SHOAIB MALIK

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It was late October-1999 when at Sharjah Coke Trophy-99 Shoaib Malik made his debut against Sri Lanka at that triangular involving Pakistan-Sri Lanka and West Indies. When Shoaib was selected for that ODI, I called him and said “young man, I want you to take ONE wicket in your debut match and if you do then at the end of the game come to me–I’ll tell you something”. Shoaib did take a wicket and came to me with full respect..bowed and said “salams…I did take a ticket and thank you for your inspirational words”…to which I patted him and said “IF you behave and do not loose your senses–though I know you’ll soon change your hairstyle—I see you as the future Captain of Pakistan Cricket Team!” and he just shyed away saying “Bohat dorre ki baat hai sir…!”

Since my room at Dubai hotel was three away from Brian Lara’s..we became great friends and had breakfast together at the restaurant down below. Later he gave me his play bat which I still have with me. I’ll put up its picture on this forum soon.

Later we flew to Australia for three tests against Kangaroos and triangular involving us, the Kangaroos and India where Sachin became my friend as he had a great liking for UN KAHI and TANHAIYAAN he said he watched several times on video. Rahul was new thing then but how atrociously Shoaib Akhtar behaved throughout that series—I’ll tell someday soon. He is like that bird called LEMMING which, they say, destroys itself.

My closest buddies in Paki-Cricket are; Javed Miandad, Wasim Bari, Moin Khan, Shahid Afridi, Saeed Anwar, Inzy, Razzak, Faysal Iqbal, Hasan Raza and Haroon Rasheed—as my association with cricket has been a very long one. BOB WOOLMER was a close friend too and what a great man he was.

Miandad’s biography was written by Dr. Saad Shafqat at my continuous encouragement. We wanted to write on Inzy’s biography but somewhat Inzy got bereft…though I still think he is one of the finest cricketer Pakistan has ever produced…but his abstainment from retiring from TEST cricket just to break JM’s record..is not worth the shot.

As far as Twenty20 is concerned…I dont think we have good chances there as Shoaib Akhtar is more suitable for adverts with Adnan Sami Khan then bowling!

I strongly figure out that AFRIDI will be a person to reckon with though he is sad that Salman Butt Mian has been preferred over him as VC.

This is Raju Jamil..former Media Manager-PCB for 1999 Sharjah Coke Trophy and 4.5 months Australia Tour Nov-99 through late Jan-2000.

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What was the deal with new Logo for Pak team during that Sharjah cup?? whose idea was that???

Any dressng room insight khabar that we didnt get after Razaaq tied that game for Pak.

for this qs. if u do not want to answer, i can PM the qs and you can reply there.

AUS 99: Why did waqar not get picked up for Brisbane test and even after bowling well at hobart didnt get picket up for WACA??

was there any tension among Wasim/Waqar during that test series??

Did Waqar ever confronted wasim in Aus or after the test series before he did the press conference in Pak??

When he was called back in side for ODI's waqar bowled quite well....what was wasim/waqar relationship, level of Communication surind C&U series?
Whose idea was it to try Moh Wasim as Opener??

at brisbane Pak had avoided inning defeat in 2nd inning and things were going great over night when Anwar and Yousaf were playing, what was team strategy coming into play for last day (when razzaq got cleaned up by warne and rest just collapsed)....was Pak going into final day trying to be defensive??? as playing aggresively they wiped off the deficit with Saeed and Yousaf....

can u tell us more about Shoaib's come back tour and all the info that media was kept away from. Please!

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Welcome to the Cricketnama, Sir. Thanks alot for the insight, and for being here on this fourm. We would like to hear more from you.

Can anyone
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Welcome to GS. Thanks for sharing your views and memories with us. Hope to hear from you on regular basis. :)

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:) Either YOU are from PAPER MEDIA or you really have a good memory!!!

The Q's you raised are COGENT but the A's I'll give...will be more factual and perhaps irksome and painful--hence wait for my next submission to yours...for I have some very interesting tales of Paki-Cricket up my sleeves which I would like to share and cascade to SERIOUS ones on CRICKET...the only other thing which turns our Nation...!

Cheers---------RAJU

P.S. Thank you ALL who have welcomed me to this rather interesting forum.

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Raju, welcome to our cricket forum. This cricket forum, as you will experience in coming days, is one of the most balanced and matured internet cricket forums. But we do have a lot of conspiracy theories floating on this forum for a long time and hopefully you would be able to dispel some of them :)

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Great....Welcome Raju. So now I have a reason to come back :)

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Mods is there an option that u have where only members of KK can view this thread...this way Raju will have more comfort in telling us things as not "EVERYONE" will get to see his replies and he can be more candid

Plastic Surgery
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Thank you ALL on this forum.

First..some A's to the Q's raised by the member! (Nikema is not my cup of tea to address anyone!)

  1. The SWOOSH LOGO was the brainchild of the then Chairman-PCB when I was Media-Manager there on deputation from my Bank (1999). Despite our note of dissent, he hung on it till a very strong media campaign was launched by Sports Journalists and I remember that Sunday---when we were at Lahore playing cricket with Mian Nawaz Sharif at LG-Ground. Javed Zaman was bowling and I was behind the stumps. NS was crazy for cricket--we all know that. During drinks break, NS casually told MR that he should revert back to PCB's original logo... and the next day I made a press release. I cant blame MR on change of logo. He was a mild nice guy but had great craving for self-publicity hence he thought---that he would leave a legacy of new LOGO of PCB that people would remember him. WELL, they did..hence the Q !!!!!!!

  2. RAZZAK thing is WRONG!

  3. YES, the two W's did not ever meet "eye-to-eye". At Hobart, I strongly recommended to the team Manager-Yawar Saeed that Vicky be included in XI and that evening both Wasim & Moin came to my room and requested that Vicky phenomenon be kept away. I asked why? Wasim said that he (Vicky) is out of practice and more busy visiting his fiance/in-laws at Sydney. That was wrong! Vicky did take leave whilst in Brisbane and did go for three days to meet Feryal.
    Wasim was always insecured from Vicky...on loosing captaincy to Vicky...which, perhaps was written and did eventually happen--but Wasim went one up by being the backbencher at the WC-South Africa under Vicky.
    So....both the W's were like India & Pakistan.
    Wasim & Waqar; both have been very close to me. They gave me due respect and always demonstrated courtesy and manners. Wasim was well handled by his wife Huma who is one of the most wonderful ladies I have ever met. She was 80% behind Wasim's success like Norr Jehan for Jehangir.

Vicky was known to me since he was a young lad at Abu Dhabi where I spent 11 years at my Bank on Overseas posting. I saw him play for Sh. Zayed Pakistan School and then--I had predicted to his Dad Yunus Metla, that Vicky will make it big one day.

The only time I gave these two helter skelter--was their atrocity at West Indies when they were indicted on something highly deceitful.

  1. Mohammad Wasim was actually the protege of our bumbbaaz AQK.. hence being then in power---PCB had nothing but HOBSON's CHOICE to select him for TESTS and ODIs as he played for KAHUTA also. Though, he was unlucky to miss his century at Brisbane-1999 being out on 92.

  2. SAEED ANWAR is a great buddy of mine. His wife was my neighbor at DHA-I on 11th east Street. He had ALL respects for me but most of the time he tended to forget that what a great player he is.....by always obliging the fielder at slip!!!!! When he made 195..I was there at Banglore. Back at the dressing room he told me that he was ever sure of crossing 200 if he had not remembered and suddenly laughed inside his heart by remembering what Anil Kumble told him when he hit that bloke for three consecutive sixes...." Yaar, have mercy..my mother is sitting there at pavillion and watching" . Yes, Saeed dithered at Brisbane and during lunch...when Shane Warne came to ask for a cigarette from me....Glen McGrath followed him and while sipping coffee---requested me to tell Shoaib Akhtar and Vicky the secret of "reverse swing" to which I laughed and said "Hey Glen....your CEO Malcolm Speed is after our boyz...funny that you ask such ques...!?"

MORE...soon.... on WHAT BOB WOOLMER told me about our team on that day at Salt-n-Pepper, Karachi during Pak-Windies TEST at Karachi where Osman Samiuddin of CrickInfo and Saad Shafqat were also invited by me.

Chhers----------ARJAY

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Thanks,
I met Saeed Anwer after his world record innings at Bangalore :)

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Very interesting information raju sahib. I am glad that you provided us with some definitive and firsthand information about the dynamics of wasim-waqar relationship. Over this forum, myself and Nikema have argued for years that wasim destroyed waqar’s career deliberately and had Waqar played cricket on regular basis for those three years when wasim was in charge of the team, waqar’s records would have been much better. But such is the blind loyalty among some of the forum members for wasim akram that they will simply keep blaming waqar younis for everything. One popular blame is that waqar was a spent force by 1996 which is not true at all as demonstrated by waqar once he got a chance after Jawarrie wasim left the captainship. I hope that wasim’s followers would at least listen to you who witnessed the cricket politics first hand and realize what type of person wasim was.

No one and I repeat it again; no one can ever question the talent that wasim possessed but the way wasim destroyed the very fabric of our cricket, demolished the reputation of Pakistani cricket forever by participating in JUWA and politicized the dressing room atmosphere is also unparalleled. I am glad that you are providing all of us with first hand commentary of some of these very important events that transformed Pakistani cricket in a negative way. If you ever get a chance and if you feel comfortable, could you also comment on Juwa part and wasim akram/salim malik role in it. I call 1993 to 2003 the “Dark Period” of Pakistani cricket. It is ironic that within this period Pakistan produced the best talent but at the same time our cricket became so politicized that common people simply lost interest in it. Who was responsbile for it especially from Juwa standpoint?

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That Logo was absolutely horrible...i remeber there was not a single person in Pak who liked it...MR always seemed like an attention whore to me and thanks for clearifying on all this happen.

BTW, good couple of years ago i asked the well informed people of KK about that Logo and asked their opnion but to my surprise nobody remembered it and i was shocked at that.

[QUOTE]

  1. YES, the two W's did not ever meet "eye-to-eye". At Hobart, I strongly recommended to the team Manager-Yawar Saeed that Vicky be included in XI and that evening both Wasim & Moin came to my room and requested that Vicky phenomenon be kept away. I asked why? Wasim said that he (Vicky) is out of practice and more busy visiting his fiance/in-laws at Sydney. That was wrong! Vicky did take leave whilst in Brisbane and did go for three days to meet Feryal. Wasim was always insecured from Vicky...on loosing captaincy to Vicky...which, perhaps was written and did eventually happen--but Wasim went one up by being the backbencher at the WC-South Africa under Vicky. So....both the W's were like India & Pakistan. Wasim & Waqar; both have been very close to me. They gave me due respect and always demonstrated courtesy and manners. Wasim was well handled by his wife Huma who is one of the most wonderful ladies I have ever met. She was 80% behind Wasim's success like Norr Jehan for Jehangir.

Vicky was known to me since he was a young lad at Abu Dhabi where I spent 11 years at my Bank on Overseas posting. I saw him play for Sh. Zayed Pakistan School and then--I had predicted to his Dad Yunus Metla, that Vicky will make it big one day.

The only time I gave these two helter skelter--was their atrocity at West Indies when they were indicted on something highly deceitful.

[/QUOTE]

Waqar was given only 1 out of 3 tour games before the 1st test game and even in that gamehe was bowled for less than 10 overs after given the ball even after razaaq.....then Wasim didnt play him in Brisbane...then waqay took 7 wickets in a side game which lead wasim play him at hobart......now what u just mentioned that Moin and Wasim came to ur room, was that befre brisbane test or on eve of Hobart test...how were relationship ebtween two during that hobart game....coz i remember very well that wasim didnt give alot of bowling ...he was given a 3 over first sspell...then again brought back on after 25 overs..and was given 2 over spell...and as soon as a wicket was taken (not by waqar but mahmood) he was taken off .....clearly not the way to treat a champion bowler...and when new batsmen got setteled down after 10 overs waqar was brought back on....again for a 2 over spell only.....all looked like as if Wasim wanted waqar to fail and wasim was doing every action to make sure he has an excuse to put waqar out for ever ...the longest waqar bowled was 4 overs in his last spell and we all saw what magc balls he produced in that spell....and after going through all of this when he removed Ponting Akrem was standing short extra covers, waqar just completly ignored himand and the look at akrem's face was just un-belivable..as he never wanted waqar to get wicket and he did everything possible to not to give waqar
any chance to get one...

can u tell more about wasim waqar issues during that test match ...and why he was not given bowling when AUS were 120/5 and in final session akrem kept on bowling with Mahmodd, Razaaq and let Gilchrist settle in??

What eventually lead to waqar announce that press conference in Pak ...where he fir first time came out said that wasim is trying to destroy his career.....was there any telephonic contact between two made from Pak by waqar????? and how were relationship (on and off fieeld) during the C and U series....where waqar even won game for Pak with Bat in partnership with Saqalain?

I have always belived that Wasim, grat champion cricketr....but he hurt Pak cricket so much that it was just horrible...i have said enough on wasimwaqar isse and the sad thing is that eventual loser was not wasim nor waqar but Pak cricket.........

my feeling has always been that Moin played a big role in all that as being a PIA player he always felt like he needs to be in Wasim's camp, who played for PIA too...and he thought that as long as he kept wasim bhai happy he will have better chance to be in Pak squade...as he looked at waqar as someone who will favor rashid over him as both Rashid and Waqar played for UBL in early 90's and moin had to be alligned with Wasim bhai....and eventually it did pay off good for him........

can u explain bit more about how waqar handled wasim under his captaincy and what do u mean by saying that wasim backbenched waqar in SA and WC03......didnt waqar fight with PCB to have Akrem included in 01 Eng tour or that was justa rumor

[Quote]

  1. Mohammad Wasim was actually the protege of our bumbbaaz AQK.. hence being then in power---PCB had nothing but HOBSON's CHOICE to select him for TESTS and ODIs as he played for KAHUTA also. Though, he was unlucky to miss his century at Brisbane-1999 being out on 92.

[/Quote]

I was plasently shocked to see wasim open the inning in 1st mornign at Brisbane and was very satisfied with his performace to me he should kept as opening batsmen for Pak as he provided ideal foil for an attacking Anwar and imagaine Moh wasim in 2002 onwards opening for Pak and atleast having one solid opener.....is there any story that we dont know about his downfall as player or his omission from team....as he didnt do too bad as opener in WI where he put on good 140+ partnership with Nazir!

Once again thans very much ur Insightfull Information!

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Mods i do think we should make this thread Private for KK members so that Raju Uncle feel comfortable answering qs...

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Sir with all due respect, please share some interesting behind the scene or dressing room situations. Your posts sound self-centered, 'he said this to me' or 'he gave me this to me' or 'WE are good friends since then' etc etc. Sorry, but it gets boring when one is monotonous on any topic, start-middle-end has Me all over. I value your pre-partition cenima review, it was creative and informative.

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Unless he thinks that this information is private and should be shared only with few people, we can't make this thread private.

It is a public forum and any one can post anything and anyone can read anything.

I assume ARJAY is ok with sharing this information with everyone otherwise he would have never opened this thread.

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I second that. After all these insights should not be free to public :) free to members only. Please install some mods to hide the post if you have not done this. Thank you in advance.

Raju this is really interesting. Thank you once again for all the insights. Looking forward to more....

I really feel sad about the relationship between Wasim and Waqar. Wasim should have at least thought how Khan sahib tought him everything and made him the sultan of swing so he should have been the same to other Pakistan players. But he was a big juwari...he came from a poor family and thus ended up making money be it the right way or wrong way. As Nikema put it very nicely that at the end the lose was Pakistan cricket not Wasim or Waqar.

Also Raju sahib do you have any insight about the 99 WC Final?

Thank you.

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Can you at least make it a sticky? :)

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I think I should :) plus I am also checking if we can make this thread private for GS members so that visitors cannot access it.

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^^ I say KK Members only.....and that too only for selective one.

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^-- why is that?