First ODI at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, 30th October 2013

Time is passing me by; last time when I wrote my article with regards to 3-0 score in the Champions Trophy 2013, getting thrashed from the West Indies, the Proteas and the Indians. Indians went on to clinch that trophy and were the champions for the one last time under this label.

After that, Pakistan went on to the Caribbean and took the ODI and the T20 series, than to Zimbabwe, won ODI and T20 series and draw the Test series; the reason of teling you all this is to flashback to and from this Current Protea-Pakistan series, cuz I don't know how they won the first test, but later the thrashing they are getting from the Proteas is what was already on cards and what was according to me supposed to be happening with them from the very first test.

Lets not talk about the Test, cuz honestly cuz of job, I was not able to follow the same properly like I used to, but after watching yesterdays game, Proteas are in full plan to remove the stain of chockers and associate this with Pakistan, already Karachi is the most chockist of all domestic teams in Pakistan, now the influence can be seen in current Pakistani outfit.

Getting back to the topic

I personally feel that Pakistan lost the game because of the following some of the major reasons which I feel;

• Lack of contingency plans;
• Lack of long-term planning;
• Selection on friendship basis;
• Got relaxed in the middle overs when Parnel and Tsotsobe were on crease;

I personally felt this way, cuz everyone who went in had only motive to come out as a hero; cuz if they were playing as a team than I don't think Sharjah groound, around 160 score and with that amount of balls remaining, got out playing pathetic shots.

Did we work on developing batters from our domestic? Domestic circuit can only be upgraded while keeping a particular system intact, but I am sorry to say some Media channels airing Pakistan's domestic games, have commercialised that much that not quality players are being produced; whats the use of calling them a quality players who have not adoptibility & adaptibility feature gened in them? Commercialisation is not a bad thing but over-doing like that particular TV channel is doing is  same. Better give the same right to PTV, they have better coverage and better infrastructure.

Whereas yesterday match; Pakistan took the same very easy; lack of maturity and lack of mantal toughness and showed tardiness and lack of determination. Thats what flushed them down the drain.

Whatever happened, the bottomline is gonna be; South Africa 1 - Pakistan 0

The day after the thrashing

Today i.e. 16th June 2013, the day when Pakistan is all out from the penultimate edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, a trophy which Pakistan couldn't stage on their closet. But the time when the team was announced for Pakistan, since than whenever someone was asking me about the same including some of my Indian colleagues, I was not optimistic since what I already had heard about England and its weather at the start of their and the European summer, is very windy, cloudy, overcast and chances may that there would
going to be rain intervals for sure, and therefore in our current team there were no players except Misbah himself who could able to play the ball late and could shift gears to back foot.

As far as our bowling was concerned, I was not satisfied in a sense that no doubt pace battery was awesome but on a broader perspective it was a monotone attack because all left handers, except Wahab Riaz none was able to generate late swing or taking advantage of the late swing. Though anything I would say against Misbah would go in against of me but realistically speaking; except Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan and Muhammad Irfan were rookies and were first time traveling to the English conditions, whereas Wahab was part of the 2010 Pakistan tour to the England, so it was the responsibility of seniors, Malik, Misbah, Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal to guide them time-to-time with little tweaks to their techniques.

Ok now pendulum reverts to the coaching staff (I always differ from this idea that a strategy maker is being called as a coach), coaches in modern cricket have the responsibility of tuning their strategies according to their SWOT (acronyms for strength, weakness, opportunities and threats), the point it in these three games where we observed the strategy?

What was the purpose of camp at Abbottabad when in similar conditions you couldn't middle the ball? The history of Pakistan cricket clearly depicts the Pakistan couldn't play when they are afraid, they could only perform when playing bravely, like there's an instrumental music piece named "Clubbed till Death", Pakistan is no different, here in #ct13 they were playing for the opponents, being afraid of them all the time. India is no different but their players are not afraid and played their normal game, through they were worry with
Pakistan's bowling but they faced them bravely, this thing which WAS also a trademark of Pakistan Cricket was vanished, don't want to be personal but when you include drama kings like Shoaib Malik, WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AN ALLROUNDER I guess. I am personally saying that if my team loses but with a fight, I would prefer it over a win while playing defensively and afraid.

Unlike some of my Indian colleagues, making fun of yesterday's loss against their team, I wanna create a difference between them and me (since not every Indian is like them), and praise their bowling that after a very longtime I am seeing a competition in their bowling against ours, and therefore it is the high time we should groom our batters as well for future encounters, since there are tough tours coming in way for the Pakistani team before the 2014 Bangladesh World T20, we need to groom batters and match finishers.

The Champions Trophy and Pakistan's prospects

Not a chance for Pakistanis to attain this trophy, sorry to say it's beyond their reach now with such fragile lineup

At last my very first blog post in 2013, with a new address, since that particular blog was creating some problems for me in maintaining it due to recent Blogger updates, therefore imported my previous blog here, with that one deleted, and after 90 days this blog would become http://cricsphere.blogspot.com, therefore kindly bear this conversion period for the time being. Thank you

At the time, when I am writing this, 12.54 pm on the dial, preparing for Friday prayers and waiting for my turn to take shower, so instead wasting thought why not post something, since while writing this thing, I read PCB chief Mr. Zaka Ashraf asked the ICC to consider them for CWC 2019 qualifiers matches in 2018 which would decide lower tier teams seedings. I personally feel that if in this elections if PPP didn't get to elect this time round, situation would get better within 5 years from now, therefore optimistic but keeping my fingers all crossed for it, since it's all political game which is going on here to "show their power"

Similarly, another nail on the coffin of Pakistani preparations for the finale Champions Trophy going to held in the home of Cricket i.e. England and Wales, Guldozer aka Umer Gul has been injured and ruled out of the #CT2013 and will undergo a surgery and is definitely going to be missed in the said tournament. Never mind, he was already over used so he needed some rest so that juniors may get opportunity, take risk and take advantage since this is the finale tournament and therefore whoever wins it have the advantage for sure. For me, India, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and England have the better chances to life this trophy for sure.

Pakistan, on the other hand, since injury woes and secondly inexperienced batting I don't think have the chance to proceed more than the Semi Finals, especially when India and South Africa are in its group, Proteas in English conditions would create more problems for the Men in Greens, for India it's not a problem since they have a strong batting line up and is capable of facing any opponent. Probably till the lot retires in batting, we don't have any chances to perform with continuity, since the current team which has been selected on so called merit scale, involves same old horses which have been a failure since for a while now, but still instead of being defeated by incorporating young blood, they are exposing their defensive approach of late, by depending on those whose expiry date have been passed but still afraid of losing the games.

If that's the matter, than why not increase the level of competition in your domestic circuit games? Why not variable domestic pitches, where Karachi pitch should differ with Lahore and so on? Same monotone sort of pitches means we're making our talent stagnant and not allowing them to be adaptable to the changes quickly, which I guess has been the problem with us, the same team who gave tough time to India in Subcontinental pitches, were solitaired in South Africa, and the same is gonna happen at #CT2013.

Other teams are looking ahead for Bangladesh T20 and ANZ CWC 2015 and here we are not sure of our lineup, like there is saying in Urdu, الله توکل means having blind faith on Allah while doing nothing, Allah never helps those who do nothing, and as far as I am concern, Allah is not the Lord of Muslims but Lord of the Universe, so making teams on the basis of relations will kill the game of cricket in the country, which I guess the plot.

Peace!

2012 for Pakistan cricket...

Pakistan underperformed during this period, in comparison to 2011, when Pakistan emerged as a surprise package

These days I've been engaged with my MBA studies which have been on it's conclusion and therefore I am not able to give desired time to my blog. Right now when I am writing this, the year 2012 only remains for 2.25 hours, for me, my city and my country, it wasn't as good as I expected. Thanks to our media, you know about what has been happening in Karachi or Pakistan, but as far as cricket is concerned, read my article on eve of arrival of 2012, compare performances there and after that here.

No such great performances if we compare team(s), since we won more but lose games more or less the same amount, that's why I am not VERY optimistic with the year coming up for Pakistan Cricket, since the latest news is that Bangladesh has confirmed they won't be touring Pakistan.

PAKISTAN - During the year in all formats
Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	Draw	NR	W/L	Average	RPO	HS	LS
Pakistan	40	18	18	1	2	1	1.00	26.78	4.12	551	74

  It clearly shows that after 1 match played there was a probability of losing a game, which according the stature of bowling Pakistan possesses, doesn't suit these guys.

PAKISTAN - Test Format
Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Draw	W/L	Average	RPO	HS	LS
Pakistan	6	3	1	2	3.00	30.67	2.80	551	99

Comparatively to other formats, Pakistan has a steady going in test format, keeping in mind, during the same tenure Pakistan won it's home series against England in the UAE in white wash, the 3 won are the same, whereas 1 loss and 2 draw games came in Sri Lankan tour when Pakistan lost a match and drew two.

PAKISTAN - One Day Format
Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	NR	W/L	Average	RPO	HS	LS
Pakistan	18	7	10	0	1	0.70	29.51	4.80	329	130

 It clearly shows that in this format Pakistan had decline in their performance, since earlier this year, Pakistan had whitewashed England in test but they themselves were whitewashed against the visiting England team in One Day series', if those matches were not whitewashed, Pakistan might have had a better record, else Pakistan became Asian champion following the same, winning 3 games including the final and lost one against the arch rivals India, where Pakistan scored its highest score for the year, but again bowling failed that time, and no doubt Virat Kohli played a gem of an inning to take the game away from Pakistan's grasp.

PAKISTAN - T20 Format
Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	NR	W/L	Average	RPO	HS	LS
Pakistan	16	8	7	1	0	1.14	19.98	6.68	181	74

  T20 is supposed to be Pakistan's favourite format but still in it Pakistan have under performed, apart from the Australian series, where Pakistan dominated and won 2-1, I don't remember any other series won comprehensively, keeping in mind, Pakistan lost to England 2-1 in T20 series, drew against India, else it was a great chance to improve the tally by 9 is to 6, no doubt India played exceptionally under wet balls, but still Pakistanis should have had geared the fifth gear. No excuses but being a die-hard Pakistani cricket fan, I was not impressed with overall Pakistan's performance in either of the formats, but still I hope for the best, since I feel after slump there is a boom, and Pakistan has gone through such phases previously, so keeping my fingers crossed for the next year, which is starting from a tough tour of South Africa. Cheers & Peace out!