Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘Cricket’ Category

 

ESPNcricinfo can today provide the facts that prove the legality of Saeed Ajmal’s bowling action.

Ajmal was Man of the Series against England after taking 24 wickets in the three-Test series and playing a prominent role in Pakistan’s first Test whitewash against England.

Ajmal caused confusion when he gave a TV interview following the series and appeared to indicate he had been given dispensation by the ICC to bowl above the 15-degree tolerance limit.

Countless fans have contacted ESPNcricinfo through social networking sites and by email asking us to clarify the situation regarding Ajmal. After a thorough investigation, including extensive discussion with the ICC, these are the facts.

Ajmal’s action is well within the ICC range of tolerance. While he does bowl with a bend in his arm, it does not straighten more, on average, than about eight degrees.
His arm does come through at a bent angle but that is allowed so long as it doesn’t straighten beyond the tolerance level.
The figure of 23.5 degrees mentioned by Ajmal is the average angle of his arm at the beginning of delivery.
The ICC put Ajmal, along with other bowlers, under constant scrutiny and evidence suggests that there has been no significant deterioration in Ajmal’s action since he was tested in 2009.
Contrary to widespread belief, Ajmal’s off-break and quicker ball actually cause his arm to straighten more – though only a fraction more – than his much-debated doosra.
The ICC is reluctant to discuss bowling actions in detail because officials fear the subject is too complicated to explain.
For the full story read senior cricket correspondent George Dobell’s piece from Dubai.

Heartiest congratulations to Pakistan on an unbelievable (3-0) white wash of English cricket team at the Test cricket series 2012 played at UAE. 

No doubt it’s an epoch making historical victory, achieved with Kind Blessings of Allah, sincere guidance of new PCB leadership, sheer hard work and disciplined game of Pakistani cricket team led by its able captain Misbah ul Haq and it’s tour management, led by the coach Mohsin Hassan Khan. It looks we are watching a miracle in our dreams. 

Now it is high time that ICC must facilitate Pakistan and lend it’s helping hand, in holding international matches in Pakistan, without any further delay. 

Thank you Pakistani cricketers you made us proud. For us,  it’s joy which is more than winning the world cup. Keep up your good work.

Change in the game of cricket is here to stay, whether we like it or not. T20 and ODI’s are definitely going to churn out more and more money, for all connected with the game. Now, there is no use criticizing the evolution process. 

Adaptation is the secret of success. Building a Test team is no rocket science. One has to be just one step ahead of the competition. Just closely watch how England and Australia are focusing their time and energy, on keeping at top level, in Test format of the game. Moreover, until and unless the sub-continent players are given rigors of sessions of fast and bouncy pitches, with special bouncing balls, to expect our batsmen to perform better than their opponents, is to live in a fools paradise. 

Although, Pakistan is not a very strong team against the world No.1 England yet, they did not leave anything to chance and asked English players to practise for months in India and South Africa, to prepare and practise for the conditions, nearest to the UAE pitches. 

As they say, practice makes one perfect. And for an ordinary person, it will not be difficult to predict the outcome of the ensuing Pakistan Vs England encounters in UAE, particularly when Misbah ul Haq is a known defensive mind. Last day his comments posted on ESPN Cricinfo removed any doubt about his negative attitude towards the game.

Quote.” It is better to win playing safe than attack and lose.”

On the same web page was posted an advice of famous Indian captain Saurov Ganguly, for Sachin Tendulkar, quoted as below.

Quote” I will tell him, if he thinks about defending, he must try some other sport.” Unquote.

As Viv Richards said “Cricket is a mind game.” And as Imran Khan said “playing for a draw is the best recipe for defeat.” If the objective of any captain, before entering the ground, is to wait and see, rather than nothing but a win, how can he marshall his players to the victory? In cricket you have to impose your agenda, on the opponent team. You have to create opportunities, like they say you have to create run outs. At times you have to snatch victories from the jaws of defeat. In any sport, one team wins and the other loses. There is no harm in losing if you give a good fight. The only objectionable thing is the abject surrender.

Now, someone must tell Misbah that famous saying, quote” In any fight, if a dog is given to lead the lions, all lions will die fighting  like a dog. However, in any fight, if a lion is given to lead the dogs, all dogs will put up a fight like a lion, irrespective of the outcome of that fight.”Unquote.

Misbah should be told that offense is the best defense.

It looks Misbah has already surrendered the series, even before a ball was bowled. Anyway, we should pray for the success of our team, as miracles do happen.

 

Heartiest congratulations to Pakistani cricket team and PCB, on consecutive all cricket formats victories, against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh cricket teams.

 

Now the real test of planning, talent and abilities, awaits our cricket team and it’s management, against English team in UAE series, next month.

 

In this regard, the PCB may consider as below, a recipe for winning against England.

 

1. Positive Attitude.  Defensive minds are neither creative nor cooperative. Until  and unless we only focus on nothing short of winning (and consider a DRAW as a DEFEAT) no planning and preparation, will give us the desired results.

 

2. Planning. The team management in particular and players in general must be told that PLANS never fail, rather we fail to PLAN. And for planning, the first and foremost thing is the mind set, totally focused on goal achievement. In order to achieve the impossible, it is precisely imperative, to think the unthinkable.

 

3. Video Analysis. All concerned must sit and watch strengths and weaknesses of English as well as, Pakistani players. This will not only help in overcoming our weaknesses, but will also help in field settings, determining bowling line and length, knowing weakness of opponent players, against fast and spin bowling etc.

 

4. Infusion of Motivation. Since, cricket is a mind game, a motivation specialist (NOT psychiatrist) must be attached with the team, with the task to convert our players, from being simply dynamic persons to a DYNAMITE personality, so that every player must perform, to his peak ability. In my opinion, the best person in the country, for this job is Ms Andleeb Abbas.

 

5. Team Selection. (a) The success of any project depends on the right selection of it’s team members. The enemy of the BEST is often the GOOD. In fact, now it is said that the only difference between winning and losing organizations is the quality of it’s people, which includes their character, belief, habits, personal motivation and abilities.

 

(b) We should not only select players on merit or past performances but, one or two batsmen and bowlers from domestic circuit should also be selected by just anticipating, that given a chance, they can be stars overnight with their sheer fearlessness and big game temperament. Just like as a shrewd jeweler, we should pick a diamond from the rubbles.

 

(c) Having said that, Shahid Afridi (basically on his bowling and fielding abilities and forgetting his batting ability, because in cricket bowlers win matches) and Umar Akmal (if he is given the wicket keeping job the team becomes more balanced), must be selected for the Test teams as well.

 

(d) Similarly, our wicket keepers on show till now have been just average players. We must find some really outstanding wicket keeper, for which the legend Mr. Wasim Bari should be assigned the task, to find out the person who can be categorized as find of the tour.

 

6.Team Management. The team management must be told that business as usual, will not deliver in this most tough series. They should know that management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things. Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; Leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

 

Mr. Mohsin Hasan Khan, must remember that once Mr. Imran Khan said that the best recipe for defeat, is to play for a draw.

At least Pakistan should have given it a try to go for runs, on the last day of the first Test at Abu Dhabi against Srilanka. Moreover, Mr. Mohsin Hassan Khan’s statement that it was decided during the innings break, that Pakistan will decide about the run chase as per the fielding deployment of the opponent team, confirms that firstly, our team management handed over the initiative to the Srilankan team and secondly, Pakistani team fell into the trap of Srilankan fielding plan. Although, Srilankan team could not have bowled out Pakistani team in 21 overs, yet, surely Pakistan had all the chances and cards in their hands, to force a win.

A timid person can be a good player or chief selector, but he can never be a good captain or coach.

Cricket is all played in the mind mate (read Mohsin Hassan Khan). And negative thoughts will never snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat or draw.

The only thing responsible for the Indian demise from the number one world position in Test cricket, is the overdose of T20 cricket; which has mentally and physically drained the players. Moreover, Indian players are not worried about Test cricket form, because of the huge amount of the money, they get from IPL. So, IPL will be remembered as a nemesis of Indian Test cricket No. 1 ranking.

 

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 in 2015, to be played in the down under.
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 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 visionary person of a ultra high calibre, should be appointed the coach of Pakistan cricket team. We should also set a new trend and hire a full time mentor, for which I recommend Sir Alexander Chapman “Alex” Ferguson, CBE who is a former Scottish football manager and player who managedManchester 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.
2. A young person should be appointed captain to lead the team for the next 5-7 years.
3. All cricket playing centers of PCB in Pakistan, should remodel the boundary distances to 90 meters (matching the size of Australian grounds) and batsmen should practise taking 5 runs, in case, ball is fielded before it reaches the rope.
4. 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.
5. A world class fielding coach of the calibre of Jonty Rhodes, be appointed for the team, alongwith the head coach.
6. 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 speed bowling.
7. Cricket academy at PCB HQ Lahore, must be headed by a world renowned batsman.
8. The team of selectors should be tasked to locate 50 talented players, with potential to deliver at international level.
9. 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 2011, PCB should pioneer night Test/ODI/T20 matches in Pakistan.
10. All PCB grounds in the country (even in smaller cities/towns), should be provided with lights for night games.
11. In order to prepare fast and bouncy tracks on all PCB grounds, suitable soil and if possible prefabricated pitches may be imported from abroad.

Heartiest congratulations to India on a well deserved and well earned cricket ODI world cup 2011 victory achieved for the 1st time by any nation on its own soil.

 

 

The Pakistani cricket team’s Madness in Mohali Semi Final world cup 2011 match has shell shocked the nation. Reason being that every body could see that the situation was under control and target very achieveable. By snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, captain Shahid Afridi and other team management members proved, how badly they lacked management abilities of a thinking mind and leadership qualities.

 

Management is doing  things right; Leadership is doing right things. Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; Leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

 

Now, if we analyse the management and leadership of Pakistani cricket team, during the semi final match of 30 March 2011, the following glaring examples, speak out for themselves.

 

1. Shahid Afridi kept on giving overs after overs to Omar Gul, even when he was the most expensive bowler of the team, without utilizing the most economical bowler Abdul Razzaq. This was the master stroke of genius Afridi, who was also not given any advice by the other senior members of the team or the more genius members of the management team, sitting in the pavilion.

 

2. Genius Afridi, removed Wahab Riaz from bowling, precisely at the time, when he was about to run through the Indian batsmen.

 

3. At a time when Pakistani openers gave a very positive start to the innings & then got out, Abdul Razzaq, Afridi or Omar Akmal should have been sent in, to maintain pressure of runs in the 1st power play of ten overs, when only two fielders are out side the circle. But what happened was, that Younis came in and later on Misbah. Both batted so lazely that it dragged the momentum of runs created by the openers, to such an abyss, from where the innings never recovered.

 

4. It looks that the entire team and its management, forgot to take the last batting power play, till the time the sand had slipped from the hand. This is an un pardonable blunder. The best time to take the 3rd PP was, when Afridi and Misbah were togather at the crease.

 

5. Nobody advised the batsmen to keep on taking singles, rather than blocking exceptionally high percentage of balls for no run.

 

The nation is shaken not by the defeat but the way our team management snatched defeat from the jaws of the victory. Now the way forward for the PCB is to either its chairman, take the full responsibility and resign or take the following steps.

a) Dismiss M/S. Intikhab Alam, Waqar Younus and Aaquib Javed from their respective positions.

 

b) Sack Afridi from the captainship of the national team.

 

c) Younis, Misbah and Abdul Razzaq should never again be considered for ODI or T20 teams and Kamran Akmal should also be sacked from any version of the national team. He is not an ordinary player rather, a below ordinary level player. 

 

d) Hafeez should be appointed the future captain of ODI & T20 Pakistan teams, with Wahab Riaz as his deputy.

 

e) Youngsters like Sarfraz Ahmad, Naveed, Shoaib Khan etc should be inducted in the ODI and T20 teams.

 

f) A full time fielding coach must be appointed for Pakistan team, without any further delay.