PCB bans Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan from playing for Pakistan

As a part of their efforts to get the national team back on track after the disastrous Australian tour, the PCB has decided to ban the two top batsmen of Pakistan from playing for the national team– permanently. The PCB also slapped one year bans to Shoaib Malik and Rana Naveed and also fined Shahid Afridi and the Akmal brothers for various reasons.

“Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, keeping in view their infighting which resulted in bringing down the whole team, their attitude has a trickledown effect which is a bad influence for the whole team should not be part of national team in any format,” the board said in its statement issued on Wednesday. The PCB has stopped short of calling the punishment a life ban. “They will not be part of any Pakistan team in any format from here on,” Taffazul Rizvi, the board’s legal advisor told Cricinfo. “A life ban means they cannot play domestic cricket or any other similar cricket, but we are not stopping them from that. They can play domestic cricket or county cricket here and abroad.” The cases of indiscipline that have led to one-year bans on Malik and Rana, similarly, have not been expanded upon. “Rana Naved ul Hasan and Shoaib Malik be fined Rupees Two million. They should not be part of national team in any format for a period of one year.”

While I appreciate that the PCB is finally taking some strict action, banning the two world class players of your team won’t help at all. Who is going to fill in the huge middle order gap left by Inazamam and now by Yousuf and Younis ? Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan had been the backbone of our middle order since long, banning them permanently from playing for the national team cannot be justified.

I urge the PCB to review its decision, otherwise expect the two Y’s of Pakistan to approach the Supreme Court for justice.

Afridi Tampers Cricket Ball– Final Nail In The Coffin For Pak team ?

Things couldn’t have gone worse. A horrendous tour to Australia where we were white washed. Loosing the Test series 3-0 and ODI series 5-0. In other words, we didn’t win even a SINGLE match on this tour and to add insult to injury, Afridi comes up with his own way to ‘help’ Pakistan win the last ODI– the only match where we got close to defeating the Aussies.

Ball tampering enables more swing/spin on the ball. What Afridi did wasn’t exactly ‘ball tampering’. Rather it has been labelled as ‘ball biting’. However the purpose for both is the same.

“I was just trying to help us win our first match (on this tour),” Afridi said, adding “I still believe that we are a talented team and just need a win to lift ourselves.” Afridi, 29, has not only admitted that he was involved in ball-tampering but might have also landed himself in deeper trouble by claiming that all international teams are involved in ball-tampering.

Afridi was tipped to take over as the next permanent captain of the Pakistani cricket team, however this act of his could hinder his chances of becoming the skipper.

Afridi should be thankful that he was banned for only two T20′s, the ICC could have taken a much, much more serious action and ban him from several ODI’s and Tests.

P.S. Some mentally retarded Aussie from the crowd jumped on to the field and attacked Khalid Latif. Australians are well knows for their racism… we all know what they have been up to against the Indians lately.

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The unexpected departure of Pakistan from the Champions Trophy

Okay, So we lost a pretty much winnable semi-final against a half-strength New Zealand. So where did we go wrong ?

Initially we got off to a good start, the strategy was not to give away any wickets in the first 10 overs, and then accelerate, unfortunately we lost both our openers in under 15 overs. Secondly, instead of standing Younis Khan on his usual one down batting position, Shoaib Malik was sent in to bat, this was another blunder that I believe we committed. Shoaib Malik should be given a permanent position in the batting line up, Malik has batted in almost all positions and to date, has no fixed position in the batting line up.

Things started to look stable when Yousuf and Umar Akmal came to the crease, but I think Yousuf wasted too many balls, I mean, scoring 45 off (above) 70 balls is not acceptable for an ODI game. Just when both the players had settled, the 80 run partner-ship was broken when Yousuf inside edged a ball which went to hit the wicket. Yousuf’s dismissal triggered a huge collapse in batting line up, moments after Yousuf’s dismissal, Umar Akmal was given out LBW, in what was a widely criticized decision, TV replays showed that the batsman had indeed edged the ball, but the umpire thought otherwise.

Pakistan was unlucky in this case. Just when everybody thought that making 200 would be impossible for Pakistan, the last wicket pair of the young Mohammad Aamer and Saaed Ajmal put on a brilliant 35 run partnership which could have proved fatal for New Zealand.

New Zealand knew that their target was very much achievable, Pakistan were still in with a chance, provided they fielded well and bowled on target. Unfortunately for Pakistan, this did not happen, two quick blows to New Zealand early on in  the innings provided hope to Pakistan, but the hopes faded away as the innings proceeded. Vettori and Elliott turned out to be the danger men for Pakistan. We had some chances, missed some run-outs, unlucky on some LBw decisions, and of course that dropped catch by Younis turned out to be a fatal one. Rana was giving away free runs in the form of no-balls at a crucial time of the innings, which didn’t help the situation at all.

It just wasn’t Pakistan’s day today, maybe their over confidence had got the better of them. Everyone(including me) were predicting a Pakistani victory, but New Zealand proved otherwise. In the end, its a game, and winning or loosing is a part of it. But hey, look at the bright side, we reached the semi’s when teams like India, Sri Lanka and South Africa couldn’t. Our team played all the matches with full determination, we won against the West Indies, we beat India, we almost won the match against Australia(it was the best match of this Champ. Tophy).

In the end: Pakistan Zindabad!

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