fanta: why don't u put Was as ur avatar?
Ppl i just cant forget Waqar's face at the presentation and Wasim's face when he was congratulating streak. I really felt shattered then. Just goes to show that if We are feeling this low, how hard is it for players ??
There is no shortage of talent in Pakistan, and Shoaib , Sami, Zahid and couple of new guys Omer Gul and Abdur Rauf can bring the firepower back in pakistan's bowling department. I hope Inzi doenst get dropped. Atleast he was sincere in his efforts by losing osme weight. Saeed And taufeeq are a decent opening combination. Botton line is, that things just didnt work out for us, Allah ki marzi. I hope cricket fans all over the country dont insult them or anything and bring an even worse name for the country.
All we need is a carefree Captain and Coach which can devise effiective stratiegies. We have the talaent , need to sort it out.
One Question i would like to ask everyone who is constantly cursing Waqar, Inzi. I know its hard for you for me and everyone to swallow this bitter pill But ** a few months of bad cricket are enough to forget all the laurels these oldies have brough to the country in the past decade or so?**
i think the selectors shouldn't come to a conclusion too early.....Sharjah is around the corner......give this group of players some support and give them another chance to show what they are worth there!
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by NeSCio: *
i think the selectors shouldn't come to a conclusion too early.....Sharjah is around the corner......give this group of players some support and give them another chance to show what they are worth there!
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seriously it's still a good team, i have to agree with you on that. If we could have settled on a team selection 6 months earlier with a fixed batting order we could have done much better.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Mr Xtreme: *
seriously it's still a good team, i have to agree with you on that. If we could have settled on a team selection 6 months earlier with a fixed batting order we could have done much better.
[/QUOTE]
yes, Anwar is getting back to form....and inzi still is doing his utmost best to get his game going too! dropping these players will basically mean enforcing them to retire.
the two W's should use Sharjah to retire after having won a tournament................first round exit is unworthy for them
for the other players like Shahid, Razzaq and Shoaib etcetc this is a good opportunity to show they still deserve a place in the team
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by saby: *
One Question i would like to ask everyone who is constantly cursing Waqar, Inzi. I know its hard for you for me and everyone to swallow this bitter pill But * a few months of bad cricket are enough to forget all the laurels these oldies have brough to the country in the past decade or so?**
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By saying tihs, let me clarify one thing. Ofcourse it was the worldcup and yes it hurts. But anger should not take the shape like it does in india.
http://www.wisden.com/news/news.asp?colid=44121346
Within hours of Pakistan’s elimination from the 2003 World Cup, the recriminations had begun
Waqar Younis "We are ourselves to blame for this because we did not play to our full potential. I will sit with my family and friends and then decide what to do.”
Imran Khan “It was difficult to understand the policy, you never knew who was playing and who was not. There was no consistency. The defensive mindset of the captain was evident in almost all matches. You have to attack to win.”
**Intikhab Alam **“Waqar lost support even among his team-mates after Pakistan was blanked by Australia in the Test series in Sri Lanka and Sharjah in October. He obviously has lost faith in his key players because he dropped Saqlain Mushtaq in crucial games.”
Javed Miandad "Despite a professional coach and veteran stars in the side, Pakistan did not get their basics right. I think it is time for a shake-up.”
Asif Iqbal “We have been hearing for the last four years that Pakistan was preparing for this World Cup, but it appears we were the least prepared of all the teams.”
Sarfraz Nawaz “I said before the World Cup started that Pakistan will not qualify for the Super Sixes. You can’t win a derby with an ageing horse and we had many of them in the team.”
"Sarfraz Nawaz “I said before the World Cup started that Pakistan will not qualify for the Super Sixes. You can’t win a derby with an ageing horse and we had many of them in the team.”
Well said :k:
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Originally posted by ehsan: *
**Sarfraz Nawaz* "I said before the World Cup started that Pakistan will not qualify for the Super Sixes. You can't win a derby with an ageing horse and we had many of them in the team."
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Rani ka Raja Sarfraz brain-farts yet one more time.
The old horses (Wasim, Saeed and Rashid) are the ones who performed the best. Whereas the young derbie horses (Shoaib, Taufeeq, Salim, Afridi, Razzaq) really really sucked.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by funguy: *
Rani ka Raja Sarfraz brain-farts yet one more time.
The old horses (Wasim, Saeed and Rashid) are the ones who performed the best. Whereas the young derbie horses (Shoaib, Taufeeq, Salim, Afridi, Razzaq) really really sucked.
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Couldn't have put it better myself. This is the guy who was spilled the beans on how to reverse swing to the rest of the world and offered his services to teach anybody willing to cough up the dough.
I dont’ think the cause was “ageing horses”. Look at Saeed’s performance, Wasim’s performance. What did the “young horses” do? Shoaib? Abdul Razzaq? Younis Khan? Shahid Afridi? Taufeeq was okay, not very good. It was “Team” not clicking as a “team”, probably due to lack of captain’s team consultation and lack of leadership
**Waqar hints at retirement, deplores poor performance
BULAWAYO: Pakistan captain Waqar Younis dropped a broad hint on Tuesday that he would be taking a decision on his retirement very soon.
Facing the press after the match was rained off here, a dejected Waqar Younis said obviously he and other senior players would sit down with the Board officials after returning home and see where things had gone wrong in the World Cup.
"Yes, we will sit down and discuss things. I also have to think about where I stand because this is one of the biggest disappointments of my life, the way we have performed in this World Cup. Obviously I will be giving my feedback as would the manager and coach to the Board."
He made it clear he had no idea whether Wasim Akram and Rashid Latif would play for Pakistan again or what plans other players had. "We have not discussed this as yet. But yes, I think we seniors will sit down together soon and decide on our futures and what role we have to play in Pakistan cricket."
Making it clear he was utterly disappointed at the way the team had performed in the World Cup, Waqar said he didn't think the team deserved to make the Super Six given the way they had responded to the challenge. "The Board gave us the best possible facilities and support team. We just didn't perform to our potential. We played bad cricket."
"I don't want to blame any one player for letting the team and country down. I think we all must share the blame and responsibility. Yes as captain I take the main responsibility but apart from Wasim, Saeed or Rashid, I don't think we performed to our optimum level."
Waqar said it was a pity that the last chance Pakistan had of salvaging some pride in the World Cup had been rained off.
"It is sad and a pity that we had no game today. But we really didn't deserve to be there in the Super Six. I just wish Zimbabwe good luck."
But he insisted that there was plenty of time before Pakistan's next international assignment to see where things had gone wrong and try to put things in the right order.
"We have had major problems with the batsmen being unable to cope with the bouncy tracks in South Africa. The bowlers have also not really delivered and have been expensive at times. These things need to be looked into and solutions need to be found."
To a question he said obviously he was devastated that in his only opportunity to captain the team in the World Cup, things had gone so wrong.
"Personally I am devastated. But then I also know how the people back home must be feeling. We were not really expected to perform in this manner. But there are genuine cricket reasons to why we have not done well."
Both Waqar and coach Richard Pybus are not expected to retain their positions for the Sharjah tournament as their contracts were until the World Cup.
He said losing to India at the Centurion was the biggest setback to the team. "I don't think anyone in the team really thought it would go so wrong. But we just lost it as soon as India came out to bat."
"It is a defeat which will haunt me because we don't have cricket relations with India and we only played after three years. So that defeat was a big let down. And today's bad weather just about sums up what our World Cup campaign has been like," he stated.
The Pakistan captain also complained about the format of the tournament and felt that day and night matches should not be scheduled in the World Cup. "I think in these games the team winning the toss has an unfair advantage from the start. The format needs to be looked into. Too many good teams have gone out of the World Cup also because of bad weather and other reasons apart from poor cricket."
**
**Rashid asks fans to keep faith with national team
'We didn't play well at all in the World Cup, but I still believe we are a top team and will be back to our winning ways soon'
Pakistan senior wicketkeeper Rashid Latif on Tuesday called upon the people back home to bear with the poor performance of the team in the World Cup and promised it would soon return to its winning ways.
"I know we have disappointed and let down a lot of people. Lot of things went wrong for us. We just didn't play well at all. But I still believe sincerely we remain a top team and will be back to our winning ways soon. Just a little time is needed for things to settle down," he told 'The News'.
Rashid, one of the most respected members of the squad and one of the few who enjoyed some degree of success in the World Cup, insisted that people at home had every right to feel dejected and disappointed. "But what has happened has happened. We can't change that. Today we were hoping for one last chance to redeem ourselves. That didn't come. But we can only promise to get back to our winning ways soon."
He pointed out that in the present World Cup other established and popular teams had also crashed out before the Super Six stage. "I think this is primarily because of their own poor performances and inability to win the crunch matches as was the case with us. But the format has also not helped at all."
The former Pakistan captain said the International Cricket Council (ICC) should review the format they have followed in the last two World Cups.
"I think the format applied in the 1992 World Cup was the best. You got a chance to play against all other teams. And the best team always had the chance to come back even if its form was not good in the early stages. In that format there was no chance for the weaker teams to progress forward unless they played extraordinarily well," he pointed out. "But in this format, what has happened is that due to points being forfeited before the tournament started and due to no reserve days for the rain, teams have faced plenty of bad luck and were not able to make amends for poor performances."
He pointed out that due to absence of rain reserve days some teams got the short end of the stick. "Tell me, does Kenya deserve to be in the Super Six at the cost of South Africa. Okay, Pakistan and England didn't play well in the crunch games, but still the format didn't help us at all."
"Today's match was so crucial but because of bad weather we didn't get our final chance to redeem ourselves and comeback in the tournament."
Interestingly, while the organizers have kept no reserve days to cater to bad weather, they have kept plenty of gaps between the matches only to accomodate the television crews covering the matches. "It is because of the television crews and production requirements that the organizers scrapped the rain reserve days in the preliminary rounds," a source in the World Cup secretariat said.
Rashid also made it clear that he still intended to carry on playing One-day Internationals and would be available for the triangular series in Sharjah from April 1.
"Yes I had thought about retiring from ODIs also but I am doing well and I am enjoying myself now. Since my fitness and form is good I really want to be part of the Pakistan team's revival in the coming months," he stated.
**
**PCB's fact-finding body to review World Cup showing
KARACHI: Chairman, Pakistan Cricket Board Lt. General Tauqir Zia has formed a committee headed by former Test cricketer Naushad Ali to review the performance of Pakistan team in World Cricket Cup 2003, said a PCB press release issued on Tuesday .
Former Pakistan players Aaqib Javed and Sultan Rana will be members of the committee while Rana Shahzad (legal advisor) will be co-opted on as-required basis.
The committee will start working from March 8 and submit its findings to the Chairman PCB within 15 days. Later, the report will be made public. The committee will thoroughly review the performance of the team, scrutinising each and every aspect including selection before and during the World Cup matches.
The committee will also review the strategies and game plans formulated for each match, the role of players and officials, particularly the coach and captain.
It would give opinion on the causes of below-standard performance and recommendations for penalties on those found responsible for the dismal performance. The committee has been authorised to interview any player or official, besides having access to any material required including match tapes.
The PCB press release mentioned that the poor performance of the team during the World Cup matches, its failur to qualify for the Super Sixes and defeats at the hands of Australia, England and India have been source of serious concern both to the public at large as well as the PCB managment. The debacle at the World Cup, despite the intensive preparations by the PCB and availability of all possible resources to the team for the prestigious event, is all the more surprising and has brought into question the team's abilitiy to handle pressure at top level.
**
Aaqib Javed investigating Waqar and Waseem?!? Wow! PCB chaa giya hai :k:
The committee should also investigate Gen. Zia's conduct as well, in insisting in keeping Waqar as captain despite his poor performance and spending millions on the loud mouth non performer Shoaib. Zia is as guilty as any one in this debacle.
** Nescio ** rukh tou loon avator pur pehley hi sub mujhey bhai kehtey hien 
Cricket administrators responsible for Pakistan's debacle
*Cricket administrators responsible for Pakistan's debacle*
Touqir Hussain - 4 March 2003
As colossal a failure as Pakistan's unexpected and anti-climactic exit from the World Cup, after so much and ostentatious hype orchestrated by our cricket managers, is not susceptible to easy, simple or one-dimensional explanations. Explanations have to be equal to the magnitude of the failure, and it was no small failure.
The defeat was caused by a complex of factors, not peculiar to one match, tournament or series. The problem, as I have said before, is endemic, structural and fundamental. And the responsibility for rectifying it must rest with those who run cricket affairs in Pakistan.
In the first instance, one has to recognise the problem in order to rectify it. But we have always been in a denial mode. First, what is this drum-beat about the "talent"? How do you define it? And how does talent define and express itself? Unless it manifests itself in a stable and sustainable performance it is hard to register its presence. Otherwise it remains, as they say, `a flash in the pan'.
Of course anyone who in a nation of 140 million people makes it to the national team does have exceptional ability. And for that matter some basic ability is present in most cricketers to a varying degree, in any cricket team in the world. But since cricket is a competitive game, what matters most is really where our cricketers stand in comparison with others. And that is where the issue of talent acquires a whole new dimension. It becomes a relative and not absolute quality.
Yes, we have had some very talented cricketers in recent years but their number has been smaller than generally believed. This is evident from the fact that we won some extraordinary victories that almost had a dreamlike quality about them because they were so improbable and magical. And the fact that many of them were won with narrow margins confirmed how much they owed to individual brilliance rather than any game plan. That, I am afraid, encouraged a false notion that somehow we had individuals of sheer ability and talent and that game plans were not necessary to the team's success.
Indeed, such individualism resisted coaching and worked against the culture of game plans and discipline as well as contributed to the endemic lack of cohesion in the team. And the absence of any credible domestic cricket structure mitigated against the emergence and solidifying of the spirit of competitiveness and mental toughness.
With leaders like Imran Khan, supported by an exceptional cricketer and team man like Javed Miandad, such shortcomings were transcended, but after them it has been a different story. There has been no consistent pattern of achievement as the team continued to depend exclusively on individual brilliance or inspiration, which has its ups and downs, susceptible to the mood or emotion of the moment. It hastened the emergence of a few cricketing heroes but not a tough, hard-nosed and well-knit cricketing outfit.
Our captains in this period have been either bowlers or wicket-keepers, and neither batting strategists nor great inspirational leaders. The team, therefore, on the batting side, particularly, has been entirely on its own – left to its wits. And there has been no good coach till we hired Richard Pybus who in my view is trying to do his best. But alone cannot reverse the inherited mental attitudes nor has he the full autonomy to deal with the players as he pleases.
Players have been moving in different orbits and are pampered or spoiled by the cricket bosses who have tied their own survival and staked their reputation to the success of a few chosen players.
This approach foments player power, besides fostering blue-eyed boys and big egos which is not, definitely not, an ideal situation for team cohesion and discipline. Players, instead of fighting the opponents fight with each other.
Indeed cricket bosses are mainly responsible for the failure of the team, not just the contemporary ones but also successive administrations in the past.
Current world cricket has become fiercely competitive because of huge sums of money involved due largely to TV rights and commercial sponsorship. No wonder only the teams which have perfected a methodical, organized and competitive way of playing the game are excelling.
It has been such a delight to watch the Australian team exhibiting exceptional commitment to excellence, underpinned by an astounding sense of self-discipline, tenacity and brilliant team work. Other teams are now beginning to take their cue from them.
Much of the money being earned by respective Cricket Boards is now being ploughed back into running cricket on contemporary competitive lines. That is why the gap between major teams is narrowing as evident in the current World Cup. India too, which suffered the same weaknesses as our team in the past has learnt its lessons.
What has our Board done? I do not know the present Chairman of PCB General Tauqir, but I do know that players are not soldiers and nor is cricket all about laying down one's life for the glory of the country. Cricket players are a special breed - sensitive, egoistic and often adolescent. They need special handling, best left to someone who has been a distinguished sportsman himself or has had a life long association with sports. And above all, one who can administer the game full time. The General has done some good things but the Board's basic approach and inner workings in essence remain unchanged from the past.
For years the heads of PCB have been appointed on a single consideration - they were all well-connected people who owed their plush and prestigious position to the personal relationship they enjoyed with the leadership of the country. And as long as the political leadership remained unchanged PCB heads enjoyed unlimited and absolute power and remained beyond accountability. So secure in their position they hardly had to perform to keep their job.
Cricket affairs were left to their wits, as a 'laissez-faire' approach was followed that continued to encourage player power. And like everything else, when a government changed, all the plum positions also changed hands, and the new man in the PCB went about the business the same way as his predecessor.
Of course statements would now be issued and some scapegoats too, as to what went wrong at the World Cup. Vacuous statements would continue to be made by the captain and others, that "so and so took away the game from us", "our batting did not click", "that was not our day", "well such things happen in cricket", "well that is the way it goes", "let us look to the future".
No analysis, no attempt to learn from the experience. And the Board would of course talk about all those the academies being set up and team discipline being restored and the need for patience as cricket reorganization is a long term task etc. Does the last three-and-a-half year record inspire any confidence in the future?
What was the need to announce such hefty rewards for the team before the tournament? Why the spectacular and colossal send-off to the team at the Gaddafi Stadium? Why were players, such as Shoaib Akhtar allowed to engage in hyperbolic bragging that he would do such and such' toso and so player'? What was the consequence of this extraordinary hype?
On one hand it put enormous pressure on the players to perform, especially the batsmen, and on the other it may have made them complacent as they came to rely so much on super-human performance with such self-magnification by our bowlers. How many such statements were made by McGrath, Hayden or Tendulkar?
There are many reasons for the success of the Australian team, but if I were asked to choose one single factor, I would describe it as follows: There are no heroes in the team nor anyone treated as a hero. So their feet remain on ground. They are professionals who are being paid fabulously for their performance, and if they do not perform they are out and others would take their place. So their presence in the team has to be** earned and maintained with performance**. Nobody is considered indispensable. Even the best players can easily be shown the door. Look at what happened to Steve Waugh. Nobody is pampered. Of course if they perform they enjoy enormous amount of public support and acclaim but certainly no adulation.
*We, on the other hand, play by different rules. We like things to happen just as a matter of course, rely on the super-natural and heroics, and often want to blunder or gamble our way. *
Look at the batting. There is no commitment or desire to build a partnership. No communication between the players on the field with the possible exception of the match against India. There is no strategy as to what happens if wickets start tumbling. Pakistani team has never been good at regrouping after a collapse. And collapse has often triggered defeat as panic sets in.
And there is no accounting for this mystery except the lack of a game plan, strategy and capability to regroup in the course of the innings and to dig-in and try for a partnership. And above all, not to throw away the wickets.
Another vital shortcoming is match temperament. And this is because the players hardly play real competitive cricket at home. What passes for domestic cricket is an apology for the game. We need to reorganize it to make it genuine, more competitive, and we must force our national team players to participate in it. Competitiveness teaches mental toughness.
There is therefore time, not only for serious soul-searching but also for hard-headed and honest analysis, if we want to learn proper lessons from the failure at the World Cup. The team still has more than average talent, but we need to harness it.
Ed: Touqir Hussain is former Ambassador of Pakistan to Japan
Here is the link…
http://www-usa.cricket.org/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2003/MAR/151643_CI_04MAR2003.html
Thanks paindoo for that article by Tauqir Hussain. I gree with more or less everything said to some degree. I hope one of the Army bigwigs reads this then hopefully they will concentrate on conducting troop drills and such to which they are best suited.
Great read :k: