Can't be this boring , surely

[Zainub]

Off season it is, I know, but surely it can't be this boring that since my absence there has been just the one new conversation.

[Zainub]

I will try and kick start a discussion.

I've just had a look at the schedule announced for England's tour to Pakistan - or tour to Punjab I might as well call it ... As usual no test in Karachi, 2 one days, 1 test and the tour game for Lahore, a couple of one days and a tour game for Pindi, and a test each for Multan and Faisalabad.

I've also just seen that Cricket Australia is sending a security delagation to Pakistan to check out the circumstances here before their A team, yes, their A team tour us. This is just so getting on my nerves really.

[Seamer]

Originally Posted by Zainub Razvi

I've also just seen that Cricket Australia is sending a security delagation to Pakistan to check out the circumstances here before their A team, yes, their A team tour us. This is just so getting on my nerves really.

Just because it's an A team, does'nt mean that their security is'nt just as important as a test team. There is a certain situation going on just above Pakistans rather porous northern border, so CA concerns are well justified. The same security checks are taken whether it is Pakistan, England or South Africa, so there is no reason for it to get on your nerves Zainub. This is just the way the world is now.

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by Seamer

The same security checks are taken whether it is Pakistan, England or South Africa

Aparently this is not true.

Pakistan toured SA in 1998, and a couple of our players, namely Mohammad Akram and Saqlain Mustaq were mugged near their hotel. Akram had to go for X-ray and treatment of lacerations on his hand, and that consequentially put his place in the first test against South Africa in jeopardy. Saqi was shaken but thankfully remained uninjured. In interviews later Wasim Akram said the team was totally shaken by those incidents and wanted to come back home imediately. The PCB however only wanted the 1st test to be delayed. The United Cricket Board of SA remarkably (somehow) managed to get out of jail without anything happening. Now I'm not saying we should have come back , I thought what did was right, in principle, but do you think the tour would have progressed had any other team then Pakistan been in this scenario. I don't for once. Aus would have taken the flight back home next day, ditto for England and NZ, they might not have waited for even a few hours. Australia just played a couple of tests in England right when the UK was perhaps going through its most vulnerable period security wise and yet we still have very few people being concerned about Australia's security there. Next year we have to go to England, imagine the PCB telling the ECB they won't play in London because of terror threats, can you see in any likelihood ECB allowing the PCB to tour England without asking the team to play in England, NO. Not even the slightest chance of that. Fact is, the PCB are soft, and allow other teams to dictate terms to them. I don't understand why some people are always so hell bent in trying to project themselves as being more vulnerable. There are over 10 million people in Karachi and an over 100 million people in Pakistan who confront these and many other threats daily yet they still go on about their lives as normaly as they can. I don't see why cricketers should be treated like precious comodities. They're humans just like us. On these grounds I don't see why any team any where in the world should have any reservations about playing anywhere.

[Zainub]

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) came under scathing attack on Monday from former Test player Haseeb Ahsan who held the ad hoc committee responsible for depriving Karachi of a Test against England in the coming winter. Hasib minced no words in saying that it was a calculated ploy by the Shaharyar M. Khan-led PCB regime to concentrate on scheduling top international matches in just one province while ignoring the deserved claims of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan. More here

Originally Posted by Haseeb Ahsan

He (Shaharyar) has given an impression that he has still not freed himself from the British colonialism. Whatever they demanded, he obliged them in the next instance. Even after spending close to two months in London, the PCB chairman was unable to convince his English sahibs to play a Test in Karachi.

[workkey]

As salam a alaikum everyone


we all have forgot about Afro Asian cup starting from 17th of this month...
inzi is leading the asian xi

[Beny]

Sorry Zanuib but you have to admit, there are a lot of people in Pakistan who would like to see westerners dead... Only a minority ofcourse but it's still a threat.

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by Beny

Sorry Zanuib but you have to admit, there are a lot of people in Pakistan who would like to see westerners dead... Only a minority ofcourse but it's still a threat.

It is a threat Beny, I'd be foolish to deny that, but the threat is equal for all parts of Pakistan. Lahore and Pindi are no less safe or vulnerable then Karachi or Peshawar. BTW there are people in other parts of the world also that wish Pakistan didn't exist. We obviously don't mind touring there, do we, oh yeah, they're in minority too.

Originally Posted by workey

we all have forgot about Afro Asian cup starting from 17th of this month...

I'm not surprised people have forgotten the Afro Asian cup, why would you want to remember it anyway when plenty of players are preferring to forget it (Rahul Dravid and some other less high profile players have pulled out for 'personal' reasons) and the whole tournament has been build up by the media like one big good-for-nothing event at a time when the rest of the cricket world (out side of Asia and Africa I mean) are busy portraying cricket (via the Ashes of coarse) as the 'Sexist Sport in the Western Hemisphere'. Couldn't have got worse for the organisers once gets the feeling.

Neil Manthrope has put together a useful article about it on Cricinfo. If any one hasn't read it already then one quick look right now might be a good idea. I plan on watching it though still but that is not because the ICC have granted it official status but rather just because I haven't seen some of the Pakistani players play cricket for some time. Although considering the event takes place in South Africa I'm not sure how optimistically I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure the Asian skipper will tell you he has better memories then those that gelled together during the World Cup in 2003. Inzi and the other Pakistani players in the squad should be looking to bounce back from their previous poor (to say the least) record in South Africa.

[Captain]

stand by Zainub on this one.on most cases.

[Zainub]

Good article last Sunday in the Magazine, Dawn describing the wonderful history of test cricket in Karachi and wondering if things will ever be the same again:

http://dawn.com/weekly/dmag/dmag16.htm