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interview Being Afridi One of Pakistan’s most popular cricket stars talks to TNS about his captaincy experience and why Brave Heart is one of his all-time favourite movies By Khalid Hussain When Shahid Afridi was removed as Pakistan captain soon after leading his team to the World Cup semi-finals in 2011, he was almost shattered. But it didn’t take him much time to realize that losing the captaincy wasn’t all that bad. In fact, Afridi told me then that there were times during his tenure as Pakistan skipper when the team’s captaincy felt like a ‘burden’. Not
England’s cup of tea Blessed
with left-arm spinners
interview Being Afridi One of Pakistan’s most popular cricket stars talks to TNS about his captaincy experience and why Brave Heart is one of his all-time favourite movies By Khalid Hussain When Shahid
Afridi was removed as Pakistan captain soon after leading his team to
the World Cup semi-finals in 2011, he was almost shattered. But it
didn’t take him much time to realize that losing the captaincy
wasn’t all that bad. In fact, Afridi told
me then that there were times during his tenure as Pakistan skipper when
the team’s captaincy felt like a ‘burden’. “Leading Pakistan
was a great honour and mostly I saw it as a challenge which I accepted
as a senior player,” Afridi told me a few months after Ijaz Butt, the
former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), sacked him as
captain back in 2011. “But it was also a
huge burden. I mean you have to fight on so many different fronts that
sometimes it leaves you completely drained. Personally, I think losing
the captaincy was a blessing in disguise,” was Afridi’s view at that
point in time. But that was 2011. Fast forward to the
present day and the flamboyant all-rounder would tell you that he sees
it more of a challenge than a burden. “Captaincy is no bed
of roses and I know that for sure,” says Afridi. “But a senior
player should always be ready to take the team’s command because you
cannot shy away from such an important responsibility,” he adds. The reason why Afridi
and I are having this conversation is because two years before World Cup
2015, questions are being asked whether Pakistan’s ODI future is safe
in the aging hands of Misbah-ul-Haq. Though he continues to
shine as Pakistan’s most prolific batter, Misbah has time and again
fallen short of proving himself as the sort of aggressive leader, who
can get the best out of a Pakistan team that is unfortunately short on
natural match-winners. For quite some time,
Mohammad Hafeez has been touted as a successor but the Twenty20
skipper’s awful form with the bat has certainly dented his captaincy
hopes in Tests and ODIs. Youngster Umar Amin has suddenly emerged as a
possible future captain but that’s a distant future we are talking
about. Younis Khan is also an option but the one man, who remains a
popular choice for captaincy is Afridi. His supporters believe
that ‘Lala’ is the right man to lead Pakistan at World Cup 2015.
They argue that Pakistan need an aggressive captain like Afridi instead
of a defensive one like Misbah in One-day Internationals. Afridi’s critics,
however, disagree. They are of the view that the all-rounder’s
non-seriousness which he displays time and again with the bat, makes him
an inappropriate captain. Afridi, meanwhile, is
thankful for “all those who support him”. For his critics, Afridi
has these words: “I know I have certain weaknesses, all players do.
But I like to focus on my strengths. Personally, I don’t agree that I
wasn’t successful as captain. My captaincy began at a time when the
team was in turmoil but things became better.” Afridi has a point. At a time when
Pakistan were reeling in the aftermath of the spot-fixing embarrassment
involving three of their key players, the team’s one-day fortunes
changed under Afridi. “(As captain) I saw
myself as an elder brother for all my teammates,” he says. “It was a
difficult time because of all the match-fixing stuff and the morale was
down. But I knew that our team had the basic ingredients to become a top
side and tried to get the best out of the boys. “Off the field I was
their best friend but on the field I was strict. There was no leniency
for anybody. I must say that more often than not the boys responded
positively.” With Afridi at the
helm, Pakistan went to World Cup 2011 counted among the underdogs. But
they changed all that with back-to-back wins against hosts Sri Lanka and
defending champions Australia to top their group. A 10-wicket triumph
over West Indies in a one-sided quarterfinal in Dhaka earned them a
mouthwatering last four clash against old rivals India at Mohali.
Suddenly, anything seemed possible. But all the anticipation ended in
heartbreak. “Losing against
India (in Mohali) is one of the bitter memories of my life,” laments
Afridi. “The feeling that we could have won that match only makes it
worse. I couldn’t sleep for several nights after that loss and had to
finally take sleeping pills. Many of my teammates did the same. It was
so bad.” So what’s even worse
than losing to India in a World Cup semifinal? “Match-fixing,
spot-fixing and anything to do with corruption (in cricket) because
it’s like selling your country, it’s like selling your soul.” Over the years, Afridi
has loved to play the role of a hero on the cricket field. He has tasted
success and failure in equal measure. “Everybody loves to
be a hero,” says Afridi whose favourite actors are Mel Gibson in Brave
Heart and Russell Crowe in Gladiator. “I’ve always loved watching
movies laden with heroism because that’s the sort of stuff that
inspires you to do be a hero yourself.” Afridi has been gifted
with enough opportunities to be a hero. More often than not he has
finished on the losing end. He was part of the team at the 1999 World
Cup final in England where Pakistan flopped miserably against Australia.
He was in his element at the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 in
South Africa but failed to save Pakistan from a heartbreaking defeat
against India in the final. But instead of ruing
those missed opportunities, Afridi likes to remember “happier
events” like the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup in England where he sizzled
in both the semi-final and final to shepherd Pakistan to the crown at
Lord’s. “In many ways,
winning the T20 World Cup at Lord’s was the best day of my cricketing
career,” he says. “With so much violence going on back
home and the misery of our people compounded by the floods, it felt
really good to win the title for Pakistan. We are stars because our
people love us and we won the World Cup for them.” Khalid Hussain is
Editor Sports of The News Khalid.hussain@thenews.com.pk
The below-par track record of cricket’s founders in limited-overs matches is baffling By Ghalib Bajwa After winning
the Ashes series comfortably last month, England drew the T20 rubber
1-1, but lost the rain-hit ODI series 2-1 against the arch-rivals.
Before the Ashes, England were the runners-up in the last edition of
Champions Trophy at home, where India lifted the title. Finishing runners-up
in an One-day International (ODI) event is not a new thing for England.
It’s an old habit of the founders
of cricket. England have hosted the cricket World Cup on four occasions:
1975, 1979, 1983 and 1999. They reached the final three times — 1979,
1987 and 1992 — but could not cross the final hurdle. England also
remained runners-up in the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004. There is huge
difference of ODI performances between English players and the rest of
the world stars. England’s mediocre status in ODIs is reflected very
much from this statistical analysis. The 42-year history of
ODIs shows that England are miles behind in all three departments of the
game which is quite mysterious. Even cricketers of junior teams like
Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Ireland are seen above than the Britons in
different tables. The lack of interest
of England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and their players in ODIs is
baffling. The ODI bowling chart
is headed by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, who grabbed 534
wickets, followed by Pakistan’s Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis with 502
and 416 wickets, respectively. James Anderson, who is
England’s leading ODI wicket-taker with 245 scalps, is 24th in this
list. Anderson broke his countryman Darren Gough’s ODI wickets record
in the recent Champions Trophy. Only seven other
English men have taken 100 or more wickets in ODIs. Anderson and Darren
Gough are the only ones to go past the 200 mark. It’s interesting to
note that Anderson is now ahead of Heath Streak of Zimbabwe, who had
more ODI wickets (239) than England’s previous most successful bowler
Gough (234) until recent past. Bangladeshi spinner Abdur Razzak has also
completed his double century of ODI wickets but the next best British
bowler Stuart Broad is 40 wickets away from this feat. Pakistan and India
have major share in the 200-wicket club with six bowlers each followed
by Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa (four each). The best ODI bowling
figures are 8/19 by Chaminda Vaas for Sri Lanka. He is the only player
to take eight wickets in an ODI. After him, there are seven players who
have notched up seven-wicket hauls in ODIs. The feat of six-wicket haul
has been achieved 60 times so far, but only two Englishmen have done
this — Paul Collingwood (6/31) and Chris Woakes (6/45). The batting table
presents an even shoddier picture. One has to go deep into the batting
table to find an Englishman. England’s leading ODI batsman Paul
Collingwood (5,092 runs) is 62nd among the top ODI run scorers. England, who featured
in the first ever ODI against Australia on January 5, 1971, have had
several flamboyant strikers like Kevin Pietersen, Marcus Trescothick,
Andrew Flintoff and Allen Lamb in their lineup but none of them managed
5000 runs. Minnows Zimbabwe have
three batsmen with more than 5000 runs: Andy Flower (6786), Grant Flower
(6,571) and Alistair Campbell (5185). There are ten batsmen
from six different countries (three each from India and Sri Lanka and
one each from Pakistan, West Indies, Australia and South Africa) who
have scored more than 10,000 runs in ODI cricket. India’s Sachin
Tendulkar has the highest aggregate with over 18,426 runs. English batsmen once
more are nowhere near when it comes to the highest individual ODI
knocks. Indian greats Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar are the top
two with scores of 219 and 200*, respectively. Overall, there are 27
batsmen with 170 or plus knocks, including two from Zimbabwe and one
from Ireland. South African-born Robin Smith struck the biggest
individual ODI knock (167*) for England. So far England has
contributed only five 150-plus knocks in ODIs — three by Andrew
Strauss and one each by David Gower and Robin Smith. The list of ODI
century-makers is once again led by Tendulkar with 49 tons. There are 19
batsmen with 15 or more ODI hundreds but no Briton is in this list. Mark Trescothick’s
12 ODI centuries are the highest by an Englishman. The list of cricketers
with most ODI matches also presents a deserted look as far as England
players are concerned. Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela
Jayawerdene have extended their careers to over 400 matches, but
Englishmen are still toiling below 200 ODIs. Paul Collingwood has
appeared in the highest number of ODIs (197) for Britain. Overall, there
are 66 cricketers with 200 or more ODIs. The statistics of ODI catches
are also no different. Collingwood is the only England player with 100
or more catches in this format. He took 108 catches during his 10-year
career. There are 27 fielders with 100 or more catches. Mahela
Jayawerdene of Sri Lanka tops the list with 201 catches. British wicketkeepers
also lag far behind their rivals. Alec Stewart is the top British ODI
wicketkeeper with 163 dismissals, including 148 catches and 15 stumpings.
Adam Gilchrist of
Australia leads the list of wicketkeepers with 472 dismissals (417
catches, 55 stumpings). Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara has the honour of
effecting most number of stumpings (85). As far as ODI all-rounders
are concerned, Jacques Kallis and Sanath Jayasuriya have the most
wonderful figures. There are as many as 12 all-rounders with over 2000
ODI runs and 200 wickets, but there is no Briton. There are only three
British all-rounders who have scored more than 1000 runs and grabbed
more than 100 wickets: Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood.
ghalibmbajwa@hotmail.com
Blessed
with left-arm spinners It appears
that suddenly we have become very rich in quality left-arm spinners. We
already had Abdul Rehman, taking wickets in bulk whenever given chances.
And now we also have the services of young Raza Hasan and experienced
Zulfiqar Babar. Abdul Rehman has
performed admirably well in the few chances he has got in the last six
years in all formats of the game. He is just a little unfortunate in
that he began playing cricket when Pakistan had world class spinners in
Mushtaq Ahmad and Saqlain Mushtaq. Then came Danish Kaneria who remained
the first choice spinner for a number of years. And for the last five
years it has been Saeed Ajmal, who is very tough to beat for a place in
the team. The quartet are masters of their art. Isn’t it amazing
that Rehman’s place in the team is never guaranteed although he has
taken 90 wickets in 19 Tests, an average of 4.73 wickets per match? Few
of those spinners who are permanently part of their Test teams can match
him. Greame Swann’s average is 4.35 wickets per match; Daniel
Vettori’s is 3.21; and Rangana Herath’s is 4.25. Only Ravichandra
Ashwin is ahead of him with 92 wickets in 16 matches. Unlike Rehman, who
entered international cricket at a ripe age of 26, Raza Hasan has got
chances at a very young age. He has played seven T20 games for Pakistan
so far and has taken six wickets with an economy rate of 5.92, which is
impressive in the shortest format of the game. Since he is only 21 he
has a lot of time to beat the records of the best in trade. The case of Zulfiqar
Baber is exactly the opposite of that of Raza Hasan. When he played his
first match for Pakistan he was already more than 34 years old. But he
made the most of the opportunities that he got, baffling the West Indies
batsmen in two T20 games and claiming the man of the series award. He
deserves to get many more chances. There is nothing wrong with playing
with two or even three spinners, particularly when we are playing on
Asian tracks which help spinners a lot. In the upcoming series
against South Africa Pakistan should not shy away from playing with two
or three spinners. In fact they will have to do this if they are to win
this series because the fast bowlers will not be able to trouble the
experienced batting line of South Africa at the UAE pitches. Pakistan
won the series against England 3-0 in the UAE because they played with
two specialist spinners — Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Rehman. In the three
Test matches, Saeed took 24 and Rehman 19, completely outshining pace
spearhead Umar Gul. Aizaz Cheema managed just one wicket in two matches
in that series. So playing with spinners is the way to go. mushfiqahmad1000@gmail.com
From
glory to dust If one googles
‘Pakistan hockey team’, one will easily find out that Pakistan were
once one of the top nations in the sport with a record four World Cup
titles and eight medals in Olympics — three gold, as many silver and
two bronze. The list of
Pakistan’s star players is a long one and includes numerous legends.
Then there are the record-holders like Sohail Abbas who with 338 goals,
holds the world record for most international goals. But I’m talking
about the past. At the moment, Pakistan aren’t even good enough to
qualify for the World Cup. And that’s certainly a sad scenario. “It is very shocking
and shameful for us that we have failed even to qualify for the World
Cup, the event which we pioneered,” former Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh
told ‘The News on Sunday’ after the Green-shirts failed to qualify
for the World Cup 2014 recently. Shahnaz referred to
the fact that the idea of Hockey World Cup came from former Pakistan
hockey chief Air Marshal Nur Khan. Pakistan failed to
qualify for the next year’s World Cup after being unable to win the
Asia Cup title last month. It was the last opportunity the Green-shirts
had to secure a berth in World Cup. Earlier, Pakistan also
failed to finish among the top three in the World Hockey League in July,
which could have earned them a direct berth in the World Cup. Pakistan
ended at rock-bottom 12th position in the last World Cup in 2010. Failure to qualify for
the World Cup may have highlighted the team’s comparative standards in
the international arena but the recent exclusion from the Commonwealth
Games has also shown where the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) stands. The entry was not sent
to the organisers by the federation before the due date only because it
had to go through Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) led by Arif Hasan,
with whom the federation’s top brass were not at good terms. The PHF top brass is
involved in the power struggle in the sports officialdom and has put its
weight behind the government-backed POA, forgetting everything about its
core responsibility — hockey. “If these people
continue to rule the federation then I fear we will have to struggle for
qualification for Asia Cup in near future and we will then be fighting
with teams like Sri Lanka or Maldives for a spot in the continental
event as well,” Samiullah, a former Olympian, said. After facing immense
criticism, Asif Bajwa resigned as PHF secretary and Akhtar Rasool
relinquished his position as head coach and manager. The federation has
announced that it will be conducting elections next month. Surprisingly,
Akhtar Rasool is the front-runner for the top PHF position. “Only an ad-hoc
committee to run the PHF setup will do now. If these officials,
who have failed the national sport in recent years, conduct elections
then similar set of people will once more take the reins of hockey in
their hands and the standards of hockey will further fall,” Samiullah
said. He said that former
hockey Olympians would protest against the PHF in front of the National
Assembly in the first week of October if the government failed to form
an ad hoc committee. The future of the
Green-shirts seems bleak as there are few talented players among the
juniors. Recently Pakistan failed to qualify for the final of Sultan of
Johor Junior Hockey Cup in Malaysia, after being thrashed by arch-rivals
India 4-0 and Malaysia 4-2. “We have no pool of
junior players and no proper domestic structure. So from where do we
expect good players to come up?” Shahnaz Sheikh said. bilalsports86@yahoo.com
‘It’s
never me, stupid’ I really
don’t know what to make out of the statement by Mohammad Hafeez in the
middle of this week. While he has been candid enough to say that he
won’t be surprised if he is dropped from the Test team, there is a
latent ire between the lines. Like an inherent annoyance as to why this
is happening to him despite him trying his hardest and displaying all
his talent. It’s like saying
every bit of nature and biology has conspired to stop him from scoring
runs but that he doesn’t want to talk about it. Part of his statement
was that “it happens to all big players”. That speaks of the man’s
haughtiness and overestimation of his abilities. When did he become one
of the big cricketers? The fellow has an average of something below 20
or roundabouts if you take away the weaker bowling attacks in the world,
of which there are plenty these days. And even then his overall batting
average is in the early thirties after 34 Tests and 66 innings over the
last 10 years. In all that time he
has scored a paltry eight half centuries — only one of them outside
Asia — and has a century every 13 innings — all five of his hundreds
have come against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, West Indies or a post-Muralitharan
Sri Lanka; only one hundred (versus Zimbabwe) has come outside South
Asia, famous for its dead wickets, as is Zimbabwe for that matter. He has been dismissed
at five or below in 13 innings (five times against South Africa), has
scored 10 and less in 19 (eight times against South Africa), and has
been out at 22 and below in 42 of his Test innings! The man shouldn’t
have been on the plane to South Africa earlier this year, let alone play
all the three Tests. For that matter the man shouldn’t be playing any
Test matches at all. That is the real
problem with him; the mental one. And I’m not talking of mental
strength here. I’m talking of arrogance; the inability to see that he
is deficient in talent. Against top class bowling Pakistan might as well
be betting with ten men. Even the glaring
inability to play a ball that seams just a bit, dwarfs in front of that
bigger ego problem. When everyone and the
half blind can see he has a horrible technique, it makes me pull at my
graying hair when I read his assertion that “It’s not a matter of
technique even, the ball is coming on to my bat but I am not able to
play a big innings.” If it was coming on to
the bat he wouldn’t be poking hopefully at every other ball or falling
mostly behind the wickets or playing outside the line to be bowled or
leg before. What he also doesn’t
understand or those who keep sending him in can’t seem to see is that
it is destroying what’s left of the team. Or perhaps he and they can
but would rather go with the feeling “Hey, now that I’ve grabbed
this ticket to ride, I’m gonna hold on to it even though I should have
got off 50 stops ago”. What we have seen over the past few years is
nothing short of a mafia land grab, and he’s one of the collectors —
though he’s not alone in it. He’s got hold of one
of the eleven districts that some 20 players have been fighting over for
the last ten years. And even if he’s taken out, he’ll believe it
wasn’t because he couldn’t collect the revenue from flower shops run
by old ladies. No sir; it was either
raining, or there was a windstorm or just too damn hot for a gentleman
to step out. I mean, what does The Don expect? But to be fair to him,
he’s just inherited this attitude. It’s always been there among the
Pakistani players over the last 12 years or so. If you’re a ‘big’
name and not scoring or getting wickets, it’s that you are being given
only 10-15 chances! And why does everyone expect you to hold on to all
the catches? I remember Abdul
Razzaq complaining bitterly at being dropped after a full year of
chances during which his batting average was less than twenty and a
bowling average in the 30’s. He appeared fatigued, no one was bowling
on his legs anymore and he had lost a yard of his pace. But to him that
seemed no reason to drop him! I remember that in the
1970s Zaheer Abbas used to defend his batting failures by saying,
“everyone wants me to score a double hundred every time”, a
reference to his 274 against England in his second Test in 1971.
Actually it was nothing like that. He passed fifty only twice in some 17
Test innings after that, and his highest remained 72 or something. He
walloped back in 1974 with 240 against England again at The Oval on the
flattest of tracks and a bowling attack that every other batting side,
except the hapless Indians, was taking for runs in those days. He hardly
did anything of note in the rest of the series when the ball was seaming
away. The fact was that
Zaheer was not mentally strong and also couldn’t play the fastest
bowlers at all well. It was he himself who wanted to score a double
hundred every innings and when he couldn’t he kept losing confidence. That 274 remains
probably one of the finest Test innings played in England; fluent,
artistic and in seaming conditions. But Ray Illingworth wrote in an
article once that after that innings he told his players: “‘Zaheer
will never score another fifty against us.’ I was wrong, but only
just. He made 72 but we got him out cheaply the other times. I had seen
that he played his shots when the ball was coming on sweetly to his bat.
So I decided to use more spin against him than medium pace.” Zaheer did play some
beautiful knocks and against good fast bowling, like 80-odd against Joel
Garner and Colin Croft on the 1977 tour of West Indies or that majestic
93 against Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Croft and Garner in the 1979
World Cup semi-final, but they were few and far between. And mostly came
when batsmen at the other end were scoring freely. Zaheer was never that
strong in the mind to take the pressure and play that long innings when
the chips were down or when only tail enders were left; in fact he
hardly ever batted very long with the tail, particularly when he moved
down to No 5 for the last five years of his cricket. His claim to fame in
the last half of his Test career was the absolute annihilation of the
Indians who came to Pakistan in 1978 and 1982, with some 1500 runs
(including two double hundreds if I’m not wrong) in 11 Tests. But playing against
the same bowlers in India in front of hostile crowds, he managed a
trifle over 300 runs in eight Tests with no hundreds. All the time and in
interviews and conversations with me Zaheer would claim that that the
odds were always stacked against him, that he had no support, that no
one appreciated his genius. He would recount his phenomenal run scoring
in county cricket because of which he got to a hundred first class
hundreds, but never accepted that on the average there were two good
international level bowlers in about half the teams. Yes, he had
patience, a tight defense and tireless ambition for more that made him
score hundreds more than others of his league at the time. But then he
was definitely a ‘big’ name at least. That is something that PCB,
selectors, coach and the captain have to deal with. Today mediocrity is
considered good enough to deserve a place in the side. The more powerful
and influential get to hold on to their seats and scoring a half
century, even a 30-odd is mentioned by the batsman as some good work
done out there. Our benchmarks have
fallen not just statistically, but also mentally. That’s what we have
to raise to levels up to the 90’s, not just scores from 30’s to
40’s. Sohaib121&gmail.com
Rooney’s
return to limelight David Moyes
giving Wayne Rooney the captain’s armband for the midweek Capital One
Cup clash against Liverpool was a tactical masterstroke in more ways
than one. Not only was Rooney quite instrumental in ensuring that United
got a much needed victory, he also managed to stamp his own importance
in the eyes of the manager and for his team as well. After a summer of
‘will he, won’t he’, seeing Rooney fully committed to his cause at
Old Trafford bodes well for the club and the player himself, considering
this is the season leading up to the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. United’s start in
the league has hardly been ideal. But a tough fixtures list, coupled
with a managerial change at the helm and the ensuing instability, has
meant that one hasn’t had to look too far away to conjure reasons for
the slump. However, one of the most conspicuous things in United’s two
losses this season has been the importance of their strike partnership
of Rooney and Robin Van Persie. Rooney was missing against Liverpool, in
the league match, while Van Persie was out injured in the Manchester
derby. And in both these games United looked completely lacklustre. It is becoming
increasingly evident that for United to vanquish any silverware this
season, the Rooney-Van Persie combo has to be firing on all cylinders. Van Persie’s
significance is common knowledge after his exploits last season that
made him the crucial differential in United’s league triumph. But
Rooney had a mixed season last year and both his importance to the club
and his future at the club were being doubted. With the biggest bone of
contention between Sir Alex Ferguson and Rooney being the latter’s
deployment in midfield, Moyes seems to have settled that concern by
being vocal about the fact that Rooney would not be played in midfield.
That’s the sort of backing that Rooney craves that results in the sort
of all-energy performance that he manifested against Liverpool in the
1-0 triumph this week. Rooney is someone who
thrives on confidence. This is important because if he is on one of his
purple patches — like the one he is on right now — he looks like a
world beater. While when the confidence is low, and there is something
that’s bothering him in the head, you see a totally different player
take to the field - the one that we saw for most parts of last season. United’s best team
right now would have to have Rooney and Van Persie up top, with Michael
Carrick and Marouane Fellaini in midfield. If you have Shinji Kagawa and
Nani on the wings, that would easily be United’s best attacking side,
but it might leave Patrice Evra and Rafael exposed, since they are
attacking full-backs as well. But maybe, both Carrick and Fellaini can
be deeper lying midfielders with the attacking quartet given room to
play their free flowing brand of football. This might be the right
balance between offence and defence that Moyes might want to strike. In any case Rooney’s
return to limelight has been pretty obvious, and one must admit, pretty
timely as well. Even though both Rooney and Kagawa flourish behind the
main striker, the Japanese playmaker has been doing rather well on the
left wing for the national side, and maybe that’s the best way to get
optimum value out of the Van Persie-Rooney-Kagawa troika: Van Persie up
top, Rooney behind him and Kagawa on the left with license to move
inside. Rooney has completed
the proverbial full circle twice over now at Manchester United. He has
gone from being the talisman who handed in his transfer request in 2010
because United ostensibly didn’t match his ambitions in terms of the
players they were bringing in, to handing in another transfer request
since he was playing out of position or as second-fiddle to Van Persie
— after buying the ‘star’ that Rooney wanted United to buy. But
now he is back in his talismanic role and with United traversing a
transition they would need him and Van Persie to be at their best
throughout the season if they want their domestic and continental
ambitions to be fulfilled. khulduneshahid@gmail.com
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