Pakistan Tour cancellation – It is the correct decision

The Indian cricket team’s tour of Pakistan has generated a good healthy discussion on this blog. If yesterday I assumed that, the majority was for a delayed tour today our readers have proved that the naysayers are in equal number.

Philip9876 another of regular readers has left a stinging retort at my feeble attempt to differentiate between sporting and political relations with Pakistan.

Here is his retort in full; the Ott he refers to is none other than me.

Ott, its easy to say that we should decouple politics and sports. But just going thru the sports minister's quote. "One team comes and mows down 190 people and they want another team to go there and play as if nothing happened?"

I dont even want to have any sort of communication with the country of Pakistan and her people. By going to Pak, the PCB would have made $20million. PCB is headed by Miandad, who in turn is a close relative of Dawood. Dawood is known to bet on cricket matches. With a relative of one of the world's dreaded criminal related to the PCB so closely, how do we trust the PCB any more? What's a guarantee that Miandad/Dawood nexus wont fix the matches or profit in private from the matches?

The money earned by betting on the matches will be used by Dawood to further his drug trade and to help ISI foment terror in India and the region.

Why give them a chance? I heard that PCB is in deep trouble and that by India pulling out, its on the verge of collapse. That's what i always wanted. To let Pakistan know that there is cost to escalating tensions and to pursue its wellknown policy of bleeding India with a thousand cuts. The only weapon that India has is economics. WE should use it to strangle Pak as much as possible so that the next time they even think of fomenting terror, they should pee in their pants.

As for all the people who say that both politics and sports should be apart, i would like to hear their comments after the next team from Pakistan comes and mows down his/her family.

We should have no contacts with Pak. Period. There are many more civilised countries in the world to play cricket with.

Though I do not necessarily agree with all he has said, I believe some of his points are irrefutable.

What do you think?

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Champions Trophy postponed to accomadate IPL Champions League

A jaundiced view from Lord's

Though the decision to postpone the Champions Trophy appears as an effort to appease the PCB, it is the ECB's view that it is all a part of BCCI's sinister design.

Consider the evidence.

It is common knowledge that ICC succumbed to the adamant BCCI's insistence that Pakistan host the Champions Trophy . It is ECB's suspicion founded on such scurvy tricks played by the BCCI in the past, that it (BCCI) deliberately did so knowing very well other countries will baulk at playing in Pakistan and their hesitancy will lead to scuttling of the Champions Trophy.

To those knave enough to wonder how BCCI benefits from the postponement of the tournament ,ECB answers that this postponement provides an ample window to stage IPL's Champions League.

In short, ECB sees it all a part of BCCI's sinister design to take over world cricket and asks others to follow its lead and show the upstart its place.

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ICC accuses Cricket Australia of hiding behind Player’s Association.

Image via Wikipedia
The conduct of Champions Trophy in Pakistan is proving divisive.

On one hand, the ICC stands accused of cowing to the powerful Asian bloc by insisting on Pakistan as the location. On the other hand, Cricket Australia stands accused of folding under the pressure brought on them by the powerful Player’s Association.

However, yesterday’s statement from the Player’s Association that they will not play in Pakistan has added a new twist to the story. ICC feels that Cricket Australia is using the Players Association to escape making a decision.

In fact, an ICC source, who refused to be named, questioned whether the governing boards were hiding behind their "players" so as not to further antagonise India and the powerful Asian bloc which effectively rules the game.

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• ICC moves to break Trophy deadlock
• ICC aims to avert Trophy boycott

A bomb blast is still a bomb blast

Whether it occurs in Pakistan,India or Sri Lanka, a bomb blast is still a bomb blast.
May be one can differentiate by their intensity and the number of people it harmed.
Every bomb is threat to life and limb so how can Cricket Australia say, Nothing hypocritical about touring India.

There is no way one can say a bomb blast in India or elsewhere is not a security threat.The very statement is hypocritical.

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Oval Test - Holding protests change in the result

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeWest Indies legend Michael Holding has resigned from the International Cricket Council over their decision to change the result of the controversial 2006 Oval Test between England and Pakistan.

Holding should be commended for making this token gesture.

Holding reasons that though Pakistan was innocent of ball -tampering, their refusal to retake the field should be punished.

Most of us will find no fault in his logic, as ICC by rescinding on its earlier decision to call the match a forfeiture, has opened a Pandora's box. From now on, ICC will be hard put to stop Test playing nations from contesting decisions on controversial Tests.

For starters, can the ICC stop BCCI from demanding that the Sydney Test to be treated as a draw?

Tri-series- Indo-Pak final- Dhoni left it too late

Dhoni left it too late.

He should have taken the attack, or tried to take the attack by the scruff of its neck much earlier.

By delaying, he reduced the possibility of success and increased the probability of failure.

Having said that Pakistan virtually batted India out of the match.

What do you think?

Ban cricket!!!

Syed Mansoor Hussain writes tongue firmly in cheek:

I have come to the conclusion after considerable thought that the whole idea
behind the emergency was to prevent the people of Pakistan from becoming fully
aware of the humiliation of our cricket team expected at the hands of the
Indians.

He also calls for cricket being banned (televised) because:

The new laws governing the media suggest that all activities that bring a bad
name to Pakistan, the administration and its functionaries and are bad for the
morale and the morals of the people of Pakistan and could incite them to
violence should not be portrayed in any fashion by the media. From the time of
our fateful loss to Ireland and the demise of our coach, Pakistan cricket
fulfils all these criteria.

An interesting hypothesis, however I am unable to come to any conclusion on the Pakistan team’s performance. Is it good, bad or pathetic?

Are we aiming high enough?

The team should learn to take the toss, pitch and
weather out of the equation, writes Anil Kumble and goes on to add that we have to remember the importance of
planning, setting goals and working towards them.

However there is a real danger of being seduced by small victories and setting too small a goal.

As Edward Everett Hale says, “If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.”

Which leads me to ask,Mr.Kumble, what are your plans for taming Australia?

Photograph of the Sydney high-rise buildings at Circular Quay courtesy Photographer: Roy Tennant

Jumping Jack Rabbit

Misbah mimics More or was he mimicking Miandad?

Curtains for Kamran Akmal

Kamran Akmal’s recent wicket keeping form has left a lot to be desired. His batting too has failed to keep to its initial promise and now he is injured and is being replaced by Sarfraz Ahmed.

This is an excellent opportunity for Sarfraz Ahmed to make the wicket keepers slot his own and if he does it could mean ‘curtains’ for Kamran Akmal.

Pakistan-India series will be Malik’s last as captain

The Knives are already out.

Pakistan’s former Test batsman Basit Ali has said the
Pakistan-India series, starting on Monday (today), will be Shoaib Malik’s last
series as the captain of the Pakistan team. Talking to Daily Times here on
Sunday, Basit said there would be lot of pressure on young Malik as Pakistan had
a ‘very poor’ home series against South Africa while India had a ‘reasonably
good’ series against the Australians.

Malik faces a fate reserved for the Captains of Pakistan and India.

If they loose a series against their traditional rivals, they are sure to be sacked.

The Pakistan Team sets the Agenda.

Pakistan is certainly making a play at being the nice guys who have come over to play a friendly.

By projecting themselves as ‘inexperienced’, with just a ‘couple of seniors’ and implying that they are the underdogs, they are attempting to give a different feel to this series.

The idea seems to be to pose as a lesser team and lessen the intensity of the battle. The motive is debatable. Do they genuinely feel that their team is less of a threat or is it an attempt to lull the Indians into over-confidence?

In turn, the Indians have gone silent. There are neither ‘no meeting fire with fire’ jingoistic statements coming out of the Indian camp and nor any touchy-feel statements.

One hopes that the Indians are not taken in by the bhai-bhai statements emanating out of the Pakistan camp.

Pakistan takes the moral high ground

Pakistan’s coach has taken the moral high ground by saying that his team is looking for an incident free series.

"We just played a series against South Africa -- very hard, tough,
non-compromising cricket," he said. "But there was not one bad word said between
the teams.

"The series was played in a very fine spirit, as cricket
should be. I hope this series is played in exactly the same
style.

"We've got a captain who likes his players to behave
properly on the field," he said. "I'm pretty sure MS Dhoni likes his players to
do the same."

Good suggestion Lawson. Let us have cricket and not politics played out in the field.

Pakistan’s cricketing greats unsure about their team

The game of second guessing the selectors seem to have caught on in Pakistan.

Right from poor selection, to inexperience and to lack of planning are factors which casts doubts on their teams chances in India.

The beauty is that these aspirations are cast not by the uninformed, but by men who have occupied the same chairs in different capacities.

Either, they are questioning the wisdom of their selectors or they are preparing grounds to excuse their team’s performance.

Wonder, whether it will affect their teams morale.

Rivalries in Pakistan cricket

The history of cricket in Pakistan is littered with rivalries between the players.

Here are some of them:

Abdul Hafeez Kardar, the first captain of Pakistan, could not get along with Haneef Mohammad.

Sarfraz Nawaz and Asif Iqbal were not in good terms.

Javed Miandad and Imran Khan were not the best of friends.

Wasim and Waqar were never the best of chums.

Rashid Latif and Saleem Malek too turned enemies.

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif are the latest in a long list of rivalries.

The beauty is, despite the acrimony between players they managed to win a World Cup and are feared opponents in Test match cricket.

Sometimes, these rivalries spill out into the field and they self-destruct, giving rise to charges of match fixing.

Hair ends ICC discrimination case

If you ever wondered at what Hair was going to achieve with his discrimination case against ICC, wonder no longer.

Hair could now return to umpiring non-Test playing nations next March.

Then, the ICC board will meet to discuss the results of his rehabilitation and decide whether he can return to elite umpiring, and if so, on what terms.

It is understood that no financial pay-off was made to Hair.

True, no financial pay-off was made, but he got what he wanted, or didn't he?

Don't forget our 'terrific' bowlers

Image flicked from bbc Image flicked from bbc

It is but natural to conclude that we won the match, because we bowled the last five balls precisely.

Surely, that is condensing the truth.

Our bowlers were superb, excepting my pet peeve Agarkar. They fought tooth and nail and brought the match to a great end.

Don't you think our bowlers were great throughout the innings?

BOB-WOOLMER SAGA

After months of intrigue, the Jamaican Police department seems to readying itself to admit, that Bob Woolmer died of natural causes.

One is forced to conclude that the Jamaican police department jumped the gun in airing its suspicions. From Day 1, the whole episode has been embarrassing. Claims and counter claims followed along with accusations and denials.

The Pakistan team deserves an apology, not only from the Jamaican Police department, but also from each one of us, who thought ill of them.