The fact of the matter is that becoming overly religious may have some calming effects on you and may make you feel a better person but it can never change your nature or the type of person you are. MoYo already got the hump when he was not picked for the World T20 tournament which was a shameful act in itself. Many other players of his calibre like Dravid, Luxman and Co were not picked either but they were much more gracious about it. He has basically tainted his wonderful career by going back to sign for ICL once again. Above all he should have realised he is just a good test player.

Saad Shafqat

The stark fact remains that the ICL is a banned outfit, and Yousuf was fully aware that signing up threatened depriving Pakistan of his services. By accepting the ICL offer, he showed everyone that he had placed greed above the country.
Where do you begin to unravel the messy story of how Mohammad Yousuf has managed to tie himself up in knots?
He’s a terrific batsman – most analysts place him among the top handful ever produced by Pakistan. He’s a stylist too – nothing less than a torchbearer for Asia’s wristy batting aesthetic that drives fans into rapture.
There is also no doubt he has served his country well – with nearly 7,000 Test runs and over 9,000 ODI runs at extremely impressive averages (55.49 in Tests and 43.63 in ODIs), he sits near the top of any compilation of Pakistan’s batting figures.
He is, in other words, a man of remarkable talents and gifts having a keen temperament that has proved itself in world-class competition.
With talent comes responsibility – to yourself, your fans, your country and, most importantly, as a role model to young people. Yet Mohammad Yousuf’s unraveling personal saga shows that responsibility is something he has not quite mastered. Having put in all the hard work to build himself into a major cricketing asset, even a national treasure, for Pakistan, Yousuf is now embroiled in legal tangles, facing the possible extinction of his international career.
By aligning himself with the ICL – a delicious but controversial T20 league that has not received official patronage – he appears to have shut off all avenues for a return to Test and ODI cricket.
It was the princely sum of $1million that started it. This is the amount that the Indian Cricket League offered Yousuf through former Pakistan captain Moin Khan, who had become the manager of the Lahore Badshahs and was recruiting for them.
Naturally, Yousuf was tempted. Who wouldn’t be? Around the world, leading contracted players from many national teams were made similar offers to join one of the ICL teams and add their stardust to the league. Yet while everyone else resisted, Yousuf caved in.
He knew what he was getting into. The ICL was born out of a TV rights dispute between India’s Zee Corporation and the Indian cricket board. India’s official response was to declare the ICL an unacceptable ‘rebel’ league, and Indian players joining it faced a ban from all officially sanctioned Test and ODI cricket.
This was enough for the ICC (cricket’s world governing body) and the other national cricket boards to follow suit. It was soon clear to all concerned that signing up with the ICL would amount to taking a bite of forbidden fruit – the temptation is hard to overcome but the consequences would be dire.
The ICL did manage to sign up a number of prominent names – Inzamamul Haq, Craig MacMillan, Ian Harvey, Hasan Raza, Lance Klusener, Hemang Badani and others – but they are all either recently retired or out of favour with their own cricket boards for one reason or another.
Mohammad Yousuf was the only major player already contracted to his national board who succumbed. The rest prudently weighed the hefty dollar amounts against risking their own future in international cricket, and gave the ICL a pass.
It was the patently smarter thing to do, because everyone knew the BCCI’s ‘approved’ T20 league was emerging just around the corner. Within a short period, top-ranked players who had resisted the lure of the ICL had received even sweeter offers from the Indian Premier League and signed up in droves.
Whether the ICL deserves to be banned by the world’s governing bodies is an important though separate question. If the interests of the game are to be served then it obviously doesn’t, because the freedom of players should not be curtailed by cricket board politics. There are some rumblings that the PCB is considering reversing the ban on ICL players. That will have its political fallout across the border, but for the cause of Pakistan cricket, it will be a welcome development.
Still, the stark fact remains that the ICL is a banned outfit, and Yousuf was fully aware that signing up threatened to deprive Pakistan of his services. By accepting the ICL offer, he showed everyone that he had placed greed above the country – and so needlessly too, because he would have found the same if not better riches in the IPL, had he only been a little patient.
In an ill-conceived move, the PCB tried to talk Yousuf out of his ICL contract with the promise of getting him a favourable deal from the IPL. The gesture was aimed at making Yousuf available for selection by Pakistan, but it backfired badly.
The ICL sued and the PCB responded by compensating Yousuf for lost revenue and paying his legal fees. It proved futile and embarrassing, because arbitration upheld the ICL contract.
The PCB lashed out by threatening to sue Moin Khan, who had recruited Yousuf on behalf of the ICL. It was a bumbling move. Moin after all was only doing his job, and the PCB ended up looking foolish.
Yousuf meanwhile was growing increasingly nervous about his personal situation. An attempt to play county cricket in England was thwarted because he was denied a UK visa. Pakistan suffered a drought of international cricket, and even the one recent international outing, to Canada for a four-nation T20 tournament, proved frustrating for Yousuf due to visa difficulties.
Last week, he finally relented and joined up with the Lahore Badshahs in the ICL. It’s been great for the Badshahs and for the fans who are once again enjoying the rarefied pleasure of Yousuf’s silken batting. But in a more obvious sense, Mohammad Yousuf is back where he started, accomplishing little and inviting ridicule in the process.

Pakistan’s 3-0 whitewash of West Indies in Abu Dhabi has primed them for the upcoming series against India, their captain Shoaib Malik has said. Younis Khan hit 101 and Rao Ifthikar Anjum took 4-59 in Pakistan’s 31-run win in the last game, a win which Malik praised as a solid team effort.

“Before the start of this series, I had asked the players to play to potential and show commitment,” Malik said. “They have done that quite well and I am pleased they have given their best here.

“In the second match, our total was small but we knew that they heavily depend on Chris Gayle. We planned to get Gayle out early and did it. We also did well in saving boundaries as planned. We have not played international cricket in a long time, but that hasn’t deterred us. This win is a big boost to our confidence ahead of the series against India.”

Pakistan have been starved of international cricket this year with several teams refusing to tour the country due to security reasons. India are scheduled to play three Tests and five ODIs in Pakistan in January and February next year. There are doubts over the tour due to security worries, but Malik was hopeful of a tough series.

“The way India are playing we would need to be at our best and do extra work to beat them,” Malik said.

Younis, Man of the Match after his hundred, said India could be beaten. “This is pretty much the same team we played and beat last year. The only difference is they have an aggressive captain in [Mahendra Singh] Dhoni. But Dhoni has been very lucky as his changes and decisions have all paid off. His real test will come when luck deserts him.”

About Malik, my point was the same, as we were talking about him as a captain not a player. He was pretty decent all rounder before he became a captain. He may still have a place in the team somewhere. It all depends on how he performs.

Yes, merit is definitely paramount. Whether all 11 players come from a cave in Bajaur is irrelevant so long as they are the best in ability as well as mental strength in the country. That should be the criteria. This applies to team as well as PCB management. Surly, there are good officials elsewhere in the country from all corners (by the way, I didn’t know the other two selectors are from Karachi).

Best openers would no doubt be Afridi and Imran Nazir as far as T20 and ODI’s are concerned. They can also be groomed and tried for tests too. Ghambir, Sehwag, Jayasuria, Gayle etc are the types who have succeeded in shorter as well as longer versions of the game.

I think most people don’t have a problem with Malik being the captain as long as he is performing with both bat and ball. My problem with Malik is that he is not captaincy material, regardless of whether he performs or not. On merit he probably deserves a place in the T20 and ODI side.

What Wasim Akram has said correctly is that Pakistan should accept neutral venues for cricket as a last resort. It sounds demeaning, but Pakistan’s situation is akin to, “Beggars cannot be choosers”. If they don’t play cricket, the biggest losers will the players themselves who will be short of any match practice.

I don’t have a problem per se with office bearers being from Punjab. What I find odd though, which perhaps you have hinted in your comment, is after Nasim Ashraf’s pro-minority strategy and administration, we are now seeing almost no administrators from minorities. The interim Selection Committee features two out of three members from Karachi, however.

It doesn’t matter who is from where as long as selection is based on merit with no emphasis on nepotism and cronyism. Khurram Manzoor was touted as a superb talent and he is from Karachi, yet he appeared quite mediocre to me overall. I believe the other Karachi opener, Khalid Latif, is probably worse. So it doesn’t really matter to me if the opening pair is of Nasir Jamshed and Salman Butt, who are probably the best openers in Pakistan at the moment.

I really think most other ex-cricketers that really matter are voicing their concerns about Malik, so his days are numbered. Winning this series after a long time against an ordinary team is not going to change Malik’s mediocre performance overall and that two in a region where Pakistan generally has a good record.

On a different matter, the most disappointing thing for me in the current PCB set up is that a very little representation has been given, to all important office bearers, from the minorities. I have never known a PCB that is so Punjab heavy in the past. That needs to change. The only good thing is that the team has still got a reasonably good mix of players from all regions.

16 Nov 2008, 1947 hrs IST, PTI

KARACHI: Shoaib Malik is all set to be retained as Pakistan captain for the home Test series against India early next year, according to sources.

Sources in the team said the ODI series win against the West Indies has done a world of good among the players.

The complaint against Malik has been that he has not treated the senior players with respect and is low on his communication skills with the other players as well.

PCB chairman Ejaz Butt was, however, pleasantly surprised to see the change in relations between Malik and the players when he met the team members in Abu Dhabi.

Sources in the Pakistan team said since Intikhab Alam and Aaqib Javed took over as coach and assistant coach they had spent a lot of time working with Malik on his communication skills and attitude towards his team-mates.

“His attitude was one of the main reasons there was a growing demand to remove him as captain when the board sits down in December to appoint a new captain for the India series,” one source in the team said.

“But now apparently things have changed because not only has Pakistan done extremely well to win the one-day series against West Indies in Abu Dhabi but also Malik’s attitude has changed for the better with the other players,” the source added.

Senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf had accused Malik of disrespecting him before his joining the Indian Cricket League.

At the first team meeting held by coach Intikhab and manager Yawar Saeed, senior players like Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar had talked about the need for the captain to improve his attitude.

KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram said on Saturday that the current skipper Shoaib Malik has proved him wrong by shining both as a player and leader in recent international matches.

“Till last year I believed that Malik is not a good choice (as Pakistan captain),” Akram told reporters here. “But he has proved me wrong by performing really well in most of the matches Pakistan have played this year,” he added.

Malik, 26, led Pakistan to back-to-back wins against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi earlier this week and is now looking to win the three-match ODI series 3-0.

The Sialkot-born all-rounder was chosen to lead Pakistan in the aftermath of their embarrassing first round exit from the 2007 World Cup. Many former Test cricketers including Akram rejected him as a weak captain.

Akram said he has changed him mind. “I think Malik should be retained as captain,” he said.

The PCB appointed Malik till the end of this year and will be deciding whether to retain him for the all-important home series against India starting from early next year at a meeting of its Governing Board next month.

Speaking on a different issue, Akram said that the ICC should give official status to the rebel ICL.

“The ICC should sanction ICL and I believe it will have to do that soon,” said Akram.

He pointed out that the current ICL season has attracted some well-known cricketers especially from Pakistan and the league’s matches are attracting huge crowds that sometimes number more than 70,000. “The sort of cricket that is being played in the ICL and the huge crowds its matches are attracting is a proof that the ICL will eventually get recognition,” he said.

Akram stressed that some of the Pakistani cricketers playing in the league are still good for national duty. “Players like Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Sami can still play for Pakistan.”

Akram believes that Pakistan will suffer a lot after banning their premier batsman Mohammad Yousuf, who joined the ICL recently. “Yousuf is a great batsman and Pakistan will miss him once it starts playing the big games.”

Pakistan banned Yousuf from all cricket after he signed up to play for the ICL.

Akram also spoke on the question mark hanging over India’s tour of Pakistan, saying that the series between the two countries is a very important one, especially for Pakistan. There have been reports that India might decide to cancel the tour because of security concerns.

Akram said that Pakistan should keep their options open. “We cannot live in complete isolation,” he said. “If teams are forced to stay away from Pakistan because of security fears, then playing on offshore venues would be the only option and we will have to take it.”

Just to emphasise on my continous point of this great player and outstanding talent any side around the world let it be Austrlia,Southafrica, Bangladesh or whatever will be extremly grateful to have a player of such quality and their will be many bolwers praying not to bowl to him which just shows what a classy act he is.

So Pakistan should stop mowing and piling up these ridiculous bans and allow Nazir to open and play for Pakistan. He has got many hopeful years ahead and it’s vital to utlize him NOW with the amount of t20 cricket around. Such a fantastic performance secured victory and the title for the Badshahs.

LAHORE BADSHAHS ROCK !