1st Test: Pakistan v South Africa, Johannesburg, Feb 1-5, 2013

[Nikema]

Re: 1st Test: Pakistan v South Africa, Johannesburg, Feb 1-5, 2013

@phoenixdesi

thx for the explanation on type of balls…and yes we have very few junior players coming up these days…talented players like hammaad azam have been destroyed…so generalization shd be avoided

We have very few new players coming up that is NOT because we dont have good new players that is because they are systematically NOT given chances.

This is how i answered this question to a South African cricket fan on another forum

As someone who has closely, very closely followed Pak cricket for over two decades - I can tell you Pak batting talents has absolute no lack of quality - in fact I will even go ahead and say that the promise, maturity, talent that I have seen in our domestic batsmen since 2008 is far beyond what I used to see in them in 90’s. Batsmen like Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shahzad, Sharjeel Khan, Umar Amin, Azziz Ghumman and others whose name are skipping my mind ATM are far far better batsmen then many Pak batsmen who played domestic and even International cricket for Pak for years.

Here is my very very first impression of Haris Sohail on the very first day I saw this kid play (The Mod on that forum later added Shakil Ansar & Gohir Ali to title)

Problem with Pak cricket is that these guys are either not picked, or when they are picked they are not given a long run, often they are given a run in the squad just so to give them an opportunity to fail at some point (which is not surprising because it is their first time playing at International level and adjustment from domestic to International (no matter how good you were at domestic level) does take time, But as soon as they start their learning curve and they should be persisted with in their learning curves at international level - the politically driven captain whose main job (for the most part) is to assure his tenure and his selection for future tours and selectors do not hesitate to raise the “Inexperience flag” and “immaturity flag” bring back the players that Captain is more comfortable having in the 11 (to ensure his tenure etc etc) under the blanket of experience and maturity etc etc.

These decisions get easily covered up as long as you keep batting on non challenging conditions which Pak test cricket has been going through last 2 years and in 90’s it was blanketed under 50’s scored by batsmen in twice a year sharjah tournaments and by strong bowling displays. But one just has to look at how those batting line ups stood up against SA/Aus and in Eng (2001/2006/2010) and you will understand the damage that gets caused by NOT giving consistent opportunities to new promising batsmen who deserve it.