I don’t know who TF is Jimmy Stewart ….just read his column at http://cricket-online.org
(I am posting part of his BS)… how much truth is in his words??
…I group world teams at the moment in four categories – elite, competitive, poor and abysmal. Last year, Australia, Sri Lanka and South Africa were all elite teams. Sri Lanka, after going nine Tests without a victory have lost that status and the respect that entails.
In the competitive department are New Zealand, India, England and the West Indies. All are talented teams with major flaws. All pose threats to each other, and can play at a standard to challenge the elite teams. Pakistan are a poor Test cricket side. Only Youhana is a solid test player with the whole team disintegrating before him…(edited)
Zimbabwe and Bangladesh don’t even bear mentioning. Here..
Pakistan
Flip through the pages of history and you’ll be able to see the great, fallen empires, Rome, Britain. Flip through cricket history and you see a pattern in the rise and fall of world powers. The West Indies peaked at 1984, by 1998 they were considered the worst major Test nation. Pakistan were also the world’s best team in 1994, the Wasim Empire, but by 2002, they were the world’s worst major Test nation. Again, one could look at Australia’s future in these terms. Australia peaked in 2001, by 2010 could they be a cricket minnow? But why have Pakistan slipped so far? Most of it is just external factors, fate plotting against it. Pakistan have played TWO home matches against major Test nations at home, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Not even a single series. This is mainly political, nothing to do with the cricket. But with no home momentum or home ground advantage, Pakistan just can’t keep up. Pakistan haven’t been playing much Test cricket anywhere. Their recent schedule looks like a haphazard smattering of matches; two Tests in Bangladesh, two against the West Indies in the UAE, one-off Asia Cup Final against Sri Lanka at home, New Zealand only made it through a single Test in Pakistan, they then played Australia in BOTH Sri Lanka and the UAE, two Tests in Zimbabwe, two in South Africa and two at home against Bangladesh. That is bizarre and horribly unfair. Only one series more than two Tests in two and a half years – unfair. Two one-off Tests – unfair. Matches on unfamiliar “home” matches – unfair. Add to that father time. Let’s look at the retirements, or redundancies of the past five years in Pakistan; Aamir Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Ijaz Ahmed, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed and now, possible, Inzamam ul-Haq. Youhana casts a lonely shadow over his team of preschoolers. A bunch of deers caught in the headlights, a vicious gash between each generation, no chance to slowly fold them into Test cricket. Their hopes rest on the arrogant, machine gun like, unproven, show pony that is Shoaib Akhtar, the calm, mature, sound but placid Abdur Razzaq, young gun Younis Khan and Yousaf Youhana. Yohannan’s growing presence on the world stage, and his formative years resemble Lara. Lara was both the messiah and the anti-Christ of the West Indies post-Richards years, and was forced into bringing the team back from the dead. Now, Lara seems to be more comfortable, with the more realistic and useful attitude of improvement that is coming out of the West Indies. Youhana is more mature than Lara ever was. He has seen so many great players, and learned from them all. A tuition that has the grace and flair of Anwar and the boundary hitting ability and technical brilliance of Inzamam is entirely fitting for a player looking to lead his nation out of the cricketing wilderness. Youhana has yet to establish himself as comfortably on major Test nations, and thus, he is not one of the top world stars, but his batting has the flexibility and nous of Tendulkar, and he already has the best square drive in the game. Youhana is my favorite player, and he will only become a bigger factor in years to come. But Pakistan are a team in no mans land, they have less hope and talent than the above nations, but could never be considered in the same class as Zimbabwe. Pakistan were swept by Australia, swept by South Africa, lost to Sri Lanka, lost and drew to England. There’s work to be done."