Loud Thinking August 08, 2014 at 10:06AM

A note written immediately after we lost the final played on 8 March, 2014 to Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup ODI tournament, with the hope that PCB under the nincompoop Najam Sethi, will correct its course towards our long March of ICC ODI World Cup 2015, to be played in Australia.

However, in PCB the only thing constant is INERTIA.

Dhaka Debacle..!

There is no shame in going down fighting.

As they say, if fate has ordained defeat for you, give it a good fight.

However, any team is as good, as its leader. And there can not be a better saying to describe the importance of a leader, than the one associated with Alexander the Great, quoted as below:

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

What happened in the Asia Cup final at Dhaka on Saturday, 8 March, 2014 is a classic example of mental bankruptcy of the Pakistani cricket team’s think tank, or the tour management committee, consisting of Messrs Zaheer Abbas, Zakir Khan, Moin Khan and Misbah ul Haq.

At the out set, two basic and important decisions (team selection and the decision to bat first) were wrong: where we made sure that the match was lost, even before a ball was bowled.

Always, the basics of team selection stipulates the cardinal rule that only fit players are selected.

The whole world knew that Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Sharjeel Khan and Shahid Afridi were not 100% fit. If at all, we had to take chance with an unfit player, only Shahid Afridi was the person, where the gamble was worth taking.

Otherwise, Suhaib Maqsood and other two fit players viz., Bilawal Bhatti and Anwer Ali should have played for the unfit Sharjeel Khan, Umar Gul and Junaid Khan.

Now, coming to the batting first decision, again the whole world knew that we earlier won very close matches against India and Bangladesh, by chasing the target. May be, the long list of unfit players included in the team, was the reason for the surprise decision of batting first, so that the injuries does not further aggravates, during the time of fielding first.

After the disastrous top batting order collapse (exclusive responsibility of which falls on Zaheer Abbas, the chief batting consultant), Misbah and Fawad Alam, almost consecutively played four maiden overs, which practically reduced our innings to 46 overs. Such type of defensive approach is never adopted in an ODI match, under any circumstances; because of its limited overs nature. Yes, Test matches are saved under such type of situations, but in an ODI match, game is only played for victory; and victory can not be achieved by playing record number of dot balls, even if there is a collapse. How can any team forget the adage that offence is the best defence?

Furthermore, unfit Shahid Afridi was not played for his bowling prowess. Obviously, he was included, keeping in consideration his tremendous batting form. As such, at least for the last five overs. Fawad Alam should have been called back, as retired hurt, to allow Shahid Afridi to have a go. Shahid Afridi was our nuclear weapon; and the enemy was allowed to conquer us, with worlds most potent weapon in our arsenal…unused. We could not have given a bigger gift to our enemy, that too, in the most important final match.

In the bowling department, we perhaps wrongly believed that only one fit bowler i.e., Saeed Ajmal will single handedly take ten wickets in his ten overs. After all, the Sri Lankans were not in the finals for nothing.

Our most pathetic performance was given in the fielding and wicket keeping departments. Our team’s fielding just gave a look of a third rate club team, if compared with the fielding performance of the Sri Lankan team.

As such, Mr. Shoaib Muhammad do not even deserve a stint for the T20 World Cup tour.

Pakistani team gave a much better performance in the fielding department, during the last UAE series matches. This proves that our new fielding coach, practically contributed in the down fall of the teams fielding level. Hence, he also deserves immediate sacking.

In view of the foregoing, if we have to at least play the semi finals of the T20 World Cup, then the entire tour management committee and the fielding coach, must be replaced with some deserving and capable persons.

Misbah ul Haq, has again proved that that he is not at all capable, to lead Pakistani team, to the victory podium of the 2015 ODI World Cup. He is being retained as captain, at our own peril.

Tags: My Views