Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
^ one of commentators said that while camera showed the ground's conditions and he agreed that no-one would really want to dive on such grounds, may be someone would after lots of practice and getting "seasoned" :)
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
Fielding can definitely be improved. All of us who have played cricket know it. You cannot make a bowler bowl faster than he can, u cannot improve someones batting capabilities beyond a certain level, but fielding can definitely improve a lot with 'PRACTICE'.
If players are made to hit the stumps 50 times a day, there is good chance that they will hit stumps in the match. Similarly no one should be allowed to let the ball cross the boundary without diving for it.
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
The “catching” part of the fielding can definitely be improved, but chasing a ball, stopping it, throwing it with some accuracy… with our lazy players? 
no!
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
Wonder how much truth there is to this story?
Signals Inzamam’s one-day leadership on the line
By our correspondent
KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Ad-hoc Committee may have reposed confidence in Inzamam-ul-Haq’s captaincy for the next 11 months but apparently rumblings have started in the corridors of power over whether he should be entrusted with this responsibility for such a long period and particularly of the One-day International (ODI) team leading up to the 2007 World Cup.
Because if one is to believe well placed sources in the PCB then it took a threat from Inzamam to force the committee to retain him for another year. ‘The News’ has been told by these sources that there was plenty of debate and discussion on Inzamam’s future role as captain especially in the ODI squad after the team had gone down 3-1 to India in the just concluded series.
One day after the committee meeting that reposed faith in Inzamam, Pakistan lost the ODI series by a margin of 4-1. “The scenario was that Inzamam had let it been known to the PCB chairman and other committee members that if any move was made to remove him as captain he would also step down from the team immediately,” one source claimed.
“He conveyed ‘threats’ not to play against India in the final game if the committee didn’t extend support to him and appointed him as captain as close to the World Cup as possible,” the source claimed.
Inzamam has been named captain until the West Indies tour of Pakistan, which is from October to end December this year after which the Pakistan team goes to South Africa and then to the World Cup in the West Indies in late March.
“The committee members were obviously not happy with the situation but decided to go along for now to not to create an uncertain situation. But already there are rumblings that the Board needs to seriously reassess Inzamam’s fitness and the percentage chances of his being in form and 100 percent fit by the time of the World Cup,” the source said.
These sort of happenings are not uncommon because such is the volatile nature of Pakistan cricket that a run of defeats by the national team can at times serve as a powder keg for the team captain and other management.
Inzamam turns 36 next month according to his official age chart and will be 37 before the World Cup starts and the source said the committee members had raised this point with Shaharyar Khan who asked them to support the senior player at the moment.
“The main questions being asked are about the viability of retaining him (Inzamam) as captain of the one-day squad for the World Cup given his age, chronic back problem and fitness issues. There is also other issues on which coach Bob Woolmer and the chairman so far have kept quiet as the team was doing well in the last one year.” “But Woolmer privately has told the chairman that Inzamam is not an active participant in the training routines set out for the other players and his fitness levels have been falling.”
“But since the team has been doing well under Inzamam, Woolmer also knew it was best for him not to make an issue of this and keep quiet. Because in Pakistan when the team is doing well every ill is ignored and it’s only when it starts losing that everyone starts spotting the obvious deficiencies,” the source noted.
The source said even Shaharyar Khan had pampered Inzamam to a large extent due to the team’s good results but now the situation is changing. “He (Shaharyar) even allowed Inzamam to sign contracts with the media, something which is not allowed generally in Pakistan cricket and later also had to give permission to some other players.”
He disclosed that a strong lobby in the PCB, which had for long been upset with Inzamam’s attitude, had already started a whispering campaign that Younis should be made captain of the one-day squad and Inzamam told to concentrate on leading the Test side and then making himself available only for the crucial one-day games.
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
^^well,it cud be true, i mean until inzi was winning matches they were ignoring his attitude but now wen he is making a mistake n refuses to accept and pak lose a match ppl wont sit queitly!
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
We don't need 11 Rhodes, neither are we ever going to have 11 athletic fielders in our team.
We do know that Shoaib Malik and Imran Farhat are excellent fielders and even they had problems in the 5th ODI again India, because when things go wrong, everything goes wrong. The last ODI was an ugly nightmare, let's leave it at that.
Unfortunately there has always been a perception that Pakistan and India are bad at fielding, and no amount of good fielding displays have changed that perception. One bad match, and it's claimed that we are the worst in the world. The same isn't true for other teams though, remember Paksitan's tour to Australia last year? They couldn't hold on to the simplest of catches, dropping as many as four simple slip catches in one match, yet they were just 'having an off day'.
Our younger players (except Danish) are energetic, atheltic and generally are very good at fiedling. When team isn't demoralized, the older players aren't too bad either. In fact, Mohd Yousuf will probably hit the stumps 9 out of 10 attempts.
One misfield by a player often ruins the goodwork done by the other fielders leading to this perception that we are still horrible at fielding. There's always room for improvement, and we should continue to improve in all aspects of the game, including our fielding, but we shouldn't the last match be representative of our fielding abilities.
To quote Donald Rumsfeld, we have to fight wars with the army we have, not with the army we want. It is the job of the captain to identify the strong and weak fielders and place them accordingly. It's Inzi who needs to understand that he can't place people like Danish Kaneria at positions such as point/short midwicket etc.
That said, someone does need to work with Danish Kaneria day and night untill it becomes his second nature to cleanly catch and collect the ball.
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
After reading this article, I am afraid political interefrence in team management will become rampant' like it used to be a few years ago.
A player who could not make into the playing eleven used to be brought in as capatin. Like Saleem Malik, Moeen Khan and Rashid Lateef. All were out of team and brought in as captains.
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
If Indian team can improve feilding standards, anybody should be able to do it. and clearly Pakistani players are well built so its matter of dedication and somebody really putting them on fire. Some hard decisions and it shouldn't be a problem...
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
Probably the biggest worry for Pak cricket is Inzi's age, he is turning 36 next month(officially) and will be approaching 37 (officially) before the all crucial world cup 2007. Had he been the physically fit sort of an athlete that may not be important, but Inzi has never been the sort to keep himself physically fit and from this article its quite clear he shows no inclination to change.
A fit Inzi is a no brainer, but a physically challenged and aging Inzi is going to become a handicap for pakistan. Iam afraid Inzi will also suffer the same fate as his predecessors who refused to believe there time was up and refused to step down.
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
I will take just a wild guess. Isn the writer of this story Waheed Khan? The famous yellow journalist?
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
(1) Was our fielding below acceptable standards in the ODI series?
(2) If yes, do we need to do anything about it? Do we need to check with players/coach as to what was wrong in coaching or planning.
(2.b) If no, how can we justify simple dropped cases, numerous missed runouts, singles coverted to boundaries, overthrows due to poor backing up. Is it just criticism after losing the series and in reality none of it happened.
(3) If this is more or less the same team which played India in India last year and looked very spirited in the field, what made them "demoralized" for the ODI series after a test series victory.
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
Surprisingly his name is not mentioned, usually if the article is his handiwork, his name is always proudly displayed right at the top.
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
Sorry PheoNAY Bhai! ,,, Pakistan's fielding sucks since many moons now. Its chronic issue and unless the 'Heavy weights' lighten themselves,,,its no use,,,, ,, Some one mentioned above about " Pakistan depends on Shoaib Akhter too much same as India did once on Sachin Tendulkar" ??????
I don't think so,, and if you are not a Pakistani ,, I let this be a misinformation on your part,,,,,
Re: Current Pakistani Team and its Fielding
Oh please no Miandad…The last thing we want is to adopt his prehistoric arrogant practices in the modern day cricket. Aaqib is good but I would prefer Waqar or Wasim or both 