Pakistan vs India, Feb-March 2005, Preseries Build Up Thread

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by Paoli69

What did Youhana do wrong to lose the vice-captaincy. He captained very well in Melbourne, and although Sydney wasn't great, he should still be there in my opinion.

Youhanna was reportedly taken into confidence before Younis Khan was awarded the vice captaincy, this has been done to make our 2nd best batsmen concentrate more on his batting, and not burden him with any extra responsibilities, I don't think I'd be too alarmed the move has taken place. The other reason behind this move is to start groomming Younis as a leader, he has been tipped by Imran Khan, the most successful ever Pakistani skipper, to take the job if and when Inzi step downs or in the worst scenario sacked.

I'm also pleased with the squad we have picked. It looks very balanced, and capable of making up for the loss of one the best strike bowlers in the world.

People in my locality have been raising big voices over exclusion of Hasan Raza (he's a Karachi lad) but I'm afraid as many runs as he has scored there would have been no point in tagging an extra man along to an over seas tour and then make him waste him time there. We have to be practical, he wouldn't have made it to the final XI (perhaps not even in the warm up games). What will he possibly earn by just going on the tour and never playing. He is better of continuing playing in the Patron's Trophy here. At least this way he is using his time constructively and playing and not just going around carrying the drinks in international matches. He is such a talented lad sooner or later his chane will come. He'll just have to wait.

I don't think in this case he (or even Shahid Nazir for that matter) has been treated unfairly or anything, just a matter of bad luck. His chance will come when the others get out of form, till then, the fringe players, and the selectors even, probably has no other option but to wait.

[Maranello]

The Indian cricket board (BCCI) fears for Pakistan tour (cricinfo report and Pakistani news report). The TV rights issue, which I addressed in an earlier post (here) is still not resolved, and this time it seems the BCCI will not simply give the rights to Doordarshan (the state terrestrial broadcaster) and lose all the squillions and zillions of moolah. It wants the issue resolved between the two major bidders, Zee Corp and ESPN-Star; however as various court cases are ongoing and nowhere resolution in India, a complete solution looks unlikely. My feeling is that some last-minute compromise will be worked out, and the issue will be go away till the next Indian home series; really, BCCI should resolve this once and for all. PCB expressed its anxieties here.

In other news, it has emerged that Imran Khan talked Shoaib Akhtar out of touring India.

Speaking to Times News Network, Imran said, "Shoaib was willing to make himself available for the selection but I advised him against doing so. He was confused whether to tour or not. He was in two minds when he came to me for advice. He didn't know how to respond to the hamstring niggle. I told him if it's a hamstring rupture then he shouldn't tour at all. As it turned out, Shoaib had a big rupture." [...]

[Shoaib] was a convenient whipping-boy for Pakistan's poor displays on tour - but Imran suggested that others were just as much to blame. "Shoaib is slightly difficult to handle and the PCB likes to pass the buck," he said. "They all need soul-searching."

[Zainub]

The news about tv rights is to be honest quite worrying, fingers crossed, hopefully they'll sort it out.

The other pieace of news is also quite interesting, did Shoaib actually listen to some one's adive? WOW!!! What a breakthrough!!!

In seriousness Imran is spot on, just because Shoaib is slightly more difficult player to handle it does not mean everyone should have the right to scape goat him for everything that goes wrong with the team as a whole.

I hope he gives his hammy a good rest, and not hurry into coming back for the one-day series, I think its more important that he get superemly fit for the away series in the Caribean.

ps: If anyone's interested, OK's latest column can be accessed through this link, he talk about Shoaib's injury, the board's incompetence at dealing with it, and claims he cannot see the logic behind Youhanna's sacking as vice skipper, and (rather sadly) he ends it with a message for Woolmer: "one sincerely hopes that Bob Woolmer will spare us his bulletins and maintain a sort of silence we expect from cricket coaches".

[Maranello]

A good point about Shoaib responding to advice ZR. Who knows what goes through that head...!

I agree that PCB and the captains need to manage Shoaib better, and should not make him the perennial scape-goat for all our woes. I believe though that it is not really Woolmer's job or within his remit to control Shoaib though; to control the XI men on the field is the job of the captain. It is only because we have such weak leadership that you hear things like "so and so is uncontrollable". Only weak leaders fire people they do not like or are afraid of; eg Smith getting rid of Klusener and then bad-mouthing him publicly and often. Even the peerless Asif Iqbal dropped Sarfraz Nawaz from Pakistan's tour to Indian in 1978/79 just because he was unsure of how to handle him. Pakistan lost the series, and Asif, acknowledging his timid and scared leadership, did the gentlemanly thing and retired when he was in his prime as a batsman.

Someone like Imran on the other hand, would always pick people even if they had "difficult characters", as long as they brought something to the party. Sure, he had personal favourites, but that was based on how much the person contributed to the team; those who had attributes similar to Imran, and were true, gritty fighters were selected; and those who seemed timid or selfish were often canned. However, as he was a strong leader, he never dropped someone just because they were a difficult character. To admit that surely is a failure of leadership.

Another example, in a different sport, is Fergie and Cantona. The latter would be uncontrollable for most leaders, but Fergie got him working for the team and made him into a national icon. This is what great leaders do.

Weak ones, as Asif Iqbal then was, or as Smith and Inzamam are, simply get rid of someone they are too scared to control.

PS: Yes ZR I read Kureishi's latest outburst earlier today, and did not think much of it to be honest.

[Zainub]

I conceed that Inzi's is perhaps not the ideal kind of leader needed for a person like Shoaib, but problem is, we don't have better alternatives either. Shoaib really needs a Fergie kind of person at helm, Sir Ferguson has a long standing history as you point out too of taking the best out of short fused players, or as some people in Rooney's case claim, with no fuse at all!

[Paoli]

The Government owned TV station will broadcast..

[Maranello]

Kaneria tries to do a McGrath and targets Dravid before the series (here). I like the way this kid thinks; he may not get the 20-25 wickets he is aiming for in the series, but at least he has the right attitude. However, he should shut-up now and get on with bowling; being confident is great but no one likes a bigmouth a la Shoaib Akhtar.

The TV rights issue seems to have been resolved (for the time being away), report here.

[Shaka]

I don't have too many problems with the team selected, but I think Rao should have found a place in the squad. I don't know if a 16 man squad is a maximum but for the test matches Razzaq and Afridi will surely be of limited value? A genuine strike bowler would have been preferable. Well, I can only hope that Khalil justifies his selection ahead of Rao, but for me Rao got movement both ways in Australia, while Khalil may be slightly quicker, he doesn't have anything to compare with Rao's very effective away swing. I can only hope there's more to him than we have seen so far. Sami too will have a few questions to answer. The pace bowling line up is very hit and miss for Pakistan. It doesn't look like it will pose too much threat to a strong Indian batting line up but then if everything clicks you wouldn't be surprised to see them among the wickets either with helpful conditions.

[workkey]

why has shoab malik bieng selected as an all rounder when he is not sure to bowl and just heard the news that the deal
between the board and waqar failed for the bowling coach

[Zainub]

the deal between the board and waqar failed for the bowling coach

Really?That's the first time I've heard this, I'm rather dissapointed to be honest.

On your question, Shoaib Malik was selected because our selectors thought he'd be good value to the squad/team even without his bowling. He's batted in the top order in one-days, and is certainly a competent bat by all means , when on top form a good enough batsmen alone to get a place in the xi.

M,

I don't think Kaneria is a big mouth, pretty likable character all the same, can't possibly be compared to Shaoib, I think all the rest of the team have learned their lessons well sighting his example. I'm fine with him setting targets and everything. And he was probably just answeing a few journalists thats all.