THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED FOR DISCUSSION

The PTV Sports channel is constantly involved in lobbying its own agenda in a very synchronized and orchestrated manner. Apart from Afridi bashing there is yet another sinister move in sponsoring, promoting and projecting the discarded, a few of the out of form and even players with a tainted background by inviting them into their show.

It is not just an interview or a chit-chat with these players it is something more than what meets the eye and yet the anchor, media-manager of the PTV Sports our able Dr. Nauman Niaz is making an all out effort to bring back Shoaib Malik in the team and it is very obvious even to the layman or, the uneducated contrivers like us that he desperately wants Shoaib Malik to play the T20 WC 2012 in Sri Lanka.

If you have the time like Nauman has, you may watch the recording and judge for yourself, how he is projecting him and how he is protecting him. Here is the video link of Shoaib Malik on PTV Sports about 10 days ago.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0o-RUbCTIQ hww.youtube.com/watch?v=C0o-RUbCTIQ
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNeTMHd8FDA

First of all, the tweets that are being read on the show are selective, and we don’t even know for sure whether they are genuine or not? Because, I am sure most of you will agree that on the tweeter page there is not a single person who has praised Shoaib Malik, in fact they all have used foul language whenever his name appeared or, when they saw him on TV.

So, please observe that at one point when one of the tweets came up asking Shoaib Malik to clarify and express his opinion on the domestic match between Sialkot Stallions and Karachi Zebras that he threw deliberately.  Nauman Niaz instantly interrupted and VETOED it by saying,  ‘there is no need to discuss this issue here because it is old and it was settled then.’  It was settled with a slap on his wrist with a ban of 2  ODIs during the West Indies tour.

But, Malik never apologized to anyone.  Au contraire he refused to apologize and was extremely rude to Ramiz Raja when Shoaib Malik deliberately threw a away the match and when he was asked by Ramiz Raja why did he do that? He blatantly and arrogantly admitted and blamed the other side by saying, “aap unn say poochain unho nay kya kiya?” Ramiz said, “but Shoaib it is a very wrong thing and it might affect your career ‘coz some people are tipping you as the future captain of Pakistan. He said, Ramiz Bhai, Saari Omar Kon Cricket Khelta hai? Agar mai apnay Allah ko Razi ker loon tou wohi meray liyeh kafi hai?”  He admitted doing that on purpose in retaliation and hoping that he will make his Allah happy?  Here is that video, see the arrogance and smirk on his face and now he says: Give me Confidence and I will prove.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6846012691398407951

After that incident in 2005, he was still made captain of the Pakistan team. The point to remember here is, NO Captain after Inzamamul Haq was given a fixed tenure to remain as captain whereas, in Feb.2006 Ijaz Butt declared him to remain captain of the Pakistan cricket team till Dec. 31, 2006. It must also be remembered that Pakistan team under Shoaib Malik’s captaincy lost to India in India for the first time both ODI and test series and yet he remained captain of the team. Also, during the test series he injured his foot while playing soccer and did not come back to Pakistan. Younus Khan was made interim captain or, a makeshift captain of the tour. Malik was so selfish that when the team won one of the matches, he came to take over Younus to conduct the post match press conference.

When Malik was taking his team to the first T20 WC in South Africa, he dropped Mohammad Yousuf from the team to take in Misbah ul Haq and the reason he gave is Mohammad Yusuf is too old and not suitable for T20.  It’s a documented fact that, Misbah ul Haq is a few months older than Mohammd Yousuf.  On this show Malik has the audacity and the gumption to say that the player whom he respects in the team is MOHAMMDAD YOUSUF. And, he dumped Yousuf and took Misbah and we all know what Misbah did in that T20 WC? And, not once but twice and on both occasions it was against India.

Malik says he has not gotten enough chances to prove his form. Under Misbah’s captaincy he played full series against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, NewZealand and against Sri Lanka in the UAE and he failed miserably his, average was below ten and Misbah called him to Dubai to play against England. That was because, Pakistan had white washed 3-0 test series against England the no. 1 test team in the world and Misbah’s GUDDI was flying high, whatever he asked for, the PCB said your wish is our command and Malik was included.

The media and the public made a big hue and cry upon his inclusion and Misbah tried to justify that he included Malik because of his immense batting experience and another bowling option.  With Afridi, Ajmal and Abdur Rahman in the team, he say Malik is another bowling option? And did you notice how sparsely Misbah used Malik, in one of the matches Malik did not bowl at all.  And, whenever he was given the ball to bowl, it was when the conditions were favourable for a new bowler. He was not given a ball to break an established partnership, it was only to go through the overs quickly.

Malik is saying on this show, he wasn’t  given chance to prove his batting. What the HELLO does he mean by that? He is such a coward, he cannot face the fast English bowlers and his record against English bowlers is pathetic, he cannot face swing bowling and he always opted to play when the ball is old and not swinging and he has played at no. 6 or 7 and that is what Misbah did, protected him. And he says, I was not given enough chance to prove.

Nauman says: Malik has openly and candidly expressed his views here on the show. LOL @ this farcical and comical comment from Nauman.  Malik clearly said, “Iss baat ka javab mai aapko show kay baad doonga, “ and on another occasion he repeated the same template, “Iss baat ka javab mai yahan nahee de sakta. Show kay baad doonga.”

Malik’s favourite template when he gets out cheaply or performs badly or, lose a match he says: “We are still learning from our mistakes and Inshallah we will improve and correct our mistakes.” We are hearing this template for the last 11 years. There is no improvement, there is no correction. Besides, the learning level is at school and at the cricket academy and not at the International level, at the International level, you have to perform and deliver.

Nauman enough of this sponsoring business especially for nothing players like Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and even Danish Kaneria (his inclusion in your show is a diplomatic and political ruse, and no one is not so naive not to make it out) if you want to promote and project good young players, call HAMMAD AZAM who has been neglected so many times, the boy is full of talent and he is a budding all-rounder, we are not patronising him on a regional basis, he is from Lahore and not Karachi.  Also, invite Gohar Ali the budding wicket-keeper Gauhar Ali from Peshawar who is not only agile and smart behind the wickets but, he bats better than Sarfaraz Ahmad.

Our comments on this blog here are, absolutely fair and unbiased whereas, Nauman as an anchor, as a media manager of the PTV sports uses his influence and his power and promotes regionalism in cricket. The day you’ll stop it, you will be hailed as a fair and unbiased sports personality. But, this is like asking someone to bring the stars and the moon.

Dear bloggers, please do not hesitate to add your comments here so that we can create a ripple effect through the twitter and make these Chaudhrys and Wadheras of cricket realize that we are not naive and dumb as they think.

Ps. The first step in blogging is not writing them but, reading them.  So please read the blog first before you write your comments. Thank you.

THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED FOR DISCUSSION

With the advent of Satellite TV it is remarkable to see how the media has developed in the last two decades and we see satellite dishes on top of almost every building. Likewise, the  TV channels are mushrooming all over the world.  In Pakistan the freedom of speech or, the freedom given to the press happened just a decade ago i.e., during the time of Parvez Musharraf. Since then we have seen so many TV channels and lost a count of them.

Personally I don’t even know how many they are or what their names are? Because of my ignorance and partially because of my job and business I do not have enough time to lounge around and watch those hundreds of TV channels. I have actually surprised so many people when they found out that I have not watched a single episode of the Pakistani Soap HumSafar. I swear, I did not see that program not even a bit of it.

My only interest in having a satellite TV is because of cricket and I watch live cricket only but, not all the TV shows related to cricket where they conduct interviews of the players, analysis of the game, players performances etc., and they are either critical or supportive. In my opinion it is fair. But, when you get to hear or see that some critics are biased and they have an agenda against a few players, I think it is unfair and extremely unprofessional.

The reason for writing this blog is to give our readers a perspective of how one of the anchors of PTV sports, Mr Nauman Niaz conducts his affairs which are purely one sided and biased. At times he has tried to promote regional bias by asking their guests (mainly ex-cricket players) questions which are politically incorrect. In fact he has tried on several occasions to put words in their mouth or, even coerced them to agree with him.

photos have been removed at he request of the individuals

Reportedly in one of the TV shows he asked Shoaib Akhtar by saying that, “people are saying, you are supporting Umar Amin because he is from Rawalpindi,” the same city as his. Shoaib responded it as a rubbish claim and said, he has openly given a few suggestions to Shahid Afridi that, if he bowls sensibly and focus on his bowling, he could achieve the target of 500 wickets in the ODIs.”

Mind you Afridi is a Pathan from PukhtoonKhwa and, domiciled in Karachi. So, Shoaib Aktar said, this is an example that I do not create any kinda regional bias.  We all know that Shoaib is not like that but, Nauman wanted to test Shoaib by putting words in his mouth.

Although one may not agree with this notion but, if you watch his shows, he deliberately tries to bring up the subject of Afridi even when the guest (Akhtar or Amir Sohail) were not talking about Afridi and out of context he would ask them to comment on Afridi. If it was to praise him, it would have been another matter but, he wants them to join his banter and create a lobby against Afridi is very trivial of him to do that, and I wonder why?

Very often when he gets a tweet about afridi, he reads it out on air and says something like “shahid afridi pakistan kay shahid afridi hain, karachi ya kisi ek sheher ke nahi” — whereas, the tweets don’t even mention Karachi/Lahore.  So, he’s definitely obsessed with regionalism. There was a time he was extremely pally with Shahid Afridi, which is obvious from the picture below which one of our bloggers have forwarded it to us. Take a look at the photo and see how Afridi is blushing whereas, Nauman is getting over-friendly by hugging him.

Photos have been removed at the request of the individuals

Last year on our blog “legslip” we’ve copy pasted the links of the two articles that Nauman wrote in the local newspapers and found them unbiased and found the criticism as fair.  But, something happened, something definitely happened between Nauman and Afridi that the former hates him and never misses a single opportunity in criticizing him.

In fact he does not look for opportunities, he creates one and start ruing about him with a vengeance. His constant banter and Afridi bashing became so obvious that people all over the world, especially on the twitter started discussing it and some emotional lads have actually abused him. I was not aware of who Nauman is or what is his job status, title, role with the Pakistan cricket team or his designation etc. So, I asked on the tweeps, who is Nauman and what is his role with the team?

A few people on twitter responded to my call and one of them said he was a Physiotherapist and used to accompany the team and that is how he had access to the player’s dressing room and he used the Urdu equivalent word for his job description and he said, he was a “Malishia.” I said, Oh OK, I used to think he is a Ph.D, a sports critic or a TV VJ whatever and I did not know he was a “Malishia?” I did not coin or initiated the word word Malishia on the twitter, I simply repeated it.

To my surprise the next day I received a long email from “Dr.” Nauman Niaz, which is full of his credentials, details of his academics, professional achievements and blah, blah.  We exchanged a couple of emails and then I decided to publish them here on the blog so that more people can read it and understand what kind of a person he is and how cleverly he is holding the post of an anchor at the PTV sports for such a long time?

He has agreed that he shall be commenting on the blog and will certainly clarify his position i.e., the misunderstanding that has been created between him and “us”. According to him which he said in his show, are just a handful of tweeps that is, “us” who are criticizing him unnecessarily, unduly which is rather unfair.

To avoid lengthy reading we are going to post his emails in the comments section so that they can easily be identified and understood and the bloggers shall be entitled to post their comments the way they feel it but, without abusing him or using any profanity, those comments shall be deleted.  So, please go ahead and start reading the comments section, the first comment is the first email by “Dr.” Nauman Niaz, followed by my reply and so on.   

I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.

I have seen the full interview of Mohammad Aamir with Mike Atherton and I am not the only one, there are hundreds and thousands of cricket nuts who also saw that interview and discussed it on twitter and I have not yet read a single tweet or a comment so far in which people are not criticizing him for lying to us once again.  Everyone, invariably everyone has the same opinion that he is ONCE AGAIN LYING THROUGH HIS TEETH.

IMO, he has rehearsed the whole script a few times and tried to use a few phrases which in his opinion could create sympathies in the minds of general public, which I am sure he must have done because he did that interview in Urdu.  And a lot of people in Pakistan especially the masses and his fan club and the Paindoos must be saying: “Bicharay nay admit ker liya aur maafi bhee mangi tou lets pardon and forgive him and forget the whole episode. ”   This is exactly he wants and it is for this reason he is not appealing to the ICC to reduce his ban.  He wants the public to appeal for his case after this interview. In his mind he has succeeded.

The truth is, he said all those touching dialogues, phrases and apologizing repeatedly has over done it.  The thing is, he could not hide his body language and one can make out easily that he was over doing it for getting sympathies.  To understand  that one doesn’t need to be a psychiatrist or an expert to read his facial expressions, each time he was lying at crucial moments he would swallow his saliva or scratch his ear and the way he moved in his chair, waved his hands, false twinkles in his eyes etc., was very obvious that he was lying through his teeth.

He said he did not bowl the no-balls for money but, he did because he was scared for his future and he did that to save his cricket career.  He did not go to the PCB, ICC or any authorities such as police or even media to tell them I am being coerced by these people and they want me to cheat.   He did not do that but, he gave his bank account details to ALI (whom he did not know well, only that he was Mazhar Majeed’s friend,  and he did not know Mazhar Majeed well only that he was Salman Butt’s friend) without asking the reason, why do you want my bank account number?

First he gave that account number and then he asked him why he needs it? He not only made friends with ALI who was in Dubai, but he met him in Pakistan after giving his cell phone number to him in Dubai. And, he exchanged more than 40 text messages on phone. And, yet he says, I don’t know much about ALI, how is this possible?

He also said that not only ALI but, Mazhar Majeed was also a very nice man and his wife was very religious and he was a good family man!  He also said that Salman Butt was very nice to him throughout and treated him like his own younger brother and he was highly impressed by Salman Butt.  Then he blamed ALL of them by saying they trapped him and he is innocent. But, he accepted £1500 from Mazhar Majeed and kept it in a safe without opening the envelop (yet he knew they were £1500 ?) Whereas he has his own money about  £7000-8000 in a open bag!

He said, he knew that Mazhar made money from the no-balls Aamir bowled but, he could not do anything to him or tell anyone that he was used or trapped. Even when he went to the ICC, instead of pleading guilty he denied the charges, only when in London and when he was told by his lawyers to plead guilty then he did, whereas he says he did it on his own. Its not true, why did he not admit that earlier? Because, he didn’t have the brains or he must have been told that you will come out free, no one can sentence you for bowling a couple of no-balls. You are a celebrity. Remember Wasim Akram was not sentenced, Asif was released from Dubai and he was not jailed so they cannot hold you, you are future Wasim Akram.

He said, he was on “Cloud Nine” after getting success so soon, he considered him as a very stupid person and at least 10 times he must have mentioned his age as 17-18 years old and no ability to think, analyse or make a decision not to get involved with them. He claims that he was trapped and dragged into this situation by ALI, Mazhar Majeed and Salman Butt.

You can see the interview yourself which is below on youtube all 4 episodes and make out for yourself whether or not he was lying or telling the truth? His lawyer is Sajida Malik and there are reports in all the newspapers that he is marrying her soon, if that is correct then, she must have also played a role in briefing him on how to respond to the questions.  This is a complete dramay bazi and poor acting from Aamir which he thinks he did well, also those who love him and want him back will also say that he did well, but the truth is he failed miserably.  The views on twitter are not just from Pakistanis but from ALL over the world cricket fans have tweeted and commented.

The moral of the story is he cannot change, he has put on an act and failed again. You cannot take away the spots from a leopard and, you cannot straighten a dogs tail.  To me he doesn’t look like he is 18 years old, he is definitely close to 22~23 years old. IF his ban is reduced or, after completing his 5 year ban if he is allowed to play for Pakistan then, he is setting a precedent for others that you can do whatever you like and make money, plea guilty and you can still comeback like Arnold Schwarzenegger says: “I will be back.”   IF the PCB wants to set this as an example for youngsters then, they should ban ALL the THREE cheaters for ruining the image of the country.

Some people might say that there is corruption in Pakistan right from the top i.e., by citing Zardari’s example.  The law of Pakistan says that the President of Pakistan is immune and he cannot be punished like an ordinary citizen. So, the law is not for Zardari per se but, it is for the country’s President. In this case here, whether it is Aamir or Asif or anyone who breaks the law deserves the punishment.

Some people might say that he has already been punished and sentenced to jail, so you cannot punish him twice for the same crime, or punish him more than that.  No one is asking for any further punishment but, to set an example on ethics and morals and to promote professionalism and to keep the game clean from spot fixing and match fixing the PCB themselves should put their foot down and ban them for life. 

The irony is the PCB Chairman Mr. Zaka Ashraf himself said that they will request the ICC to reduce his ban and we would like to bring him back as soon as possible.  Reportedly Mr. Zaka Ashraf himself has not been cleared by the court and, he has a few cases of corruption registered under his name and his appointment as the chief of the PCB by Zardari is questionable and a lot of people in the cricketing circles have raised their eyebrows on his appointment.

No matter what the millions of educated people think, say or ask the PCB to ban the trio for life, they are not going to do that, until and unless the PCB becomes an independent organization and free from politics and politicians these things will continue and will continue to ruin the game of cricket in Pakistan and continue to ruin the image of the country.  May God Bless Pakistan.