Re: Pakistan Tour of England and Injury Problems
*By MU Haq
*It is bad enough that Shoaib Akhtar will miss the first half of the England tour and now comes the news that Rana Navedul Hasan has an injured groin and is doubtful for the tour, at least the first half of it. This is yet another severe blow with two of the main strike bowlers out of commission. Admittedly, Pakistan can boast of rich reserves in the fast bowling department, but none, barring Mohammad Asif, are of the caliber of Shoaib and Naved and much hard work lies ahead for bowling coach Waqar Younis to fine tune the skills of our bowlers.
While on the topic of bowlers, an overseas friend called to ask, “why not Mushtaq Ahmed, who is enjoying so much success in county cricket? If Australia can play Shane Warne and Stuart McGill, why can Pakistan not go in with Danish Kaneria and Mushtaq?” And I wonder why not!
Words of encouragement for the Pakistan touring team. National Cricket Academy director Mudassar Nazar puts England as the favourites especially as Shoaib and Naved are likely to miss a part of the tour. The honest Mudassar, who obviously delights in calling a spade, could have exercised some tact as would be expected from a man in his position, but alas that would be asking for too much. Should Pakistan not win, the revered director will be the first to say, “I told you so!”
Incidentally, legend has it that the director is the same fellow who, many years ago, explained the intricacies of reverse swing to a group of English bowlers in the course of a session in a ‘pub’. This was at the time when our bowlers, especially Wasim and Waqar, were creating havoc in the English batting ranks and in the immortal words of Geoffrey Boycott were ‘capable of bowling out England with an orange.’ Whereas our bowlers were accused of cheating and ball tampering, once the English learnt the secret, and every third rate medium pacer and his cousin had mastered the art, the delivery become kosher and since then there have been no problems.
West Indies salvaged a draw at St Lucia in the second Test against India. It was rain and Brian Lara’s 32nd Test century that helped. I am not sure how much longer the 36 year old Lara will continue to play, but reckon that another couple of series and he will overhaul Tendulkar’s record of Test hundreds.
The French Open is over, but World Cup football continues to hog the headlines and there is little cricket news other than injuries to some of our key players.
Wimbledon will be starting ere long but happily the tournament and the World Cup will be over before Pakistan go to the Lord’s for the first Test against England. This also means for some of us it will be a pleasure to watch Maria Sharapova, Nicole Vaidisova and a host of eastern European blonde beauties without missing out on cricket.
*(MU Haq is a life member of PCB, former President of Karachi Cricket Association and a member of MCC) *
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\06\18\story_18-6-2006_pg2_9
No able replacements and we are stuck with an old horse. I have a suspicion we will see a bowling attack of Asif, Sami, Kaneria, Mushy, Razzaq for the test series.