Thursday, 23 Oct, 2008

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan test captain Salim Malik is free to resume his involvement in cricket after a Pakistan court lifted a life ban on Thursday.

‘I have served cricket for 19 years and today I feel vindicated,’ 45-year-old Malik told reporters outside session court in the eastern city of Lahore.

Civil judge Malik Mohammad Altaf ruled in favor of Malik and quashed the ban imposed for match fixing.

The Pakistan Cricket Board put a life ban on Malik’s involvement in the game after a PCB-appointed inquiry, beginning in 1999 and ending in 2000 _ implicated him in fixing international matches.

Australian players Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Tim May accused Malik of offering them bribes to underperform during their tour of Pakistan in 1994.

Two lower courts earlier refused to hear Malik’s appeal, but a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court in May directed a court in Lahore to record evidence and reach a verdict.

‘I want to make a cricket academy for youngsters and will soon start the project,’ Malik said.

The PCB legal adviser Tafazzul Rizvi said the board will honor Thursday’s court ruling.

‘PCB did not impose the ban, we just implemented the recommendations of inquiry tribunal,’ Rizvi told the Associated Press.

‘We will honor the decision of session court and will not file an appeal against the ruling.’

Malik said that he had got an offer to play in the Indian Cricket League, the non-sanctioned Twenty20 competition run by former India captain Kapil Dev.

‘He (Kapil) has offered me to play in the Indian Cricket League, but I don’t think so I can play competitive cricket after staying out from it for the last eight-nine years,’ Malik said.

Despite his life ban, Malik said he had twice met new PCB chairman Ijaz Butt since he was appointed to the position earlier this month.

‘I had two meetings with Mr. Butt and if I am given an opportunity to serve Pakistan cricket in any capacity, I am more than willing to do that,’ Malik said.

Former Pakistan paceman Ata-ur-Rehman was among those who gave evidence to the 1999-2000 PCB inquiry about the prevalence of match-fixing by his Pakistan teammates. He later retracted his comments, prompting the inquiry judge to warn him against committing perjury.

Rehman also received a life ban from cricket for match fixing, but that was revoked by the International Cricket Council in 2006.

Malik played 103 tests and 263 one-day internationals between 1981 and 1999. He captained the team in 12 tests and 34 one-day games.

Butt announced that Malik’s captaincy will be reviewed in December and that the results of this series against West Indies will dictate what should be done about Malik.

Why is the focus so much on this West Indies series and what about the past blunders made by Malik?

The reason I am saying this is because Pakistan will probably win the ODI series because West Indies is at its lowest point in decades and has probably played less international cricket than Pakistan this year. UAE because of the similarity of the pitches and crowd is always favourable to Pakistan as a venue, so unless Malik makes some major blunder, Pakistan should win.

There are already rumours that if Malik is not kept on as captain, Misbah will be awarded captaincy.

Public bashing works, after gyrating his Butt without thinking he realized that it wasn’t a good move yet, to keep his Butt upright he said, that was his personal opinion that he shared with the previous chairman Nasim Ashraf.

So, why utter it in public now? Anyways, he got what he deserved. Now he can put his foot in his Butt or do whatever he wants, the words already flew out of his system and they have been flushed down the drain.

Apparently most people with a sane mind are criticizing Butt for his blabbering, but some “Pee Dots” are defending him by saying that at least Butt has got the guts to speak off his butts in public! If this is an act of bravery then the Harvard School of Fine Arts should decorate him with a Medal of Faxxing (in public).

Whats next? The West Indies wants to play two test in Abu Dhabi besides the three ODI’s? That will be some good for the Pakistanis, in fact the West Indians haven’t played much cricket though, so it would be in the interest of both teams.

What next? Will they still bring the spent force of ACTOR in the squad? He can’t bowl 3 overs so how can he bowl 10 in the ODI and 25 in a test match? Knowing the West Indian vulnerability against the spin bowling, they must include Saeed Ajmal in the team, he will be a regular off-spinner with some variety along with Afridi.

Will this be the end of Shoaib Malik’s captaincy era? If WI wins it certainly is. If Pak wins then for most of the fans it will be like another new chapter of tolerance, perseverance and swallowing a bitter pill with a spoon full of medicine. The doctor has gone but the hospice is still there very close to his Butt.

Good to see you responding to my call. Congratulations anyways and yes its a big big margin. Finally the Aussies are getting the taste of their own medicine. See what a team it is without Warne, McGrath and Gilly or even without the Bully Roy.

The point is every team goes through a phase and Aussies are on the decline now. They really need to work very hard to maintain that same winning standards.

Regarding the team, I think the BCCI or the selectors have already announced the team for the next test i.e., they will retain the same side. Whether Kumble is roaring or dying to play in Kolkata is meaningless because the only person he could have replaced was another spinner and i.e., Mishra and Mishra, in my opinion was MoM although Dhoni scored well in both innings and lead the side well, ( I was of the opinion that he should have imposed the follow-on) so he got the MoM award, but Mishra’s effort cannot be ignored. So, now Kumble has no room, he can pull a Kumbel on his face and like you said, join Srinath and Prasad in the commentary box.

Amit – don’t we all know that Aussies are the biggest whiners? Whenever they are defeated they try to find an excuse or a reason or they show their true colours i.e., dissent and aggression. The best way to reply is by winning.

Has anyone seen that picture of Tendulkar in fancy dress show? Munir sent it to me, its cute. Take care guys enjoy and savour the well deserved victory.

Wednesday, 22 Oct, 2008

KARACHI: Former Pakistan cricketers Imran Khan and Javed Miandad defended under-fire national coach Geoff Lawson on Wednesday, saying the Australian was not the only one responsible for the team’s poor performances.

New Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt described Lawson as ‘useless’ on Monday and said his contract would not be renewed when it runs out in July-August.

‘How can you blame the coach for Pakistan cricket’s ills when your domestic structure is stagnant,’ Khan said.

Lawson, a former Australian test pacer, was appointed coach in July 2007 after the death of Bob Woolmer during the World Cup. He has not commented on Butt’s remarks.

Miandad said Lawson was not the only one who should be blamed for the inconsistent performances of team.

‘It is not just an issue of coaching. Lawson should not be blamed solely. The players should also take responsibility and I think they should be held accountable as well,’ said Miandad, who had three spells as national coach.

Khan said Pakistan needed to improve its domestic cricket structure.

‘Don’t expect miracles from the coach. If a coach could produce results without a proper domestic system then Bangladesh had the best coach (Dav Whatmore) and they should have been world champions,’ Khan said.

Khan and Miandad are regarded as Pakistan’s greatest cricketers and spearheaded the team that won the 1992 World Cup.

Miandad pointed to a lack of test cricket as one cause of Pakistan’s unsatisfactory performances. Foreign teams have been anxious about travelling to the country because of security concerns.

‘I think the former board management is also responsible for this as they were least interested and did not care at all for this,’ he said.

On the other hand, it was puzzling to see the new oz mantra on Indian soil. Who the f*** has brainwashed them to play safe and boring like this ? Ok, i agree that some of the test lost by oz was due to ultra aggressiveness ( Kolkata 01, Adelaide 04), giving enough time to Indians to have a claim in those matches. But the new strategy is simply dull … they cant win matches in subcontinent by scoring @ 2.5. If rumors are to be believed, then Guru Greg, the new batting consultant of oz is behind the scene. And in the second inning when things were out of hands he apparently suggested to go aggressive (4th inning ?? ) … and players like Hydo, katich were responding rather “angrily”. I mean what was Hydo trying to do the first ball against Zaheer …. i rolled off from my sofa after watching this comic scene. Even Afridi wud have embarrassed by such act!

A strong Oz team is very healthy for Indian cricket (or cricket in general) … whatever they have progressed in this decade has something to do with ass kicking OZ team and the number of times they humiliated Indian team in ODIs and tests. For the sake of India-oz rivalry, Hydo, punter, Lee, pls stand up and start kicking the opposition u guys are famous for. We want fired up Test cricket .. not the one we have witnessed so far in this series.

It was a big shock for me (although a good one) to see Aussies loose by such a huge margin – 320 runs! Well, congratulations to the Indian team, they worked hard and deserved the victory. About Mishra, he has beeen ignored by selectors for long. Reasons given for ignoring him were his height which they thought was unreasonable for getting extracting bounce from the surface. Such ridiculous reasons will only ruin good upcoming bowlers. Kumble has become a big dilemma for selectors, but for me he is a spent force. No hard feelings for Kumble fans, but I think he has come to the end of this tunnel and should retire to start second innings of his life like his Karnataka mates Prasad and Srinath.

I thought Ajmal bowled pretty well against India in ODI’s and if I am nto wrong he is an off-spinner with a well disguised wrong-one, which was hard to pick to many of the Indian players. He ought to be given chances coz he has a hint of Saqi in him which could be pretty exciting for the Pakistan team.

I wonder how long Malik will be afraid of anyone who can replace him? Because, Malik if he is not a captain, cannot find his place in the team as a batsman, or a bowler. He is pretty mediocre as a bowler and only recently after a lot of criticism that he started to bowl and that too against weaker opposition. In one of the games against (Zim?) recently when he bowled he last over, he was thrashed for a couple of sixes and gave away 19 runs. His two clean bowled (wickets) against SL in the final were of no avail, the team lost.

Its for this reason we need the PCB Chairman to be a refined, polished, well educated, statesman, diplomat, capable to run a multi million dollar organization in a very sophisticated manner. And, he should also be a person who can handle his human resources in a meaningful way. Ijaz Butt has no such qualities.

He simply blabbed out the unnecessary and unwanted crap. Everyone knows that Lawson is not doing his job, in fact he was the wrong choice in the first place, to tell him through the media that “Lawson is of no utility for us” and we will not renew his contract upon its expiry in April 2009 is a senseless and undesirable statement. It will only create more negativity than anything good coming out of Lawson in the remaining time of his contract.

Also, Ijaz Butt’s accusation against his predecessor about the financial irreglarities is a typical stereotype Pakistani style “Ilzaam Taraashi” We have seen this in the political arena as well as here in the PCB. The successor always blames his predecessor to cover his BUTT so that he can also pocket something from the coffers.

Ps

You know KA always get ideas from us, its a fact.