I am quite amazed that we are discussing this issue again. Anyways I am of the view that Akmal should go to WI and given chance to build on his good performances with the bat and bring consistency to his wicket-keeping. If he fails to do that, this twenty cup will bring some good keeper-hitters in the fray.
Fartguru- I will agree that age should not be a factor when selecting a player. But consider the position Moin was in when he was axed. He was brought in the team and was persisted for exactly an year despite his horrendous batting form in last 8 months. Everytime we wished that he goes out of his bad patch but it was not a bad patch rather Moin lost all his fighting skills. I will agree that Rashid deserved a better treatment from Inzimam after Aamir Sohail was removed from his selector post and he would have but for his lose comment against team during last year’s home series against India.
Aejaz bhai- Darayain nahi guppies ko :D. They will ovice their opinion and I will voice mine (while editing opinions that I dont like )
Yep. He had many admirers from the likes of Healy, Ian Smith, Dujon etc. He took catches other keepers can only dream of. :k:
Rashid Latif was also the biggest pure politician of the last generation who sold his stories to newspapers for huge amounts of money. Atleast Moin didn't get involved in any of this rubbish and in addition, his batting in pressure situations was spectacular.
Rashid Latif did not bring politics in the team. His matchfixing comments (in the final stages of his career only) were ridiculuous But politics mai aapkay Moin aur Wasim se mahir koi nahi thaa :k:
But yeah Moin of WC 99 was spectacular to say the least.
And Rashid was a very competent batsman too. Geoff Boycott made a bet on Rashid's Test debut in 1992 in England, and Rashid won the 5 pound bet by making a 50 on his Test debut. In Australia, he once hit 4 sixes in an ODI.
Rashid Latif was more textbook compared to Moin Khan, but Moin had the capacity to both dig in heels and accelerate as the situation demanded. He played many a memorable knocks in both Tests and ODIs.
Kamran Akmal is more aggressive than the two and hence more unpredictable. He likes to punish bad balls and is not afraid to play his shots. He can only get better with time.
Textbook? The guy had a nightmare playing fast bowlers initially in his career. Moin was a good batsman ever since he had entered the national squad. Besides, as I said in the Tendulkar VS Inzi thread, nobody wants batsmen who look pretty while batting if they don’t get the job done.
Game pra you are judging Rashid on the basis of his “off field” attitute & activities and not solely on his “on field” performance but when it comes to Shoaib Akhter you only consider “on field” performance and ignore all the policitcs & attitude he brings on board. (yee kia double trouble hai ?? )
Rashid was better keeper than Moin at any given day Period. While Moin was a great fighter but he was no where near Rashid when we talk about Keeping the wickets.
Off-field activitis, you may be right in bashing Rashid (although that is debatable) but on field - nah ! :k:
above all i just know one thing, for last 15 years, Rashid & Moin never left us worred about keeping - I hope Kamran can do the same for next 6-7-8 years !
Ahem, ahem. What do you call the statements such as “I am the only one who can get 7 Aussie batsmen out” and “I have to bear all the burden, the other 10 guys do nothing” etc etc. Isn’t this equivalent to hogging the headlines at the expense of other Pakistani players?
Shoaib never accused them of fixing matches. Statements you mentioned give hints of arrogance. Statements Rashid has made in the past give hints of back-biting and fraud to make money. I would prefer arrogance any given day. Really.
What Rashid Latif accused the other players of was true. Both Salim Malik and Wasim Akram were known to have links with the bookies. Wasim was smart enough (and important enough for Pak cricket) to have come out of it relatively unscathed. An accusation is not an accusation if it turns out to be true.
*Yes, no wonder he kept his mouth shut when he was in the team and ran it when he was kicked out. Making money off accusations; now surely that wouldn’t be the purpose of the accusations, would it? Because Latif is a jannati and Wasim is a jehnummi, right? *
Resigning in the middle of a series is 'kicked out of team'?
I know Rashid didn't handle the match fixing issue very well. But when lots of biggies are involved one has to be very smart to make the right move in right areas.
'Accusations, if thats what you call them, have been proved in court' my dear Game.
Making money off accusations?? This is the same Rashid Latif who takes no money from cricketers playing in RLCA and gives free cricketing gear to poor cricketers who cant afford it. He has a loose mouth no doubt but not all players are after money you know?
Smooth bhai, accusing for the sake of bringing out the truth and preventing a bad name for Pakistan is absolutely fine. But selling his stories for money exclusively to some British newspaper and telling the press that they should wait for his book to catch all the scoop (Thereby telling them to buy the book) is not what some maseeha would do. Everyone on this forum makes him out to be some sort of Cricket Jesus, who saved cricket from all the evils of the world. Sickens me.
ok, he is no saint but he is an honest man. what if he unearthed the match fixing stories in newspaper and his book. who does not get paid for writing for newspaper, or for an interview on a hot controversial issue that every newspaper would like to jump on first.
atleast he did not get involved with Akram, Malik and co. instead he chose a difficult path. the path that shook the whole ICC and its way of taking easy on corruption whispers that had been raised here and there.
Having said all that, Rashid did some mistakes in terms of communicatating and later in his career with his statements.
He still will be remembered as an honest man, who served his country, also one of the best wicket keeper of the world, and a sincere cricket lover who is delivering his best (RLCA) even when booted out of the team. Do we have any other example of such a character?
No sireee, Rashid Latif had the guts to say his mind when he was IN the team. In fact, in protest against Salim Malik both Rashid and Basit Ali announced their retirement from the game in the mid nineties.
I’m talking about the period when he was made captain in 2003. The has-been knew he wasn’t getting any younger and would be kicked out if he opened his mouth. When he was eventually kicked out for other reasons, he was the first to accuse the Pakistani players of fixing the Samsung ODI series against India in 2004.
(while editing opinions that I dont like 
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