The only person who was surprised at Mohammad Hafeez’s ascension as Pakistan’s T20 captain was his predecessor Misbah ul Haq, not because it wasn’t in the plans, but because it came quicker than he had thought. By all accounts, Misbah took it like a man he is known as. At first, a display of anger (‘I will burn my kit’), but then a composed resolve, to help his friend and his successor, who is affectionately known as ‘chanda’ in his hometown of Sargodha.

In his first press conference after the most significant announcement of his life, Hafeez mentioned everyone who has been associated with the recent resurgence in his career as an integral part of the national team. The only thing he missed was his personal courage and conviction, which closely mirrors that of his close friend, mentor and captain. Both were discarded for long periods of time and drifted in the wilderness of domestic cricket in Pakistan, but the confidence in their abilities and a passion for the game has finally bore fruit.

Akmal’ed and Malik’ed in the same game, the poor batting form seems to have finally unruffled Mohammad Hafeez’s well composed exterior. The body language can only take a certain amount of toll, before giving way to the inner storm that has been brewing inside Professor’s head.

With aggressive batting at the top by the re-born Hafeez has won over a plethora of fans over the past year, but recent struggles with the bat (he remains an uncanny off-spinner) have played havoc with his confidence and self belief during the recently concluded tour of UAE against England.

His first ball return catch duck against Jade Dernbach was a classic example of a man void of self-belief. A tame poke back to the bowler, with the bat turning in his hand was uncharacteristic of a man who usually creams those with ease to the cover boundary.

What is common between Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umer, Naveed Latif, Shoaib Malik, Yasir Hameed, Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Saleem Elahi, Shadab Kabir, Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Khurram Manzoor and Fawad Alam? They have all been slotted into the hot & boiling cauldron of problems - that was Pakistan’s trouble with finding openers, who could open, after Saeed-Sohail. Together these 14 have scored 8896 runs amongst themselves in 320 innings at an average of 27.80 – safe to say opening has been Pakistan’s Achilles heel over the past decade.

Never the most talented of the names with him up on that list, Taufeeq Umer has made the most of his opportunities, by sheer doggedness. He duly scored a century on debut against Bangladesh, but his qualities really shone through during the 88 against Australia during the ‘Shoaib Akhtar test’. There was a glimmer of hope as long as he was out there in the middle, that Pakistan might cause an upset after surrendering a huge lead in the first innings.

KheloPakistan.Com presents its first ever cricket podcast on the ‘State of Test cricket’. Hosted by Ahsan Awan, it features Imran Asghar  and Tabrez Ali Janjua voicing their opinions on placid pitches, day & night tests and the absence of Mohammad Yousuf from the Pakistan Test squad.

Do not forget to send us your feedback via a comment.

Gambling of any sorts is unlawful in Pakistan, yet many have seen and heard punters from all over the country, take risks and bet a huge amount of money on cricket. We have had our share of maverick cricketers, who not only took chances on the playing field and came out triumphant more often than not, but also indulged in taking risks off the field. The cricketing world finds our brand of cricket exciting due to its impulsive nature.

Yet, ever since the trios of spot fixing Pakistani cricketers were exposed, there has been a dearth of unpredictable actions, arcane simplicity and downright dullness being associated to Pakistan cricket. A Pakistani cricket fan is used to high octane action on the field, and there is still plenty of that as long as Shahid Afridi is around in the limited overs international. But, there has been a visible lack of positive intention from our test batsmen over the last 12 months or so.

Nobody can argue the solid results under the leadership of astute captain Misbah ul Haq, but the batting approach against lower ranked teams leaves a lot to be desired. Now I am no adrenaline junkie (it is desired at times though), but using a more positive batting approach will actually help the test team in order to win against quality opposition. Whilst batting has been solid, it is our bowling which has allowed Misbah’s men to have a winning record ever since he took over.

He has scored 840 runs in 16 innings so far in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy at an average of exact 70. He has scored 3 hundred and a fifty, at an impressive strike rate of 71. He has had another stellar season on the domestic season, but Fawad Alam still finds himself out of the national team. The lean run-making machine is despised by fans of pajama cricket, on the bogus postulation of his un-ability to hit boundaries. Fawad has played some very valuable innings for Pakistan, in spite of the constant mistreatment of his abilities by the team management – he has it in him to be a solid all-round cricketer in Test and ODI cricket. Yet, he gets dropped for his shortcomings in a format ill-suited to the brand of cricket he plays.

Scoring 168 on test debut, away from home, from an unfamiliar position - where the rest of the team crumbled around you, is a significant feat. Such is the misfortune of Pakistan cricket that the precious talent found him out of the test team after just 2 more tests. He was presented to New Zealand as a sacrificial goat, due to the cowardly attitude of the senior players (read: Shoaib Malik) in the team, who refused to bat at #3 on a green top in New Zealand.

Fawad has represented Pakistan in 54 international matches in all three formats of the game; almost half of those have been T20I – a format of the game which is not suited to his approach of batting when sent at #6 or 7. Out of the 17 innings he has played in T20’s only 4 of them have been at his natural position of #4, 5. His two most noteworthy contributions in T20I cricket were his; 8-ball-23 against Sri Lanka in Canada, and his run out of Albie Morkel in the semi-final of the T20 WC 09.

Shoaib Malik has been at the top stratum of Pakistan cricket for well over a decade now, and he has yet to cement a permanent playing spot for himself in the national team. Even when he was captain, there were calls for his omission from the test team. After 12 years of top level international cricket, the verdict is still the same – he is a classic example of a ‘bits & pieces’ player. Shoaib Akhtar in his recently published book, ‘Controversially Yours’ - labeled him as an establishments stooge, who was not worthy to be made captain of the national team, and termed his appointment the biggest gaffe the PCB made after the Inzimam era.

After the spot fixing saga in England, Malik was unceremoniously dropped from the national team, until he made his comeback during the Zimbabwe tour. That happened only after he got a clearance from the PCB integrity committee, which investigated his earnings and took a good 8 months to clear him of any wrong-doing.

In between, he missed the all important ODI World Cup and the tour of West Indies. The Zimbabwe tour proved to be a miserable outing for Malik as he struggled to get runs against the minnows. The only highs for Malik during the last 12 months have been; his sparkling form in domestic cricket last season and the Faysal Bank T20 win in October - by his Sialkot Stallions team.

One of the founder members of KheloPakistan.com. Ahsan is a business student and resides in Hong Kong as per his academic career commitments. A patriot Pakistani and a passionate cricket fanatic he is. A very nice and straight forward guy who himself plays cricket at the club level. We bring you an interview of him. 

Tell us about yourself?
Ahsan Awan - 23, skinny and interested in social sciences.

What are the sports that you follow and which one is your real passion?
Cricket obviously has been the #1 passion for as long as I can remember. Was hooked onto ice hockey, due to its fast paced nature.

A recent newspaper report suggests that the Pakistan Cricket Board has hit the jackpot and is set to receive a $16 million cheque in compensation for its inability to stage World Cup matches due to grave security concerns. What is the PCB going to do with this money?

The epicenter of terrorist activities in Pakistan lies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Much has been written about the social & economic backwardness of the area, despite it being home to 2.4% of Pakistanis. The menace of terrorism has uprooted many families from their homes, forcing them to live with the tag of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in shelter camps across the country. Can cricket be part of the solution to tackle their problems?

The former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara’s recent speech about cricket’s potential “to be more than just a game’ in his country immediately struck a chord. Sri Lanka suffered from a bitter and bloody civil war for almost three decades and Sangakkara contended that their surprise World Cup win in 1996 helped bring the country closer and made it “a shared passion and a force for unity.”

Therein lies the beauty of this great game or of sports in general. The ability of sport to rise above the various ills that plague a society, to bring joy to the people who have suffered immensely, to transcend the barriers a war has placed on an already fractured society. As Michael Messner wrote, “Sport is not an expression of some biological human need, it is a social institution.”

Pakistanis across the length and breadth of the country breathed a collective sigh of relief yesterday (11^th October, 2011) after reliable sources confirmed that Ijaz Butt has been replaced by Zaka Ashraf as the new supremo of the PCB.

It is no secret that the Butt was universally despised by everyone who followed Pakistan cricket under his stewardship. Today the sport, which is revered by millions across the country, is on the brink of implosion after suffering immensely from 3 years of incompetence, buffoonery, ineptness, utter failure and various faux pas on the administration front.

Here are just some of the many, bone-headed decisions taken by Butt in the last 3 years. From arbitrary coaching changes to inserting lackeys in important positions, from changing captains to backing players against a captain, from bumbling along during the biggest scandal to hit the sport to blaming English players of match fixing. Losing hosting rights for the Champions Trophy and the World Cup, blaming security lapses on the government, meddling in team selection, and ruling like a dictator are just some of the medals hanging on his personal wall of shame.