Cricket

[Moin91]

Australia to hold IPL-style tournament

Agencies

SYDNEY: India have agreed to clear their biggest superstars to play in Australia's domestic Twenty20 competition as Cricket Australia considers an IPL-like franchise system for the tournament. The revamped event would likely start in 2009-10 as Cricket Australia aims to make the most of Twenty20's growing popularity.

Australia's six-state Twenty20 competition is going ahead this season but from the following year the tournament could look completely different as Australia investigate options for how to structure the series. The state teams could remain but another possibility is to adapt the hugely successful IPL model, in which teams were owned privately and signed international players.

"The franchise model is one that is being looked at very, very closely," Cricket Australia's public affairs manager Peter Young told Cricinfo. "We are narrowing the options, but the way it will look is still to be determined."

Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman and BCCI vice-president, said India would have no problem allowing its players to take part. "They [Cricket Australia] have asked us already if we would release our players for that and we said yes," Modi said in the Herald Sun. "They have been gracious enough to release their players for us."

 

[Moin91]

Yasir Arafat gets T20 place of honour
Monday, October 06, 2008
From our correspondent

xISLAMABAD: Rawalpindi Rams’ Yasir Arafat, who took three wickets for five runs while representing his team in the National Twenty20 Cup Cricket Championship match against Quetta Bears on Sunday, has become the second-highest wicket-taker in the shortest version of the game in the world.

Now only Tyron Henderson of South Africa/Middlesex is ahead of him with 73 wickets in 60 matches with an average of 20.8. Yasir now has 62 wickets in 45 matches (average 19.1) with an enviable strike rate of 13.7 balls per wicket.

Only two Pakistanis have crossed the 50-wicket mark so far. The other bowler is Azhar Mahmood with 52 wickets in 48 matches, at an average of 22.4 and strike rate of 18 balls per wicket.

“I am delighted to have achieved such a distinction. I would try to become the highest wicket-taker in the shortest version of the game,” Yasir said while talking to ‘The News’.

Yasir played a lead role in Rawalpindi’s thumping 75-run win over Quetta in the Twenty20 match at the LCCA Ground in Lahore on Sunday morning. “I want my team to go all the way to win the Cup,” he said.
TheNews

 

[IceCold]

West Indies board calls off men’s team tour of Pakistan​

Updated at: 1310 PST, Thursday, October 09, 2008
BARBADOS: The West Indies cricket board has called off its men’s team tour of Pakistan after the women’s team refused to come to Pakistan.

The Pakistan Cricket Board's efforts to arrange a home series have been dealt a blow as West Indies have opted not to tour next month because of security concerns.

Senior players had already expressed concerns about visiting Pakistan and the decision comes a week after the West Indies women's team called off the Pakistan leg of their Asian tour.

Donald Peters, the chief executive of the West Indies board, said negotiations are on to reschedule the tour. "We are in talks with the PCB at present with the hope of getting the tour deferred to another date, but at this time we are not going to tour the country," Peters said.

"At the end of the last (WICB) board meeting, the directors wanted a security report on the situation in Pakistan and I contacted the PCB. I had requested a security plan from them that was okayed by their police and military.

"They got this plan and sent it to me and we were then looking further at getting an independent security firm but this was not done because we had decided that at this point it was not really safe for the players to go to Pakistan."

The West Indies team had to play a Test series of two matches in Pakistan.

West Indies board calls off men’s team tour of Pakistan - GEO.tv

 

[Spring Onion]

Unfortunate for the cricket.

Realy this season we had been missing some goof Cricket due to this issue of security and postponment of series

 

[su-47]

You guys watchin this massacre? India is pounding australia into the pavement!

Its always great to watch a conclusive victory for india, but its extra special when its against australia.

india really is coming up under Dhoni's captaincy. you can see the difference in team performance under dhoni and under kumble.

 

[Imran Khan]

extra special when its against australia.

finish the super power of cirket

you can see the difference in team performance under dhoni and under kumble

keep it up but not with pakistan

 

[su-47]

pity we couldnt nail them for good after having them on the ropes at 58-5. i was hoping for a 350+ run victory.

oh well, hopefully we'll finish them off tomorrow

 

[Imran Khan]

oh well, hopefully we'll finish them off tomorrow

just finish them cirket no more one side game we are asian tigers man

 

[Moin91]

New PCB chairman on the right path

By Col (r) Rafi Nasim

Only within a few weeks of the taking over of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) by Ijaz Butt, a pleasant change in the cricket environment is visible. As the things are unveiling, Dr Nasim Ashraf left the PCB in a virtual mess. The new chairman thus has a stupendous job of not only eradicating all the ills that prevail in the board but also to elevate the status of Pakistan cricket high among the top cricketing nations of the world. If an inventory of irregularities and corruption cases is prepared, there may be a hundred and one issues to tackle. The priorities that the new chairman has given to various issues and the pace at which he is tackling them are commendable.

The details of the prevailing situation which the chairman has revealed are not only alarming but also distressing, especially the financial aspect. His remarks that ‘there came 5 per cent income and the expenditure remained 95 percent’ are shocking. At one time the PCB was the envy of other sports organisations for being ultra-rich in funds, estimated at Rs 4-5 billions, with 2/3rd of the amount vanished in luxuries the board is said to be on the verge of bankruptcy. It seems to be the same situation in which Nasim Ashtaf’s mentor Pervez Musharraf left the country. No patriotic, sincere and competent chairman with ‘love for the game’ would let the things degenerate to such an extent.

How devoted this band of officials was is indicated by the fact that while the previous secretaries and chief executives of the board left their office with proper grace and dignity, Shafqat Naghmi skipped from his office taking away some important files with him to conceal the irregularities committed during their regime. Although he denies the charge there is no reason to disbelieve the new board. One does not expect a civil servant behaving in such an irresponsible manner. This is a revelation cum lesson for the respected patron of the board, never to appoint a chairman from outside the field of cricket.

The incidence relating to the victimization of some PCB officials are also being re-dressed. It is nice to restore the sacked general manager finance Mushtaq Ahmed on the post he held for 25 years. Another good act is the appointment of former Test cricketer Salim Altaf as director general of the board. Javed Miandad’s induction in the governing board is also praiseworthy. With an ocean of cricket experience and knowledge he will surely add a new dimension to the functions of this body that was previously dominated by the non-technocrats. Other non-cricketers occupying prestigious appointments in the board must also be gradually replaced by the persons possessing knowledge and experience of the game. It is heartening to see the PCB reverting from a ‘bureaucratic set up’ to a genuine cricket board.

The former chairmen had an obsession for foreign coaches on whose appointment millions of dollars were spent with no visible improvement in the standard of our cricket. The appointment of Geoff Lawson was the worst in the sense that the Pakistan team’s weakness lay in batting while Lawson was a pace bowler incapable of providing any batting tips to the players. The termination of his service though at an exorbitant price of $30,000 paid as bonus is appreciable. His replacement by the former captain Intikhab Alam is of immense value for the players. The appointment of a Pakistani coach was the long outstanding demand of the players as well as the cricket lovers. Apart from eliminating the undesirable language gap between the players and the coach it will build a better understanding between the two. Inti has been a person of uncontroversial nature in the field of cricket. Let us not forget that apart from periodical stints as a coach, Inti was the manager of the Pakistan team that won the World Cup 1992. Same should be the treatment with other foreigners fleecing the board. Despite having a foreign physical trainer, there were occasions when half of our national players were physically unfit which badly reflects on the trainer’s incompetence. There is no dearth of such ‘experts’ in Pakistan. The foreigners should be replaced by employing suitable Pakistanis.

As for the selection and announcement of the Pakistan team, there were occasions when the chief selector selected the team without consulting the captain and even other members of the selection committee. The chairman’s directive to the new chief selector ‘to consult the captain of the national side when selecting the teams’ is laudable. In our times, the captain used to be a co-opted member of the selection committee. In this way he was kept abreast with everything that transpired in the selection committee meetings, especially about the standards of players’ discipline, their morale, form and fitness.

(The writer is a former PCB chief executive officer)
DailyTimes

 

[Moin91]

Pakistan invited to tour England

Cricinfo staff

October 30, 2008

The ECB has invited Pakistan to tour England in 2010, a year ahead of their scheduled visit as part of the Future Tours Programme.

"We are keen to play a series in England so we will be holding negotiations soon with the ECB to sort out financial arrangements," the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Saleem Altaf, said.

Pakistan are likely to play three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international, and Altaf confirmed to Cricinfo that the invitation came directly from the ECB. Should the tour go ahead, it will give Pakistan the chance to compensate the ECB for the losses suffered during the controversial Oval Test on the team's last tour to England in 2006. The England board requested £800,000 (US$1.3 million) from the PCB for lost revenue the match was awarded to England following Pakistan's decision to boycott the fourth day.

"Pakistan and England had made an agreement to play a Twenty20 match whenever we tour England," Altaf said, "and the proceeds could overcome the losses incurred at [The] Oval."

The West Indies have been lined up by England to tour in 2009, replacing Sri Lanka, instead of their scheduled visit in 2010. Pakistan, therefore, could take West Indies' place a year later.

Pakistan recently proposed a two-Test offshore series with West Indies, which was due to be held in Abu Dhabi, but it was cancelled earlier this week. The decision leaves Pakistan with no Test cricket this year; their next scheduled match is against India in January

© Cricinfo

 

[Moin91]

Yousuf’s ICL move ‘big loss’: Zaheer

Friday, November 07, 2008
KARACHI: Star batsman Mohammad Yousuf’s move to the Indian Cricket League is a huge loss to Pakistan cricket, former national skipper Zaheer Abbas said on Thursday while another great criticised his decision.

Yousuf, 34, joined the lucrative but unrecognised ICL on Wednesday, prompting the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to ban him from national and international cricket.

“Under the scenario when Pakistan’s batting strength is already weak, Yousuf’s move to the ICL is a big loss,” said Abbas, himself a batting legend in 1970s and 80s.

“Although it’s a great loss to the country, you can’t stop anyone from playing privately. Banning Yousuf is not the right step,” said Abbas.

Yousuf left for India on Monday, hours after being named in a Pakistan squad to play three-one-day internationals against the West Indies at Abu Dhabi in what could have capped a glorious career.

The player, from a poor background, was plucked from the obscurity of a tailor’s shop in the slums of the eastern city of Lahore to play a local match in the mid-1990s.

His well-crafted shots attracted attention and he rose through the ranks to become the backbone of Pakistan’s batting line-up.

In 2006, he broke the world record of the most runs in a calendar year, scoring 1,788. His nine Test hundreds in 2006 is also a record.

But another former Pakistan captain, Aamer Sohail, said Yousuf’s ICL move was “unethical”.

“The PCB supported him in his fight with the court cases relating to the ICL and he left them in the lurch at a time when Pakistan cricket is in turmoil,” he added.

Pakistan last month sacked its Australian coach Geoff Lawson over poor results. Intikhab Alam replaced Lawson.

And the side has been badly hit by having to play at neutral venues as foreign teams have refused to tour the troubled country over security fears.

“Yousuf converted to Islam and it became his strength but I am sorry to say that he spoiled his image by ditching the country, a country which has given him fame and wealth,” said Sohail.

Yousuf, formerly Youhana as a Roman Catholic, converted to Islam in 2005 and has since grown a bushy beard. He also bows in the middle of the pitch to give thanks after he scores a century.



Yousuf’s ICL move ‘big loss’: Zaheer

 

[Moin91]

'Disrespect' by captain, PCB forced me to join ICL: Yousuf

7 Nov 2008, PTI

KARACHI: Banned batsman Mohammad Yousuf on Friday said the attitude of Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik towards him and the shabby treatment by the cricket board and national selectors had compelled him to join the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League (ICL).

"I was compelled to join the ICL because of the behaviour of the board officials, the selectors and captain Shoaib Malik," Yousuf told Geo News channel from India.

Yousuf was named in Pakistan's squad for the series in Abu Dhabi from November 12 but flew off to India without informing the cricket board and rejoined the ICL. As a result he was banned by the PCB from playing for or in Pakistan.

"For the last one and half years I have been under great mental stress and torture because I have been given no respect in the team," Yousuf said.

He said the impression that he had joined the ICL because he was greedy for money was completely wrong.

"That is not the case at all because if I had just wanted money I was getting this even without playing in any league."

Yousuf said for him playing for Pakistan had always been his dream and priority. "Even today I am available for my country but it is upto the board to decide they want me to play or not. But now I am committed to play for the ICL as well," he added.

It is no secret that Yousuf has not got along well with Malik since the latter was made captain last year after the World Cup.

Former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has also said that senior players had complained to him about Malik and has advised the current skipper to change his attitude and improve his communication skills with players.

 

[Nafees]

Source: AFP: Use Obama for inspiration - Alam tells Pakistan

Use Obama for inspiration - Alam tells Pakistan

KARACHI (AFP) — Pakistan cricket coach Intikhab Alam urged his team to learn from Barack Obama's historic US presidential election victory, as they prepared for a three-match one-day series against the West Indies.

"I asked the team what the miracle of the century was, and someone rightly said it is Obama getting into the White House," the newly-appointed coach told reporters.

"He did it with focus and discipline and I hope the team also learn from this."

Alam was talking on the sidelines of the Pakistan team's short two-day training camp before taking on the West Indies in Abu Dhabi starting from Wednesday.

The former Pakistan skipper, who took over last month after Australian Geoff Lawson was sacked, said the landslide victory of the Illinois senator had taught the world a big lesson.

"The world must get a lesson from Obama's win which got an African-American into the White House. That proves anything is possible and Pakistan can take inspiration from that," he added.

Pakistan cricket has suffered in recent years because of controversies ranging from doping and match-fixing to lack of discipline hitting on-field performances, despite the world-class players at the team's disposal.

"We had a long, open meeting and we talked mostly about discipline. There will be no compromise on that. Our aim is to move up from six to number two or one," said Alam, who last coached Pakistan in 2000.

But he warned fans against wanting too much, too soon.

"We are going to play our first series and since this is the new management we need some time to settle and once we settle then we will produce results," he said.

Alam hoped the team will overcome the loss of senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf, whose move to the lucrative but unrecognised Indian Cricket League led to him being banned from all cricket in Pakistan.

Yousuf has since criticised the Pakistan Cricket Board and skipper Shoaib Malik for prompting his move.

"I don't think any cricketer is bigger than the game. I feel very sad about the decision but good luck to him," said Alam.

"Yousuf went without telling anyone. Whoever takes his place it is an opportunity for him. Our bench strength we are looking to build so it shouldn't be a problem.

"We will not miss him as much in one-dayers as we will do in Tests," he said.

The Pakistan team flies out to Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

 

[Imran Khan]

now i trust this team but not pak team

 

[Awesome]

now i trust this team but not pak team

Wth? There is a Central Jail High?

ICL is more fun now, every tom, dick n harry of the Pak team is in ICL. They ALL have issues with the board now.

Next in line Shoaib Akhtar, Danish Kaneria. Well Shoaib won't go because of IPL. I mean Mohammad Yousuf went ICL! Wasn't he our top batsman for 2007/2008?

And the team is doing pretty good in ICL. They've reached the Semis once again. The thing about the ICL Pak team is that they are forced into unity. They know if they don't stick together they'd be ripped apart.

All the players who couldn't perform under the watchful eyes of the board, are performing. Imran Nazir is their top scorer. Azhar Mehmood is batting quite well. Mohammad Yousuf, blasted the crap out of the Chennai rockets yesterday. Shahid Nazir is bowling very very tight.

I'm telling you, the ICL is a lot more fun for Pak viewers.