Misbah-ul-Haq: Pakistan 'not expecting anything in return' for England tour

Misbah ul Haq bloated out the truth

Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan's chief selector and head coach, has insisted that the PCB has not asked for a reciprocal tour as part of their agreement to play in England.

This is a shame

As being member of a cricket board, it was their responsibility to continue the return home tour of England to Pakistan, as it is still under confusion whether Pakistan be hosting England in Pakistan? As England last toured Pakistan in 2005 when Inzamam ul Haq was captaining Pakistan, and many players who were part of Pakistan team that time are now story of the past and except Hafeez and Malik, none of the players from that era are part of current Pakistan cricket team.

England have not toured Pakistan since 2005-06. Security concerns have seen subsequent series between the sides played in either the UK or the UAE though there were growing hopes, before the Covid-19 pandemic, that England would return to Pakistan in late 2022.

"It's important for cricket boards that cricket starts now," Misbah said. "That will raise revenue which will be reinvested in cricket. If we don't play, obviously, we will be in trouble.

"For the development of this game, international cricket has to take place. Otherwise it will be difficult for smaller and weaker cricket nations to go forward. It's important for bigger nations that cricket is revised now, too.

"It is not in our minds that the ECB has to do something for us in return for us coming. The most important thing is to re-start international cricket.

"Obviously, in the bigger picture, we want not just the ECB but all cricketing nations to help each other so this game can grow. It's important for the cricket fans in Pakistan and also for Pakistan cricket that countries start touring Pakistan. But we are not expecting anything in return for this tour."

By the time the series starts, England will have just played three Tests against West Indies and Pakistan will not have played competitively since March. Furthermore, Pakistan will not have the luxury of any official warm-up games - though they will play inter-squad matches - and have been obliged to cancel their training camp in Lahore due to rising cases of Covid-19 in the region.

But Misbah suggested that the month his squad will have in the UK before the series begins should provide adequate time to prepare.

"It is a little bit of a disadvantage," Misbah said. "But we believe in the resumption of cricket on the condition that the environment is safe and secure. That's why we did not hold a camp in Lahore. The situation was really getting worse there and we thought securing the players' health and safety was important. So we thought we should hold on and start in England where the [Covid-19] situation is getting better and better.

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Pakistan tour to England in COVID-19 conditions

Pakistan took decision in hurry

It is too early to say but it is my personal opinion that Pakistan has taken decision to tour England in this current sustained situation of COVID-19, as Pakistan didn't go for Quid Pro Quo as this could have been a bargaining situation for Pakistan to bid England to have a return tour to Pakistan.

Broadcasting woes awaits for Pakistan

Broadcasting is the main aspect by which a host cricket board earns major chunk of the earning for the whole series, but due to current on going COVID-19 conditions, the broadcasters won't be Hatim Tai (an Idiom used in Urdu language in replacement for generosity), instead they would definitely be SELECTIVE in SELECTING the SERIES, means only those series' which would benefit the broadcasters, is going to be the Mantra.

The broadcasters

The broadcasters are now going to be selective in selecting quality broadcasts for a particular nation and country cricket board, furthermore it'd be an opportunity for cricket boards to go for home grown cricket broadcasts structure just like Pakistan had during the WILLS Cup era when PTV used to produce and broadcast the Pakistan's home games to Star Sports, and mind it, it was much better quality wise because at least the cricket presentation was home-grown and furthermore the PCB had the control over the content being shown on behalf of PCB and Pakistan on international grounds.

In short

National Stadium, Karachi during HBL PSL 2020 game

We won't be able to to watch cricket matches between Pakistan and Zimbabwe in Karachi or a tri-nation series in Zimbabwe, which is going to hamper an opportunity for teams like Afghanistan, Zimbabwe to prove their worth against competitive opponents, which was supposed to be the good thing for cricket and for those teams altogether, as selective broadcasts would mean selective cricket matches to be broadcasted for the international audiences, which is definitely going to shatter the interests of the masses to watch a cricket game on their TV screens, which is now going to be a dream for many, as there have been audience who like to watch cricket games of minnows and less-known cricketing teams.

Cricket without the crowd

Empty cricket stadiums are now
going to be the fate of the cricketing
fraternity for near future.

It would be unjustifiable for certain cricketers for not having being appreciated and reaction from the chanting crowd off the seats, which is going to be the way it is expected that cricket is supposed to be played for sure. but how it is going to impact the performances of specific and certain cricketers, as I also personally feel it is the crowd chanting which actually enhances the performances and increase the stamina  for cricketers to perform, like Australians had an attitude of defeating their opponents in their own dens because the reaction of crowd getting down-and-out was a feeling which was liked in the Australian cricketing culture, and that was the thing, favored the Australian cricket.

Crowd and the cricketers

It is the crowd which enhances the performances of the cricketers. There have been cricketers who make themselves available for the cricket series' where there is proper cricket structure and crowds like that of the England and Australia, which was exactly seen when Australia games pre-pandemic against New Zealand, games were played in empty stadiums and hence it was like without any enthusiasm and interest and resulting in the games were called off citing the pandemic threat.

Crowd and the cricket commentators

Cricket commentators are also dependent on and upon the reaction(s) of crowd because their reactions make them (the commentators), create certain catching phrases and/or expressions which is later on treated as their registered unofficial trademarks, in short when I remember is the late Tony Greg is to be called one who used to enjoy the commentary while noticing 'n noting down the expressions of the crowd, go through to Sharjah classics commentary where he used to make an ambiance and than watch the same commentator in Sri Lanka where his tone was pretty serious, so crowd is the main thing which actually makes up the ambiance of overall cricket on how it is going to be played.

Pakistani cricketers

It is heard that Pakistani cricketers have been optimistic, as they have been playing in empty stadiums at Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah during home test matches Pakistan played at the UAE which includes the famous test match Pakistan played and won against England in Whitewash during 2012 season, and the famous gloomy test match against Sri Lanka which Pakistan won while it was striking night time from evening, hence they are optimistic that they won't be bothered, but I say let something be decided upon a proper time.

But on the longer run

Things are not going to be the same for anyone single cricketer, as there is going to be sans-saliva applied for bringing swing to the cricket balls and bio-controlled environment which is going to have newer dimensions for playing the game of cricket without giving favours.

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Saeed Anwar - criminally underrated?

Saeed Anwar made his one-day debut on the first day of 1989 but it was not until the Benson & Hedges tri-series the following year, on February 13, that Pakistan were sure they wanted him to open. Two days before, in Brisbane, coming in early at one down, Anwar had breezed to a 24-ball 37 against Australia. It made sense to move him up, and how. He made 27 off 30 and then, within the week, 126 off 99 balls and 43 off 36. On the runs chart, he ended the tri-series third. On strike rate - 105.39 across nine games - he was a chart of his own, with more fours and sixes than anyone.

By the time Jayasuriya and Tendulkar happened, Anwar's had been a disrupted career - he only played in 42 of Pakistan's 108 ODIs from his debut to the day Jayasuriya opened. Injury robbed him of the 1992 World Cup, which should have been his coming out. But his body of work by then - six hundreds in 41 innings - was substantial enough to leave little doubt that it began with him.

His Test career, on the other hand, remains entirely overlooked and grossly under-celebrated. And nearly 20 years on, we can only guess at why this is.

It wasn't a long career and these days greatness is pegged to longevity and endurance. Anwar's 55 Tests unintentionally place him in a less abundant and relevant era: Hanif Mohammad, after all, played 55 Tests. The sample is also small enough that it stands vulnerable to being dulled in comparison to ordinariness: Mohammad Hafeez has also played 55 Tests.

See, unlike those two, Anwar wasn't his side's only star. The 188 not out in Kolkata is a good example. Potentially his finest Test innings, a genuine epic, yet it's like the middle-child memory from that game: ignored between two deliveries from Shoaib Akhtar, Tendulkar's run-out, and Moin Khan's rearguard, and jostling instead with Javagal Srinath's 13 wickets for attention.

Not just Pakistan, actually, but the decade had characters spilling out from every XI. All those fast

bowlers, the Waughs, Shane Warne, Tendulkar, Lara; it was easy to slip by unnoticed among this mob. And forget mobs, if you're left-handed and existing in the age of Lara alone, you'd best settle for the shadows.

Post-retirement he has shrunk further away, now but a dot on the game's horizon. It's admirable in the way you can admire someone who resolutely chooses not to hang on to past glories. But because he's not that ex-player, coaching or clogging up newsfeeds all the time, he has been easier to forget.

More than anything, though, the aesthetics of his game have, insidiously, engulfed the Test impact of it; as Warne, in picking him as the best Pakistani batsman he had bowled to, wrote, "[it's the] style you remember, not the figures". It was always easy to forget Anwar was not being pretty for the sake of being pretty but to some bigger, more functional purpose.

Another, and this time Mark Nicholas' commentary is enough. Cursory recognition that it's a good shot before, a second later, the realisation that it's much more: "in fact, it's astonishing timing". In fact, this happened a lot - the timing was such that it could disorient the senses. From early in the 188 not out, note this: straight, not exactly a drive, but a four still. Unlike Lara's flourishes that proudly announced his boss-ness, it often took a second or two to understand what Anwar had done; in fact, like the greatness of his career creeping up on you.

From the same innings comes another reminder of his inventiveness, the last shot he plays before Pakistan's innings ends. Look especially at how late he dabs in this shot, the bouncer well past his left shoulder, bat-face to the skies, pointing towards third man. Not an upper-cut - or "an upper-glide", as Sanjay Manjrekar corrects himself - but an early - perhaps the earliest? - iteration of the ramp against bouncers that proliferates in the modern game. Again, most of the world probably remembers Adam Gilchrist as having first played that shot, on his Ashes debut in 2001.

The range of Anwar's strokes was not only vast but, it seemed, forever expanding. Often, in each substantial innings he was playing a shot you hadn't seen him - or, sometimes, anyone - play before. And… and, we're deep in this rabbit hole, like Warne, not talking about his Test figures.

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