Pakistan does it again: cricketing idiocy at its very best

If there was a Razzie for the worst cricketing team to have ever numbed our senses, the award would have gone to the Pakistan team, every year, every time. It is difficult to even coin a name for what their Board has done now, having fined nearly half the team and banned the other half. Further, nearly every cricketing expert believes this is to be another PCB histrionic wherein the players will be reinstalled much before they pay their dues or complete their sentences. Why? Simply because this is how Pakistani cricket is run and this time too, we have no reason to believe otherwise. If an innocent Pakistani were to look at the present situation, though it is difficult to believe that there are any people who don’t realize the depths to which their team has fallen, it would seem that there is simply no player in the national team who isn’t charged of either indiscipline, camping against senior or juniors, taking sides, tampering with balls, speaking against higher authorities or even doping…phew!!

IPLIII: Pakistan's predicament is its own doing

This may sound a bit rude but how can a nation that has been confirmed across the world as a breeding ground for international terrorism, can even consider complaining about international teams not wanting to play it its cities and now, its players being not allowed an easy access to IPL3? Isn't there any sort of moral responsibility within the PCB for realizing that the very presence of its team within international tournaments seems to risk the lives of other innocent, international players? Can the PCB be regarded as an entity that is separated from Pakistan itself? I am not very educated but I believe that the "P" in PCB refers to Pakistan and since the nation's administrators have repeatedly and openly denied any sort of assistance to help India curtail the terrorism issue, can it actually complain about bias towards its own players? Further, there are reports that due to 'efforts' by Mr. Modi, some Pakistani players will be able to swim in the cash-rich pool of IPL3 2010 : how far will this man go to ensure that the reputation of his franchise and his own credibility as a ruthless money-maker is augmented , even if it comes at the cost of hurting national sentiments. But then again, 'we' shouldn't be complaining too much> after all, as I write this, Kasab would be having his delicious lunch, served in a room built with thousands of dollars, paid from the tax-payer's money... sorry, if I have diverted from the topic, but what can be done when you realize that earnings diverted towards the PCB have a high chance of being converted into bullets that will pound into the flesh of our soldiers.

Afridi for full-time captaincy?

I must have heard it wrong or there is something even more wrong with Pakistani cricket than I had imagined until now. If reports are to be believed some folks in the PCB are planning to make Shahid Afridi as Pakistan’s permanent skipper. I don’t have anything personal about the guy — that might be the general impression since I am a hardcore Indian cricket fan, but I don’t think he is even close to having the temperament that international skippers are supposed to have. For starters, I doubt his presence in all formats of the game not because he isn’t a decent player but simply because it just doesn’t look that he is pushing himself to establish himself
as a comprehensive international player. He has never been seen complaining about the lack of test matches he has played or the careless manner in which he has repeatedly got out just when the team looked like winning an ODI game. Add to this, the fact that he has never been consistent at any place in the long list of batting order swaps that have been hurled at him, make him a very susceptible kind of batter… destructive yes, but consistent enough to lead by example — I very seriously doubt… at best he is a T20 captain since owing responsibility is not really emphasized upon in the T20 format.