Cool pic PB.
Say my salaam to Sami Bhai.
WOW dude.
What was it like, what kind of personality each player had.
Tell us about your whole experience.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by UMAIR316: *
WOW dude.
What was it like, what kind of personality each player had.
Tell us about your whole experience.
[/QUOTE]
Alright, on your special request Umair.
I have met Waqar and Mushi at Singapore International Airport in 1996. They both looked very sluggish and were may be tired from all the bashing they got after losing the quarterfinal to India. I just had a few words and an autograph. I, as a kid remmember asking Waqar which is the best team in the world rightnow, to which he replied "Sri Lanka". I asked "Kyoun?". He said "Because are in form".
Again in 1996, i caught up with few Lanka players. It was quite cool as they were the new one day champs of that time. I was just staring at them from disbelief when Chaminda Vaastook notice of me and waved at me. Since then i have always been a fan of his (which world champ wud wave to a small kid ?).
1998, Pak 'A' came to NZ. I wagged school with a Paki friend of mine to go and watch them take on NZ 'A'. The ground was almost empty and we were standing outside the pavilion when Abdur Razzaq said salaam to us!. Eventhough he wasnt an international that time, it still shows he is down to earth person. It was quite nice of him to do so. Then another player by the name "Ali Rizvi"-who was the 12th man- came out and started chatting to us. Then much to our disbelief, he invited us to the dressing room. Inside the dressing room there were many internationals. There was Fazle Akbar, Mohammad Wasim, Faisal Iqbal (wasnt known that time) etc. Rashid Latif was the captain on that tour but stayed at the hotel for that game as he had a neck injury (damn!). We were quite surprised to see as how relaced and informal the things were inside dressing room. The cricket game being played in the middle was probably the last time on players' mind! :)
Mohammad Wasim had just gotten out and entered the dressing room saying "salay wicket khattam hay". Then he just grabbed a chair and out came a CDman with various Paki CDs like Junoon, Vital Signs etc. He seemed quite stuck up and non-professional kind of player. Anyways, Fazle said something quite funny. As we were standing, Fazle said to a junior player "bhen***d, inhay chair dou" :)
So we had a seat. As my other friend was a pathan, he started chatting with fazle in pashto. Faisal Iqbal, who was an unknown player that time was sitting next to me. He started having a chat with me. He asked me how the schools are in New Zealand and if they are any better than Karachi schools like St Peters, Babib Puclib etc. All we talked about was career and parhaee. In my mind i was thinking that may be he is some ameerzada who is here for picnic or something and knows it himself too as he sees no future for himself in Cricket and is more of a parhakoo bacha. Who knew he'd come down to NZ couple of years later to make him Test debut!!!
Alrightee, then in 2000 came Paki team to NZ. My older bro is a hotel manager and came home with the news that Paki team wud be staying at his hotel!!!! as u can imagine, i went totally ecstatic . My bro got a room booked for me at the same level as where all the senior players were to stay including Inzi (next door), Moin, Ijaz, Waqar, Saqlain and Yohanna (wasim had already gone back to pak faking injury). Anyways, i along with my other bro and friends checked in the hotel the day Pak was suppose to arrive. As their bus arrived and the players started coming out, we were overjoyed ( i cant tell u the feeling). As the players waited in the waiting lounge, we approached them and started having chat (that is when we took these pics). This is where i reminded Faisal of how i had met him before. He thankfully remmembered and we got on talking. Faisal's best mate in the team is Sami so he joined us too. Faisal said that he is doing BA private thesedays and is still into studies. I had a decent 15 minute chat with both and told them that we are staying in the same hotel and also my bro is the hotel GM and they can approach either us or him if they want anything. They asked us to ring in the evening and that when they'd like to out. Those hours finally crawled away and came evening where we went to a local resturant for khana. Bro, i can tell u that these guys have serious diet. They eat 3/4 times more than us. To cut it short(er),
to cut it short(er), Faisal seemed very confident and i do agree with some1 on this forum who said that Faisal seems to have a cocky attitude that is required to make a top class batsmen; that sentencedefines his personality quite well. Sami on the other hand is quite down-to-earth and less spoken guy. That brought an end to this eventful day. I though these guys were the best in Paki team. I was yet to met Yohanna ;)
Next morning we got up as team was leaving for the practice sessions. We drove in our car along with the team bus. Apparently the team bus left without Waqar as he couldnt get up on time!!! We came to the statium where NZ team was already training ( there i also took pics with NZ players). ABout half an hour we saw Wiccki enterning the ground and telling Miandad tat he was sorry. Miandad said "chalo koi baat nahee" ( we couldnt believe we are seeing all this!!!). We thought we lost an opportunity as we could've picked wiccki in our car, but Waqar always seemed quite grim (although my bro- the GM- said that Waqar always joked around with the front office staff etc. Anyways, then started the nets. I was watching Youhanna bat from a meter!!!!! There were two nets; there were some paki bowlers, as well as some local bowlers bowling. It was amazing. Inzi faced about 10 balls, 5 of which he sent out of the ground!
One inetersting moment was when Faisal kept on playing drives and orthodox cricket shots, Miandad yelled "Faisal ab aa jao", and after that Faisal faced about 5 deliveries, out of which all were either sixes of fours!!! that shows how international batters can hit balls almost at will. It was absolutely unbeliveable.
Anyways, Waqar and Fazle Akbar seemd like the only two bowlers who seemed to bowl seriously in the nets (sami was injured). I remmember Ijaz Ahmad getting out almost half a dozen time in the nets against Fazle Akbar. Waqar seemed to be giving everything in the nets too but he seemed harmless ( he was made captain atraight after this tour). Nonetheless Waqar's approach to the game was very professional indeed and he seemd fittest of the lot.
Then we met Yohanna there (called KAKA by his team mates). He asked if he can borrow a video player from somewhere. We gladly offered him our personal video player. I told him that i will bring it to him tonight.
That night i took the video to the hotel. Gave KAKA a ring and told him to come out of his room as we are staying in a room parallel to his. Yohanna borrowed our Video and promised that he;d give us tickets to the game!
I will tell u more later. i gtg
Tell us about the poor prostitute who had to entertain Ijaz Ahmed ;)
Pathan bhai tell us about the other players as well tooo...and about Afridi...I heard he has a lot of attitude and is really stuck up. A friend of mine in Pak told me cuz he was friends him...I jus wanna know if this is true or not...anyway..thanks for sharing ur experience with us :):)
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Pathan Bhai: *
[thumb=B]samiwithme.JPG[/thumb]
I taught Sami the gurr of fast bowling.
[/QUOTE]
Pathan Bhai, who's that guy on the right? ;)
Sami the man…
hez lukin younger in the pic:jhanda:…
I did a thread a while back on him being a star of the future. He's got a lot to learn but he's getting more hostile and developing into a real handful for batsmen. I don't think the Sri Lankans enjoyed his bowling much.
interesting experience, Pathan Bhai. tell us more... I've never seen any pro player, other than Imran Khan.
Shukriya all.
Sorry for leaving the story half way through but i had a lecture to attend. I’d also request others who’ve met the cricketers putting their experience in here.
Lets start this epidose from Youhanna. He is by far the best guy in the team and most humble and down to earth of all.
You guys will be amused to read this but i know what Youhanna’s secret is behind all the motivated and consistent efforts he puts in for Pak Cricket. Its Rocky IV . Yes, u heared it right. He asked me and my bro if he could get the movie Rocky IV from somewhere. It was so hilarious. I asked Youhanna “Rocky IV konsi hay?”
He said “Wo yaar jis mein Rambo training karta hay hard” 
Now we knew where all the motivation was coming from!!! 
He also got few Hindi movies for his wife persumably but i dont remmember the names. His wife is really friendly too. btw Youhanna did give us the tickets as he promised. He also gave us about 4/5 paki teams shirts and a single trouser.
On Sherrybaba’s request: lets talk about the biggest crook of all. IJAZ AHMED.
This happened i think couple of nights before the test was due to start. My bro was on duty and it was late night when he gave me a ring in our room. He told me that there is some1 who’s called a hooker in his room. He checked who the room was booked for in his system and told me it was some1 by the name of Ijaz Ahmed. Anyways, whats more weired is that this girl came rushing out of the room after half an hour or so with tears!!! God knows what Ijji dada did to her. But we felt really pissed. But there was nothing we cud do abt it.
Another interesting incident was as told to me by my bro that Fazle Akbar had asked a chick at the front desk to go out with him. Fazle told her “WE will have fun” (these are the exact words he said, dont know what exactly he meant by them!). This girl was sikh and much to our amusement she politely declined.
Last year the Lankan team was in NZ and my bro was still the GM @ Novotell, hamilton. He chatted with few players. He told me that Dilhara Fernando told him:
*Aussies and SAfricans are the worst sledgers
*Pakistanis are really friendly.
*His best friend in International cricket is Shahid Afridi, who also took him to his home for dawat when lanka toured Pakistam (asaian test championship i think).
This pretty much covers all the major highlights.
very interesting account! thanks for sharing.
Seems like you had great fun! Thanks for sharing.
really interesting bro
thanks for sharing
Mohammed Sami clocked 156.4km/h in Thursday’s game
Thats Nice 
http://www-usa.cricket.org/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2003/APR/166425_CI_06APR2003.html
which is how many miles?
sorry too bad in match 
97.8 miles per hour.
lagta hey dimagh mein match he match sawaar hey, chalo achi baat hey 
Saby Bhai,
It’s me who’s coaching Mohammad Sami, not you. 
‘My priority is taking wickets not speed’](http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/apr2003-daily/12-04-2003/sports/s3.htm)
SHARJAH: Pakistan’s young fast bowler Muhammad Sami received the compliment of a lifetime on Thursday from his skipper Rashid Latif after the Sharjah Cup final.
“Sami is the most improved player in the side and he has shown he has the capacity to take over the mantle of leading the pace attack from greats like Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis,” Rashid said after the youngster set up Pakistan’s final win with a three wickets opening burst with the new ball.
His spell of 3 for 11 in the final was a reminder of his vast potential which was also on display when he clocked 156.4kmh in the opening game against Zimbabwe to become the third fastest bowler in recent times. In the absence of enduring stars like Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram, and the hundred-miles-per-hour man Shoaib Akhtar, Sami seems to have grabbed the bull by the horns and decided that he wants the mantle not only as the spearhead of Pakistan’s pace battery but also perhaps as the world’s fastest bowler.
But the Karachi youngster who finished with nine wickets in the four-nation tournament made it clear he was not going to fall into the speed trap as Shoaib had done before him. "I think I am bowling fast today and getting lot of nip because of my improved physical condition and hard training. I look to take wickets rather than break speed records,’ :k: Sami said. Although shy in facing the media, the youngster was candid in discussing his rise to become Pakistan’s leading fast bowler.
**“I think touring with the team for the last two years has helped me a lot. Wasim and Waqar have given me lot of tips but I think what matters is how much confidence the captain or coach have in you as a bowler.”
“I think Rashid bhai and Javed Miandad have helped me a lot in bowling so well in this tournament. But in the end my philosophy is simple no matter what anyone teaches you in the end it is yourself who has to learn and work hard to Improve himself,”** Sami stated.
Rashid Latif had no doubt that Sami was a fast improving bowler and would go on to play for a long time for Pakistan. “The reason is, he like Wasim Akram has a whippy action and a short run-up and he has improved his line and length and also picked up in pace. Most importantly he is a very fast learner.”
Rashid pointed out that Sami had done what had been asked of him and bowled to a set plan. “He is definitely our bowler for the future. Yes I think he should have played in the World Cup because the South African pitches suited him but it is unfortunate he didn’t get a chance.”
Sami said he was enjoying his cricket a lot and liked the challenge of leading the attack in the absence of the senior players. “I like the challenge. But I know cricket is all about learning some new thing everyday and all the time or else you stagnate as a bowler and physical fitness is the most important thing.” Rashid said even Wasim had told him that this young fellow (Sami) would play for a long time for Pakistan team.