must NOT have gone down. There is no justification for the surrender, to the extent that our team created a shameful world record of scoring 13 runs for 4 wickets, in 6 power play overs when ONLY 2 fielders are allowed outside the circle.

6. We should also set a new trend and hire a full or part time world class mentor, for which I recommend Sir Alexander Chapman “Alex” Ferguson, CBE, who is a former Scottish football manager and player who managed Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. His time at the club has led to Ferguson being regarded as one of the most successful, admired and respected managers in the history of the game. PCB must ensure that in the hiring of Sir Alex Ferguson, money should not be a barrier, notwithstanding any amount demanded by him. PCB should consider this expense as an investment in 24K gold. The mentor should be specifically responsible for making our players mentally the strongest in the world, along with his other defined duties.

7. All cricket playing centers of PCB in Pakistan, should remodel the boundary distances to 90 meters (matching the size of huge Australian grounds to used for the World Cup 2015) and batsmen should practise taking 5 runs, in case, ball is fielded before it reaches the rope.

8. Any player who is not of age and fitness to serve the country for next 5 years, should be discarded now, for ODI and T20 games.

9. A world class fielding coach of the calibre of Jonty Rhodes, should be appointed for the team. If we have to be world champions there should be no compromise on the quality of the coaches due to any monetary constraints. Remember, quality never comes cheap and second or third class coaches can never produce world beaters.

10. We must find more than five bowlers from the tribal belt or any rugged area of the country, who should be able to bowl at 100 MPH speed. To attract the country talent of fast bowling, a handsome prize should be annouced, as an incentive for this ultra high speed bowling.

11. Cricket academy at PCB HQ Lahore, must be headed by a world renowned batsman.

12. PCB should take on the challenge of round the year cricket (in summers, games starting at 5 PM) playing arrangements of local and foreign teams in Pakistan. And in summer 2014, PCB should arrange late start ODI/T20 matches in Pakistan. Efforts should be renewed to invite teams of Afghanistan, Ireland or Netherlands for providing experience to our youngsters.

13. All PCB grounds in the country (even in smaller cities/towns), should be provided with lights for night games.

14. In order to prepare fast and bouncy tracks on all PCB grounds, suitable soil and if possible prefabricated pitches may be imported from abroad. We should try use these pre-fabricated pitches during our home series in the UAE, as well as for the proposed PSL matches in the UAE.

An urgent appeal to the PM to stop the PCB hush up..!

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

AoA.

Dear Sir,

This appeal is not only addressed to you as a Prime Minister of the country, but as an ardent lover of the glorious game of cricket as well, which you have personally played, throughout your life.

And, I will not be joking if I say that; had you been in our team as an opening batsmen, we would not have been the world record holder of T20 game, by scoring lowest ever, 13 runs, in the 1st six overs of the power play.

The Chairman PCB is an accomplished media expert and is at his best in public relations matters.

Like any honourable person, the chairman PCB, instead of squarely taking over the responsibilities of the Dhaka cricket disaster, where Pakistani cricket team meekly surrendered the last, but the most vital game against the West Indian team, that too in a highly shameful manner, has now announced an internal PCB inquiry.

It is a known fact that internal inquires are mostly a facade, to cover up the glaring deficiencies of the senior people and to put the blame on certain scape goats. Moreover, no internal inquiry; either, had the mandate or, possesses the courage, to fix the responsibility of the disaster, on the top man of the organisation.

Under the circumstances, when the entire nation wants to know the raw facts about the debacle of Dhaka, the cricket mad people of Pakistan, expects and earnestly appeals to you Sir, who always has his fingers on the pulse of the nation; and knows what the people wants, to immediately appoint an independent inquiry commission, headed by an honourable person like former Chief Justice Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry or Mr. Justice Rana Bhagwan Das or any sitting Supreme Court Judge to find out (in a short time bound inquiry) the causes of this cricket disaster, clearly fix the responsibilities of the failures on the concerned persons, suggest penalties/punishments and also the remedial measures, for the future betterment of the game and the improved working of the PCB, (which currently is a sinking ship), as a world class professional organisation of Pakistan.

The nation hopes that you being a cricket loving Prime Minister, will not be contented with; and also not fall into the trap of the Public Relations exercise of the chairman PCB, who has announced a cosmetic and meaningless internal PCB inquiry, with the obvious aim to hide the failures of the top PCB bosses.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE

Corruption in Cricket…Courtesy the ICC..!

Sorry to say that the Dhoni’s bubble has burst. Now, it won’t make any difference whether, he resigns or not from the posts of VP India Cements, as captain of CSK or even captain India.

The public at large knows the secrets of his success as well as the secrets of wins of CSK and the Indian ODI World Cup 2011 victory; and son on and so forth….! N Srinivasan, MS Dhoni & his favourite crony players, the BCCI & the ICC, are all responsible for soiling the clean image of the glorious game of cricket.

Why ICC is silent for months, after announcing corruption inquiry against the NewZealand players? What is called a connivance???

These culprits deserves to be treated in the same way Salman Buttt and his cronies were given the punishment.

Conflict of interest…. The Chain of Corruption

Dual roles in BCCI/IPL and India Cements

N Srinivasan – BCCI president; managing director and vice-president, India Cements

Kasi Viswanathan – part of BCCI sub-committees; retired as cost department head, India Cements

Prasanna Kannan – IPL chief financial officer; former India Cements employee

PB Srinivasan – IPL financial consultant; internal auditor, India Cements

L Sivaramakrishnan – Nominated by BCCI to ICC Cricket Committee; India Cements employee

MA Satish – Indian team’s logistics manager; India Cements employee

PS Raman – legal consultant, BCCI and TNCA; legal consultant, India Cements

S Sharath – match official in domestic cricket, said to be scouting talent for Chennai Super Kings recently; India Cements employee

T Karunamurthy, M Gopal – former first-class players and now BCCI match officials; India Cements employees

George John – Works in BCCI president’s office;India Cements employee

ICC…keep looking the other way, in the corruption, betting, match fixing and spot fixing scandals in the IPL..!

Now the Indian Supreme Court and ICC’s anti corruption unit must dig deep to check whether or not the ECB and CA chiefs had any business links with N Srinivasan, MD and Owner of India cements ?

Perjury by MS Dhoni (VP India Cements) captain of Indian cricket and the CSK teams…!

A news item of NDTV…

IPL scandal: Mahendra Singh Dhoni lied to inquiry panel, petitioner tells Supreme Court

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s name came up in the Supreme Court on Thursday during a hearing on the Indian Premier League betting and spot-fixing scandal.

Counsel for the petitioner (Aditya Verma of Cricket Association of Bihar), Harish Salve, alleged that Dhoni is “guilty of corrupt conduct.” He accused the India skipper of making a false statement before an inquiry committee appointed by the Supreme Court. The BCCI’s lawyers did not respond in court. They also refused NDTV’s request for a comment. (Also read: Supreme wants Gavaskar to be BCCI president)

Salve argued that Dhoni had told the Justice Mukul Mudgal committee that BCCI president N Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, was a “mere enthusiast” when in fact, he was an official of the Chennai Super Kings IPL team. (Read: Gavaskar ready for any challenge)

Dhoni has led the Chennai Super Kings or CSK in all six seasons of the IPL; the team is owned by Mr Srinivasan’s company, India Cements. Meiyappan has been accused of betting and sharing team information and was indicted by the Justice Mudgal committee in its report submitted to the Supreme Court on February 10. (Suggested read: People have lost faith in IPL, says Lalit Modi)

Dhoni is also employed by India Cements as a vice-president. Srinivasan is the Managing Director of India Cements, which also owns CSK. Dhoni thus faces charges of “conflict of interest.” (Srinivasan will step aside, BCCI’s offer to Supreme Court)

The Supreme Court proposed on Thursday that CSK and Rajasthan Royals should not play the seventh season of the IPL beginning in the United Arab Emirates on April 16, since there is an investigation on. It has also suggested that no employee of India Cements must be on the board of the BCCI. Sundar Raman, the man who runs the IPL, is also employed by India Cements.

In Dhaka on Thursday, Dhoni skipped a pre-match press conference ahead of India’s ICC World Twenty20 match with Bangladesh on Friday. The BCCI also cancelled an IPL launch press conference in Abu Dhabi. (Related: ‘Ganguly best person to become BCCI president’)

How the Kangaroos were conquered by the Eagles..!

First of all, the whole nation thanks the Pakistani cricket team, for giving immeasurable joy and happiness to the entire nation, on the very auspicious occasion of the Pakistan Day, falling on the 23rd March.

The positive attitude and the aggressive mind set of our cricket team, was visible from the very word go. Our players displayed the INTENSITY of a wounded tiger, which was clearly missing against the Indians, thus Pakistani team was looking a totally different unit, from the Friday’s match.

Let us now dwell, on where we improved over the 1st match and where still we could have done a better job.

1. The score we got in 20 overs vs India, was achieved in 14 overs vs Australia. Our run rate (RR) on completion of 10 overs (83 runs) was reasonably good at 8.30 runs /over. In the next 10 overs, we scored another 108 runs, at a RR of 10.8 runs/over. We scored 191/5, at a healthy RR/ over of 9.55.

2. Pakistan played only 34 DOT balls (22 or 3.4 overs in 1st 10 overs and ONLY 12 or 2 overs in 2nd portion of 10 overs). Remember, we played 51 DOT balls against India.

3. Pakistan ONLY gave 5 no ball runs, that too on a single no ball, bowled in the whole Australian innings. Whereas, Australian bowlers also bowled 1 no ball, but gave 9 runs on wide account, by bowling 3 wide balls. This also reflects remarkable bowling discipline displayed by the Pakistani bowlers, as compared with the Australian bowlers.

4. Here, we must give full marks to the captaincy of Mr. M. Hafeez, for keeping his cool and focusing on the victory, in this high voltage match, when Australia blasted off to 102/2 in just 8 overs, during which the last 5 over, went for 82 runs. The way Hafeez marshalled his bowlers and fielders, immediately paid dividends in the next 10 overs, which resulted in 8 wickets for 58 runs.

5. We must salute the captaincy of Muhammad Hafeez, who in my opinion deserves 99 marks out of 100, for his crisis management abilities.

Just let me repeat, that we got to overcome our following short comings, if the remaining 3 matches journey to the final match, has to be without any hiccups.

a). Again our score in the 6 power play overs, was just 34 runs, when ONLY TWO fielders are allowed out side the 30 meters circle. We may ask Shahid Afridi to open the innings, with license to play freely, as per his temperament. However, we must aim for a score of 60-80 runs in the power play period. Not forgetting that Australia scored 82 runs against us last night, in 30 balls during overs numbers 4 to 8, even when they had lost both of their openers, in the first six balls; and their score was just 8/2, in the 1st over. Actually, we don’t have to look back whatever happens. Just focus on our aim of 60-80 runs in the power play overs.

b). Again we played a very high number of 22 dot balls in the 1st 10 overs. As we did in the 2nd half of the innings, where we played 12 dot balls, our aim should be (as we are aiming to be the world T20 champions) that not more than 8-10 dot balls are played in the 1st half, where there is a luxury of 6 overs of power play, as well. Our players ought to shun any negativity coming into the mind, due to the falling of early wickets, as was displayed by the Australian number 3 and 4 batsmen.

c). Mr. Hafeez, must realise that there is no room for complacency, because our position in the group is extremely precarious; as Australia, can easily bounce back, with better run rate, to oust us, from the race of the semi finals.

d). The joke must now end, of playing Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal. Believe me, whatever, they are contributing to the team, Younis Khan, Fawad Alam and Misbah ul Haq can do much better. These players (Shoaib and Kamran) are not the T20 material (obviously nothing personal against them or any other player, management committee members or any PCB person). And now, the next matches against the West Indies and Bangladesh, are going to be very crucial for us, because if we have to remain in the contention for the semi finals, we have to win these games with not a big margin, but with a HUGE margin.

e). As our team showed during the match against Australia, our players must remember that OFFENCE IS THE BEST DEFENCE. All our game scheming and strategy planning, must be based on just one premise, not just to win, but to win with a HUGE margin.

Wishing and praying for all the best for our cricket team in the days ahead.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE

PCB and Pakistan..!

Again, we lost to India tonight, a match which was very winnable. The only problem with our cricket is that it is being led by nincompoops, who may be very good in their own spheres of professional and sporting activities, but alas, they know nothing about the leadership requirements of cricket affairs. On this account, there is no need to single out the leadership incompetence of the chairman PCB or his think tank wizards. It is sufficient to explain the whole problem, with a very relevant definition of a leader, as below:

“A good manager ensures that ladder is being climbed efficiently by his men. However, a good leader is responsible for the ladder to be leaning, against the right wall”.

Despite the fact that all the requirements of winning the T20 World Cup were informed well in time today, as well as, earlier in an analysis titled “How the Asia Cup was lost” to the all and sundry in the PCB; still the brainy think tank of the PCB, comprising of the manager Mr. Zakir Khan, chief batting consultant, Mr. Zaheer Abbas, head coach, Mr. Moin Khan and the captain Mr. M. Hafeez, made certain cardinal blunders during the match vs India tonight, explained as below:

a). It is a rule of thumb to select horses for the courses. But PCB brains made sure that wrong players like Fawad Alam, Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal were selected for ODI and T20 games, over fresh legs of Awais Zia, Hammad Azam, Anwer Ali, Sami Aslam, Umer Waheed, Imran Khan, Zia ul Haq, Aezaz Cheema and many other budding youngsters. Rather than losing with oldies, who have passed their expiry dates, we should not be afraid of losing with players, who can be truly called, as a future investment.

b). There was no need to play unfit players like Umer Gul and Shahid Afridi. There is no harm in sending them back and calling the replacements.

c). Mostly, a T20 game is won or lost in the first six power play overs. In fact, I had already submitted at point # 1 below that we should aim for a minimum of 60 runs in the 1st six overs. Anyway, our team scored almost half of that target i.e., 34 runs.

d). In the point #6 below, it was suggested that at any cost, playing dot balls must be avoided, as it was the biggest crime in an ODI and T20 games. But, what we did was amazing, to say the least. We played 51 dot balls out of the total available 120 balls. Which means that instead of utilising 20 overs, we wasted 8.3 overs and played only 11.3 overs. You can’t even think of beating a team like Zimbabwe, by batting for just 11.3 overs.

e). At point #4 below, it was proposed that there was no place for players like Shoaib malik and Kamran Akmal in the playing XI. Yet, they were played and what they performed was no surprise for any person, having rudimentary knowledge of the game. But, this glaring issue of destroying our teams balance, is not being realised by our so called think tank of the PCB. It seems, this tank is doing every thing, except thinking.

f). Weaknesses of our team’s fielding are not being attended by the so called fielding coach, about whom the captain has already given his piece of mind, in a media interview, before leaving for Bangladesh.

g). Mr. Muhammad Hafeez must be asked to explain the reason for giving 4th over to Umer Gul who had an economy rate of 10 runs per over in the match, whereas, he kept un utilised, his own and Junaid’s 1 over each, whose ER/over in the match was 4.66 and 7.66 respectively.

h). The two run outs of the total 7 outs of the Pakistani innings, is also a big question mark, on the fielding abilities of the fielding coach.

i). Shame on the PCB person responsible for the purchase of substandard kits for the Pakistani team.

The shape and stitching of the cap on the head of our captain Mr. Muhammad Hafeez was pathetic and abysmal and was no comparison with the cap on the head of MS Dhoni.

Mr. Najam Sethi, Chairman PCB, must conduct an urgent enquiry over the purchase of miserably substandard and pitiable kits for our national team; and hand over the responsible person to the FIA, for defaming Pakistan’s prestige, image and reputation. The inquiry should also encompass the possibility of any direct or indirect connection or related link, of any PCB insider, with the firm, which provided the kits to the PCB. This will ensure the transparency and enhance the image and reputation of the PCB.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sure shot recipe for victory in T20 World Cup matches for Pakistan

1. Must target to score above 60 runs in the power play overs.

2. Must bat second in case of winning the toss for night matches.

3. No over dependence on any one player, more so on Shahid Afridi.

4. Must not, repeat must not, include Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal in the playing XI.

5. Must control, repeat must control, wide balls. To control this habit every bowler be fined Rs.50,000 per wide ball.

6. Must not, repeat must not, play a dot ball which is the biggest crime in the T20 and the ODI matches. To control this bad habit, every player be fined Rs.50,000 per dot ball. According to Sunil Gavaskar, dot ball is like giving a wicket to the opponent team in the T20 matches.

7. To control the habit of catch dropping during the fielding, every fielder be fined Rs.1,00,000 for every dropped catch.

8. Every fielder be rewarded with a direct throw run outs with Rs.50,000/-, an excellent attempt for fielding with Rs.10,000. Two or more fielders involved in indirect throw run outs, be rewarded with Rs.50,000/- prize, equally divided among the fielders.

9. Batsmen hitting a six be rewarded with Rs.10,000/- and a boundary with Rs.5,000/-. Batsmen scoring 1, 2 and 3 runs be awarded with Rs.1,000/-, Rs 2,000/- and Rs.3,000/- respectively.

10. Every bowler be rewarded with Rs.50,000 per wicket and also penalised for each no ball with Rs.50,000.

Best Regards.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE

Mr. Zaka Ashraf must thank his stars that our PM, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, didn’t sack him, while he was on board the return flight to Pakistan.

At least, Zaka Ashraf was allowed to land.

This is called learning by experience..!