Re: Afridi: don't let the door hit you on the way out
Every kid with a bat wants to be the next Afridi in the country. This is how badly his popularity has polluted the street cricket culture in Pakistan and overtaken the importance of being a proper attacking batsman a la Miandad, Inzimam style, in the eyes of aspiring youngsters. Good thing he's leaving Pakistan cricket, it is about time, PCB invest some money in proper advertising and awareness campaign that aims to revive the names and services of proper batting legends for the new generation to look up to.
The young generation of cricketers in Pakistan need to start appreciating legendary batsmen instead of idolising and fatally emulating this mindless slogger whose all 'superstar qualities' will be forgotten in few years time.
I fear for our cricket. All the youngsters I know are into Football Barcelona Madrid Mancehster Utd etc, having no home games is costing us. And on top of that a crap team isn't helping either. I was wrong. Afridi doesn't avg 50 but 140, yes 140 vs India at WCs in bowling and 14 in batting. YK averages 14 odd, Akmal 18 odd. Our entire middle order lol.
We have noone in our cricket who can make brave decisions. IK dropped his own cousin from the team, Inzi and Wasim were superb captains as well. Now its sifarish everywhere.
Re: Afridi: don't let the door hit you on the way out
can't believe it... but looking at the team and combination, i am sure this is what have happened, and This Waqar Younis, he is just jinx to the team, he was coach when the match fixing scandal hit us, he was coach when we lost last worldcup, he was coach when we had all the shameful and major defeats and yet he is still the head coach...
and tell you what, he was legendary fast bowler, couldn't produce one in all these years.. tells scores about his coaching and talent hunting ability
Waqar is a disaster as coach. Woolmer was superb and since then we have suffered badly.
Re: Afridi: don't let the door hit you on the way out
you should the names of younus and akmal as well. at least afridi scored some runs.
What about Yonus Khan? What about Umer akmaal? Still afridi is better than these players.
Akmal is not a full time keeper still he dropped one catch, an important one, but the fault lies with the team management not him. As far as his batting went well blame the umpire, he was not out.
Younis khan needs to be dropped and Sarfraz bought back for the next match.
Re: Afridi: don’t let the door hit you on the way out
No effective planning for the world could take place because you had Nawaz Sharif’s favourite crony fighting Asif Ali Zardari crony for the PCB chairmanship spot! These politicians have destroyed Pakistani cricket board. As a result, the board lacks structure, authority, independence and vision to make any changes to Pakistan cricket. Every spot in the board and the team is for the sale, and no wonder even the players don’t take them seriously.
Besides, why should the PCB chairman bother making any radical changes when he has absolutely zero fear of accountability? Why should he worry for his reputation when he knows his fixed term contract is completely safe as long as his political Godfather is in charge?
As with Afridi, he has to be one the most grossly overrated cricketers of all time. What did in today’s match was absolutely disgusting. He knew the match was lost, but instead of staying on to take the match as close to the end as he possibly could, he just handed his wicket to the fielder.
I just don’t understand, you are the most ‘experienced’ and oh so senior ‘Shahid Bhai’ of the team, then why would you hide behind youngsters? Considering how weak the Indian bowling attack is, he should’ve came before Maqsood! That was the time when couple of attacking overs from him would’ve changed the momentum of the game.
Re: Afridi: don't let the door hit you on the way out
[QUOTE] having no home games is costing us.
[/QUOTE]
This is the real tragedy, but still not the end of the story. If there is no international cricket taking place, revamp the domestic cricket!
Get rid of extremely inept and unproductive departmental cricket with regional cricket. Replace the lacklustre and barely watched Habib Bank vs PIA matches with Lahore vs Karachi/Sindh vs KPK or North vs South tournaments and you see how the passion for cricket flourishes in Pakistan, and youngsters would work night and day to make it into their City/Province team and play in front the home crowd. Next step would be to televise these domestic matches to increase public interest.
You need vision, integrity and will power to take such bold and daring steps. Above all you need lots of funds to organise something like that, and with so much financial corruption going on in the government, from where will they 'find' the money to fund such initiatives?
Re: Afridi: don't let the door hit you on the way out
Had dozed off after Afridi came to bat. He did score 22 off 22 deliveries. And would have had Kohli ' s wicket. I would say he had a decent game. Not outstanding. But decent.
Re: Afridi: don't let the door hit you on the way out
Seriously Misbah fans needs to realize that he sucks big time
When was the last time he single handedly won the match for Pakistan from his batting
These fifties are useless unless you win the match for them
Wasn't inzimam like that especially with the mulla gardi later on? I still don't get how he survived without scrutiny on his runouts.
You don't have to get rid of pia vs Habib bank but Karachi vs Lahore is a good idea. Unfortunately it isn't going to happen until a couple of decades in future.
Re: Afridi: don't let the door hit you on the way out
i think Irfan was unfit health-wise to play a big game against India. he was panting at one point. he was given two warnings that forced him to bowl over the wicket which was a disaster. i wonder why he was allowed to bowl 3 more overs after the two warnings.
the only guy in Pakistan team who deserves any respect is MisbaaH who is the oldest and yet very dependable. he is an 'unsung' hero and a lone warrior on Pakistani side.
Re: Afridi: don't let the door hit you on the way out
Seriously Misbah fans needs to realize that he sucks big time
When was the last time he single handedly won the match for Pakistan from his batting
These fifties are useless unless you win the match for them
Listen me dear, cricket is a team sport. You have 11 players in the team who should all equally contribute to team’s win. I find this whole expectation of one player ‘single handily’ winning the almost a lost game very unreasonable, and it is unfortunate that many Pakistani fans think like that. You can have stand out performances, but one player cannot perform for 11 players.
Afridi was on the crease with his captain. You had the two most senior and experienced players standing in front of a weak Indian bowling line up. Had Afridi cared, he would’ve put some effort and sincerity to raise 100 runs partnership on the board with Misbah, instead of throwing his wicket away like a bored club level player.
So much for bragging about seniority and what not, it was quite embarrassing to see how the so called Beast was hiding behind youngsters for such an important match. He should've come in place of Maqsood, taken the lead. Five quick overs from Afridi at that time would've changed the tempo of game in Pakistan's favour.
bummer: