It never crossed my mind that Charles marriage to Diana was an arranged one, so why are the Brits so surprised to hear that Indians and Pakistanis have arranged marriages? They never look into their own Royal Backyard.

Was getting sick of “india” being portrayed as some “glamour” country in Western media. Get real! That’s confined to a handful of the population.

During Imran Khan’s time Pakistan used to beat Sri Lanka in similar fashion. But, now it is Pakistan’s turn under Younus Khan that 8-9 wickets fall within 30-40 runs, it has become a habit. Like, the West Indies Team getting all out from 170 for 1 to 202 all out after Gayle’s departure.

I agree with Awas that the absence of mercurial Shahid Afridi is being felt more than ever and he is a great motivator while fielding and bowling. In test matches his batting average is better than Shoaib Malik (35) and Abdul Razzaq (28) and Afridi’s own is 37. He has 5 test hundreds as opposed to Maliks one and only. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to call him for the third test if he is fit and ready to join the team early.

Ijaz Butt is now saying “the flop performance of team is beyond understanding.” When they lost the first test he was defending with some stupid reasoning that we played 5 sessions very well and played one badly and lost. WTF? Who cares about sessions? The bottom line is victory or defeat. Besides, that first test defeat was also very pathetic that they were 72 for 1 and 117 all out, 9 wickets in 45 runs, they couldn’t make 168 runs. This time 9 wickets in 35 runs, good going!

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ejaz Butt Tuesday termed the performance by Pakistan national team as disappointing in test series against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Talking to media here, he said there is no veracity in grouping in the team, adding the team is united; however, the flop performance of team is beyond understanding.
Ejaz Butt said the team is playing test series after a long period, therefore, its performance is not up to mark; however, he hoped that team will soon catch up the rhythm.

He said it is quite amazing that Pakistan hit 285 runs with one wicket down and then the whole team return to pavilion on just 320 runs.

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KARACHI: Former Test cricketer Sarfraz Nawaz severely criticized Pakistan cricket team for its humiliating series defeat from Sri Lanka.

Pakistan lost the second Test match by seven wickets on the third of the match at Colombo conceding the series 2-0 to the home side.

“There is grouping in the team. The team displayed completely irresponsible in both the innings. These are professional players and they shouldn’t play like amateurs. See how youngster Fawad Alam played. If he hadn’t knocked 168 runs then Sri Lanka would have beaten Pakistan on the second day – which most of the players intended to do,” Sarfraz said while talking to Geo News.

He said that the board should be disbanded and it should be brought under the power of the ministry.

“They forced honest selectors to resign and brought in people who are pleasing to them. I have never seen a seven-member committee in the past anywhere in the world,” Sarfraz said.

Abdul Qadir has accused coach Intikhab Alam and manager Yawar Saeed of conspiring against Shoaib Akhtar to keep him out of the team.

Former Pakistan chief selector, Qadir, who appeared before the national assembly standing committee on sports, said Intikhab had told him twice that he didn’t want Shoaib in his team.

“I don’t want Shoaib in my team, Intikhab told me when we met to select the team for the T20 World Cup,” Qadir told the committee.

He said it was a conspiracy hatched by Intikhab and Yawar to drop Shoaib from the team on medical grounds after the selectors insisted on his inclusion in the World Cup team.

“I checked Shoaib, he was fit and bowling with speed and was working on his game,” he said.

Shoaib was dropped from the team at the last minute after a medical panel of the board found him suffering from a skin infection and advised him rest for 12 days.

But Qadir said Intikhab had conjured up the story about the fast bowler having a serious medical condition.

“I will never forgive these two even if Shoaib forgives them because they played around with the national team. Shoaib is still an asset for the team and should have been played,” said Qadir, who resigned last month during the World Cup.

Shoaib recently said that he had thought about legally suing the board for releasing the confidential medical report about his condition to the media but later dropped the idea as he didn’t want any controversy.

Qadir also told the committee that the selectors were not allowed to pick teams independently and there was too much interference from the board and team management.

Although Pakistan went on to win the T20 World Cup it has suffered two humiliating defeats in the Test series to Sri Lanka for which Shoaib was not considered on fitness ground.

The PCB on Monday appointed a new national selection committee headed by former Test spinner Iqbal Qasim, which also includes Saleem Jaffer, Ijaz Ahmed, Mohammad Illyas and Azhar Khan.

Unforgivable.

In the Pakistan team people don’t get punished when they deserve it. And they don’t get chances when they deserve them, too.

Basit said the problems with batting were basic and he said that they will not take a great deal of time to remedy. However he said the defeat was shocking. He was also asked about groupings in the team and he said that this is no surprise as there have always been groupings in the Pakistan team. He refused to comment about who was creating groupings.

Some fans expressed dissatisfaction with Malik’s performance.

I agree that better to have a player like Imran Nazir than Butt. Agreed that he may disappoint more often than not but at least an occasional explosive innings is expected from that guy. Fawad can then play in the middle order.

One other reason for such pathetic performance from our batters is that we did not have mercurial Afridi either who is so influential in every department.

In my view Malik and Misbah should be replaced with Afridi and Malik and the order of playing eleven rejigged accordingly. But that’s for the future. For the third test, the eleven would be picked from the current squad.

Munir

Why anger at Younus? What could he do if all others fail? If he was an Indian he would have been made a deity after winning the T20 cup