Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Afridi facing tough task in boosting Pakistan

CARDIFF — Pakistan one-day captain Shahid Afridi admitted he had a job on his hands to raise the morale of his scandal-hit side after they were bowled out for just 89 by England in a thumping Twenty20 loss.
Pakistan were dismissed for their lowest Twenty20 score in 40 matches at this level at Sophia Gardens here on Tuesday as England won by six wickets to wrap up a 2-0 series win with a mammoth 36 balls to spare.
World Twenty20 champions England, who completed a 3-1 Test series win over Pakistan last month, will now look for fresh success when the teams meet in the first of five one-day internationals at Chester-le-Street, northeast England, on Friday.
"We were very bad, inexperienced and immature from my side and from all the batsmen," Afridi told reporters. "I think we played very bad cricket.
"It will be a big challenge to compete in the one-dayers, but we have some time," he added.
"Me, my coach (Waqar Younis) and the team, we will sit together and talk."
Pakistan's tour has been overshadowed by a 'spot-fixing' scandal that has seen Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif all suspended by the International Cricket Council after allegedly conspiring to deliberately bowl no-balls during last month's fourth Test at Lord's.
But Afridi said off-field problems could not account for Pakistan's form.
 "We are coming through a bad situation, but as professionals we should take that from our mind and focus on our cricket.
"At this stage I know our morale is very down. It is down day by day, and game by game. But one victory and it will be very high.
"I just want one victory. I'm not letting my team down like this, not in the one-dayers," Afridi added.
But he conceded the loss of the suspended trio had hit Pakistan hard.
"I made some plans as a captain, I knew Salman Butt was my opener and key player, and Asif and Amir.
"Everything has changed as a captain for me, but inshallah (God willing) I will bring my team up."
Victory, built on seamer Tim Bresnan's man-of-the-match winning return of three wickets for 10 runs in 3.4 overs, saw England to a seventh straight Twenty20 success - equalling the record for consecutve international victories in this format shared by South Africa and Pakistan.
"In this form of the game it can be tough to win consecutively," said England Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood.
"It just takes one performance from the opposition to take it away from you.
"To have that 'World Cup', you can have added pressure on you as well.
"But the way we've played over the last two games, the boys are enjoying that added pressure," added Collingwood, who led England to a five-wicket win over Pakistan here on Sunday.
"They tried to come hard at us today (Tuesday) -- you could sense that was their approach -- but we kept taking wickets and really applying the pressure."

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Akmal, Butt take Pakistan to Win

Pakistan started their title defense in imposing fashion against Bangladesh in St Lucia, as Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal put the platform for the highest total score of the tournament so far. Butt, a surprise selection at 142 with Akmal and Shahid Afridi made it’s decision to bat was not lost. Bangladesh, poor for much of the innings, does well to chase 173.
Akmal and Butt got the balance just right on an intelligent stand. Both attacked regularly, but with thought. Akmal’s stance was predictable, almost immediately try to set the agenda. A bold statement was made by left-arm spin – Bangladesh’s most potent weapon – once, twice if he wiped out Abdur Razzak into the second one. He was the one who took risks, almost pay for it when a chance from a miscued pull fluffed by Mohammad Ashraful. They had to pay for it as Akmal did what he does best. Out came the cuts, the scything cover drives, pulls and the occasional stunning blow over extra cover. All singles and doubles, while a large area flooded, so Akmal as comfortable as he makes 73 in this format.
Butt, but was pleasantly surprised. He appeared ill-suited to the format, unable to work and gaps are not blessed with the power game that poorer batsmen get runs. But he has a good ODI record and it was the intention from the start, when he lofted his first ball over extra cover.
Since then, periodically, he would dance down, go away, go find loopholes or antenna. When Akmal snorted and puffed and threw herself into success, 
Butt went about as smooth as you can in reaching fifty off 29 balls. There was no violence, just clear intention and belief in his regular strokes.
His improved leg-side game was shown, and, in three successive overs after the 10th, he hit Shakib al Hasan, slog-swept Razzak for a maximum  
and then hit debutante Suhrawadi Shuvo well in another. A pair of improvised legside flicks he hinted new tricks and his second fifty T20I to learn, was an unexpected bonus. All types of monuments came in that period, Pakistan hundreds, fifties and Akmal’s without doing anything too stupid, a mammoth total threatened.
Bangladesh had started badly, nervous in the field and with the ball at the start, unable to string together a whole to any acquisition of good balls. It was not until the 16th over, in fact, when they finally Akmal
claimed that one more cast, without giving at least one border. She recovered, not to allow more limits in the final overs, but the damage was done.
Afridi hoping to halt England

Afridi hoping to halt England
ICC World Twenty20 champions England are hoping to end its two-match series against Pakistan on Tuesday on a high.

England registered a five-wicket win over the visitors in the first game of the series on Sunday at the Swalec Stadium in Cardiff.

England's Twenty20 skipper Paul Collingwood was thrilled after his side overcame a mid-innings collapse. Collingwood believes the Twenty20 side still has fond memories of the ICC World Twenty20 title triumph in West Indies which helped in the first game.

"I didn't have to say anything. You just look at each other, and those smiles go on your faces. We've got great memories of that. But from a captain's point of view you've got to try to tell the guys to restart, and we did it 100%," Collingwood was quoted as saying after the win.

But Pakistan's ODI and Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi is hoping to halt England in their tracks. The flamboyant all-rounder is keen to lead the way for his side and boost the sagging morale. Afridi is keen that his side overcome the mistakes committed on the field in the opening match.

"We missed some opportunities (in the first game), but tomorrow (Tuesday) you will see the attitude will be more positive. I'm very confident and will definitely set an example as the captain. I will try to perform my best with bat, ball and on the field," said Afridi.
 Andre Botha 
Andre Cornelius Botha
Ireland Batting and fielding averages

Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 4s 6s Ct St
ODIs 37 33 4 596 56 20.55 847 70.36 0 2 62 4 9 0
T20Is 14 11 1 130 38 13.00 141 92.19 0 0 12 1 8 0
First-class 29 46 3 1755 186 40.81

5 7

13 0
List A 86 70 8 1230 139 19.83

1 4

19 0
Twenty20 19 15 3 209 62* 17.41 199 105.02 0 1 21 3 11 0
Bowling averages

Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10
ODIs 37 29 1380 997 37 4/19 4/19 26.94 4.33 37.2 2 0 0
T20Is 14 10 204 184 21 3/14 3/14 8.76 5.41 9.7 0 0 0
First-class 29
2649 1148 45 4/52
25.51 2.60 58.8
0 0
List A 86
3050 2368 82 4/19 4/19 28.87 4.65 37.1 4 0 0
Twenty20 19 15 307 294 26 3/14 3/14 11.30 5.74 11.8 0 0 0
Career statistics
ODI debut Ireland v England at Belfast, Jun 13, 2006 scorecard
Last ODI Canada v Ireland at Toronto, Sep 6, 2010 scorecard
ODI statistics
T20I debut Ireland v Scotland at Belfast, Aug 2, 2008 scorecard
Last T20I England v Ireland at Providence, May 4, 2010 scorecard
T20I statistics
First-class debut 1998/99
Last First-class Canada v Ireland at Toronto, Aug 31-Sep 3, 2010 scorecard
List A debut 1996/97
Last List A Canada v Ireland at Toronto, Sep 6, 2010 scorecard
Twenty20 debut Ireland v Bangladesh A at Eglinton, Jun 27, 2008 scorecard
Last Twenty20 England v Ireland at Providence, May 4, 2010 scorecard
Profile
Originating from South Africa and scored 52 from 89 on his one-day debut against England in June 2006 and also notched 56 in his third game against the Netherlands. He struggled with the bat in the 2007 World Cricket League but topped the Irish bowling averages with 13 wickets at 21.30. His 78 and 43 against Kenya were key to Ireland winning the Intercontinental Cup Final in 2005 and he continued his love affair with the tournament in February 2007 when, against UAE in a must win game his 157 was part of a competition record partnership of 360 with Eoin Morgan that set up a crushing win and put them in the final. He still struggled with the bat during Ireland's campaign in the 2007 World Cup, though he chipped in with five wickets.
Alan Curr April 2007

Pak player ban bad for IPL: Shahid Afridi

Pak player ban bad for IPL: Shahid Afridi

The ongoing ban of Pakistan players from the Indian Premier League will undermine the quality of the competition and cost it crowds, players and officials said on Wednesday.

"The absence of our cricketers will not be good for cricket or the IPL," Shahid Afridi told English language daily The News.

Pakistan cricketers will miss out on IPL for second year in a row after they could not obtain the required visa.

Afridi, who will be leading Pakistan when it defends its Twenty20 World Cup title next year in the West Indies, would have got a contract from one of the eight IPL franchises had the country's players been allowed to take part.

"It would have been good to make our IPL comeback next year but it is now clear that we won't be able to do that. It's like we can't do anything about it," Afridi said.

However, he believes the IPL's loss will be the Pakistan national team's gain.

"Now that it has been decided that we are not playing (in the IPL) we will have a perfect window to hold a proper camp and get ready for the Twenty20 World Cup," Afridi said.

In the inaugural IPL season of 2008, 11 Pakistan players took part, but they were banned from the 2009 competition following the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Contracts were annulled or suspended, and remained so, even after the competition was moved to South Africa.

Prior to the visa decision, it was expected that several Pakistan players would be signed to the IPL for 2010, given Pakistan's impressive showing in winning the Twenty20 World Cup in England this year.

"Pakistan have always been supportive of Indian cricket in the past which is why I was expecting them (India) to be more positive towards us," Afridi said.

"But it seems that's not the case. I personally believe that sports promote harmony and it would have been good for both Pakistan and India if our players would have been allowed to play in the IPL."

The Pakistan Cricket Board said it was beyond its control to obtain Indian visas for its players.

PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar told AP that five Pakistan players _ Sohail Tanvir, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Umar Gul and Misbah-ul-Haq _ had applied for visas.

Last week PCB had received clearance from three ministries within the government to send Pakistan players to the IPL.

Dr. Mohammad Ali Shah, member of PCB's governing board, said the absence of Pakistan players would affect crowds.

"They will lose at least 20 per cent of their gate money because of our players' absence," Shah told a talk show on Geo Super television.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Sport's greatest evil

Match-fixing erodes the basis on which sport is founded, because it undermines uncertainty; which is why it is a bigger crime than the use of performance-enhancing drugs
September 2, 2010


Mohammad Amir was the one Pakistan player to attend the presentation ceremony, England v Pakistan, 4th Test, Lord's, August 29, 2010
It is possible to believe that Amir, if he did agree to deliver those notorious no-balls, was spurred by fear © AFP

Amid all the angst and anger that followed News of the World's allegations of spot-fixing against Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, there are doubtless many who have been tempted to find succour in the fact that, for all Asif's own seemingly sterling efforts, cricket has yet to be scarred by a damaging drugs scandal. At the risk of tempting fate and unleashing a rash of steroid-nourished bowlers cracking skulls at 120mph, this should be resisted.
Once promoted as training for war, sport, thanks in good part to Baron de Coubertin's original Olympic mission statement, evolved in its principles into an idealised version of society. On several levels it has been an improvement - respect for opponents and rules, teamwork, courage, persistence, patience and, in most cases, an abiding meritocracy. Unfortunately, if inevitably, the more businesslike sport becomes, the more it embraces society's deadliest weakness, greed. And the greedier it becomes, the more it betrays us, the audience without whose passion and pockets it could not exist in any worthwhile way.
Despite the impressive recent inroads made by corporate corruption, notably the owners who see nothing whatsoever amiss in fixing player auctions, putting profits before on-field success, milking public funds for new stadia or using their plaything for religious and political ends, the most destructive manifestations of sporting greed are still considered to be match-fixing and performance-enhancing drugs. The question is not so much "How could this happen?" as "Why doesn't it happen more often?"
To highlight the differences between match-fixing and PEDs, let's compare the two current causes celebre - the Lord's no-balls and the perjury charges facing Roger Clemens, the most decorated pitcher in the history of American baseball.
The Mitchell Report into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, published in 2007, mentioned Clemens, one of scores of players cited, no fewer than 85 times. It gave substance to long-held doubts about the cause of his astonishing durability (he was still chinning batters with fastballs when he retired at 45). Brian McNamee, his former strength and conditioning coach at the Toronto Bluejays and New York Yankees, testified that he had injected Clemens with human growth hormone and other steroids; Andy Pettitte, once a team-mate in New York and Houston, told Congress that Clemens had admitted to him that he had taken HGH. Last month Clemens, consistently vehement in his denials, was indicted for perjury, false statement and obstruction of Congress, which could see him spend 15 to 21 months in jail. On Tuesday he pleaded not guilty on all counts. Indeed, he was adamant that he was looking forward to his day in court. The prosecution claims to have "extensive scientific evidence" and a "voluminous" case.
Let's be candid. Clemens is not a likeable chap. While his generosity towards fans is seldom acknowledged, even rarer have been the occasions when he has he felt any compunction to endear himself. Being an intensely proud, no-nonsense Texan is not something for which he is about to apologise. Self-love comes easy. He refers to himself not in the first person, or even the third, but by his nickname. The names of all four of his sons begin with a K, the symbol for a strikeout - Koby, Kory, Kacy and Kody. All of which explains why, for all the fans whose trust and illusions would be smithereened, many others would be delighted should the charges stick.
Like Barry Bonds, another baseball god battling perjury charges over HGH use, Clemens has attracted a fraction of the sympathy heaped on Amir. The Pakistani is a seemingly naïve teenager on the launchpad to greatness, whom no true lover of the game wants to see fall; Bonds and Clemens are perceived as arrogant, cynical multi-millionaires who have achieved virtually everything they set out to do.
Granted, accusing fingers should also be pointed at the managers and owners who turned a blind eye while the drug abusers were doing such a grand job resurrecting interest, filling grounds and hoisting profits following the players' strike of 1994-95, but it is still impossible to imagine that Clemens and Bonds, if guilty, could have acted as they did out of fear. It is all too easy to believe that Amir, if he did agree to deliver those notorious no-balls, was spurred by precisely that.
TRUST IS THE KEY. In contrast with all other popular cultural pursuits, a sporting contest stands or falls on uncertainty. We, the audience, are buying admission, via turnstile or cable channel, into a world of comparative innocence. We want to check in our scepticism at the door, want to know that even the smallest David has a chance of felling the biggest Goliath. We take it on trust, whatever the final score, that the result has not been perverted, distorted or pre-determined, that we are not about to be deceived. We trust that the protagonists are on the level. We trust that whenever they do cheat they do so visibly, and can therefore be punished appropriately and quickly (even, sometimes, when the cheating benefits our own team). We also trust that their objectives are transparent. Wherein lies the difference between using drugs to boost performance and seeking to profit from purposeful failure.
 


 
How often can the joy of watching a riveting match be swept away by an unstemmable tide of suspicion before trust becomes unfeasible?
 




Notwithstanding the world records and championships pirated by the likes of Ben Johnson and Marion Jones, and for all that widespread abuse has destroyed the credibility of athletics and cycling for many others besides this ex-observer, drugs guarantee nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. And until the day an Olympic favourite knowingly injects his backside with a potion that makes him run slower (yes, horses have been treated thus, but that's hardly their choice), the very least we can say in favour of PEDs is that taking them is evidence of the taker's determination to win, however unsavoury.
Which is why match-fixing gnaws even more insistently and deeply at the sporting soul. And why spot-fixing, micro-fixing, call it what you will, is barely the lesser of two evils. The word "fix" is no accident: the aim is to eliminate uncertainty. When a player intentionally underperforms by adhering to a preconceived script, whether for an entire match or for the split-second it takes to overstep a crease, when the objective is no longer doing his job to the best of his ability, in pursuit of victory - or at least a draw - he erodes our trust. Even when the motivation is not greed. One hundred summers ago, Philadelphia's Napoleon Lajoie and Detroit's Ty Cobb were competing for the American League batting title: so reviled was Cobb, the greatest baseballer of the era, that Jack O'Connor, manager of the St Louis Browns, ordered his third baseman to play deep and hence allow Lajoie to obtain enough hits to pip his arch rival. O'Connor was speedily sacked, and justly so. However many people might have empathised with the motive, he had still defrauded the public.
A violent racist with few friends, who carried a gun wherever he went and wielded the spikes on his boots to intimidate and maim opponents, Cobb has been labelled baseball's "Black Stain". Hansie Cronje is his cricketing counterpart, albeit for contrasting reasons. His enthusiasm for scriptwriting left a dark legacy: we no longer know what, or who, to trust. That is why, whenever we hear allegations about the ethics of his successors, we are so quick to assume guilt, so willing to uncover the fire beneath the smoke. That's what happens when trust erodes.
Yes, much the same applies to the Ben Johnson legacy, but again, there is a vital difference. Plenty of sane voices have advocated that PEDs be permitted - nobody cares if Bob Dylan wrote "Like A Rolling Stone" on acid or Martin Scorsese directed Raging Bull between cocaine binges; besides, wouldn't it be kinder and wiser to invest the millions spent on testing in helping the casualties? Allowing match-fixing, conversely, is hardly the sort of suggestion one expects from the owner of a fully functioning brain.
How often can the joy of watching a riveting match be swept away by an unstemmable tide of suspicion before trust becomes unfeasible? Ten years after Cronjegate, thus does cricket's principal dilemma remain.
It could happen in India as well
Corruption is not Pakistan's sole preserve, quick money threatens to lure young cricketers elsewhere too
September 3, 2010
Text size: A | A

Mohammad Amir arrived for the fourth day at Lord's with his name engulfed in controversy, England v Pakistan, 4th Test, Lord's, August 29, 2010
Who are Mohammad Amir's mentors in the Pakistan team? © Getty Images
Enlarge
At the heart of Mohammad Amir's stupidity, at the core of what is happening to a beautiful game, which is in the hands of ordinary people in Pakistan, lies one very basic question that every cricketer should have asked himself at some point: why do I play this game?
If the answer is that you want to excel at the one thing that you are good at, that you want to find the limits of your ability, that you relish the challenge of a competition, that you get goose pimples putting on your country's colours and walking out to the expectations of your countrymen, you will pursue those goals and take whatever reward you get. Invariably it will be handsome.
If the answer is that you want to earn a good living as quickly as you can, that you want to bask in the comforts of the material pleasures that your talent delivers to you, you will take whatever financial inducement comes your way. Inevitably it will be tainted, inevitably the dessert will be laced.
It is our choices that tell us who we are.
But these choices can be influenced; sometimes, and I hope never, young players can be coerced into walking down a specific path. And so it comes down to the air they breathe when their minds are still fragile. It could be the air of excellence that drives a young man to newer heights of achievement. Or it could be the putrid air of greed that could infect him and snuff a career out before it has had time to blossom.
In the Pakistan dressing room, and by extension in the society that it always reflects, I do not know if the air they breathe is fresh from the meadows of their land or their majestic mountains. It is easy, and dangerous, to pass judgement from a distance, but surely there must be a clue in the number of gifted individuals who wither away. But one thing is clear. Amir is not just a young cricketer but a young man symbolising tomorrow in Pakistan and that is why cricket lovers there should be disappointed. As they should have been with the antics of another astonishingly gifted young man, Umar Akmal, in Australia when his brother was left out.
If there is a brotherly hand on their shoulder, encouraging but firm, pointing out the rewards of a great career, would young cricketers think of performing petty crimes for petty rewards? Or is it that the hand on their shoulders isn't brotherly but villainous, goading them to fill their coffers with whatever comes their way? The second seems the more likely and if that is indeed the case, the Pakistan Cricket Board has picked the wrong people and in doing so let down the cricket lovers who seek their identity from the way their national team plays. Across the cricket world, the Pakistan board has little respect, and it is not difficult to imagine that the decay would begin there.
There is a danger for us in India too. It is easy to sound superior and sneer at our neighbours, to appear holier than thou and take the moral high ground. India faces a threat that is, if anything, greater than the one that seems to have engulfed young men in Pakistan.
India's new generation of cricketers is not just wealthy beyond imagination, they seem to have acquired it without a lot to show for it. I do not know if these young men are looking 10 years into the future, acquiring a work ethic that their solidly brought-up seniors possessed. They seem satiated, two years at the top seems to drain them; the BMW seems more alluring than the sustained effort of a 10-year career. For those that don't want a place in history, the low-hanging fruit can come from many sources. Make no mistake, Indian cricket is under threat and it cannot help that its guardians spend more time bickering over each other's excesses.
The News Of The World video suggests how easily a script can be written when the actors are weak and willing. This is the time to be strong and unforgiving and it must come from the ICC, for the PCB doesn't seem to have the stature to enforce anything. And the PCB can do better than suggest to the huge army of passionate Pakistan supporters that there is a conspiracy.
In India too we indulge in it from time to time, when a referee hands an adverse report or someone bowls a no-ball in a moment of poor judgement. Teams that win don't need to be martyrs and that is a lesson for all of us on the subcontinent. And to my friends in Pakistan I will say "show these theories the door", for the world neither has the time, nor does it benefit from, conspiring against them.