Making sense of Pakistan’s new squads
The Pakistan Cricket Board press conference to announce the squad for the tour of Sri Lanka started well. Misbahul Haq stepped down as T20 captain, and Zaka Ashraf announced Mohammad Hafeez as the new T20 captain – well-played by the PCB in ensuring that Misbah ‘stepped down’ and was not pushed out. It is up to Hafeez now to demonstrate his leadership potential, which we all have heard of, and make that role of captain his very own. After this revelation came the announcement of the new squad. No wait – the new squads. The dream that PCB was contemplating regarding three different ...
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They paved paradise, and put up a cricket stadium and golf course
There was some good news for the city’s sports fans following the announcements that new “world-class” cricket and golf facilities are going to be set up in Shakarparian. Hundreds of thousands of cricket fans would be especially enthused by the knowledge that the capital will finally be home to a cricket stadium as would a dozen-odd golf fans. But I kid. Golf has more than a dozen fans in the city. Maybe even a few hundred. While a cricket stadium has been a long-standing dream for many Islamabadis, a bit of an odd one considering the relative proximity of Rawalpindi Cricket ...
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Bringing cricket back, the South African way
So, the latest news is that eight companies, including Ten Sports, Nimbus and Geo TV, have already made their recommendations to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), while another three are expected to do so this week. Chairman PCB Zaka Ashraf is working on what can easily be called the Pakistani ‘mission impossible’. He wants Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India to visit Pakistan; his players to be a part of the Indian Premier League, Sialkot to play the Champions League and to start the Pakistani Premier League in couple of months. What the PCB needs to understand is that they are repeating a ...
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Education will be the solution to all our cricketing woes
Education is not just filling the bucket and ticking the boxes. It’s how a person is groomed, his personality developed and the learning ability instilled. It’s easier to teach a well-educated person tricks of the trade because he has developed a habit of picking up things quickly. The mind has been trained to adapt to different situations accordingly. Such qualities determine the development of a cricketer as well and can foretell whether that individual will be successful or not as a person. But that’s not all education does. The strength of decent education goes well beyond the development we just spoke of. It ...
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My priority list for PCB
Undoubtedly, the new Pakistan Cricket Board management has been proactive in solving problems. Unexpectedly, it has been our new PCB Chairman who has come to the rescue. Zaka Ashraf seems to be more serious about his priorities than the previous management, but there remain issues that need immediate attention. So here’s my list of what should be top on the priority list: 1. International tours For more than a year, the Pakistani cricket team has not played at any venue outside of the Asian continent. Other than hosting a series in the UAE, we have had no practice on international pitches like Australia, England, South Africa and ...
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The way forward for Pakistan cricket
All the rumours of sacking Misbah as captain have been laid to rest after Pakistan’s victory in the Asia Cup. The fear of Pakistan going downhill after the ODI series lost against England is no more there. Pakistan cricket has been stable, and for once the cricket season ended on a high note with not much to worry about. But what’s next for Pakistan? There are still many unanswered questions like: Who will be the next captain for Pakistan? Which new bowlers will have a future in the team? For how long can we persist with spinners as our main weapon? Who is the right ...
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What the Pakistan Premier League should look like
The dream of Pakistan Premier League (PPL) has finally become a reality: the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Zaka Ashraf has declared that this event will be held in October. Here’s what I think the event should look like. Name To be really honest, I would like a unique name for our tournament. Case in point; Spain’s La Liga and Australia’s Big Bash, two unique names which almost every sports fan knows. And frankly there are too many Premier Leagues in our region. Why not something in Urdu? Total number of teams There are speculations that 16 teams will feature in the event, which is ...
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No one wants to tour Pakistan
As someone who has watched Pakistan play cricket on numerous occasions overseas, as well as in Karachi, I can tell you the experience is enormously different at home. Overseas, the seats are comfortable, the stadiums in pristine condition, the crowds well-behaved, the food non-threatening and no eyesore security grill to separate the playing area from the spectators. At home, the seats will put your rear to sleep, the biryani is spicy enough to make you wish you brought antacid with you, and the frighteningly energetic crowd is so loud that you can’t speak to the person next to you without the aid ...
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Let the Sialkot Stallions represent Pakistan
A selector once associated with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said that he would not hesitate to select players from even a small town if their performance outshone cricketers from other parts of the country. The point that he wanted to make is that quotas should not be set per region and teams should be selected in the best national interest, irrespective of which provinces and cities the players come from. Nowadays, a lot of effort is being made by the PCB think-tank to form a formidable squad for the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka. Amid discussions on who should ...
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IPL without Pakistan: Who is the real loser?
Since its inception mid-way through the last decade, Twenty20 cricket has added a new dimension to the gentlemen’s sport. This relatively new brand of cricket not only marked a certain form of revival for the sport, it also managed to expand its fan base by exploring regions of the globe that had previously shunned it because of the length of its duration. The inaugural T20 World Cup soon followed and brought the most significant twist in its otherwise steady growth. The crowning of India as the World T20 Champions marked wild celebrations back home and took Mahendra Singh Dhoni and many of his unknown men ...
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