Kamran Akmal's keeping - Chronicles of his disastrous glove work

[fkhan2]

I have nothing against the guy except that he is not fit for this highly important job and has singlehandedly cost us several critical matches/series since 2006. PCB has kept on picking him as their number 1 choice keeper and paid another heavy cost at SCG on January 6th 2010.

*It is really making me mad when I read amazing statements from Kamran Akmal and comments from some fans about having just one bad day at work (3rd day of SCG test) and suddenly people calling for his head. FYI, it was one of the many many bad days he had in the last 3 years and for convenience I decided to do a quick search of articles talking about his disastors. *

I encourage Kamran Akmal and others should go through these news/artcicles as it will definitely refresh their memories. Please make note of the dates underneath each heading. I am just going to put some key points from every news and you can read the rest on your own.

@cricinfo

Pakistan in England, 2006

England greats can aid Akmal says PCB Chairman

August 16, 2006

Shahriyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, is hoping one of England’s greatest glovemen can help faltering wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal regain his form behind the stumps.

Akmal has missed several chances during the ongoing series against England.

"He’s had a bad tour but he will be back. I’m going to ask Bob [Woolmer] if he can ask Bob Taylor or Jack Russell to work with him.

http://www.cricinfo.com/engvpak/content/story/256588.html

@cricinfo

Pakistan in South Africa, 2006-07

Rest might be best for Akmal - Bari

January 31, 2007

Kamran Akmal, Pakistan’s struggling wicketkeeper, might be best served by taking a much-needed rest from the ODI series against South Africa, according to Wasim Bari, the head of Pakistan’s selection committee.

Akmal had a poor Test series against South Africa, where he fumbled a number of catches and stumpings in all three Tests, and some at crucial points.

It was the second poor away series in succession, following an equally miserable tour to England last summer. His performance has led to calls for replacing him with Zulqarnain Haider, the reserve wicketkeeper on tour.

Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, also admitted that Akmal was struggling with his confidence, telling Cricinfo: “He is fighting with his confidence now. Technically his hands are hard and not soft and he is not concentrating on the ball hard enough for long enough. He will come right, he just needs support.”

Rest might be best for Akmal - Bari | Cricket News | Pakistan in South Africa | Cricinfo.com

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Pakistan in South Africa, 2006-07

What’s gone wrong with Kamran Akmal?

February 3, 2007

Through 2005 and the first days of 2006, Kamran Akmal was one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in the game. In 12 Tests in that time he made 52 dismissals and if he dropped any they were aberrations. He also hit four hundreds, averaging over 44. Life was rosy and he was Adam Gilchrist.

**In 12 Tests since, he has plummeted. He still made 42 dismissals, but the mistakes have mushroomed. Against South Africa conservative estimates put him down as missing 12 chances. His batting has faded, three fifties only and averaging under 27. Gilcrhist once, he is now Pakistan’s Parthiv Patel, the similarly cherubic Indian who faded so alarmingly after his debut. **

What’s gone wrong with Kamran Akmal? | Opinion | Cricinfo Magazine | Cricinfo.com

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South Africa in Pakistan, 2007-2008

Time running out for Akmal

October 2, 2007

Though he took three catches on the second day of the first Test against South Africa in Karachi, it was the one that got away from Kamran Akmal yesterday which could yet cost Pakistan.

This isn’t a one-off, of course. Akmal’s form behind the stumps since his remarkable first year in the team as a regular has deteriorated so spectacularly that one journalist quipped that Kallis had found the unluckiest way to be dismissed in cricket: ‘caught Akmal’.

Opinion on what has happened is not particularly diverse. Rashid Latif and Wasim Bari have long felt there are technical problems and that he should be rested.

Imtiaz Ahmed, Pakistan’s first Test wicketkeeper, agrees, though he points out Akmal’s poor footwork particularly to the spinners.

“His [Akmal’s] initial movement is wrong: he should be moving his right foot to the right to an off-stump line, and not back as he does at the moment,” he told Cricinfo.

The only question is how long Pakistan can persist with a man who has become, some snigger, the poor man’s Parthiv Patel.

Time running out for Akmal | Cricket News | Pakistan v South Africa 2007-08 | Cricinfo.com

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Pakistan in India 2007-2008

Pakistan likely to call up additional wicketkeeper

November 11, 2007

Kamran Akmal’s continuing descent behind the stumps has forced the Pakistan team management to call for another wicketkeeper to boost their squad for the remainder of the current tour against India. Though not officially confirmed yet, Sarfraz Ahmed, the promising young wicketkeeper, will be the man going to India.

The selectors were keen on sticking with him through the India tour, given his experience and the high-profile nature of the contest, but so fragile have his performances become, they have been left with no other option.

Akmal has had a shocking ODI series behind the stumps in India: he has dropped four catches in three matches, including a reprieve to Sourav Ganguly off the first ball of the third ODI in Kanpur. Sadly for Pakistan and Akmal, it is merely a continuation of the poor form that has plagued him over the last 18 months, where he has spilled chances regularly in England, South Africa and at home

Pakistan likely to call up additional wicketkeeper | Cricket News | Pakistan in India | Cricinfo.com

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Asia Cup 2008

Akmal left out of Asia Cup probables

June 19, 2008

The axe has finally fallen on Kamran Akmal as Pakistan have left out the under fire wicketkeeper from the list of 20 probables announced for the Asia Cup, which begins on June 24

“We have decided to rest Kamran Akmal. He needs to sharpen up his stumps work,” Salahuddin Ahmed, chief selector, told Cricinfo. Akmal has been Pakistan’s regular wicketkeeper since November 2004, when he took over from Moin Khan, playing virtually non-stop in all three formats.

Over the last two years, however, Akmal’s form has been poor behind the stumps. The slump began on the 2006 tour to England, where he fluffed a number of chances, but since then he has been unable to improve.

Akmal left out of Asia Cup probables | Cricket News | Asia Cup | Cricinfo.com

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Srilanka in Pakistan, 2008-09

Akmal unworthy of selection

January 24, 2009

Nothing illustrates more aptly the emptiness of whatever method and merit there is to Pakistan’s current thinking than the continued selection of Kamran Akmal as a first-choice wicketkeeper.

For about three years now, without exaggeration, Akmal has missed nearly a chance per match - an ODI - on average, sometimes more

Shahid Afridi in ODIs has now joined Danish Kaneria in Tests as a repeat victim of Akmal’s ineptitude; catches, stumpings, byes given away like every day is Eid.

So complacent to his failings have we become that the issue is no longer a debating point.

Sarfraz Ahmed was tried half-heartedly last year. He did little wrong but was dropped as soon as a new selection committee came in and nobody peeped. Akmal returned, as if to the manor born, amid cautious assessment that he had improved. It was tosh, swiftly evidenced in three missed chances against West Indies in Abu Dhabi.

If the issue is brought up, with selectors, team-mates, the captain even, it is said his batting makes up for it, as it did admittedly in Abu Dhabi.

By scoring a fifty, you do not automatically make up for two catches missed earlier. A dropped chance is not just calculated in the runs made thereafter. The very mood, circumstances, and momentum of a game changes; if a wicketkeeper is the touchstone from whom fielders take their cue, then at least one reason why Pakistan are so inconsistent in the field is clear. At the risk of stating the obvious - and it obviously needs stating - a player’s value is to be judged only by what he adds, not a total sum of his failings from his positives.

But if his batting is to be used as a persistent defence, if we are to go down that road, then there isn’t much there either. In his last 49 matches, he averages 21 with a single hundred against Bangladesh and two fifties.

Predictably, Malik defended his performance again today. “This is the same Akmal who has won Pakistan matches from difficult situations. Catches are dropped by all wicketkeepers and one or two in recent matches doesn’t make a difference. We have to keep the future in mind and not put pressure on him,” he said.

Sadly the thinking is emblematic not just of a cricket culture where merit is often wholly forsaken and mediocrity repeatedly rewarded for the sake of a personal connection, but of an entire nation.

Akmal unworthy of selection | Cricket Features | Pakistan v Sri Lanka 2008-09 | Cricinfo.com

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Pakistan in Australia 2009-10

Latif advised PCB to drop Kamran

January 7, 2010

Rashid Latif, the former Pakistan wicketkeeper and captain, had recommended in a report to the PCB to drop Kamran Akmal from international cricket, to give him time to correct a number of flaws.

“I gave the board a report in which I recommended that Akmal not play international cricket for at least six months but they didn’t listen,” Latif told Cricinfo. “He had too many technical faults, had put on too much weight for a wicketkeeper of his size and wearing a helmet to spinners was really hampering him.”

http://www.cricinfo.com/ausvpak09/content/story/442872.html

*Akmal had trouble in every major series starting from Pakistan-England series back in 2006 till the last game played at SCG. *

The articles above are the evidence of what I am saying. Just simply read the headings and the dates if you can’t read the entire thing and you’ll know what I am talking about. I simply can’t believe how can people blindly support this guy and say that he just had one bad day???

[Nikema]

re: Kamran Akmal's keeping - Chronicles of his disastrous glove work

Damn Fkhan...Itna Ghussa :D

Waisey are you in same group that are trying to get a captain and keeper back from their city?

PS: I m not in favor of neither current captain or keeper...I say we take the gloves from keeper and make him captain.... me ready for some chitrool now

[brahmachari99]

re: Kamran Akmal's keeping - Chronicles of his disastrous glove work

WOW. This is damning evidence. While everyone know Akmal had problems, but this collection of news articles makes a greater impact. He seemed to have improved in the last few months, but then got back to his catch-dropping ways in the boxing day Test at MCG. That is when I opened the other thread here, suggesting he take advice from Ian Healy or another expert. Sydney was the last straw.

[fkhan2]

@funguy

oye fkhan bhai, are you Sarfraz ka tatta? lol just kidding

In the current circumstances all of us are willing to be one of anyone who can do a decent job behind the stumps :)

[coOoLBreeze]

re: Kamran Akmal's keeping - Chronicles of his disastrous glove work

Fkhan2, I am speechless... Can someone really show this research to Kamran Akmal, who called 3rd Day of Sydney test to be ONLY BAD DAY AT OFFICE... Whereas we know how pathetic he is behind wicket.

[HomiD]

re: Kamran Akmal's keeping - Chronicles of his disastrous glove work

Thanks for all the flashback. It goes to show, had Akmal not been the keeper Pakistan's ICC test ranking could have been much higher than where we are now. But in history it will go down as a loss. I like American Football where they have QuarterBack ratings. Had it been for Wicket-keeper ratings, we would know exactly where Kamran Akmal stands and fkhan2 wouldnt need to remind us of this bad apple thats stuck to us.

Wicket-Keeper main job is keeping and second job is batting. Not the other way around.

[Decent_6Chora]

re: Kamran Akmal’s keeping - Chronicles of his disastrous glove work

:k: great work

lets email it to Akmal

[ehsan]

re: Kamran Akmal's keeping - Chronicles of his disastrous glove work

I am as annoyed as anyone of you but lets also give him the credit where on numerous occasions he has stepped up and saved Pakistan by his batting. If he can successfully open in ODI why is he batting at number 7 in tests? Surely he should be batting higher.

[Decent_6Chora]

re: Kamran Akmal's keeping - Chronicles of his disastrous glove work

^ the thing is he is wicketkeeper-batsman and not otherway round. his first responsibility is to keep wickets and keep'em good although I myself was fan of his stroke play but there is a point when you become senior, VC and a responsible player.

[ehsan]

^ the thing is he is wicketkeeper-batsman and not otherway round. his first responsibility is to keep wickets and keep'em good although I myself was fan of his stroke play but there is a point when you become senior, VC and a responsible player.

Point taken but where he his wicket keeping at times has cost us matches he has also saved us from embarassements when our brilliant batsmen have failed miserably. Works both ways.

[Decent_6Chora]

Point taken but where he his wicket keeping at times has cost us matches he has also saved us from embarassements when our brilliant batsmen have failed miserably. Works both ways.

It does and no one (at least not me) is asking for his retirement. Its general practice in any world sports (in fact in any walk of life) that if you are not performing good, just take a break, regroup and come back. What irk me is the way he is publicaly doing laundary and not accepting that he is having a horrible run for quite sometime now.

[GoldenAsif]

Wicket-Keeper main job is keeping and second job is batting. Not the other way around.

True. We all know about his batting ability - he is good enough to be considered as a regular test opener - but his keeping is not upto test standard. Dropping 3 or 4 chances (catches + stumpings) per innings has become a routine and that is inaddition to 2 or 3 regulation catches missed in the field..

Not many teams' bowlers have to take 16 or 17 wickets in every innings!

[fkhan2]

Point taken but where he his wicket keeping at times has cost us matches he has also saved us from embarassements when our brilliant batsmen have failed miserably. Works both ways.

Ehsan bhai, I don't think it works both ways and so I don't agree with you.

It is just like saying that a bowler is bowling pathetically for his side but from time to time he manages to play some match saving innings for his side. The bowler is primarily recruited in the side to take wickets and his primary role is not to score runs. If he is able to bat well then he should compete for a place in the side as a batsman but must leave his spot as a bowler.

[ehsan]

Ehsan bhai, I don't think it works both ways and so I don't agree with you.

It is just like saying that a bowler is bowling pathetically for his side but from time to time he manages to play some match saving innings for his side. The bowler is primarily recruited in the side to take wickets and his primary role is not to score runs. If he is able to bat well then he should compete for a place in the side as a batsman but must leave his spot as a bowler.

maybe so but bhai meray you were defending the inclusion of club players like Butt and farhat as openers. surely Akmal's case is much better than them two. it is not like he drops 3 catches in every match.

[fkhan2]

maybe so but bhai meray you were defending the inclusion of club players like Butt and farhat as openers. surely Akmal's case is much better than them two. it is not like he drops 3 catches in every match.

Ehsan bhai, I never defended their inclusion. This is what I said

Most of us are not huge fans of Farhat and Butt. However my point is to stick with one pair till we find a new one. Sticking with one pair is far better than constant reshuffling.

I would still say that sticking with these two or any two is much better than constant reshuffling. I am huge supporter of bringing fresh blood and if there are talented new openers in the domstic circuit then bring them in. However if PCB is not doing it than I'll rather prefer Butt and Farhat.

Having said that I will also strongly support Kamran Akmal as an opener if PCB decides to experiment it and if that happens than PCB must give him an extended run.

[achterbahn]

Worst Wicket keeper in the world?

Do we have the worst wicket keeper in the whole cricketing world (history)? Or have you guys seen worst than this one as well?

I havent!

[R.A.W]

Re: Worst Wicket keeper in the world?

Now I understand the conspiracy of forced removal of the only apparent ray of hope in recent times, Zulqarnain Haider.

[JeevayPakistan]

Re: Worst Wicket keeper in the world?

His youngest brother is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar better then he is...

[ehsan]

Re: Worst Wicket keeper in the world?

Now I understand the conspiracy of forced removal of the only apparent ray of hope in recent times, Zulqarnain Haider.

You mean the bhagorra who ditched his country for asylum.

[achterbahn]

Re: Worst Wicket keeper in the world?

Now I understand that he might play a good innings.... he just "might" once in a blue moon. But does that justify his inclusion in the team? In every match he drops catches, misses stumpings and in the process demoralizes the whole team.

I say, once and for all, for God sake get rid of this Khatmal... Kamran Akmal. I don't think we can have a worst keeper than him. We can only have better ones.

As far Zulqurnain, Khatmal might have mobbed him, God knows better.

But he is history, so lets just move on...