On corruption in Pakistan one of the poets I guess it was Syed Ahmad Jaffery who mimicked Iqbal’s Shikwa, rather it was a parody of Shikva in which he said:

Rishwatain Chalteen hain yahan
Jaisay Gulistaan may Naseem.

something something Altaf O Ameem.

And, Ibne Insha once wrote about the quality of leaders in Pakistan

Har Shaaq pay Ullu Baitha hai
Anjaam-e- Gulistaan kya hoga?

I think Ullu is a more respectable word, one should say Butt…..baitha hai aur vo bhee super glue laga ker

What is the meaning of a final warning in Fawad Alam’s case? Will they demote him to 13th man? All the better for him not to carry gloves or a bottle of water for those nincompoops who are good for nothing A holes. Besides, people like Intikhab Alam and Yawar Saeed should act like grown up men instead they are simply arrogant old farts messing around with the team selection with their biased opinions, personal likes and dislikes. They should be fired without any warning.

Shoaib & Munir

That’s him when he was photographed in Karachi during the load shedding, even the camera flash didn’t work.

“The Pentangular is happening and that would be a good way for him (Younus Khan) to play and get some practice. The Sydney Test is looking very unlikely right now and no decision was taken today. And who will he replace there? Various batsmen have scored some runs here so it might be unfair to drop them.”

The highlighted text above is such a regionally biased statement, it could only come from a Jingoist’s Gingivitis Mouth because it spreads the stench like a skunky phoo. He never thought of saying this when Fawad Alam was dropped when he scored more runs than Butt and Farhat combined together.

Does he mean to say that Farhat, Butt and Faisal Iqbal are better than Younus Khan or, Misbah who scored a 50 after 14 innings is better than Younus Khan? Younus Khan will add strength in the batting department but, the bowling side needs to be strengthened further by axing Abdur Rauf and Ajmal both.

Yes, Shoaib, I guess you are right ?

We all very well know why Faisal Iqbal is in the team, but his case is not as much ‘discussed’ as we love to blame and curse Misbah and Malik here on LS.

Fasial is also worst than Farhat and Salman, but I guess that is fine too.

What I think about Misbah is that the Captain (Yousuf and even Younis before him) feel comfortable with Misbah being in the team as a senior player, whereas Faisal and Malik have their own reasons to play.

I really feel sorry for Fawad, as he on the other hand, he is neither a bundle of brilliance like Umar Akmal or Aamir to become an automatic selection for the team nor is he having any ‘parchi’ like Faisal or Malik.

I fully agree with your ‘parchi’ list of Farhat, Faisal, Malik and Butt. I think you are also right about Rauf and Sami, to some extent. IMO, the power of their ‘parchi’ is as below:

1- Faisal Iqbal
2- Imran Farhat
3- Shoaib Malik
4- Salman Butt
5- Mohammed Sami
6- Abdur Rauf

While if we have to see the relative acceptabilitiy of these players in the Pakistan’s Test team, then I think they shall be as :

Imran Farhat (first choice of these four)

Salman Butt (second choice)

Shoaib Malik (third choice)

Mohammed Sami (fourth choice)

Abdur Rauf (fifth choice)

Faisal Iqbal (last choice, if all others are dead)

To me, Fawad Alam without his bowling, is more or less same as Misbah and I am as free to hold my opinion as is anyone else who likes it or not.

You think or even call me Regionally Biased, but your support for Alam is hundred times more then me supporting Misbah, but I still would not prefer to call you Regionally Biased … did it ever occur to you why ?

On the other hand, I never really supported Misbah, but I think, out of the players we have on hand on Australian tour, Misbah deserves a place in the team, ahead of Malik and Faisal.

Fawad have played three Tests with six innings, does he have anything to talk about other then that 168 made on a “SEAMING TRACK” in Sri Lanka ? Well, his total Test score in 6 innings is 250, and if we take that one inning of 168 away, Fawad scored only 82 runs in 5 innings at an average of 16.40. Similarly, he already played 14 ODIs and have only one 50 to his credit. How many more chances and how much support does he need to become ‘next big thing’ ?

Faisal Iqbal is playing in the team for exactly as long as Misbah or Malik, and he still is as hopeless as on day one, but I rarely see you pointing towards the reasons for his being included in the team. Well the thing is, Faisal Iqbal is with the team for exact same reasons, or may be even more, that Misbah and Malik are.

Let me clarify myself on these four players Fawad, Faisal, Misbah and Malik. I would like to rate them as following …

Fawad Alam (without bowling) = Misbah-ul-Haq
Shoaib Malik
Faisal Iqbal

Khan Sahab is this you in the photo this time?

Reasons why we lost this test:

1) Drop catches on day one. This put us on the back foot and was influential in the difference in margin between the two sides.
2) Pakistan’s tail not “wagging”.
3) Simply the brilliance of Mitchell Johnson, Shane Watson and Nathan Hauritz. Just were too good for us at the end of the day.

But then again there were some positive signs:

1) Aamer bagging the 5 for in the second innings. This was a record and personal best.
2) Umar Akmal’s 50 in the first innings. His intent throughout was promising.
3) Kamran Akmal’s batting. He was looking in splendid touch and played some wonderful shots. His day may come soon.