That is why it is important for Pakistan to have a good opening pair, reliable & dependable. Since they cannot get one like Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail or anyone like Sehwag and Gambhir, they must stick to adapt a different approach for different forms of the game.

For T20, they definitely have a good opening pair in Shahid Afridi along with Kamran Akmal or Nasir Jamshed. They will be wasting these players if they play them down the order because 20 overs is too little too soon to finish off the batting line up. Pakistan and especially the THREE MALAKS i.e. Shoaib Malak, Talat Ali Malak and Malak Lawson must realize this and make sure they do this. Otherwise they will end up with IFs and BUTTs and the team will never get a flying start.

Pawan, Amit et al must be pleased with the Indian team’s performance.

“I pick up the paper and laugh. You can’t take any notice of it, you just have to ignore it. It’s one of the big issues I’ve brought up with the players, I’ve said ‘look, you can’t let what people say in the press, particularly the Pakistani press, affect how you play the game. You have support from the coaching staff and from the board itself, so play the game’ … My life is not affected by what the media say.”

The guys have some ‘balls’, I must add

Earlier Dhoni was playing as if he was in a nets session. No player in the world can be sure of the pitch when he faces the first ball and Mr. Dhoni hooks the first ball he faces for four, which could have gone anywhere. Why and how so much trust on the pace and bounce of the wicket? Play your shots, but play sensibly. Bulldozing will pay off, but only for a few times and that explains why Dhoni’s test match record is so pathetic. If he implies himself as he does for the one-dayers and T20′s, he can be a more potent and lethal batsman.

Ganguly ambled through his 100. Gifted his wicket asap after his 100, as if there was a secret agreement signed in some dark room between him and the Australians about throwing away his wicket as soon as he makes a century. That is typical mediocre attitude. You are set at the crease and you know you can go on to make a big hundred, but as soon as you reach the three figure mark, you loose the intensity and like a school-boy throw away your wicket?

Laxman and Dravid are playing as if they are new comers. Tendulkar continues the tradition of getting out on silly shots. Instead of Laxman, a fast (sorry there are no FAST bowlers in the Indian line-up, so medium-fast) bowler could have at least fetched a wicket. Now to prove me wrong, Laxman will make a scrathy match-saving fifty in the last innings and will automatically keep his place for the next test.

About Tendulkar’s retirement, I am no one to advise him to retire, but the way he is playing, some mediocre fifty’s is not the way to go. By this time (19 years), he should regularly make big hundreds. I don’t mind him or dada or anyone staying or retiring, the only thing is, they should make it count if they play. Getting out on silly shots should be taken very seriously especially after you have made 88 and have been well-settled.

The bottom line is, there is always room for improvement and to become the best team, personal egos, emotions and stupid, silly thinking should be kept apart and together, as a team carry out the mission of destroying the opposition clinically.

Ganguly has scored a hundred, and must retire now on a high note.

India must impose a follow-on to add more pressure, but must not relax ‘coz Aussies can bounce back and Mohali ground has a history to prove where Abdul Razzaq and Kamran Akmal defended the total and avoided a certain defeat into a draw.

Where are all the Indian bloggers? Guys are you unhappy with your team? Then whats wrong?

When we loose, there is always this situation of ‘Khisyani Billy Khumba Nouchey’, or the ‘Baghalain Jhaankanaa’ (look under your under-arms) storey.

Anyway, to cut the crap out, let me very quickly answer your questions in short and sweet way. Here you go then:

1) What to do with Shoaib Akhtar?
KILL HIM, because as the old saying goes, “Andhaa Haathi Lushkar Ka Ziyaan” (blind elephant will crush your own troops in a battlefield).

2) Is Misbah worth all the hype?
No he is NOT. He will always play only in the useless and unimportant games, so we should keep him in the team but never play him in finals. (Some guys are just CURSED, and he one of those).

3) Where should Fawad Alam bat?
He should permanently bat at number (4 or 5) in all our ODIs as well as T20, to start with. Plus he should be employed in the bowling department too. Fuwad Alam was one of the few positives out of this short tournament.

4) What happened to Sohail Tanvir?
I think he is also been introduced to the ‘puriya’ or filled ‘sirgit’ like the Show-Actor and Muhammad Asaf, and it got to his head.

5) Should Afridi not become captain now?
SHAID AFRIDI SHOULD DEFINITELY BE MADE THE CAPTAIN OF OUR ODI AND T20 TEAMS, IMMEDIATELY. Later on we can see him for the Tests too. Captainship is not only about performance, but also a major part of the captainship is about leadership, character, interaction skills with teams-mates as well as others, strong personality, energy, motivation, which are all lacking in So-Aib Malak aka Mr. Sayali Bhagat.

Javed Khan …

I totally and unconditionally agree with you that the 3-some of (3 So-Aibs) were the main reason for Pakistan’s humiliating defeat in final. This is so unfortunate that your best bowler of the tournament, Umer Gul, was not allowed to even bowl his quota of four overs. Further, you can also add Younis Khan to that list of culprits, as he did not play even one good inning in the entire tournament. Plus there was never a run in that run-out, so yes it was his mistake. Over and above all this, he is only a specialist batsman and can not even bowl.

On the property in Ajman, well it’s a shame that Canada (being one of the riches countries in the world) could not find even a sponsor for this minor T20 Cup, and they finally have to look one from Ajman (Al Barakah Properties).

All said and done about the property boom of Dubai, Ajman or even UAE, but at least Canada should have got a sponsor of their own for this T20 thing.

I hope you get one such property boom back there in Canada too

Adnan Naqvi (from Karachi) …

I love you man, you are one heck of a Fuwad Alam fan. You want him to captain, Pakistan team. GREAT !!

BTW, how is your Paya/ Nehari business doing these days, I hope you are not affected by the world financial crises, recession and all that

Theossa …

Kidhar Ho Bhai Sahab ?? Kabhi Natalie Ki Godh Sey Nikal Bhi Aao Yaar.

Lambeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Khaamosheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Hai

Awas …

Missing you on the blog. Hope you are still around, though I understand you must be tied-up with the financial mess all around us, but it will be worth to get an advice or two on this issue from a finance professional.

M. Y. Kassim …

Praying for your Health and Well-being, and Hoping all is well with you and your loved ones. No matter wherever you are

Calling All Others:

Amit P, Rohit, Phirwohi (him again), Rehan Khan, and Others.

1. Kal ka hero aaj ka zero ……….. Shoaib Khan, he should disappear into thin air now. He never impressed me with his shot selection he is a pretty mediocre player.

2. Purana Paapi naam ka Actor dekhnay may Villain – Show Actor. He bowled like a pathetic loser. He was bowling short and on the legs of the left handers and gave away 23 runs in the first two overs, the match was over by then. And because of the pressure combined with the few runs on board to defend, Actor and Tanvir were slogged by SL openers. Umar Gul who normally bowls from the 12 over onwards and he was brought in for the 5th over, that was a mistake. Umar Gul, because of the tense situation lost his cool and gave away too many runs in his first over, he got involved with the batsman and exchanged a few words, bowled a no-ball and was hit for a six all because of bad planning and badly execution of the plan.

3. Puppoo Malik Shaadi say pehlay hee Ganja hoa jaara ! Bahot fikrain hain nunni see jaan ko. Apart from kaptaani he had to think of Siyali Bhagat and in doing so, once again he took stupid decisions on the field.

The first one in this match was bringing Gul earlier on whereas, he should have started himself, which he did after that over or, he should have brought in Afridi to bowl.

The second one was when Fawad Alam started from one end, he had a choice to bring Umar Gul to complete his remaining 3 overs, Umar Gul even had the ball in his hand. But, Shoaib Malik looked up to his old, unfaithful, unreliable, over-weight, unfit, outdated, out of steam Rawalpindi Express and paid a heavy price. The match was sealedafter Actor’s 3rd over. He gave away 40 runs in 3 overs.

Malike made the same mistake which he did in the last match, owing to wrong calculations. Duddo Malak ko ginti bhee nahee aati, he should have not repeated the same mistake and Umar Gul once again bowled only 3 overs out of his quota of 4.

I think this is the third time in Malak’s captaincy that his best bowler Umar Gul could not finish his quota of 4 overs and ended up bowling only 3 because of this Sialkoti Paindoo. How can he do this again and again?

Shahid Afridi may have been failing to score with his bat but, most of the recognized batsmen are not doing any good either. However, Shahid Afridi whenever he came into bowl, he not only applied the brakes on the run rate but, also took a crucial wicket at the right time. Once again his figures were far better than anyone else. In T20 if you can’t take wickets, at least contain the runs.

Tanvir is totally lost in some other dimension, he is in another Universe i.e., because of wearing the “Purple Cap.” He became, so arrogant, rude after the IPL performance that he look down upon others and there is always a smirk on his face which is kinda uneducated, uncouth combined with arrogance and attitude. He needs to be more humble and focused. He has talent but his arrogance is ruining him.

Saeed Ajmal who is the culprit who was against Saeed Ajmal’s selection? Reportedly, it is Shoaib Malak, he got in Sohail Khan after Salahuddin selected the squad. Ijaz Butt says that he will make an inquiry but, thats all Dhong and Dhakoslay Baazi.

The Pun-job-ease say Salahuddin is from Karachi and favours Karachi players! Saeed Ajmal is from Punjab and Salahuddin selected him in the original squad because he was able to see the need of a spinner rather than an extra batsman. But, Malak had a soft corner for Sohail Khan for whatever reasons that Malak went behind the Chief Selector’s back and manipulated this whole thing and did not give a chance to the guy who deserved it.

The six fast bowlers chosen were of no use. Except for Umar Gul none of the fast bowlers performed well in fact they performed very badly. Whereas, the spinners did a good job, Saeed Ajmal would have been very effective along with Fawad Alam after Malak and Afridi completing their 4 overs each. Four spinners and two fast bowlers would have been enough. But, Malak has his own Sialkoti brain which started to show from his receding hairline, rather a big open patch as if there was a toupee which fell off and uncovering a bald spot. I wonder whether it is due to cricket or Siali Bhagat ki yaad?

Mendis is not as great as they have created a HUWWA out of him. Rizwan Cheema of Canada came out and pulled him out of the ground for a huge straight six and thats because of the power and Malak tried to emulate him and could not clear the fence and gave Mendis his first wicket of the match. Whatever it is now Mendis’s feet are not on the ground he would be living in the tallest building of Ajman in that apartment that he has won as “player of the tournament.”

Btw, not many years ago, a villa on Ajman Beach was available on rent for Dirhams 10,000 per year, YES per year and not per month and no one wanted to live there. It was one of the most neglected emirates of the UAE after Umm-ul-Quwain. Like no one knew about Qatar until Al Jazirah TV started over there. Although 25 years ago QGPC signed a $7.3 billion dollar contract with Marubeni Corporation of Japan to set up an LPG plant under a 30 year buy back arrangement, still it was a place where no one wanted to go or would like to send even their mother-in-laws.

Like the proverbial expression, “Hurr Kuttay kay din palat tay hain.” Ajman’s economy also got a boost because of the Free Trade Zones in every Emirate and then the Dubai Property Market boom set the trend (Bhair Chaal) hence Ajman has its day too.

You answered your own question there- India played two spinners because Harbhajan is the man who gets wickets against Australia and Kumble is the captain. Neither could really be dropped. I agree about Symonds- something major always happens when Symonds is playing, although I do feel he is not very effective at Test level.

No one knows why Mahmood and Saqlain were axed. I suppose on paper there is some evidence to say their performance waned over time. It’s true Saqlain started losing his spin proficiency and Mahmood was failing to pick up wickets and score runs. But I suspect the after effects of the famous Qayyum report had something to do with it. Reportedly everyone in the Pakistan team except Rashid Latif and Basit Ali at that time between mid to late 90s was involved in match fixing. It was rumoured that Justice Qayyum advised the PCB to not continue playing these players who would involved in betting and fixing. So that could be a reason.

bajji cant be axed for being the nemesis of ricky,hayden.
anil being the captain cant be axed
with so much firepower available, india is still playing the old way.
well, when they can play on SA pitches with 2 spinners , this isnt a surprise

i amnt much interested about this T20 tourney, i had this Q from long time. why are azhar mahmood,saqlain mustaq,abdul razzaq axed? especially the first 2 in their prime..

bye