Friends, our esteemed selector is at it again. This is perhaps the best performance of hypocrisy in the last couple of hundred years.
Junaid included in 15-man squad to face New Zealand: Shahid Afridi to lead Pakistan ‘A’
LAHORE, Nov 21: Controversial paceman Junaid Zia has been included in 15-member Pakistan team on Friday for the five One-day Internationals against New Zealand starting from Nov 29.
Junaid, not considered good enough to be named in the list of 23 probables attending the training camp at the Gaddafi Stadium, is the only surprise selection.
He got the nod of the confused selectors at the expense of other pacers of the camp with better credentials - Umar Gul, Abdul Rauf and Fahad Masood. Besides Junaid’s bowling action has been questioned and he was reported four times by the umpires for suspect action during a junior international tournament in New Zealand.
Junaid, son of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ad hoc committee chairman, Lt. Gen. (retd) Tauqir Zia, was summoned to join the training camp last Thursday with another pacer Waseem Khan, for a practice match which raised the total number of probables to 25.
“Junaid is in the squad after the captain and coach demanded his inclusion”, chief selector Aamir Sohail told Dawn. **Aamir said that Junaid was a star performer of the on-going Inter-departmental qualifying tournament with 35 wickets and scoring over 150 runs in five matches and he was also declared the player-of-the-series in Sri Lanka where Pakistan Emerging team won the tournament.
However, many Test cricketers have criticized the Patron’s Trophy Inter-departmental qualifying round competition and claiming it an exercise in futility. The competition is not even recognized as first class cricket.**
But when asked if Junaid was deserving why he was not included in the original list of 23 players, Aamir said “I have selected him for the Bangladesh series and faced criticism and ignored him against South Africa.”
**“Junaid deserves a place now and after his recent performances as well as captain and coach demanded his inclusion”, **Aamir said, who ignored the team management before finalising the original 23 probables which triggered a controversy.
Opener Taufiq Omar was on injury list while the others who failed to get nod of the selectors were Asim Kamal, wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal and Bilal Asad.
Squad: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Imran Farhat, Saleem Elahi, Yasir Hameed, Yousuf Youhana, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Moin Khan (wicket-keeper), Danish Kaneria, Shabbir Ahmed, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar, Misbah-ul-Haq, Junaid Zia.
Meanwhile, Shahid Afridi has been named as captain ofthe 14-member Pakistan “A” team which will take part in a tri-nation one-day series to be held in the Indian city of Kolkata from Dec 13 to 21.
Aamir said that Shahid was given a chance to show his prowess through this tour. “Shahid is obviously a utility player but he was sidelined due to his poor performance and if he clicks in India he will have a chance to make a comeback in the national side”, Aamir said.
The players who were picked from the national training camp are Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Gul, Mohammad Irshad, Bilal Asad and Abdul Rauf. Middle-order batsman Faisal Iqbal, opener Hafeez and paceman Umar, all international players, have been included in the “A” team.
Besides India and Pakistan the third team in the competition is Sri Lanka.The selected player will report in the training camp to be held in Lahore from Nov 29.
SQUAD: Shahid Afridi (captain), Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed bin Nasir, Naved Latif, Amin-ur-Rehman (wicketkeeper), Umar Gul, Mohammad Khalil, Mohammad Irshad, Mansoor Amjad, Faisal Iqbal, Bilal Asad, Imran Nazir, Abdul Rauf.
Officials: Azhar Zaidi (manager), Naveed Anjum (coach), Doctor: Sohail Saleem.
http://www.dawn.com/2003/11/22/spt1.htm
This is so sick and twisted I dont even know where to start. First, the talk of including Junaid on the captain’s demand is pure BS. If Aamir was so considerate of the captain and coach’s demand, then why are Saqlain Mushtaq and Younis Khan not in the team? Now i am not advocating their return. Merely pointing out the double speak on our revered Chief Selector. What about Aasim Kamal? Was he not good enough against RSA? Aamir himself said “if nothing else, then we’ve found a player for the future.” I am very interested to know what “future” really means in his dictionary. My personal guess is it probably means a career spanning two test matches. If Junaid gets picked for playing well in a useless domestic competiton, then what about Mushtaq? isn’t county cricket tougher than our domestic cricket? Didn’t he perform well enough in the county? Sure he flopped against RSA, but Junaid was a bigger flop against a wagging Bangladeshi tail. The point I am trying to make is if a single performance in First Class cricket means another chance for Junaid, then by the same token Mushtaq should be in the team because he has performed better in a more competitive enviroment. He’s not only performed better but also for a longer period. If one bad series means curtains for him then it should apply to Junid too. And lets not forget Younis Khan who was the second highest scorer for Pakistan at the National level last year, and has been making tons of runs in the same competition that junaid got wickets in. Again, i do not advocate Mushtaq or Younis’s inclusion. I am just trying to uncover the true intetions of the chief selector.
Moving on.
“and he was also declared the player-of-the-series in Sri Lanka where Pakistan Emerging team won the tournament.”
Ecuse me, Mr. Selector but wasn’t this “player of the series” award given to him BEFORE you announced the probables? And that too without consulting anyone. Were you half sleep then?
“I have selected him for the Bangladesh series and faced criticism and ignored him against South Africa.”
Lets analyse: Why is it that Junaid is not included in the team when there was a chance that a full strength team was going to tour Pakistan? Was he not good enough? Now that NZ has decided to send in some new players in the team our Chief Selector decided to put him right in the middle of the selected players list. Why? Because the captain wanted him? Sorry, i dont buy that. Zia Sr. wants to save his son from getting hit to all four corners from RSA and thus dropped him against them. He wanted to shelter him from the likes of Flemming and didn’t include him in the original list. He wants to EASE his son’s entry by giving him exposure and experience against relatively weaker sides. That is the whole truth. Anyone disagree?
The bottom line is as long as this baboon is selecting the team, we aren’t going anywhere. God knows PCB needs to do a lot of things but one of them has to be the development of a standard public selection policy for all. I fail to understand why don’t they look at the past three years record of a pkayer in the domestic season before giving him a shot at the international level. with the current policy it should comes as a surprise to no one that we have so many one test wonders.
With this state of affairs, I sincerely hope and pray that we lose a match or two, even the series against NZ. If that means exile for Junaid then i’d be willing to swollow this bitter pill for our long term future. I hope Junaid is taken to the cleaners for his pathetic bowling and is banned for his bowling action.
