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Thursday, March 11, 2010
Sohail Tanvir advised four months rest
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan fast bowler Sohail Tanvir will be out for four months after a successful knee operation in Melbourne on Wednesday.
The operation was carried out by Dr David Young, the Pakistan Cricket Board said. Young has also previously treated Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul and Saeed Anwar.
Tanvir hurt his knee last November during a Twenty20 International against New Zealand at Dubai. It cost him a contract with Victoria in the Australian Twenty20 league, and forced him to miss Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand and Australia.
He’ll also miss the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, and possibly the tour of England starting in July.
Yousuf considering retirement?
KARACHI: Mohammad Yousuf is contemplating retirement after being treated “shabbily” by the Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday.
Sources close to the former Pakistan captain said that he is “distraught, tearful and almost speechless at the decision by the Board” and might soon quit international cricket.
A pakpassion.net report, quoting sources, said that the PCB did not even bother to tell Yousuf about its decision.
“All he (Yousuf) wants to know is what he has done wrong. He has had no official correspondence from the Board or even a telephone call to explain where he has erred and has just heard about the punishment in the media. This is not the way to treat a Pakistani cricketing legend and someone who has served his country with dignity over the years.”
Yousuf, who has played 88 Tests and scored 7,431 runs at a very impressive career average of 53, is Pakistan’s third-highest Test run-scorer ever. He recently stepped in to lead Pakistan in a troubled tour of New Zealand and Australia was severely criticised for the team’s defeat in the Sydney Test.
“Yousuf is contemplating retirement with immediate effect, but we are trying to talk him out of it. At the moment he is very confused with this situation and hopefully things may improve and become clearer soon,” said the report.
Sources close to the former Pakistan captain said that he is “distraught, tearful and almost speechless at the decision by the Board” and might soon quit international cricket.
A pakpassion.net report, quoting sources, said that the PCB did not even bother to tell Yousuf about its decision.
“All he (Yousuf) wants to know is what he has done wrong. He has had no official correspondence from the Board or even a telephone call to explain where he has erred and has just heard about the punishment in the media. This is not the way to treat a Pakistani cricketing legend and someone who has served his country with dignity over the years.”
Yousuf, who has played 88 Tests and scored 7,431 runs at a very impressive career average of 53, is Pakistan’s third-highest Test run-scorer ever. He recently stepped in to lead Pakistan in a troubled tour of New Zealand and Australia was severely criticised for the team’s defeat in the Sydney Test.
“Yousuf is contemplating retirement with immediate effect, but we are trying to talk him out of it. At the moment he is very confused with this situation and hopefully things may improve and become clearer soon,” said the report.
Give us the real facts Mr Ijaz Butt!
KARACHI: At first glance it seems like a potent blow aimed at dismantling the so-called player power which many believe has dogged Pakistan cricket for years.
But if you dig deeper into Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to ban and fine some of the country’s leading cricketers, it becomes pretty clear that the motives behind the stunning move are not all that noble.
Firstly, it seems that the PCB kingpins are out to save themselves by shifting the entire blame for Pakistan’s catastrophic tour of Australia on the national players.
The Board was under extreme pressure from all quarters because of a series of controversies in the recent past and needed to take some concrete action to silence its critics.
It decided to go after the players — a pretty soft target these days, especially after the debacle Down Under.
In some ways, it seems to have worked. Jamshed Dasti, the chief of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports and PCB’s staunchest critics, was quick to hail the move. Some of the former greats like Abdul Qadir and Sarfraz Nawaz, who’ve been assailing the Board for almost every step it has taken in the past, also backed the decision.
It’s quite absurd actually. If things were so bad in the national team for so many months that you were forced to kick several big names out of it then what was the Board and the management it had hired to run the team was doing all that time?
If Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan made so much trouble in Australia that the PCB had to ban them for a year, then what stopped it from calling them back home when the tour was still in progress? Why didn’t the team management take action against them and the other culprits then and there when it had the mandate to so?
These are some of the many questions that spring from the PCB decision to put the players in question in front of the firing squad.
The Board, however, doesn’t think that its own officials or the team management was responsible for any of the problems. That can be proved from the fact that it has appointed Intikhab Alam, Pakistan’s coach on the tour of Australia, as director of the National Cricket Academy. The PCB has also elevated Waqar Younis, Pakistan’s bowling and fielding consultant during the tour, as the team’s head coach.
In some cases, the decision to punish the players also smacks of personal vendetta.
If not then how could anybody explain the harsh action taken against Younis Khan, the enigmatic former captain who missed more than 80 percent of the tour Down Under and only featured in the one-day series.
The presence of Yawar Saeed, who was removed as Pakistan manager after last year’s Champions Trophy on the insistence of Younis, the PCB probe panel seems to be the reason why the seasoned batsman finds himself on the receiving end of the Board’s culling operation.
Yawar, who has returned as national team manager after the tour of Australia, had a bitter tussle with Younis as he is the one who backed a player rebellion against the former skipper last year.
It hardly came as a surprise when Abdul Raqeeb, Pakistan’s manager on the twin tour of New Zealand and Australia, announced on Wednesday that he suspects that Younis was targeted to settle personal scores.
The fact that the PCB probe panel has somehow managed to find fault with the players but was unable to see anything wrong with the team management was almost entirely made up of people employed by the Board or are linked to it in some other way makes Wednesday’s announcements hard to digest.
The panel was led by Wasim Bari, the Board’s chief operating officer and includes PCB Governing Board member Wazir Ali Khoja, director of cricket operations Zakir Khan, PCB lawyer Taffazul Rizvi and Yawar Saeed. Wasim Akram, the former Pakistan captain and the only ‘outsider’ selected on the committee never attended any of its meetings.
Committee members like Bari and Zakir are themselves yet to come clean on the biggest tragedy in the history of Pakistan cricket — the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore last March. Bari and Zakir were both responsible for ensuring that the visitors received fool-proof security but failed to do that and can directly be blamed for the fact that Pakistan have now been reduced to being the pariah of international cricket.
The Board has also failed to explain the reasons why Malik and Rana have been handed one-year bans as well as hefty fines of Rs2 million each. That’s pretty stern action and cannot be taken without proving that the duo actually deserves such punishment.
That is why the Board will have to make public the findings of its inquiry committee. There is no justification in keeping it a secret. Perhaps the Board management is acting in its own interest by keeping it under the wraps. It shouldn’t be allowed to do that. They have nothing to hide but their own failures.
PCB cracks down against key players
KARACHI: Pakistan cricket was plunged into deeper turmoil when the country’s cricket board barred former captains Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan from national duty besides taking stern action against five other team members.
Acting on ‘recommendations’ made by a probe panel, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) imposed one-year bans on former skipper Shoaib Malik and seasoned allrounder Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. The duo was also fined Rs2 million each after being identified among the main culprits behind Pakistan’s disastrous tour of Australia.
Shahid Afridi was handed a fine of Rs3 million for ball tampering and will be under probation for six months while Kamran Akmal and his younger brother Umar were also slapped with similar penalties. The Akmal brothers were punished for making trouble after the Sydney Test which Pakistan lost from a seemingly winning position. Kamran has been asked to pay a fine of Rs3 million while Umar has been handed a fine of Rs2 million.
“For the shameful act of Shahid Khan Afridi, which has brought the game and country into disrepute, he be fined rupees three million. A warning be issued to him by the Chairman PCB and he be put on probation for 06 months, during which his conduct be strictly monitored,” said the statement.
Afridi was banned for two Twenty20 Internationals after he was caught chewing the ball by TV cameras during the fifth One-day International against Australia in Perth.
Just hours after making the announcements, the PCB backtracked on its decision against Yousuf and Younis, saying that the two players can be selected for Pakistan “as and when the PCB deems appropriate”.
Earlier in the morning, the PCB had announced what sounded like shockingly harsh life bans for the two senior players
“Mohammed Yousuf and Younis Khan keeping in view their infighting which resulted in bringing down the whole team, their attitude had a trickledown effect which is a bad influence for the whole team, should not be part of national team in any format,” said a PCB statement.
However, later in the evening, the PCB made it clear it hasn’t banned the duo, adding that the two players have just been suspended indefinitely.
Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, said that the Board announcement was misinterpreted adding that Yousuf and Younis could be considered for national duty in future.
He added that the players have the right to appeal against the punishments handed by the Board.
The recommendations were made by an inquiry committee that was headed by PCB chief operating officer Wasim Bari and included governing board member Wazir Ali Khoja, director of cricket operations Zakir Khan, team manager Yawar Saeed and lawyer Taffazul Rizvi.
“The recommendations of the inquiry committee have been accepted by PCB in totality,” said the PCB statement.
“The recommendations will go a long way to arrest the continuing decline in Pakistan cricket,” it added.
However, the committee’s credibility was questioned again on Wednesday by experts and former greats.
“All of its members are working for the PCB so where is the neutrality,” asked Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan captain.
Rashid Latif, another ex-skipper, said that the players will get relief from court. “I’m sure that the players will contest these bans and win cases in court against the PCB,” he said.
The committee began its proceedings soon after the team’s return from Australia last month and heard the players and team officials — coach Intikhab Alam, assistant coach Aaqib Javed, the then manager Abdul Raqeeb, physiotherapist Faisal Hayat and analyst Mohammad Talha during a series of meetings at the PCB headquarters in Lahore.
The probe panel also reviewed reports filed by Raqeeb and Intikhab related to last year’s tours to the United Arab Emirates for a one-day series against New Zealand, Pakistan’s Test series in New Zealand and the catastrophic tour of Australia where the team was routed 3-0 in the Test series and 5-0 in the one-day series.
Acting on ‘recommendations’ made by a probe panel, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) imposed one-year bans on former skipper Shoaib Malik and seasoned allrounder Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. The duo was also fined Rs2 million each after being identified among the main culprits behind Pakistan’s disastrous tour of Australia.
Shahid Afridi was handed a fine of Rs3 million for ball tampering and will be under probation for six months while Kamran Akmal and his younger brother Umar were also slapped with similar penalties. The Akmal brothers were punished for making trouble after the Sydney Test which Pakistan lost from a seemingly winning position. Kamran has been asked to pay a fine of Rs3 million while Umar has been handed a fine of Rs2 million.
“For the shameful act of Shahid Khan Afridi, which has brought the game and country into disrepute, he be fined rupees three million. A warning be issued to him by the Chairman PCB and he be put on probation for 06 months, during which his conduct be strictly monitored,” said the statement.
Afridi was banned for two Twenty20 Internationals after he was caught chewing the ball by TV cameras during the fifth One-day International against Australia in Perth.
Just hours after making the announcements, the PCB backtracked on its decision against Yousuf and Younis, saying that the two players can be selected for Pakistan “as and when the PCB deems appropriate”.
Earlier in the morning, the PCB had announced what sounded like shockingly harsh life bans for the two senior players
“Mohammed Yousuf and Younis Khan keeping in view their infighting which resulted in bringing down the whole team, their attitude had a trickledown effect which is a bad influence for the whole team, should not be part of national team in any format,” said a PCB statement.
However, later in the evening, the PCB made it clear it hasn’t banned the duo, adding that the two players have just been suspended indefinitely.
Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, said that the Board announcement was misinterpreted adding that Yousuf and Younis could be considered for national duty in future.
He added that the players have the right to appeal against the punishments handed by the Board.
The recommendations were made by an inquiry committee that was headed by PCB chief operating officer Wasim Bari and included governing board member Wazir Ali Khoja, director of cricket operations Zakir Khan, team manager Yawar Saeed and lawyer Taffazul Rizvi.
“The recommendations of the inquiry committee have been accepted by PCB in totality,” said the PCB statement.
“The recommendations will go a long way to arrest the continuing decline in Pakistan cricket,” it added.
However, the committee’s credibility was questioned again on Wednesday by experts and former greats.
“All of its members are working for the PCB so where is the neutrality,” asked Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan captain.
Rashid Latif, another ex-skipper, said that the players will get relief from court. “I’m sure that the players will contest these bans and win cases in court against the PCB,” he said.
The committee began its proceedings soon after the team’s return from Australia last month and heard the players and team officials — coach Intikhab Alam, assistant coach Aaqib Javed, the then manager Abdul Raqeeb, physiotherapist Faisal Hayat and analyst Mohammad Talha during a series of meetings at the PCB headquarters in Lahore.
The probe panel also reviewed reports filed by Raqeeb and Intikhab related to last year’s tours to the United Arab Emirates for a one-day series against New Zealand, Pakistan’s Test series in New Zealand and the catastrophic tour of Australia where the team was routed 3-0 in the Test series and 5-0 in the one-day series.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Daryl Harper won’t stand at World T20
DUBAI: Daryl Harper has not been chosen to officiate at the World Twenty20 in West Indies although the ICC insist the decision has nothing to do with his controversial role in the fourth Test between England and South Africa, at the Wanderers in January, and is based on “general performance reasons”.
Harper came under the spotlight when he was the third umpire in control of the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) in Johannesburg. He gave Graeme Smith not out under the review procedure when he was unable to hear a clear noise as the ball passed the edge.
“It will be noted that Daryl HarperÖhas not been selected for this event,” the ICC said. “This decision was taken by the selection panel for a number of general performance reasons. It must be categorically stated, however, that none of these reasons is related to his role as third umpire in the fourth Test between South Africa and England earlier this year.”
While Harper won’t be in West Indies, three international panel umpires — Marius Erasmus from South Africa, Australia’s Rod Tucker and Shavir Tarapore from India — will join their elite colleagues.
The decision on the umpiring appointments was taken by a four man committee comprising of Dave Richardson, the ICC general manager, Ranjan Madugalle, the ICC chief match referee, David Lloyd the former England coach and now TV commentator and Srinivas Venkataraghavan the former elite umpire from India.
Umpires Billy Bowden, Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Billy Doctrove, Ian Gould, Tony Hill, Rudi Koertzen, Asoka de Silva, Simon Taufel, Asad Rauf (all from the elite panel of ICC umpires), Marais Erasmus, Shavir Tarapore and Rod Tucker (from the international panel of ICC umpires).
Harper came under the spotlight when he was the third umpire in control of the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) in Johannesburg. He gave Graeme Smith not out under the review procedure when he was unable to hear a clear noise as the ball passed the edge.
“It will be noted that Daryl HarperÖhas not been selected for this event,” the ICC said. “This decision was taken by the selection panel for a number of general performance reasons. It must be categorically stated, however, that none of these reasons is related to his role as third umpire in the fourth Test between South Africa and England earlier this year.”
While Harper won’t be in West Indies, three international panel umpires — Marius Erasmus from South Africa, Australia’s Rod Tucker and Shavir Tarapore from India — will join their elite colleagues.
The decision on the umpiring appointments was taken by a four man committee comprising of Dave Richardson, the ICC general manager, Ranjan Madugalle, the ICC chief match referee, David Lloyd the former England coach and now TV commentator and Srinivas Venkataraghavan the former elite umpire from India.
Umpires Billy Bowden, Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Billy Doctrove, Ian Gould, Tony Hill, Rudi Koertzen, Asoka de Silva, Simon Taufel, Asad Rauf (all from the elite panel of ICC umpires), Marais Erasmus, Shavir Tarapore and Rod Tucker (from the international panel of ICC umpires).
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