Umar Akmal- Forever the Pariah in this generation of Pakistani bastsmen
About two and a half years ago I wrote this piece on Umar Akmal, pleading the case, as many have done over the years, on his promotion up the order. That wish was never granted and after a period of being dropped from all formats Pakistan’s brightest current batting talent finds himself in the side as wicketkeeper! Because you know, it only made sense that one of the weakest batting sides in the world couldn’t seem to find a specialist slot for their best batsman. Any way the point of this post is not to bitch and moan (or at least keep it to a minimum), but to once again plead to the management. Only this time the exact opposite. “Let him now remain at six. It’s too late now”.
This request is not because I have finally seen the light and accept that he deserves to bat lower down, many of his “fans” have fallen prey to this, but keeping the 2015 WC in sight this seems the best way forward.
Umar Akmal was never a No.6 batsman. There is a special breed of ODI batsmen that fit that billing. You need to remain cool under all circumstances. You need to be confident in your abilities but not so much so as to be over the top (being over-the-top can come in handy sometimes for batsmen batting higher up). And most importantly you need to possess the ability to play a three-fold game. In degrees of importance these are, attack (Lala style hitting); measured aggressiveness (Miandad style single-doubles)”; and complete defense (comes most into play when you have to maneuver strike in close finishes batting with the tail). Dhoni is the only batsman who comes close to mastering all three. The only one he might fall short off is complete mastery of the tuk-tuk, but since that is the least important of the lot he is in my books the best No.6 ODI batsman of all time.
Now Umar Akmal possesses very few of these traits. Being calm and collected in tense situations is not his forte, his reflex is to seek refuge in the aggressive nature that is inherent to him, and he lets his emotions feed his stroke play. He definitely belongs to the conceited and cocky school of batsmanship; I don’t think this leaves any room for misinterpretation in this regard. And in the last most essential criteria he completely fails in the defense (tuk-tuk) category, which means he will rarely be able to bat strategically with the No.10s and 11s of the world, struggling to see games off till the very end.
Despite all these draw backs he has a staggering record at the position, only coming a close second to Dhoni. To Dhoni! Best ever to have played at the position. Better than the Bevans and Husseys off the world. So good that he gives top-order specialists like Kohli, Amla, AB and Sanga a good run for their money when contending for best current ODI batsman. In fact Umar Akmal even one-ups Dhoni in the 100s metric hit from the No.6 slot. That’s a monumental achievement for someone whose natural game and mindset isn’t even close to being ideal for the position. It’s gold for someone who has been beaten and molded into the position while being asked to also take on the immense responsibility of donning the wicket keeper’s gloves. This is a tribute purely to the magnitude of talent and range he possesses as a batsman and its ability to over shadow all those obstacles.
The saddest part is that the team managements of past and present were all aware of this fact. Everybody in the Pakistan setup knew how talented this kid was, realized that he was their best future prospect, were fully aware of how mediocre the other top to middle order options were at the time, and yet decided to use him like a rag doll.
The India Asia Cup game was a perfect example of this awareness and exploitative behavior. I don’t know whose call it precisely was to send Umar Akmal up the order, but it was highly ill-thought out and born out of cowardice. When the pressure was on the management, out of nowhere decided to send in Umar Akmal in the most intense situation imaginable, in the biggest ODI Pakistan had played in over a year. The promotion acknowledged that deep down the management realize he is a much better batsman than the rest. But the injustice is that he is allowed such “luxury” only in these sort of situations. The guy had just stroked two of his best knocks at No.6, he is well acclimatized to that position. Sohaib, the guy Umar replaced, is a pretty decent bat whose game is fully capable of handling spin, as he showed during the game as well. But they decided on Umar. Why? Because when insecurity creeps in and doubt takes over the only place to seek assurance is in fact. And the fact is Umar Akmal has always been our best option in ODIs and should have been batting in the top 4 since the start. The Pakistani management have invested absolutely nothing in him, and exploited him at every opportunity presented, just like they exploited him against India days ago.
His game currently is, sadly, that of a lower order batsman. Years of forced duty in the doldrums of the batting line-up means his approach to the game involves elements of slogging, rash strokes that don’t befit a batsman of his caliber, and brain freezes that we have now become so used to. These were chinks in his armor that were suppose to be ironed out by playing him up the order and giving him the responsibilities of a proper batsman, instilling in him the confidence that the rest of your team depends on you. But Pakistan never did that. Down here at six, there is no need for him to do that. He is not by conventional standards one of the mainstays of Pakistan’s batting (the cruel irony being that in practice he very much is). He is already averaging 40, which is exceptional for a wicket-keeper batsman coming this low, and in his head keeping probably requires all his extra effort instead of his batting, because that’s the main thing that’s guaranteeing his spot in the XI right now.
Of course he was always better suited to the top order. Your best batsmen, as argued constantly, should be making the games for you instead of perpetually saving them. But Pakistan v India cauldrons are not the places to brew them. If they wanted to manufacture Akmal into a proper higher-order batsman the management would have the decency to do it against lower key sides, in bilateral series where the stakes are more manageable. And when such a chance is provided make sure it is a proper one. Not the typical two, three games where failure means your shoved back down the order.
A batsman’s position in the batting order is extremely sensitive to his performance and state of mind. Each position comes with its own responsibility and duties, and expecting one to perform right away after having become used to an entirely different set of match situations is cruel and unfair to that player. Ahmed Shehzad’s coming of age is living example of the wonders a consistent spot, confidence and persistence by the management can do for a batsman. If pushed up the order Umar Akmal will fail. Of course he will, he is bound to, but not because he is not suited to the job, but because it takes time and effort to make the necessary adjustments. But once the fixes are made in gameplay, and more importantly up there in the head; the dividends the investment pays back will be ten folds what he is offering Pakistan right now.
Unfortunately I see no such favors being doled out for Umar, he is forever the pariah in this generation of young Pakistani batsmen. Forever forced to remain on the fringes of the batting order, while countless others much less deserving than him, get the opportunities he never got. Even if the management sent him up it lacks the patience and faith to stick with him for the required amount of time (I fully expect him to bat at six again in the next game). More importantly with the World Cup only a year away, it is now too late to fix what after a long time doesn’t seem as broke as it used to. Akmal is performing consistently at No 6. (Yes even a quick fire 30-40 is successful at the No.6 slot, and he seems to get those regularly enough. You can’t judge success according to top order player metrics when he isn’t being played as one). In Sohaib Pakistan has found a dependable batsman (moving him around will be unfair on him and scramble his mind too), and a consistent Shehzad and Misbah means Pakistan’s ODI batting is not as flimsy as it used to be a year back.
Even though Akmal deserves better and it’s discomforting to see him reduced to a wicket-keeper batsman, it is in the team’s best interest for now to just stick with him at six. It’s simply too late now, and sadly the World Cup is more important. Those dreams, of having him become Pakistan’s permanent one-down batsman one-day will sadly just have to remain precisely that.
P.S In an ideal world where the proper chances and utilization of players would have occurred this would have been our order at the ’15 WC- Ahmed Shehzad, Opener 2 (I still want this to be Nasir Jamshed, but taking this spot is failure on his part), Umar Akmal, Sohaib Maqsood, Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq (possesses most of the qualities an ideal no.6 should have), Afridi, Gul, Ajmal, Junaid, Irfan. (The tail is too long yes, but lacking a consistent genuine all-rounder whose bowling won’t be taken to the cleaners every time (looking at Bhatti/Anwar Ali) is Pakistan’s weakest link heading into this WC.
Three Test series have been wiped clean of the FTP this year and it seems no body (the ICC especially) could care less. West Indies and SriLanka mutually called off their Test series in the Caribbean in April, allowing there players safe passage through the entirety of the IPL.
The Sri Lankan officials realizing nobody really gave a hoot, then went ahead and also postponed (read: scrapped) their home test series against S.A. The West Indian Cricket authorities not to be left behind, saw and raised the SLC’s move by dumping the Pakistan home tests from their calendars. Both of these last two test series were rubbished due to the scheduling of a more alluring short ODI (7 matches) tri-series to be played between India, W.I and Sri Lanka. Apparently the riches to be earned through this mini-venture were enough for the Sri Lankan’s to give the world’s number one test side the boot, as well as lure the West Indies to shift away from their once long-time sporting rivals, Pakistan. The men in Green, due to the intense rivalry they enjoyed with the Windies through much of the 80s & early 90s, remain a local favorite touring side.
It isn’t as much the action of these two boards as the lack of discourse and sheer disregard of these cancellations amongst the Cricket community that is disturbing. Apart from the obligatory report summarizing the press releases from the respective boards, not much else has been written on the matter. The Cricket media and pundits who are usually out with their sharp knives and daggers if a similar scenario arises with the English or Australian Cricket teams (or worse, if India, god-forbid schedule another limited over series) have remained conspicuously silent. The “Test Cricket is Dying” brigade alarmingly seems to only notice blows to the five-day format, in regions where there isn’t actually any threat to Test Cricket at all. As long as fat helpings of Ashes pudding are there to keep these Test Cricket “sympathizers” well fed, they couldn’t care less about what’s happening with the remaining countries.
Often their wrath is wrongly directed towards India or more specifically the BCCI, especially when the board schedules another meaningless T20 series, or squeezes a couple of ODIs in its home schedule. But to be fair the BCCI has always kept itself up to pace with a healthy dose of Test Cricket spread through its calendar year. The dwindling Test crowds in the country are less to do with the death of the Test game and more to do with modern day lifestyle changes, a preference for limited over Cricket (which is nothing new, and has been building ever since the 80s), and most importantly the perceived shift of Test Cricket in the Indian consumer’s mind from a spectator to a T.V sport. This coupled with the lack of marketing strategy or coherent thought process by the Asian boards (and the ICC as a whole) to stopper the shift and reverse this trend back in favor of spectators, means these countries have lost their in-stadium Test audience.
Test Cricket is not a three, sometimes four, if you count S.A (but they too are quickly turning victims), member sport. The lack of attention, the suspension of these three series, has gotten is alarming and unfortunately points to a clear divide which has now filtered down from administrative to media circles. The raising of such issues by the informed mainstream Cricket media is essential to getting the point-of-view of fans across to the ICC and other relevant administrative bodies.
It doesn’t matter that such criticism has never really amounted to much or changed the views of those governing the game. Just having that outlet, on a major platform, shedding light on all sides of the coin is important enough. Test Cricket fans in countries like the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Pakistan cannot afford the media dropping the ball on this matter. For it is in these countries (and not the three that often occupy most of the space on this discourse) that Test Cricket is truly on its deathbed. The West Indies are about to go through their first home season with just two scheduled Tests (those too against Zimbabwe). They will not play a Test at home for over a year! This should be big news, but has barely caused a ripple in the Cricket fraternity.
South Africa are the recent holders of the Test Mace. As with all their non-Asian predecessors of the title before them, they are not truly deserving of the crown until they prove their mantle against spin in the Subcontinent. The tour to Sri Lanka would have served as a great litmus test for measuring their batsmen’s capability to cope with spin in helpful conditions, as well as a true challenge for the likes of Philander and Morkel to prove themselves on less friendlier surfaces. Thanks to the ICC we won’t get to savor this challenge any time soon. Pakistan has never won a test series in the W.I. With Misbah at the helm and the test side much more settled than when he captained them to the Caribbean shores two years ago, this might have been that historic tour. Thanks to the ICC again we will never find out.
I blame the ICC, and not the respective boards because these decisions, as excruciating as they might be for Test Cricket fans, are understandable when seen through the lens of these cash-strapped boards. Both SLC and WICB are perpetually in need of money, and one cannot really blame them for milking the cash cow that is T20 and Indian ODI Cricket. The ICC however (as rich as this will sound), apart from the usual revenue generating obligations, is also the custodian of the international game, and so bestowed with the responsibility of the safeguarding of Test Cricket. It is then up to them ultimately to make sure the FTP is abided by, and that proper disciplinary measures are taken if it is not.
The ICC allots a significant amont of money each year to all its member Test nations for the development and running of the game. Maybe it is time they made sure the FTP and all its Test requirements were being met before this money found its way in the exchequer of the respective boards. It is also not that far fetched that more money be designated to some of the countries suffering from greater symptoms of Test Cricket withdrawal than others.
The smaller boards (Pak, S.A, Sri, S.A, N.Z) themselves of course also need to come to the realization that they are already scraping at the bottom of the barrel in terms of FTP Test allocations. Instead of canceling each others tours, and taking a bite out of the others apple, they need to sit down and collectively come to agreements where they can increase Test as well as ODI commitments. The FTP of all these countries are nowhere near as packed as the other three, and allow plenty of room for maneuverability. Yes, the money won’t be as easy as with an Indian tour, but long-term commitments, repeat tours, and proper marketing can lead to the generation of new rivalries that can create new revenue streams.
The India-England and India-Australia rivalries, so prevalent in Cricket today due to their billable nature, are not like the Pakistan-India and Ashes where there is a historic context to them. These are modern-day manufactured rivalries that have taken their current forms through some expert T.V marketing. With the aid of narratives, stories and symbols along with an excess dose of these contests, the rivalries have been force fed and developed (mainly as revenue generating tools) before our eyes in the last decade and half. Instead of fighting over crumbs, the smaller boards should find opportunity in there current squalor and look to forge similar strong alliances.
The current situation, if allowed to prevail, is eventually heading to a stage where it might become essential to have either India, England or Australia be one of the sides competing in a Test series. But given how much we care from the current levels of discussion on the matter, it’s highly likely we’ll not even notice when this “begins”.
Recent news that Pakistan’s Caribbean tour scheduled in the second half of this summer might be in jeopardy should be a cause for much distress amongst Pakistan fans and the Cricket community in general. The reason being given is that the two boards failed to find a suitable time frame for the series (which would comprise a minimum of two Tests, five ODIs and the solitary T20) due to other international commitments at the time.
The question that begs to be asked however, is how is there no time frame available when the ten-year FTP has a scheduled window for the tour in July of this year. It turns out the West Indies Cricket board took it upon themselves to schedule an ODI tri-series with India and Sri Lanka in July, overriding the FTP tour, and then went on to set up the Caribbean premier league to kick off later in the month. The Pakistan Cricket Board was then asked to squeeze in the tour in August, something they are hesitant to do, in the hope of hosting India for the tentative series planned during that time. While changes to tour structure, and additions during vacant windows are common practice, replacing already existent FTP tours completely with other country visits (without any political reasoning) are unheard of and a highly disrespectful act towards the PCB.
It raises quite a few issues. It is obvious why the West Indies have initiated such a move. The prospect of a lucrative ODI tri-series with India generates much needed revenue for a cash strapped board like the West Indies, but at the same time makes a similar body like the PCB suffer heavily in its stead. Often you will see such a tri-series sandwiched between the two touring sides in the season (Pakistan, Sri Lanka), while the remaining end of the triangle is fulfilled by the host nation (West Indies). Not only was Pakistan passed on such an offer, the idea of a four-nation tournament (with India) was also deemed unworthy. It is not hard to determine why the latter didn’t materialize as a prospect; the financial clout of India in world cricket is such that the smaller boards don’t want to risk a rejection by irking the mention of the cricketing giant’s less than friendly neighbor in a multi-team event.
The PCB of course is well within its rights not to budge on the hopes of an Indian tour during August/September. But given how the BCCI has dealt with the PCB over the last few years, it remains all but a fool’s hope. While the PCB’s current administration has bent over backwards for their Indian counterpart in the hope of a revival of Cricketing terms, the neighboring powerhouse can’t care less for its once-upon-a-time biggest sporting rival.
Zaka Ashraf has all but bent over backwards for India-Pakistan Cricket revival
Pakistan toured India for a short limited-over series in the winter, even though it was India’s turn to “tour” since the 2007-08 series between the two sides was also held in India. Indian domestic sides have continued to reap the benefits of Pakistan coaches, and it seems the BCCI has no problems fielding top-notch Pakistani umpires in its competitions as well. Commentators from across the borders seem to find space behind Indian microphones with a readiness never witnessed before, yet the current cricketers donning the Pakistan star seem to be valued nothing short of scum when it comes to IPL auctions.
Of course, the BCCI officials will point towards the political tensions between the two countries as the major thorn in efforts to better the relationship. But surely those tensions amongst politicians run both ways. In fact, when it comes to it, the PCB is under much tighter government control with the President of the country still acting as its Patron-in-Chief. The BCCI on the other hand, was till recently identifying itself as an independent “charitable” organization. Surely being such a strong administrative body the BCCI can make efforts (or at least match them) in rising above petty political bickering and use Cricket as a tool to pave the way for improved relations between the two countries.
Pakistan’s “deliberate” ineffective tackling of radical elements within their own country, which then also harm India’s sovereignty, is cited as the political excuse behind the BCCI’s lack of interest in resuming cricket ties. But surely if there is one single body that deserves to be supported for its anti-terror stance and perseverance in the face of terrorism it is the Pakistan Cricket team. Doubters can blame the ISI, the government even the army for having mixed intentions, but no one can doubt the international team’s suffering and resilience over the last five years.
They have been reduced, ironically due to this same threat of terrorism that irks the Indian authorities so much, to a nomadic bunch of sportsmen unwilling to bow down to the inexplicable atrocities that they, the PCB, or any other sporting body in the country have any control over. Yet they have fought on and performed amicably in their effort, which to most rational observers should be a cause that brings them closer to India, and all teams around the world, rather than being shunned like the poor estranged family relative. If the Indian government and the BCCI really want to take a stance against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks it would serve them much better to reach across and help out the crippled cricket team that despite all odds, continues to fight a battle in every “home” game it plays in the desert heat of the UAE.
Of course previous administration disasters haven’t helped
The PCB of course is not guilt free. Its administration over the years has left a lot to be desired, and some stunted ex-heads have left relationships with most boards extremely sour. Once kingmakers with a considerable say in the running of the game, they are now scraping for crumbs, which are also being whisked away in moves such as this recent West Indies one. Yet for all its financial drawbacks and mishandlings the PCB has kept its promises of the FTP. They have emptied their coffers time and again, “hosting” sides in far-flung New Zealand, England and the UAE, taking revenue cuts in the effort to keep the interest of the game alive. Not just that, they continue to be the flag bearers helping cricket develop in fledgling countries like Afghanistan and Ireland.
In return, they deserve the promises made to them to be kept and enforced by the ICC. The West Indies tour must go on, and so should the planned series against India later this year. The current administration has extended a friendly hand, now is the time more than ever that big brother needs to answer.
It’s nauseating to see the number of articles detailing the plight of Test Cricket these days. Most cricket pundits seem to think the longest format is under major threat, and want to enforce this opinion on the general public through any medium available to them.
No body knows where this threat is actually emanating from- dwindling crowds in the subcontinent is often sought as a common excuse, but if that’s to be taken as a benchmark than we might as well have buried the five-day game fifteen years ago. Revenue from advertisement and TRP ratings compared to T20s is another common complain, but by that measure Test Cricket’s been on its death bed since the advent of the one-day format.
The latest grumblings filtering through are regarding the actual quality of Test Cricket on display. England is number one, but they get their slates wiped clean by Pakistan. India was number one, but got trampled over when they decided to test their arsenal outside their fortress. All this see-sawing, and inability to dominate like the Australia of 00’s is supposedly unhealthy and unfit for the longest format. Supposedly it’s also a mark of mediocrity, and a sign that the Test teams don’t possess world-class batsman or bowlers they once used to.
Aren’t these the same people that often whined about how Australia’s dominance in Cricket was detrimental to the sport, and now with these silly arguments, seem to have completely flipped the switch. Last time one checked, close competition between the top brackets of any sport is what made it compelling. It is what makes the current era of men’s professional tennis the greatest it probably has been in the history of the sport. It is what makes the Euro in football a much better viewing than the World Cup itself. It is why most in the U.S don’t care about the regular season of the NBA, but come playoff time, even the uninterested are often hooked to their T.V sets. Its-(and this is just to drive home the hypocrisy of such statements) – what makes the IPL apparently so much more thrilling and consuming than any thing else on the planet.
One can call up a friend statistician, and come up with a dozen indicators to support a silly notion about the lack of modern quality Test Cricketers, but the beauty of the purest form of the game alas, lies in much more than just numbers. If Jonathan Trott is supposedly the only great batsman of the last five years, then where do Cook, Amla, Develliers, Clarke and Gambhir slate in? If the major reason bowlers have done well is only because they have had to adapt like “women in this liberated world”, leaving no space for conventional good bowling, then what do Asif, Amir, Anderson, Broad, Bond and Steyn count for.
But perhaps when it comes to Test Cricket, there is no need for such petty justifications. Perhaps it is best to sit back and let the format do its own talking. Like it did last year when first Sachin Tendulkar, and then Michael Clarke struck hundreds of immense skill and determination on their respective tours to South Africa. Or like this year, when Warner unleashed his wrath at Perth with some of the cleanest hitting imaginable. Or in the desert, when Ajmal and Rehman spun a web so dense, so mesmerizing that even the smallest of targets was whisked out of sight.
At the end of the day, no-matter how many such pieces are typed and tweeted out, the beauty of Test Cricket remains to the viewer, as vivid as ever. Leading one to the simple conclusion- it is not Test Cricket that has a problem, it is its so-called caretakers that have just fallen sick.
First thing first … congratulations Team Misbah on following up on Moin Khan’s side of 2000 and bringing home the Asia Cup but the victory alas does seem rather hollow to me. Why shouldn’t it when the ‘Tuk Tuk’ motorcade took the easiest possible route towards the checkered flag, spluttered barely across the finish line, and more importantly faltered woefully at the all-important Indian Pit Stop.
Lets make one thing clear, as fine an addition as this intricate work of craftsmanship must appear in Pakistan’s ODI trophy cabinet, there was only one real contest on the cards for Misbah’s men in Dhaka. Having thrashed Sri Lanka and Bangladesh last year, I for one would have been content if the results of the first two games were decided on a mere coin toss. What I was looking forward to, of course, was a chance at slight redemption for Mohali in a probable double bout with the current World Champs. This dreamy scenario of course entailed softening them up in the group stages followed by a solid knock-em-out punching job in the final. Even a false-hope-raising win for our archrivals in the first one, only to be quashed a few days later in the all-important final would have done the trick. But no … Bangladesh had to go ruin it all with their well-deserved run into the final, leaving me with nothing but the most bitter after taste and an image of Kohli’s smug smile plastered across his face on the trip back to India.
Usually, I have a snarling retort ready for my Indian friends no matter what the magnitude of defeat/humiliation. But this time when one correctly pointed out that “it’s a bit more acceptable when you lose out due to your batting rather than bowling” I could do little but sigh in exasperation. She had a point of course, not being able to defend 330 when you claim to be one of the better bowling line-ups going around should not only hurt but is a tad inexplicable… plus it just looks bad when you fall short of an opposition that contains the likes of Ashok Dinda.
There was no reason we should have lost out to the Indians this time round. They were coming off one of the worst tours for a respectable touring team to Australia in recent memory. Pakistan had momentum on their side with hard-fought wins in the first two games and that man Ashok Dinda was also playing. Yet lose we did, and it wasn’t one of those “Oh … it’s ok we played well, it just wasn’t our day” sort of losses (they never are with India). We were out played and out thought as the opposition stroked their way home to a comfortable finish, leaving us with little else but our unmentionables clutched in our hands. As well constructed and beautifully orchestrated Kohli’s symphonic innings might have been, it still shouldn’t and wouldn’t have been enough if Pakistan had given themselves their best shot at a win.
For that is what Pakistan has not been doing off late with their selections in limited overs cricket. We have drifted away from a strategy that actually finds its roots in ODIs only to be drafted into Tests much later to wondrous effects against Sri Lanka and England. I talk of course of the ‘spin strangulation policy’ and the effectiveness of playing a quartet of spinners simultaneously. There is a notion amongst fans and critics alike that Pakistan is over dependent on spin and that an attack of such nature is only suited to certain conditions. But it is a claim that has little evidence to hold water. There has been ample proof on display now over the last year and a half that Pakistan is best when playing Abdul Rehman alongside Ajmal and Hafeez in Tests as well as ODIs. It’s not like I wouldn’t love to have quality fast bowlers in the side being assisted by spinners, but with the crop we have at our disposal at the moment (Yes my finger is squarely pointed at you Wahab Riaz) I would take four spinners any day of the week.
It’s not like Pakistan is compromising by playing Rehman over Cheema/Wahab either. A much more economical as well as wicket taking option, any man who is capable enough to roll over the world’s number one side two Tests in a row should really be a shoo in at the ODI level. Here is a bowler who offers you a guaranteed quota of ten with a maximum of 4.5 to the over, adds variety to your attack and snaffles up a crucial wicket or two as well … I mean why wouldn’t you play him? Not only that, having dependable bowlers like Hafeez and Rehman in Misbah’s artillery means the batsmen are forced to play more aggressively against Afridi and Ajmal and more often than not that automatically means more wickets.
This pressure valve leaks severely when Pakistan entrusts its bowling duties in the less capable hands of Wahab/Cheema, and the lethality of Misbah’s strikers (Ajmal & Afridi) is reduced to bits as the captain is forced to take on defensive fields for them as well. Remember the edge of Kohli’s bat as Ajmal flummoxed the set batsmen with his signature doosra in the first over of the batting power play. (If you are remembering a moment in the game when you suddenly scrapped out a good tuft of your hair, and simultaneously imploded into shouting obscenities at Misbah’s mother and sister, you remember correctly). That would have gone straight into Younis’s dependable hands at slip, if only Cheema hadn’t been clattered for a humongous six over square leg the previous over, forcing Misbah to just concentrate on blocking out the runs.
Let’s take the disastrous ODI series against England as an example. You would have thought after his performance in the recently concluded tests, Rehman was a sure shot selection. Deciding to re-live ground hog day instead the team management went in with Wahab, who obliged with 6.71 to the over. The left arm spinner was given a consolatory outing in the second ODI returning with appalling figures of 10 overs for 36. Alarmed at how much of a dent the egos of our sensitive faster men would take, the left arm spinner was understandably dropped for the third. Cheema was pursued with and went for a not too surprising 6.31 to the over. Carrying on with the consistent selection policy the old hand was given another go in the last game, disappointing the management and fans once again with paltry figures of 10 overs, 31 runs and the lowly wicket of the number three Jonathan Trott. Rightly enraged at this performance Rehman was shunned for the T20s and the entire Asia Cup.
The spinner’s only crime it seems is the fact that he doesn’t have his chest puffed out at delivery stride, and doesn’t have the thirty-yard run up to back that stride up with. The management and fans have become so blinded by pace that they can’t seem to come to grips with the fact that they actually don’t have worthy fast bowling options at the moment. It stabs at the ego of an entire spoilt generation brought up on a buffet of Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib and Asif to come to terms with the fact that it is indeed a quartet of spinners who are for the time being the flag bearers. The sooner Pakistan Cricket can swallow this false pride and realize the value of what is staring it in the face, the quicker it will relieve itself of having to sit through Kohli’s annoying angry young man celebrations…but more importantly it will mean that they at least would have given themselves their best shot.
Dravid might not have been a bowler but the all-rounder argument Sidvee makes can be extended further by realizing how much of an impact his departure will make on good bowlingl.
The number of absolutely un-playable corkers delivered from bowlers to get batsman out every year for one thing will certainly take a hit. No other batsman perhaps in the current game had made bowlers work for his wicket more than Dravid, and through that fact alone one got to experience the bowlers applying a bit more of their brain (in this age of t-20s, god knows one doesn’t see that enough). Invariably it was only an absolutely un-playable delivery that often got the better of Dravid.
I don’t remember any other batsman for instance getting as many corkers as Dravid. Who can forget Sachin’s first ball bowled against Shoaib Akhtar (off a good, yet nothing that impossible to handle delivery) at the Eden Gardens, but what people often side-line (as has been the case with Dravid his whole career) is the much more fearsome delivery the one-down batsman received the previous ball.
How about this (one of the, if not THE) best delivered by the left hand of god himself.
(I am sure you can find many such examples…these are just some that have made it through my extremely biased Pakistani memory bank)
The point of this all is no at all to point out Dravid’s deficiencies, but to in fact pay homage to his astounding ability at pushing himself to the limit. More importantly though at pushing his opponents along the way and evoking them to display their best. On most occasions the opponents were just not good enough, on others they would try to match up but still flounder at the sheer resilience of the man tapping his bat at the other end. But on those few occasions that he did come up against an opponent worthy of the competition we were often blessed with some thing special.
So thank you Dravid for not only your vigil and absolute master-class in batting….an institution in itself, but for helping us realize the best in bowling as well. You were indeed an all-rounder.
Originally for Dawn.com (below is the complete un-edited version)
How many times will we see the same mistakes repeated over again
Pakistan’s performance against England in the last two ODIs in Abu Dhabi has given an opportunity for the “chase demon”, who has caused much pain and anguish to the fans and players over the years to show it’s detestable face once again. As much joy as a three-nil whitewash of the world’s premier test side might have brought to the deserving Pakistani cricket aficionados, it shouldn’t be reason enough to brush aside the shortcomings that the team continues to grapple with in the shorter version of the game.
For those who dare to look into them, the facts are quite simple and straightforward. England, is by no means a major force in the One-Day format, their five-nil thrashing at the hands of India a few months back serves as a good indicator of this. For Pakistan, a side under an admirable new leader, trying to become worthy contenders to the crown in every version of the game, the defeats, and more so the manner of the defeats, are a disturbing and yet all-too-familiar trend.
While giving all due respect to the English side, apart from the irrepressible Cook with the bat and Broad and Swann (to some extent) with the ball, the poms ODI outfit is far from exemplary. Certainly their performance and spirited fight back in Abu Dhabi after the test matches is commendable, but given the conditions, form of the teams and general momentum being carried over from the Test series one cannot blame Misbah-ul-Haq and his men to have been quietly confident of a whitewash prior to the ODI series,.
What went wrong then? Is it a mere case of a lax mindset? Overconfidence? Underestimating the opposition? Or is there more to it? A sensible follower would lean towards the latter, and there will be two flaws that stand out. The first one, a minor glitch when bowling which should be easy enough to rectify while the other, an age-old problem when chasing, would require an arduous but necessary change of stubborn minds.
In bowling, Pakistan seem to be going through unexplainable moments of relapses as they come to terms with the fact that it is not pace but spin that is now their most potent weapon. The long love affair with pace is showing it’s lingering side effects in the form of obstinate and continuous selections of two seamers, when the quartet of Ajmal, Afridi, Rehman and Hafeez with one seamer and a batting all-rounder (Hammad) is surely the best combination. Pakistan’s “spin-strangulation” policy, with all the spinners playing, has been the prominent reason behind their success; focusing on it, perfecting it and giving it the maximum chance to succeed is the best way forward. Instead of giving extra overs to undeserving speedsters in the power plays, Misbah should concentrate on utilizing his spinners in an attacking manner.
Even when all the spinners are playing, defensive fields with just four or five in the ring (and at the edge of the ring at that) will do little for them. Constant attacking fields, with catchers and blockers to bottle the constant rotation of strike, frustrating the batsmen and squeezing out wickets has worked like a treat for the Test attack (second innings of the Abu Dhabi Test serving as the best and closest ODI-type example). And this ploy must be exhibited through the entirety of the bowling innings instead of being employed only in patches or power plays. Pakistan have tended to resort to this fruitful plan only when the situation demands it i.e. bowling second, defending a par score but faltering occasionally in its application when bowling first. The fact is, Pakistan is extremely gifted in the spin department and given the attacking and versatile nature of their spin attack they should not fear treating the entire time they are out in the field like a bowling power play irrespective of the opposition. Precise and fearless utilization of the spinners by Misbah will find most international sides struggling to even reach scores of 200-220 let alone setting up more respectable targets of 250 plus (a luxury not worth providing to mediocre spin-playing outfits such as England’s).
With batting, the fans can only wish the problem was so simple. Surely those of us who have followed this team’s ODI fortunes over the last decade or more have become used to such capitulations while chasing modest totals, for that is what scores around 250 are in the modern game. And even though some of us might have resigned ourselves to accept such occurrences as nothing out of the ordinary, none of us (the romantic optimists that most Pakistani fans are) have ever lost hope when a chase of around 250 is on.
Hafeez will provide a fluent start yaar, and might even score a century. After all, he is a reformed Cricketer now. Cue: Hafeez plays an across-the-line hoik lobbing it to mid-wicket. Koi nahi Younis is there, he will anchor the innings and see us through most definitely. Cue: Younis plays a flick around a straight ball and gets caught on the crease right in front of middle stump for under ten. The stodgers come in, and ensure if nothing else, that the run-rate somehow goes over a run a ball and play out most of the middle overs (this is when those in Pakistan start flicking through different channels to see what else is on T.V, and those watching abroad at insane hours in the night set an alarm and catch a much-needed nap). You tune back in and it’s invariably four down (on a really bad day probably even six-down) with Misbah at one end and the dashing Umar at the other. Umar is trying to play his natural game, as best he can with Misbah’s conservative instructions bearing down on him. The required run-rate which had reached an alarming level of eight an over a few overs back seems under control at six-and-a-half thanks to Umar’s exuberance. That flame of hope inside your chest is given a burst of Oxygen, as you wonder and rue for the umpteenth time why this kid is coming in as low as number six. Pakistan needs under a hundred by now but a couple of poor overs follow as Misbah hogs most of the strike and fails to rotate often enough. Cue: The required rate reaches eight again, Umar loses his patience and gets caught out to a rash yet perfectly timed shot for a flamboyant 30.
What ever, now the fun begins. Afridi, Faramir-ish with his helmet on, walks out and you get the usual burst of androgenic hormones. Our power-hitter is here now, he will show them. Good he is taking his time and rotating the strike…is what you start tweeting out to the world, while inside that little Pakistani in you is squirming. What is this nonsense from the Pathan, Aaaghh! I hate this new Afridi style…come on hit those sixesman, you can finish this in five overs. Unfortunately, Afridi has had enough of it as well. The crowd and chants have proved too much for him as he smacks one over cow corner. Aaaah…that’s better….Crunch!…this one is straight, up and over for a maximum, into the pack of hungry hounds dancing in the stands shouting out for more. Cue: Afridi for some unfathomable reason gets on one knee and swings cross-batted to the leg side, top edge, and that mediocre opposition player who has been getting on your nerves throughout the game gleefully takes the catch. We all know what comes next… Miss-bah (close but no cigar), the solitary Gul raptaa over mid-wicket, Ajmal’s cute little dabs in vain… the script it seems, is so familiar and painful (Mohali) that you wonder why you even bothered to allow yourself to think otherwise.
But this is not the Pakistan of the 90’s and 2000’s. There is a method in this outfit, and a calm tactfulness about its leader that rightly gives the fan hope that sense shall prevail. It certainly, and most importantly, has in Tests and bowling in general, and there is no reason it shouldn’t while chasing in the fifty over game. The ODI format has evolved immensely and is a vastly different game from what it was a decade and a half ago. Sadly the same cannot be said of Pakistan’s tactics while chasing, as they continue to pursue the cobwebbed approach of preserving wickets, aimlessly drifting during the middle of the innings and fantasizing to finish big. It is time Pakistan parted ways with this approach from the days of Miandad/Inzi, that has mostly brought nothing but failure and a sense of living Ground-Hog Day while chasing anything over 250 and come to terms with the reality of modern day ODI Cricket.
They have only to look towards India (who suffered from a similar, probably worse mental block while chasing until the days of Ganguly) to figure out that fluency through out the innings is key to consistently chasing successfully. Not mistaking this fluency for over the top flashy exuberance, as most critics of such change do, but embracing it in a manner that suits the players’ game as well as brings a smoothness to chasing will be Misbah’s biggest challenge.
Getting rid of the likes of Malik, freeing your most talented batsman (Umar) of the burdens of keeping, giving him room to breathe by sending him up the order and letting him play his natural game would be a good starting point. Not treating the other promising youth (Asad) as the token sacrificial lamb and defining a set role for him in the side as well as adding a batting all-rounder (Hammad) to make the transition from the lower-middle order to the tail smoother will prove helpful as well.
The major obstacle since the departure of Imran in favor of change and applying innovative approaches has been the lack of strategic leadership. With Misbah in charge that prickly thorn it seems has finally been washed away, and it would almost be unfair to the fans and the team, if revisions are not at least given a shot. Pakistan are penciled in to play India in the Asia Cup on March the 18th, lets hope we have learnt our lessons from Mohali, and don’t die wondering if the toss of the coin doesn’t fall our way.
I must, humbly, admit that I was never a big fan of Abdur Rehman. Having grown up emulating the likes of Mushtaq Ahmed or been transfixed by the beauty of Saqlain Mushtaq’s doosras and Shane Warne’s flippers, Rehman just didn’t seem to make the cut. Maybe the sight of Sunil Joshi getting spanked over his head for massive sixes at the hands of Inzamam, or Aamir Sohail (with his indomitable chest-hair) making his way from between the stumps and the umpire to deliver the ball, contributed to the bias but it’s safe to say that left-arm spin never caught my fancy.
Watching Rehman from the stands in St Lucia in 2010, in the most painfully demoralising World Twenty20 semi-final didn’t change my perception either. And while he performed well against South Africa in the 2007 home series; routinely held up his end of the bargain in the T20s, he still appeared to be just another run-of-the-mill bowler who was riding the high tide of a few successful domestic stints, soon to disappear into oblivion.
That didn’t happen, of course, as the old chap kept chipping in with one or two wickets in every game and made a permanent position for himself in the limited-overs squad. Pakistan preferred to play the trio of Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez in most games but the addition of Rehman meant that the side almost always fared better. As the team began employing the ‘choke’ policy (which started in Younis Khan’s reign as captain) to good effect, Rehman proved crucial to the plan with his regular economy rate of under four runs per over.
Rehman’s stock ball, however, remained the golee – a flattish, skiddy, straight delivery; fired in at the fourth stump line; hard to get away but equally hard to get a wicket with, unless the batsmen loses his patience. In fact, thegolee became so effective that there came a time when the conservative captain-coach partnership of Afridi and Waqar Younis started to prefer Rehman over Ajmal in the playing eleven. A tactical blunder in my opinion, the policy remained in place until the loss at the hands of New Zealand in the 2011 World Cup, and served as one of the major reasons behind my prejudice against Rehman. Here was the management preferring their biggest wicket-taking option over a run-blocker when, Ajmal should have included in the team on merit and logic.
While Rehman had become a key component of the ODI side, his Test credentials remained unproven until Pakistan’s series against the West Indies. No longer the bowler of old, confined by the limitations of his limited-overs game, Rehman’s bowling had gained a freshness and creativity missing even in the reasonably successfulTest tour of New Zealand.
Maybe it was the confidence he had gained from becoming a permanent fixture in the Test side or the seemingly ‘weak’ opposition, but the ball was not just being fired in as usual. There was tempting flight on display as well as appreciative bounce, but more importantly, there was grip and turn. No longer was Rehman just bowling to dry out the runs and sneak in a wicket, but one could see him plotting the batsman’s demise as he drew them out and pushed them back with changes in pace and flight worthy of a true spinner.
The Carribean calypso was not just a flash in the pan as the veteran proved his worth once again in the solitary Test win against Sri Lanka, after having been dropped in the first Test in favour of three seamers. It was a tricky call, probably based on the traditional Pakistani obsession with pace and seemed like a noticeable deviance from the unassuming organisation that had become the hallmark Misbah-ul-Haq’s captaincy.
It is this organisation and planning – relying on a strong spin attack to strengthen a squad, which, barring Saeed Ajmal and Umar Akmal lacks any outstanding talent – is key to Pakistan cricket’s success in the last year and a half.
The traditionally ‘unpredictable’ Pakistan are no more an amalgamation of a few rapscallions – sparkling one day and fizzling out the other – but are a well thought-out puzzle that draws together to present an exhibition well worth the admission fee. Every piece of this puzzle has its part to play, and none in terms of importance are greater or smaller.
Abdur Rehman, as the second spinner, is one such piece. Like everyone else, he has found an indisputable niche in this team and has performed his duties to perfection. Almost in every innings, when a partnership starts brewing up and Ajmal’s patience starts to waver, Misbah turns to his second spinner for answers and Rehman obliges, almost always. The Sialkot Stallion is not just the team’s designated partnership-breaker; he also has an uncanny ability of dismissing the opposition’s star batsman. From Kumar Sangakarra to Kevin Pitersen, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shakib Al-Hasan and Jonathan Trott – all have fallen victim the left-armer. Rehman’s ability to get the scalp of well-settled batsmen is an enviable trait and one which has proved invaluable to Misbah, who is also among the rare breed of captains harbouring three quality spinners in the side since as successful spin partnerships remain a rarity in modern-day cricket.
Spinners work differently than fast bowlers. While fast bowlers generally remain unaffected by the nature of their partner’s style of bowling, hunting in pairs like a couple of hounds gaining strength from each blow inflicted by the other, a spinner’s effectiveness relies on the partner’s bowling style. Two similar-styled fast bowlers (Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie) can prove effective despite their similarities, but spinners of the same breed rarely perform at their peak when bowling together.
For Ajmal’s virtuosity to have its maximum glorifying effect, a hard working Rehman on the other end is essential. The last hour of the second Pakistan-England Test aside, the most compelling period of the match was the post-tea session on day two when England were threatening to run away with the game. Ajmal had proved ineffective and Misbah had persisted with Hafeez on the other end, disregarding the services of the ever-dependable Rehman.
When the old-gun was finally given a chance, the match turned on its head. Runs that had started to flow pre-tea were blocked out, Trott was bowled off an unplayable turner, and Ajmal at the other end returned to his destructive best. A cat and mouse game ensued, building breakneck amounts of pressure that despite the vastly different style of bowling was reminiscent of the two Ws toying with the opposition batsmen. The unrelenting Ajmal-Rehman partnership, just like in the final session of the Test, proved too much for the English top order as Pakistan clawed their way back into the game.
Rehman, with his inconspicuous nature, will never be the star attraction. His bowling will rarely outshine the artistry being dished out at the other end by Ajmal. Then again, he was never designed for it. Realising this ‘shortcoming’ and not looking for more could prove to be his biggest asset. It is time the man in the shadows was given his due share, for it is in his experienced hands that Pakistan may have found a left-arm spinner they can finally cherish.
The sight of Wasim’s celebration in the nineties is imprinted on almost every Cricket fan’s memory
The Interview originally appeared at Dawn.com, this is the unedited version.
Audio-Part 1 & 2
When you started playing Cricket, how much of it was tape ball growing up?
A lot. A lot of tape ball, a lot of plain tennis ball. I remember six a side had started in Lahore and I was living with my grandmother in Inner Lahore at the time. This is around 83’ I think, I was about fifteen. Used to be a tape ball “professional” and would take Rs10/game to win sides matches.
It was only after 83’ then, that I started to play with a Cricket ball… Uss say pehley tau har jaga tennis ball tournaments hi khele..sarkon pai tournamnets ho rahay hain, ya chatoon pay, ya School ki lightonkay neechayn…Ramzan of course you used to have a tournament every night, so yes that’s how it started.
So what do you think of tape ball as the stepping stone for budding fast bowlers?
I think the idea is really to just play Cricket at the age. Get your muscles going and just getting used to fast bowling. Then when you have hit the age of fourteen you can make the transition to a Cricket ball. So when I started bowling with a Cricket ball, I was quite nippy, because with tape ball you are already used to exerting more energy, which means I had strengthened my shoulders before I had made the switch to the Cricket ball.
Because it’s a common theory that does the rounds that since Pakistan has tape ball we have a lot of fast bowlers, and India who play with the heavier MRF ball they don’t produce as many….
Maybe…..it’s a good observation but I have never thought about it in that regard. It could be the reason but I think the biggest factor is the difference in psyche…India main meray khial say fast bowlers aatay hain..,magar aik aik saal baad saaray ghaib ho jaatay hain bajay is kay ke aur taiz hoon.
Look at Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Munaf I can keep on going with the list. Now they have found another in Yadav but let’s hope he can keep on going instead of fading away like the rest. So by phyche I mean they often lack the hunger and drive to keep going after hitting the biggest stage, they need to push themselves more and need good mentors to work with.
You don’t think it has any technical drawbacks for a fast bowler to grow up on tape ball and then suddenly make the switch to hard ball?
No not suddenly…aahista aahista. I went to a proper Cricket net the first time in ’83 when. A guy in my neighborhood Khalid Mahmood, a first class Cricketer, told me to go practice in the nets when he saw me bowling with tape ball on the streets. I was in class ten, didn’t really heed to his advice said “Nahi mujhe net pai nahi jaana”…so he basically forced and carried me there on the back of his bike to Ludhiana Gymkhana. That’s when I slowly left tape ball and switched to the Cricket ball.
You got a five-wicket haul in your first first-class match against N.Z, did you realize it then that “Yes I am made to do this” ?
No I didn’t. I thought while playing that game that if I don’t get any wickets I will be gone. Wo to saath out ho gaye…but I don’t know how. I remember getting Martin Crowe, John Wright, Edgar, Reid and all and got seven in the first and two in the second innings.
But after that I got good mentors. Javed Miandad who was my captain and he really groomed me in the Cricket camp, how to play, how to put in the hard yards. Mudassar Nazar was there and then I met Imran on the Australian tour in the mini World Cup.
So when did that feeling actually sink in?
I think when I got ten in my second test I realized…actually was told by Javed bhai “Tum ne mahnat karni hai…You can play long for Pakistan.” Mudassar Nazar insisted as well told me how to work hard. Tareeka bhi to hota hai na mehnat karnay ka, paaglon ki tarah thori bhaagay jaatay hain. So I am grateful that I had very good people surrounding me at the beginning of my career that helped me to become the bowler I was.
The story goes that you actually weren’t going to go to the open-net camp after not getting a turn in the nets…tell us a bit about that.
It was my coach Sabih Khan and fast bowler Saud Khan, a first class cricketer as well. I had gone up to them exasperated, “Mujhe bowling nahi mili teen chaar din, tau main nahi jaa raha”. But they insisted that I go, and they will call the people up and make sure I get a turn.
So the fifth day I went and got a turn with an old ball late in the day. I looked good…Agha Saadat Ali, a test-cricketer was the camp commandant and the next day he tossed me a new ball. I have never looked back since.
You had a small bustling run up not common to fast bowlers at the time, how did that come about?
It was the 87’ tour of England if I recall, before that I had a long run up. Imran told me why don’t you try a shorter run up, you will be able to play longer. And I said what about the pace? Imran bhai lai gaye mujhe saath apne and measured out a run up. And that’s where I ran in from and bowled at the same pace. So he said agar chotay run up say utni hee taiz kartey ho to faida kia lamba bhaagnay ka…and he was right…
How much was it Marshall’s influence ?
Marshall also did it later on in his career. I talked to him through out and kept picking his brains whenever I could because I always thought and it still remains the same that Marshall was the most complete fast bowler Cricket had ever seen.
I played against him and with him a lot. Always used to bugger him with questions, but he always gave me time and listened to me. And of course Imran, all of fast bowling’s technicalities, your psyche and reading the batsmen’s mind every thing I learnt from him.
So Imran was to you what Terry Jenner was to Warne?
Definitley. Fast bowling for sure. More generally I had two, him and Miandad.
Imran always used to stand at mid-on whispering in your ear, tell us a bit about that and if you can recall specific instances following or not following his advice.
I always used to follow his advice because I needed somebody to guide me, to give me confidence in the ball I was about to bowl. And Imran say behtar to koi bowler tha hi nahi confidence bharanay kai liyay.
With the new-ball we usually did the normal of bringing the ball in, but with the old ball he used to tell me to change it up. Kabhi bahar nikal lo, kabhi andar lay aao, kabhi bouncer kar do…
Imran say behtar tau koi bowler tha hi nahi confiedence denay kai liyay
Did it ever happen that Imran was saying something else and you thought otherwise?
No I never did that, because he was Imran Khan. By 89’ I had become confident and knew what I was doing. Had played a few seasons in county and polished off my game.
Same with Waqar, we usually stood at mid-off or mid-on when the other was bowling. Aik doosray sai baat kartay rehtay the…laray hotay the magar baat kartay rehtay thay. What to do. What not to do. What should be done.
And it’s very important for young and experienced fast bowlers. I mean you only have to look at the Indian bowlers here in Australia to know that. They get hit around, they are lost, no body talks to them. At least I had people telling me what fields to set.
Laray hotay the magar baat kartay rehtay thay
Your action if one sees footage of you through the years went through a lot of modifications. Who did you work with for that?
Mostly I just worked it out myself. Going around the wicket, going over. Sometimes front-arm over, sometimes open-chested. The idea is to distract the batsman, wo aik rat ki tarah moon utha kai bowling nahi karni. Sochna nahi, bas aa kar ball kar dena, that I didn’t want to become. Mudassar Nazar helped me a lot with these little things.
You see all these bowlers, Zaheer Khan now, Vaas earlier emulating you in the yorker they bowl. The arm goes more round arm before the action starts…
Yes the hand goes up and it’s a much higher release, the trajectory is better with ball dropping sharply to the base of the stumps…
Did you see someone doing that? Where did that come from?
I wasn’t told but was inspired by the great West Indian Joel Garner’s action. I gained confidence knowing I was emulating his action aur phir yorkersahi paka lagta tha.
Unfortunately I had to abandon that later on, because the cleverer batsmen figured out when the yorker was coming, so I started bowling bouncers with that change up.
Did you bowl the slower ball much?
Slower ball I learnt after ’92. Watching the West Indian Franklin Stevenson playing county cricket in England. In the nets I started practicing, hitting people on the head, having the ball go fly over the nets, only got it right after a lot of practice.
Uptill ’92 it was all about pace, but after the World Cup I started realizing that variations were necessary in the One-Day game. In county we would play up to three limited over competitions at a time so it became really useful once I started bowling it in actual games and picked up a few wickets with it.
In the Hampshire stint at the end of your career you said you practiced with the slower ball bouncer, no body was bowling that at the time…
Yes it wasn’t a variation used back then, but it was really at the end of my career that I started experimenting with that. I liked trying new things, was really the first that started using the left arm around the wicket angle consistently as a wicket-taking ploy.
How important is the left arm angle…
Very important, it is a very difficult angle for the batsman. When a left-armer comes round the wicket to a right hand batsman he is will always going to think the ball is going to tail in. Tau us nay khelna hi khelna hai wo ball, agar wo seedha reh jaye ya bahar nikal jaye tau edge hai.
Later on for some reason the mind set of umpires changed a bit and the lbws were not given from that angle, but early on when I started using it I even got lbws with the fuller length deliveries.
When did you consider yourself at the top of your game?
After 89’ playing the Australian series there. After that till the end I always felt in control. The county experience had really shone through by that time and I think that had a lot to do with it. Even my batting improved a lot after that and I felt I could compete…
Not just compete but actually feel that no one could really stand up to you?
Yes by compete I meant that I felt like I could get any one out. Kay daroon ga nahi kisi say, na darta tha as a bowler…
So was there no one you feared bowling to?
In that regard there have been many greats that have passed. Viv Richards, Martin Crowe, Allan Border, Mark Taylor…where there have been phases that some times they have won and sometimes I won, but was never intimidated by any one. Doosron ko intimidate kia hai, kabhi hoa nahi hoon. I knew how to tackle them, where to bowl what to them, bouncer, yorker I knew by 90’ how to get on top of a batsman.
Any spells that you remember in that regard.
There are many spells like that but where it started was in 89/90. The Australian tour, in Melbourne specifically where I picked up eleven wickets. Wickets with the new ball, then with the old ball, reverse swinging it both in and out… even bowling batsmen off low swinging full tosses.
You have said that you considered King Viv to be the greatest batsmen you have bowled to. Tell us a bit about how it felt like bowling to him?
Viv was a very different breed; it wasn’t just his batting but the whole aura that surrounded him. Over six feet tall, itnay itnay muscles, no sign of any protection, forget the arm or chest guard not even a helmet. So that whole aura was intimidating for a young skinny lad that I was at the time.
But I got him out a few times, because at that point he had started to come downhill and his greatest days were behind him, and I am glad I faced him then and not before.
The young skinny lad that was over awed by the sheer aura of Sir Vivian Richards
How do you rate him with the modern greats?
His record is of course not the same in terms of numbers but he was the most devastating I have bowled to. It’s hard to rate him and compare him to the newer guys because I caught him so late in his career, but growing up I watched and admired him a lot. There was one name only and that was Vivian Richards.
But as a player playing against the best always gave me inspiration. Main kehta tha iss kay khilaf performance zaroor karni hai…Botham khel raha ho tau ussay girana hai…same with Viv and all the top guys.
And how would you rate them amongst themselves; Tendulkar, Lara, Ponting, Kallis, Inzi, Dravid?
Man it’s very difficult. They all have such amazing records, it’s difficult to pick one out of them…
Bowling at them who did you feel like was the hardest to bowl at?
Got Ponting out multiple times, without getting smacked around much. Tendulkar I didn’t play a test against in my peak for ten years. Also have gotten Lara out, but think he was the most difficult to bowl to. He was very unusual to a bowler’s eye…the bat coming down from up high at an awkward angle. Kabhi yahan jump karna kabhi wahan jump karna…so he was some one very different and difficult to bowl to.
Two Modern Greats of the ODI Era; unfortunately Wasim never faced up to the Little Master in Tests during his peak years
So no batsman worried or intimidated you ever…
If I had to pick someone it would have to be Gilchrist in ODIs…
You say that, but at the same time have some amazing dismissals against him…
Yes, but he has hit me quite a bit as well man. He wasn’t like an Afridi type pinch hitter. Kai pata hai kai Afridi sahib nay 100 main say aik match main chalna hai baaqi ka pata nahi…he was a proper batsman and could hit you at any time…
You also bowled to Sehwag. Was he comparable?
I have bowled very little to Sehwag and didn’t feel the same way. In 98/99 he came down at five or six in the Pepsi Cup in India and Akhtar and Razzaq got him I think. And the only other time was the 03’ World Cup where he had gotten off to a great start thanks to our “premium” fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar.
So I wouldn’t say any one intimidated me. With Gilchrist though I was a bit weary when bowling
Pace is everything to a fast bowler, but there comes a time over a long career when you start losing it. When did that happen to you? And what were your feelings at the time, is there a sense of denial at all?
No I didn’t go through denial. After 97’ I think I realized that I had lost a bit of pace. Was always nippy, but I had mastered the swinging ball by then. There is no room for denial… Pata hona chiyay aap ko apnay khial main…a lot more to fast bowling than just pace.
Tell me a bit about defending that 125 against N.Z in 92/93 with Waqar?
It was a long time ago, but we had decided that ball haath say chorna nahi hai, because if we had left it then the match was gone…
Was there a tiff going on at the time as well?
No, Javed was captain at the time and Waqar was also new to the team. Javed bhai gave us the ball and told us what ever you can do you will have to do with the new ball. Tab tau thaktay bhi nahi thay hum…and it started to reverse a tiny bit at the end which gave us more hope, because N.Z never really learnt to tackle reverse swing, none of their batsmen really had a clue apart from Martin Crowe.
Your records in both Tests and ODIs are amazing but you got the feeling as a viewer that you especially enjoyed bowling with the white ball in your hand.
Yes early on, but later they changed the rules. The two new balls disappeared; the bouncers were banned which made it really difficult with one white ball. But I really enjoyed bowling in the death more than any thing else.
But as much fun as all that was, Test Cricket was the ultimate. In ODIs you knew that at end you bowl in the block hole, with the batsmen are hitting out, you will pick up wickets. Magar mazaa tau Test Cricket ka hee hai na phir.
So you agree with the two new balls coming back into ODIs?
Yes I do. I mean just look at Cricket today, every thing is tilted in the batsman’s favor. Especially on the Sub-Continent tracks where the ball deteriorates quickly and you started to lose sight of it after the 12th Over! So Thank god ICC had the brains to bring in some change.
Two deliveries. One is to Dravid in Chennai where you take the top of off after a loud lbw shout turned down, and the other is one to Croft in England where it defies physics and hits him infront only to be turned down. Both have created quite a furor on YouTube amongst the fans, can you tell us a bit about them.
I do remember them both being reverse swing. Croft I went round the wicket aur sahi zoor laga kar bowling kar raha tha. I bowled really fast on the Oval wicket, this was 96’I think. I remember somebody gave me a picture where Alec Stewart is ducking me and both his feet are airborne and over the wickets as he is swaying out of the way.
The second one… I had brought two balls into Dravid earlier. In this day and age he would have been given out with out a doubt. Magar nahi out diya….and before that in the previous over I had also just worked on bringing it in, and then I said ab main is ki laat say bahar nikaalta hoon ball and that’s what I did. And what I had visualized in my mind…that this is where I am going to pitch the ball and this is what is going to happen… thankfully exactly that happened.
So you are saying you had complete control over those miraculous deliveries?
Definitely yes. Tukkay main aisee ball nahi ho sakti. You can bowl a bouncer and get a top edge or the batsman gifts you a wicket off a fluke ball, but you can’t get wickets like those, with the old ball to boot off a fluke.
The 1999 WC loss, of course a low point in your career…
Very low man. Forget even the fact that we lost the final, the way we lost that match and the performance we gave…spineless.
The way we lost is what hurt the most…..spineless!
How much did it hurt compared to 1996?
The feeling was very different. In 1996 it was more on the attitude of the players. We had players like Amir Sohail etc, I was injured, they knew I was injured and wouldn’t and couldn’t play the quarterfinal. And match sey pehle hi mood nazar aa rahay thay kay haar jaien gay, kiunke paata tha kay jeet gaye tau Wasim ka naam ho jaye ga.
You see these Cricketers have spent their entire careers trying to bring me down instead of focusing on their play. Iss liye apni performance bhi nahi kar paaye sahi tarah. They have always been distracted.
Back to ‘99 then, tell us a bit about the mood in the dressing room before the final, what was going through your mind.
We were very confident. The entire tournament we had been performing well. We had an excellent bowling attack in Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain, Azhar, Razzaq and myself. We were batting down till no9….
In hindsight do you think the decision was right to bat first?
Always, I have always thought it was the right decision. We were batting first on seaming tracks through out the tournament and it had been working for us.
Relating to that, we saw a lot of highs during your captaincy, but one thing that also came to the fore was the chasing problem. Why?
I think it is more psychological more than any thing else. The Pakistan team still on most occasions falters when chasing, even scores like 220-230. A sense of fear creeps in and they are confused about the approach instead of just trying to get there sensibly with rotations of strike.
This fear doesn’t go with the team of the time, I mean starting from Imran and then you, Waqar as a bowler…Shoaib Akhtar all very aggressive players. Moin Khan another very aggressive cricketer, then why were you guys so defensive in chasing and had this “bakri” like approach?
It was always in the head, I think fear of losing becomes too much. Log kya kahain gay agar haar gaaye…the batsmen already start thinking of that instead of concentrating at the score. We did try to get rid of this mental stigma but in the end it depends on the batsmen and how good they are as players and more importantly how mentality strong they are. I mean you have to play out the fifty overs to chase 250 in the end either way you look at it.
Would you agree to the notion that Inzi, the great talent that he was, always shielded himself for his entire career by coming down at no5 ?
Of course, if Inzi had come at one or two down he would have been a different player. He would have had over 10 000 runs in Test Cricket, and would have had much more than Miandad even, who he wasn’t far behind when he ended.
But he always use to go on the back foot, because he didn’t believe in himself fully, that’s where Inzi’s problems always lied.
Quick…five wickets that come to your mind.
Hmmm…(long pause) I’ll have to think about them…
Just whatever is coming to your mind first
Nahi koi bhi nahi aa rahi abhi tau yaar
Kitni 500 wicketain lee hain…
Yes 500 ODI over 1000 first class wickets…I have to think about them… Is tarah nahi aa rahi agala sawal pooch lo beta
How was it playing under Waqar? What did you think of Waqar as a bowler? And as a captain?
As a bowler…great bowler, a great sight to watch, one of the greatest bowlers of all time.
As a captain he had no brains, no strategy and was always on the back foot.
But as a bowler he was one of the most pleasant sights and I don’t think I saw or will see a bowler like him ever again.
And as a coach?
I think Waqar did well for Pakistan, but I think he and other people in Pakistan should realize that once you have stopped playing that’s it for you, it is the players who will remain in the limelight not the coach. In our part of the world who ever is coach, wants power first then the job. Tum nay power kia karni hai bhai, tum ho kaptaan kay peechay, kaptaan aur players ki madad karnay kai liyay bas. Descion making is the captain’s job and he has the final say.
This is the wrong mentality that Waqar had and Miandad for that matter. Kay mujhay power day do saari, I mean I coach KKR and all I want is for the guys to listen to my advice and show up at the nets on time. Just make a strategy and give it to them and then it is up to them. Stay away from the limelight, like Gary Kirsten did. If any body wants to know how a coach should behave they should look at Kirsten’s model and how he remained in the shadow.
For most people growing up in the nineties the sight of you running in at Sharjah is imprinted in memory…how do you rate Sharjah and what are your other favorite venues.
Sharjah was good fun. I loved playing there because of the crowd (half Indian, half Pakistani), the noise levels, and the attention we got as players. The facilities were nice too, but the tension and the pleasure that tension brought when you got a wicket is what made that place so special.
But if I had to pick a ground it will have to be Melbourne because of the pace and bounce and because every time I bowled there I got wickets. In Pakistan I would pick Karachi and bowling in the evenings with the sea breeze coming in. It used to swing three, three feet some time, making it even hard to control some times in that breeze.
Any other bowler you would exchange your career for?
Malcolm Marshall.
You will exchange it, just like that…
Haaaan! Araam say.
Not Imran Khan?
Nahi as a bowler Marshall, as a leader Imran Khan of course.
When you played your last match in the 2003 WC, you were the highest wicket taker in the competition at the time. Do you think you could have gone on for longer?
Of course I could have played on. At least ODIs I would have like to carry on in. But for some reason the chairman at the time, Gen Tauqir Zia thought he knew more Cricket than me kiunke main khela hoon 100 Test, 400 One Day aur wo khela go shaaid aik club ka game. So it was more ego than any thing else.
When chairmans come in Pakistan Cricket their ego for some reason goes through the roof. They start thinking they are god…NouzibillAllah. And so I retired and thank god I did..kiunke un kai under main khelna bhi nahi chahta tha. Waqar ka bhi kaafi satya naas kia hai un sub nay…
Because there are a lot of fans who cling onto the hope that one fine morning they will wake up to a Wasim bhai come back, we heard you bowled recently in the KKR nets and were still troubling all the batsman…
Haan shooro main tau main bore hoa hoon wahan magar baad main ki hai bolwing sub ko. It was coming out fine and the batsman were troubled, swing ho rahi thi bowl…
So what do you say about a comeback?
No there is a time for every thing and I have had my time. Not like most Cricketers in our part of the world… jo coaching hi karay jaa rahay hain peechlay assi saal say, and don’t give any chance to the new people. I am not taking any names but you know what I mean.
Wasim’s blistering performance with the bat, and sheer artistry with the ball, won Pakistan the 1992 WC Final. It remains the country’s biggest sporting achievement to date.
Your memory is unfortunately fading and you are allowed to have one ball either the Alan Lamb or Chris Lewis ball remain intact. Which one?
Definitely Alan Lamb. It’s an unplayable delivery which was planned. I asked Imran what to do and he said do this. Fairbrother was there who told Lamb what was going to happen, that I was going to go around the wicket, because we played for Lancashire together. Magar Allan Lamb ko pata nahi tha kai around the wicket koi aisee ball bhi kar sakta hai. It was a very difficult ball.
Originally for Dawn.com, this is the unedited version
Ajmals performance should have been enough to shut the English Media up (Image Getty)
As the Pakistanis are savoring their majestic all-round effort to send the English packing with in three days, the tourists especially the English media contingent are licking their wounds and thinking of novel ways to further malign Ajmal’s action while teeing of on the luxurious golf courses in Dubai.
Controversy has never been far from a Pakistan England encounter, but nobody expected it to begin in the record time it did this week in the UAE. Pakistan, through Ajmal’s artistry, had barely finished delivering the early one two-sucker punch on the morning of the first day that muted calls of foul play and doubtful actions had started ringing in from London. Surprisingly it wasn’t the usually below-par English print dailies doing the whining but the highly reputable Sky headquarters, chock-a-block with some distinguished past Cricketing luminaries in Willis and Gower that started the rot.
“The off-spinner has a conventional round arm, and that doesn’t seem to be a threat but the doosra is the delivery that the batsmen are all struggling with. The authorities are now allowing these mystery spinners, unorthodox off-spinners, to bend their elbow.” complained an irked Bob Willis in one of his lighter rants.
It got worse a couple of hours and wickets later during the tea break when Willis went on to accuse Ajmal of wearing a long sleeve shirt to conceal a kink, completely disregarding the fact that play was being held in the middle of winter, and that eight others were dressed similarly on the field. Matters weren’t helped either when Swann came on to ball later the same day in exactly the same attire.
All respect to the “critics” losing their heads over the still photographs off Ajmal circulating the web, but a little composure and perspective is in order. As already well known, Ajmal has been cleared by an independent ICC approved specialist. Dr. Bruce Elliot a Professor of Bio-Mechanics, Motor Learning and Development at the University of Western Australia cleared the smiling assassin back in 2009 when the Australians were having a hard time deconstructing Ajmal’s mystery. He revealed then that, “during a comprehensive analysis it was apparent that the amount of elbow extension in Saeed Ajmal’s bowling action for all deliveries was within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted in the ICC regulations”.
If that’s not satisfactory enough for the likes of Bob Willis, maybe he should try this on for size. The ICC’s chief Biomechanics analyst and consultant, Dr Paul Hurrion recently went into some detail about how these tests were conducted so that to remove any lingering doubts on whether the “conniving” spinner had in fact sneaked his way through the trials. “We use synchronized footage of the player bowling in a match to check that they are not just going through the motions or altering their style. They have to replicate the speed of a delivery from a match, the deviation and the revolutions of the ball. When being tested, the bowler is topless and has reflective markers all over his bowling arm, so the 3D, high-speed cameras can film him from every angle” explained the expert.
Really all this would have been unnecessary though if spin and its nuances were given the proper study and credit deserving of the art. For those who have spent a bit of time delving into the deeply enriched nature of spin bowling will know how oversimplified it has been through the years. It is this generalization and viewing of the skill from a very convex lens that has lead to the tirade against innovation seen today.
Spinners for ages have been classified into two broad categories, wrist and finger, with the leggies in the former and the off-break slotting into the later. Nothing could be further from the truth, as many spinners seen on the international circuit today are highly varied and incomparable.
First thing first, the misconception of wrist and finger spin. There is no form of conventional spin that isn’t aided by the wrist; the reason why leg spin is wrist spin while conventional off-spin is not depends on the timing of the wrist action. In normal off-spin the wrist plays its part first only to hand the ball to the fingers, while the opposite applies to leg spin. The only true finger-spinner in the game is Mendis or Ashwin’s much hyped up Sudoku ball.
The only true “finger” spinners in International Cricket (Images:TenSports, Reuters)
Most conventional off-spinners, are forearm spinners. It is in the turning of their forearm in the delivery action, from the palm side facing downwards to it facing upwards (a position medically termed supination) that they derive most of their spin. Lyon, Swann, Huaritz, Ojha, Vettori are all examples of these conventional forearm spinners playing the international game.
Then there is Murali, the greatest conjurer of them all. To call him a finger spinner would be nothing short of travesty. His entire array of deliveries was dependent on an insane amount of work to be done by the shoulder joint, and was more a shoulder spinner than any thing else.
The man in the limelight this past week however, Ajmal, is another anomaly. He is not a shoulder, finger, or forearm spinner, but instead has dug up the buried art of wrist-spin normally confined to just legspinners and given it a most exciting twist. Most of his spin is not dependent on the fingers, or shoulder but the wrist acting in the opposite manner to which it would for a conventional leggie.
So Ajmal instead of just using his wrist to pass on the ball to the fingers (as Swann, or any conventional offie would do), uses his wrist as the major body part imparting the spin. Getting the wrist in position for an off-break takes that extra fraction of a second, which in tum means he has the delayed, jerky action that is so hotly debated.
Ajmal Wrist Spinning action requires time for the wrist to get into position leading to the Jerkier Action (Image -AP)
This novel wrist spinning style is also the reason why Ajmal has been able to stock up his bowling arsenal with a skiddy straighter one, or what he likes to term the teesra. Nothing new, it has been part of a leg spinners bag of tricks for generations, Warne liked to call it the slider, but with the off-spinner’s action it will take time for the batsman to adjust to the newest variation. Really the English batsman should be focusing on picking the doosra, instead of getting ahead of them selves and getting tangled up in the teesra talk.
As Trott and Prior exhibited in their short stable innings, it was the patience and assured footwork, that the England batsmen were actually missing. Their failure to read Ajmal’s length more than any thing else is their biggest cause for concern. Of course it would serve the team better if the English media and T.V pundits were focused on offering some positive criticism on this front instead of resorting to their age old tactics of griping and digging up a scandal.
This is not the first time Ajmal is bowling to the English batsmen. He was there in the 2010 tour, and has bowled to them quite frequently in county Cricket as well. The only difference of course, this time the off-spinner is the major threat instead of a mere clean-up act behind Asif and Amir. Let’s hope that unlike the recent English tours he decides to take the lead from the Dark Art tour back in the summer of ‘92, when the two Ws vented out their entire anger and a barrage of banana reverse-swingers to go with it at the clueless English batsmen.
It was the Dark-Art in 1992, but reverse swing in 2005. Wonder how long it will take for the doosra and bowlers like Ajmal to get the credit they deserve? Surely not till an English off-spinner well practiced in the art comes along, but until then the Pakistanis have the virtuosity of their wonder off-spinner to relish in.
Silly Tiddy 