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cricket England
tour: If the lessons are not derived, then... cricket 15th
Asian Games: Stiff challenge ahead for Pakistan
Pakistan Cricket Board continues to discourage youngsters Rao Iftikhar, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik were again chosen for the important 10-nation biennial event which is also known as 'Mini World Cup' in spite of highly poor performances in England By Ghalib Mehmood Bajwa The 80-day tour to England
was a horrible period for Pakistan cricket and the aging captain
Inzamam-ul-Haq, After the highly unpleasant tour, Pakistan cricket team is going to take part in ICC Champions Trophy being held in India next month. The national selection committee by announcing a 'perfectly merit-based' 14-member team for the Champions Trophy, made it further difficult for Pakistan to carve out encouraging results and salvage some pride ahead of grand World Cup event that's only a few months away. Simply the strange selection criteria of PCB selectors put the future of Pakistan cricket at stake. It's no less than a tragedy with Pakistan cricket that neither the young ones are being tested properly despite being selected nor the poor performers are being replaced with the competent ones. There is natural way to select a team for any tour or tournament and that's to watch the performance of players minutely at the conclusion of a tour and then in light of that analysis select the side for next event but surprisingly our selectors every time forget to follow this logical criteria. One fails to understand how the potential youngsters can be nurtured if you don't give them a chance in less important events or home rubbers. Pacers Rao Iftikhar, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and all-rounders Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik were again chosen for the important 10-nation biennial event which is also known as 'Mini World Cup' in spite of highly poor performances in England. The PCB's blue-eyed all-rounder Shoaib Malik, who missed Test series due to injuries, could not make his presence felt in either departments of the game. Malik scored just 16 runs in four ODI games and failed to pick up a single wicket. Even then he was retained for ICC Champions Trophy. Similarly, Shahid Afridi also failed to justify his place in both Test and ODI team. He could not touch the 50-run mark even once during his seven international matches including two Tests. In two Tests he gathered just 49 runs with 16 as his best. His performance in ODIs remains even more pathetic. He scored only 25 runs in five matches at just 8.33 runs per innings. It is to be noted here that Afridi has not scored a single fifty in his last 22 ODIs. It was an eye opener for the Pakistan selectors but who cares. Can Pakistan rely on Afridi in a major event like World Cup, certainly not. Pacer Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who's actually a stock bowler rather than a match-winner, could not impress with his performance in England. The fast bowler took only four wickets in five ODIs at 55.00 each. An analysis of the previous two years shows that barring the India tour last year, he could not prove himself a genuine match-winner in either form of the game. His ordinary career bowling averages in Tests (58.18) and just 13 wickets in his last 13 ODI games can clear the things more. As far as Rao's performance is concerned, so far he has played one Test and 19 ODIs in which he captured only 13 wickets at 52.66. It is no secret that Iftikhar has never been a match-winner in his career. His best bowling in the limited version of the game remained 2-13 which shows his poor wicket-taking capability. During the entire England tour he got a single ODI that shows his utility and effectiveness. One fails to understand reasons behind his continuous selection even in the presence of far better bowlers like Samiullah Niazi and Shahid Nazir, who performed excellently under pressure in two Test matches in England. After such a substandard performances, is there any justification for the selection of Afridi, Rana, Rao and Shoaib Malik for the very next event. On the other hand, two young but potential cricketers Samiullah Niazi and Shahid Yousuf were kept away from playing during the England tour. Samiullah was sent back after the Test series while Shahid, the 20-year-old right-handed batsman from Sialkot, remained with the team throughout the ODI series but without any international exposure. Remember, after sending Shahid to England, chief selector Wasim Bari had said that he was a fine batting prospect who has done well for the A side in recent months. It was not the first occasion when the youngsters were deprived of any kind of cricket during an away tour. Last year swing bowler Shahid Nazir, who finally got two Test matches in the recent England tour, was summoned to India for a six-match ODI series but was not considered for any game. Then he was brought to the West Indies for a full Test and ODI tour but again ignored completely. Similarly slow bowlers Abdul Rehman and Tahir Khan were also selected for the Sri Lanka tour earlier this year but were sent back home without giving any game. Left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman was later selected for two one-dayers against India in Abu Dhabi. But surprisingly he was not considered for any of the ODI games and thrown into the vicious circle of 'in & out' without giving him any international exposure. Such a discouraging attitude from PCB creates just depression and frustration among the youngsters nothing else. Abdul Rehman, who performed excellently in recent Australian tour with Pakistan A team, also deserved to be called for Test matches and ODI series in England. He has been enriched with great wicket-taking ability which he demonstrated on many occasions in domestic games. Our cricketing high-ups must keep in notice that the forthcoming ICC Champions Trophy is being staged in India where a left-arm spinner could prove to be a trump card for Pakistan. Almost all the teams like world champions Australia Sri Lanka and India are grooming young cricketers for the important future assignments. On the contrary, Pakistan selectors continued to keep faith in ordinary pacers like Rao Iftikhar, Rana Naved and Mohammad Sami and non-serious cricketers like Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik apparently without any game plan. Prior to his departure to England, it was expected that Niazi would make his debut in the four-Test series after pacer Rana Naved was ruled out with a groin injury. The Faisalabad-based Samiullah, 24, was flown to England on the request of the team management but surprisingly he was not considered for any Test match and sent back prior to ODI series. He was a member of the Pakistan A team which won the EurAsia Cup played in Abu Dhabi in April this year. Samiullah, who has a smooth and natural run-up and sufficient pace, made his first-class debut for Sargodha in 2002-03. In the 2005-06 season, Samiullah was among the leading wicket-takers in first-class matches with 75 wickets at only 18.36 each. After just four seasons of first-class cricket, the Mianwali-born youngster has gathered 140 wickets in 33 matches at just 19.62. It is pertinent to mention here that Samiullah is one of the few Pakistan pacers who have below 20 runs per wicket averages in a first-class career. Last summer he was in England, as a member of the Faisalabad Wolves team that won the International Twenty20 Championship arranged by Leicestershire. Faisalabad Wolves also won the ABN-AMRO One-day Cup in March this year. In the final of the said event, Samiullah picked up the Man of the Match award for his fiery bowling (4-25). The
writer is a staff member at 'The News' Lahore ghalibmbajwa@yahoo.com England tour: If the lessons are not derived, then... A debate has started in the cricket circles to consider Inzamam's sacking as Pakistan skipper before the World Cup; this looks very odd By S M Ibrahim Farooqi The International Cricket
Council (ICC) Chief Executive Malcolm Speed's recent statement, that the ball Therefore one strongly assumes that Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq's ICC hearing on September 27 and 28 at London will ultimately result in success of the Pakistan side of the affair. The Pakistan tour of England 2006 started with the injuries on both sides hitting the headlines, continued with some ordinary cricket from the tourists amid a few brilliant individual attempts from their star performers -- Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, professional display from the hosts, and ended with the unanticipated debacle at The Oval Test. Forget the past, experienced humans say. Now with around just three weeks left in the ICC Champions Trophy, all the major cricket playing nations must be concentrating on this job, a perfect rehearsal for the 2007 World Cup. But can we overlook the past which is directly linked with the present, and which helps us in formulating our plans besides guiding us in putting those into practice? For prestigious contests like the 2007 World Cup, 2006 Champions Trophy and the tour to South Africa, the Pakistan team, by now, should have prepared themselves but regrettably this doesn't seem to be the case. On a long trip to England, the Pakistan camp, apart from trying to be victors, should have gained some lessons for their next three major assignments -- the ICC Trophy, South Africa tour and the 2007 World Cup. Whether our players have got those lessons, will be quite obvious at the arenas. But as regards the review of Pakistan's overall performance in England, several major loopholes remain where they were some two years back. The openers' crisis, predominantly defensive methodology, pathetic fielding and non-existence of a clear-cut vision were primarily responsible for Pakistan's 0-3 defeat in the Test rubber followed by a 2-2 draw in the One-day International (ODI) series after the visitors had taken a 2-0 lead. One has become sick and tired while trying to highlight the 'musical chairs game' that has been going on continuously in the (Pakistan) openers' department for more than a year or so. But on the other hand the team management has been 'very punctual' in making sure the 'game' goes on without any stoppage. The slowly cropping up crisis was one of the top reasons for Pakistan's defeat in the Test as well as the ODI series in England. Former Test captain Imran Khan and number of other ex players have also blamed unsettled opening pair for Pakistan's disaster in England. The average of Pakistan's opening stands in the England Test matches (2006) was 25.71 runs with 70 being the best stand while in the five-match ODI rubber the mean was even lower -- 15.4 runs -- with 43 being the biggest start. So due to this open fact the middle-order batsmen -- Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi -- faced continued pressure; on some occasions they, somehow, rescued their team while, on several times it didn't work at all, as simple as that. With no set opening pair, one wonders which players Bob Woolmer and Inzamam will try in the ICC Trophy. Exclusion of a talented Salman Butt from the global event is really irksome in this regard. Pakistan play top cricket when their boys attack -- this is a ground reality, a reality that was proven in the final ODI at Edgbaston, Birmingham. While defending a slim 154, Pakistanis had their backs to the wall. Restricting their opponents from 23-0 to 49-3, Pakistanis had started giving red signals to the England dressing room. But when England reached 102-3, with the set pair of Kevin Pietersen (34) and Paul Collingwood (22) at the crease, the match, it seemed was almost over for Pakistan. But they emerged again, this time with more determination, aggressively grabbing four more wickets as England wobbled to 118-7. The absolute attacking manner Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq bowled to claim two wickets apiece in the game, showed how significant attacking stance is, specifically for Pakistan, who, by nature, are an attacking cricketing nation. And history shows when they attack with control, they achieve marvellous results. In fact, Pakistan require dominant technique in every department of the game. Taking a two slips, point, mid-off field doesn't suit Pakistan bowlers who naturally go after wickets rather than looking to stop the batsmen from scoring freely. Similarly, if Kamran Akmal is sent in at various positions after every couple of games to do different jobs, he will lose his instinct to play the game normally, and so while being compelled to incline to save his wicket, will, most probably, be found wanting in testing situations. So, another point to be noted here is that a set batting order, with reasonable flexibility for occasional adjustment, is directly related to attacking posture; if a player finds himself in an unusual position more than often he will lose his utility or at least it will be reduced. Before coming to England the Pakistan squad had trained under former South African fielding icon Jonty Rhodes. And with more expectations from their fans, the Pakistanis, instead of showing betterment in this key area of the game, failed miserably. Several catches went down in Tests and ODIs which helped in augmenting England's position. Player's own passion for the game is much valuable than his training under another person; who trained Rhodes to stop lightning balls from going to the fence while he would remain airborne? We can't have eleven (or may be not even two!) Rhodes in the Pakistan line-up; frankly speaking no team can have it but the emphasis must be on developing a culture of refined fielding, a culture that is uniformly understood and adopted by all the eleven players. Inzamam, after the England ODI series, has rightly said that to progress in limited overs version of the game the Pakistanis will have to raise their fielding standards. One hopes Pakistanis will be totally different men in India next month, to what they were in England this summer while running in the park and one expects the same will be the condition in the West Indies next year. With no vision a human being remains an entity without a route and destination. He may carry out several jobs but non-availability of a clear vision keeps the net utility of his limited on many occasions. Pakistan played in England with no visible aim of toppling the hosts who were also missing several of their key players. And therefore we won some ODI games besides saving the first Test at Lord's, the net result remained in favour of England who used their on hand talent in the best possible way with a target in mind -- to triumph against Pakistan for keeping the upper hand in the forthcoming Ashes series. A debate has started in the cricket circles to consider Inzamam's sacking as Pakistan skipper before the World Cup; this looks very odd. Pakistan did not lose in England because of Inzamam's failure (with the bat) but due to the reasons mentioned earlier in this piece. And now with just four months to go in the mega event, the talking of Inzamam's dismissal from the national leadership is not rational in any way. One should not forget that Imran and Wasim Akram -- the two former Test captains -- have also endorsed Inzamam's leadership qualities recently. The England tour is now a part of history though The Oval incident is yet to take its final turn at Inzamam's hearing at the ICC. But back to the playing field. If Pakistan are to fare well in the ICC Trophy and the 2007 World Cup they will have to address the areas mentioned in this piece, along with other causes in general; the Pakistan camp can draw several lessons from the England trip, and if this is not done in time then, then who knows when and where the turmoil will end. The
writer works as a sub-editor at 'The News'. His e-mail address: pakshaheen65@yahoo.co.uk Square peg in an Oval hole One must bewilderingly suggest, without Inzamam in the World Cup Pakistan may well look a side directly out of an orphanage By Dr Nauman Niaz Pakistan's experience in Tests in England was disastrous.
The Oval forfeiture brought the world on the edge. September 10th, Sunday, was a day of another defeat, another incidence of deafening indifference. Despite having top all-round players Pakistan didn't show mixing with one-day cricket. This tour of England has been one long, lingering devious tilt of expectations, and not even the ignominy of The Oval's aftermath could spur them on. Nothing was sufficient to rouse our players. It was utterly disappointing. If Pakistan in Test cricket are bad, then Pakistan in one-day cricket looked appalling-they didn't capitalise on their early successes. Theories abound as to why this should be so, and the olden excuse of conversion from Tests to one-day form or exhaustion and saturation have been one of the favourite explanations. Lacking mental toughness, not even Inzamam's return to full flow was designed to cope with that. Even the coach is beginning to shrug his shoulders at the futility of it all. It wasn't so long ago that Bob Woolmer was a brazen cheerleader of Pakistan's potential -- however in the post Oval scenario Woolmer's outlook must be somewhat different now. Perhaps it's because he has been given a tough time by the PCB and by new appointments of Waqar Younis and Zaheer Abbas. He'll never again be questioning where his team's priorities should lie. Pakistan returns home braced for a dual wave of The Oval nostalgia on the one hand, and a surge of World Cup 2007 build-up on the other. Disheartening it has been, really. There is no priority to match that priority, and for all the administrative screw-ups, bad management and with Inzamam's immediate future down on the mat, and for all the protestations Pakistan have failed to use the five-match series in England to build for the World Cup 2007. Comparison of the enthusiasm levels between the first day at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff and the final hours at Edgbaston paint a truer picture. One-day matches between now and next March are about as relevant and regrettably Pakistan run down by extremely bad management are not getting into their groove. The Oval incident for Pakistan is not going to become soon-to-be-forgotten confusion. It was simply cataclysmic. They are doing nothing but treading water at present, while soaking up a team that is close second or third in the world. If they can immunize themselves to the bad management part and play cricket independently, regardless of how PCB intends to handle them, they'll find the forfeiture at The Oval a doddle to overcome. Despite Pakistan's recent performances we must not forget that they beat England at home and Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. They aren't always entirely spiritless when it comes to one-day cricket but, after recent performances they couldn't have gone worse if they'd tried, expectations this time around are soaring high but in reality it seems that our cricket is at rock-bottom. No one from the cricket fraternity in Pakistan cares if they sink without trace or expects that they won't. And besides, if all will go to plan in the months that precede the World Cup, including the ICC Champions Trophy in India, the team will be forgiven any multitude of sins. It's going to take rather more than just turning up on the day if Pakistan are to justify their pedigree and world ranking. And if the PCB really are contemplating dropping Inzamam in the coming months, then it's little wonder they're not too bothered about coasting through their current slough; but real worry is their own survival. As far as the last few months are concerned, they didnít get their priorities spot on, perhaps they had some concealed motives. Despite PCB announcing Inzamam as captain for the ICC Champions Trophy in India, there is still skepticism that they'll not be sticking to him until the World Cup. One must bewilderingly suggest, without him in the World Cup Pakistan may well look a side directly out of an orphanage. The PCB should be proud of the fact that they have at least two captains whose careers are overlapping and they must not let this happy moment slip into adversity. Younis is a ready made stand in for Inzamam and the moment the latter ends his career, he'll be an automatic replacement without causing stir-without a yawning gap appearing to haunt team's immediate future. However, in-house politics and insecurities may well see Inzamam soon being relegated to sequestration. Nonetheless, PCB's top hierarchy needs to realise that he made at least three statements in the second, third and fourth One-day International matches in England -- statements about high quality stroke making and about how much cricket is still left in him. It is still very much his time. About Pakistan's tour to England, so many misconceptions exploded, in fact, there is a case for proposing that the quiet, simple-looking, chilled Inzamam, gentle, polite and obliging and not the stereotype captain overreacted to one rude umpiring decision at The Oval. Ignorance got him into a big mess and it needed to take one hell of a lot of explaining to get him out again. The PCB hierarchy was as ignorant as anyone in the Pakistan dressing room; things happened at a breakneck speed and in the end left the world hard done by. It was complete shambles. The cricket world has been stirred. So much has been written. What could have been done? One Darrell Hair should have handled the incident with greater sensitivity. Inzamam should have known what was happening. Umpires acted in accordance with the law but given the gravity of what they were implying, could they not have, for instance, pulled the captain aside and had a word with him? Pakistan's management should have played a constructive role and not jumping to and fro, totally confused and lacking knowledge of the ICC Code of Conduct, laws and bylaws. Or perhaps this was too big an event for them to get out of their daily intrigues; so small have they become, so myopic and so low that to settle personal scores they have gone down to the level of hiring and firing peons and security guards, because the companies and groups are linked with people now on their wrong side or talking and writing one too candidly in newspapers. One must also give in, regardless of Inzamam's overreaction that having worked with as much dignity and grace as is possible in Pakistan cricket, to pull his country out of on and off field troubles, to be told that his team was cheating was not an insult to be taken lightly. However, if he felt strongly he should have by now known the rules and laws of the game and should have protested instead of behaving as a street fighter ready to take the bull by the horns. Had he done that, one believes he would have been completely justified. To his ill-luck he had no one to stand behind him, holding his hand and telling him all the right things; he was all alone surrounded by couple of bureaucrats who run the game in Pakistan. There was no one to tell him what he needed to do; he should have upheld the laws of cricket. The Oval drama slowly turned into a farce as Inzamam retained the focus and the management steadily slipped through the backdoor. Now nothing will happen to the PCB top hierarchy; no one will ask them about what they were doing when the world was falling down-only Inzamam will suffer. And if he will try to ask questions, the same PCB bosses will turn their back at him, so it seems; but† Inzamam is lucky, public through live media has come to know the worth of PCB, their count down it seems has begun. Now it has been elucidated that the hearing over the alleged ball tampering and forfeiture of the Test will be taking place on September 27th and 28th. Malcolm Speed who had earlier admonished the Pakistan cricket management, officials and players for issuing statements regarding the incident, in fact giving a shut up call to all and sundry, has now emphasised that it was not entirely accurate to say that Pakistan would be exonerated simply because there was no visual evidence. "If video evidence was the only criteria, taking the analogy of crime, we would not be able to prove a lot of murders and half the jails would be empty" -- his undertones suggest one hell of a lot. He further made Pakistan's position tricky by opining that he couldnít say much, except that there were other forms of evidence, and all would be unfolding at the hearing. Speed also went onto say that there was a ball, the accounts of other people who were present, and the umpires' version and he ended by making it a point that it was to be of utmost importance. Speed's comments must have left the PCB top bosses in a sticky situation. It seems that Inzamam will be in for a real torrid time during the ICC hearing. Nevertheless, Speed was polite enough to say that the issue was unnecessarily left to get out of hands and according to him it could have been efficiently dealt by the match referee. It seems Younis Khan would be doing donkeyís work during Pakistan's next campaign in India when the team seems to be in disarray without any binding energy being provided by PCB; they retain all this for their own existence. And PCB despite retaining Inzamam for the ICC Champions Trophy must be looking forward to settle several issues -- the solutions may well be without Inzamam in the fray. During the post-mortem after Pakistan rolled over on that infamous Oval Test, scandalous accusations abounded of a team unwilling to take the field, of overreaction and lack of knowledge of the ICC rules. In defence of Inzamam Ul Haq, the experts described him as a naÔve captain. Inzamam didn't agree. He thought that allegations of ball tampering were actually a slur on the country's pride and that there were more things then simply winning or losing. While Inzamam's was an eccentric analysis of the whole situation, the PCB were also not very much eager to take responsibility of the incident. PCB had appointed Zaheer Abbas as team's manager besides a handful of other touring officials and still they were at ease to react, supposedly standing behind their captain. The Test mired in the dispute that threatened it on day four. An allegation, penalty, a confrontation, overreaction and retractions -- only Darrell Hair dissipated tensions by forfeiting the match. Inzamam without realising slipped deep in the trenches, at war with the world and also with the PCB leading his team in revolt before leading it on the field, pressed hard by the Chairman PCB and Dr Nasim Ashraf, about whom the cricket world knew little. Such was the bitter baptism. Unimpressed with Inzamam's on the spot reactions, it seems that the PCB would definitely be striking back. To go with it, it is hard to imagine what his world is like. On the cricketing side, he has been a phenomenal player at his peak but in England his own form had deserted him apart from couple of half-centuries at Lord's and two blasting 40 odds in the second and third One-day Internationals. And for the first time Inzamam had become increasingly vocal about his frustrations -- the ball tampering allegations, and a sequence of batting failures in the last two matches at Nottingham and Birmingham. It seems The Oval incident has affected his reputation. He is now a man bewilderingly getting the wrong end of the stick.It's hard to imagine what is going through his mind. He has shown great sportsmanship throughout his career. He walked uninvited, he had taken bad umpiring decisions without a whimper, and he has generally upheld the spirit of the game. In this manner, he has kept the game a loft. What went awry at The Oval? Was he so annoyed that he forgot himself? Was it similar to what happened to him in Canada in 1997-98? Whatever, his reaction was a big prick in the balloon of team's tranquility and his own future-they were losing gestures. It is that in the dominion of illustriousness that Inzamam inhabits, the concept of self towers so tremendously over the notion of the team that at critical pressure points the unconscious reaction is completely personal? An individual's instinct is a direct line to the core; the interaction between other thoughts and conditionings produces a measured response. Inzamam rose to global stature on account of his virtuosity with the bat: the balance of instinct with talent, training and focus. Was the pressure too much? In Inzamam's case, his temperament would require an astonishingly tight leash for him to keep chilled when the PCB administration that is supposed to support him will point gun at his back. He carries the natural composure but still needs to learn to muster it when it matters the most. His learning curve has been precipitous and steep in several areas since he took over as country's captain by default in 2003, but remains inquisitively flat in others-the man management. He has brought much that is laudable to the team, brought much to cricket, but just as he was able to lift everything to inspirational heights he brought it all crashing down. He must have realized working with a PCB management that they could waft from their earlier stance, of being with him to the core- His has become a terribly multifaceted and difficult role to occupy, an unbelievable weight to shoulder. Inzamam will need to hold fast because he has been driving strength from media and PCB top bosses have now started to curse the correspondents, in the bargain losing their own profile. Inzamam being supported is not what they like. Inzamam, by the grace of God and blessings will lead Pakistan in the World Cup 2007; he must. Whether one gets the accreditation for the World Cup 2007 or not, as in the past PCB has been hitting hard to those who have semblance of balance, one would still be voting for Inzamam to captain Pakistan, at least until the World Cup. Inzamam is a fighter to the hilt and if he'll want he'll get any damn thing. The writer is the former Media Manager of the PCB, former assistant manager of the Pakistan team, official historian of Pakistan Cricket, ex-cricket analyst of the PCB and the Pakistan team, former manager coordination of the ACC and ex-selector of the now defunct PCA 15th Asian Games: Stiff challenge ahead for PakistanLong term planning is needed to dislodge India as the top nation in the South Asian Games. Women's participation and their better performance is required to achieve this purpose By Gul Nasreen Notwithstanding Pakistan's improved performance at the
recently-concluded South Asian Games in Colombo, It may be mentioned here that long term planning is needed to dislodge India as the top nation in the South Asian Games. Women's participation and their better performance is required to achieve this purpose. At Colombo the Pakistan women's performance was so so. Except for swimming and shooting etc, the overall show by the Pak girls was not so impressive. They have still to go a long way to make their presence felt in all disciplines of the Games. The performance of boxing, shooting and martial arts players remained excellent at Colombo. As for the Asian Games at Doha (Qatar), there will be tough competition. For example, even our martial arts (wushu) players will face crunching competition. The gold-medallists of Colombo will be preferred for participation at the Asiad though some other sports have also been considered for Qatar to give them a chance for improvement. It's worth mentioning here that Pakistan Sports Trust would provide financial support for sending teams abroad and acquiring foreign coaches for the players scheduled to participate in Asiad. Pakistan would compete in 21 of the 39 disciplines to feature during the Asiad and training camps are underway all over the country. These 21 games are: aquatics (swimming), athletics, bodybuilding, boxing, cue sports, cycling, football, golf, hockey, judo, kabaddi, karate, rowing, sailing, shooting, squash, taekwondo, tennis, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu. With the election of the bodybuilding body, all sports federations' disputes had been resolved with the exception of basketball which was still in the court. One pins high hope on the Pakistan contingent as they performed well in the recently concluded 10th South Asian Games (August 18-28) in which they finished runners-up on the medals table with 43 gold, 44 silver and 71 bronze medals (total 158 medals). At Doha, the Organizing Committee is providing free boarding and lodging facilities to the participating nations for the first time in the history of this mega event. The Pakistan contingent will depart in different groups depending upon the availability of flights. As per the directions from the Organizing Committee of Asian Games, the entire contingent will not be able to take part in the opening and closing ceremonies because of different arrival and departure schedules. Air Marshal Raashid Kalim of the Ski Federation of Pakistan will be the chef-de-mission of Pakistani contingent. As far as the football championship is concerned, South Asian champions Pakistan have been placed in the tough group F along with continental giants Japan, DPR Korea and Turkmenistan at Doha. A total of 24 national teams will play at the quadrennial Games, out of which 22 qualify directly into Round 2 of the tournament. Eight sides, who did not participate in the last Games in Busan, Korea in 2002 are divided into two groups of four, and play in Round 1. The winner of each group will make it to the main competition, where the 24 teams will be divided into six groups. The Asian Games will be held from December 1 to 15, but the football competition starts on November 28. As for the boxing event, the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) will be sending its fist fighters to boxing powerhubs -- Cuba and Russia as part of their preparations for the mega event, which is our biggest assignment of the year. As many as ten national pugilists will represent the country in the Asiad and the nation is confident that a couple of them will return with the premier medals like ace boxer Mehrullah did in 2002 Games at Busan, South Korea. Pakistani boxers outclassed arch-rivals India and won seven gold and three silver medals to finish on top in the 10th South Asian Games boxing event at Colombo last month. The PBF would also invite foreign boxers to Pakistan for training. In snooker, the two-month long national cue sports training camp for the biggest sporting fiesta will commence from September 22. The training camp will be held in two different phases, while the first one is scheduled in Karachi, the second leg of camp will be set up at Islamabad. However the exact venue for the Karachi camp has not been given as it would be decided later, probably this week. Ranked third in the continent, Pakistan will be sending a strong contingent to vie for nine medals in cue sport events (Snooker, Billiards & Pool) for the Games. As many as 12 top ranked national cueists will represent the country in the cue events in the mega continental fiesta. Gold medallists in 1998 Asian Games, Pakistan will be fielding top two cuemen for the singles competition and one pair for double events in both snooker and Billiards tournament besides competing in the team event in the Pool tournament. The PBSA has also assigned three foreign coaches for each event at an estimated cost of Rs1.5 million. |
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who could not score even a single century in Tests or One-day Internationals.
The tour put Pakistan back into the ranks of struggling teams like West
Indies, New Zealand and minnows Bangladesh etc. Remember, prior to this
fateful trip, Pakistan had a wonderful unbeaten run in five Test rubbers.
which caused the chaos at The Oval last month, may undergo forensic tests
doesn't seem to be carrying absolute weight. Reason: according to a latest
newspaper report, a leading forensic science lecturer at the University of
Central Lancashire, Allan Scott, has said that the forensic evidence about
the ball used in the Test is unlikely to help prove a ball-tampering charge.
He added: "It would be almost impossible to prove whether the striation
marks (on the ball) indicated deliberate gouging or picking of the
leather."
With Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif returning to the team, Inzamam-ul-Haq
exasperating and full of vengeance, Pakistan picked up pretty nicely in their
Twenty20 international and the first three one-day matches. However, at
Nottingham and Birmingham they lost abysmally to England.
the 15th Asian Games which are scheduled to be held in Doha, Qatar, from
December 1 to 15 will be a much tougher competition. The Pakistan players
should have realistic expectations for the Asiad though our players have
improved a bit. However, a good beginning had been made with the performance
at Colombo where Pakistan finished as runners-up on the medals table. But the
players should not feel complacent as they face a stiff challenge ahead in
the form of the upcoming continental Games.