Yeh.. PCB has introduced a new ‘Sight-seeing’ initiative for players who’re performing well on the domestic circuit. Players go with the team abroad, taking a rest from their cricketing lives and enjoy the sights and sounds of the country they visit. Apparently Faisal athar, yasir hameed and kaneria were selected for the current tournament 
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Man is it getting annoying seeing taufeeq umar playing every single match
PCB sucks.. nation and cricket history will never forgive them by doing such to the greatest Wasim Akram.
ammarr, i do agree that some of these new players should be given chance but at a stage when team is already losing matches it can't be possible.
Taufeeq Umar is a good player and he doesn't have a technical problem unlike Afridi. Shoaib has improved his control over the ball and it's good but waisay haar jeet to hoti rehti hai. As long as they are putting effort it is good enough for me.
Taufeeq's been unlucky like Youhana but it doesn't mean that he should be sidelined because of the pitch or weather condition or for any bad batting. Other new players will struggle more if given chance.
khan_sahib then why did they bring those extra players? If the current team were doing well there would have been no reason anyway to have extra players :) so we have a few extra players for the basic reason that if one of the players doesn't fire we can have a replacement.
re: Taufeeq/Iqbal, even though I prefer that they should be given chances however right now they are hogging other players' places in the team.
Shoib has been great this tournament so thats not an issue, but i definitely believe either athar or hameed should be given a try in the match against nz.
extra players are there in case one of the starting lineup is injured, if a player is brought on a tour doesn't mean they must be played.
though i think dinesh kaneria should be played in the next match.
Unless Taufeeq "McShuffles" Umar improves his foot movement, especially when coming down the wicket, he should only be selected as a Test option.
We've already seen Miandad's and the think tank's decision to use Hafeez as a wall, and there has to be an aggressively authoritative bat at the other end (with a mindframe similar to Nazir or Misbah's.).
With the option of opening with Faisal won't be a bad idea, Miandad should let him be agressive with Hafeez being defensive, Youhana at 3, Younis Khan at 4
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Diablo Kazama: *
Unless Taufeeq "McShuffles" Umar improves his foot movement, especially when coming down the wicket, he should only be selected as a Test option.
We've already seen Miandad's and the think tank's decision to use Hafeez as a wall, and there has to be an aggressively authoritative bat at the other end (with a mindframe similar to Nazir or Misbah's.).
[/QUOTE]
I agree, right now both openers are extremely slow and none of them are willing to take chances. Pakistan need an aggressive opener because the two "solid" openers aren't doing any good either. Opening still remains the problem and in almost every game, one of the openers gets out wihtout scoring many runs.
This is the same problem we had when Afridi was around, and people proclaimed that him losing his wicket without scoring many runs puts pressure on the incoming batsmen. We still have the same problem! Something must be done. Pakistan must chose one out of Taufeeq and Hafeez.
how about trying Shoaib Malik as opener (for right now, in sri lanka) with Mohd Hafeez.
If i could i would test Shoaib Malik & Faisal Iqbal as a opener.
Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, 2002-03 Batting Averages
Misbah-ul-Haq 8 12 3 963 167* 107.00 4 5 9 - KRL
Asif Hussain 7 10 1 516 198* 57.33 2 1 8 - FSLBD
Asif Hussain 7 10 1 516 198* 57.33 2 1 8 - FSLBD
Sheraz Khalid 8 14 1 509 128 39.15 1 3 7 - RAWAL
Faisal Athar 5 8 0 502 167 62.75 2 2 3 - PWD
Faisal Naved 7 12 0 486 106 40.50 1 2 4 - ADBP
Maisam Hasnain 5 9 0 454 148 50.44 2 - 2 - KARACHI
Yasir Hameed 8 8 2 450 207 75.00 2 1 9 - PIA
Usman Tariq 6 8 1 433 180 61.85 2 1 6 - ABL
I was quite interested in those stats but what does this all mean?
:
MAT, I,NO, Ct what does this all stand for and what 's their purpose?
Mat=matches
I=innings
NO=not outs
HS=highest
Ct=catches
St=stumpings
I never judge a players status from their county performance, because domestic cricket in Pakistan is close to rock bottom. Some guys who haven't done well in domestic cricket do very well in international cricket, guys like Shoaib, who was being pounded by batsman in Quaid E Azam trophy but has done very well in the ongoing tri series.