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Cricket: Concerned Misbah calls for ‘responsible’ show - 19 Jun 2012
ODI series: Letting the opportunities spill
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Cricket: Misbah’s authority diminishing in the squad
ODI, Test captain not entirely backed by teammates.
“It seems that Hafeez is working towards ODI captaincy too and Misbah has realised that,” says former selector. PHOTO: AFP
KARACHI: It seems that reports of grouping within the national side in Sri Lanka do carry weight, The Express Tribune has learnt, as loyalties now stand divided.
The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) decision to appoint two captains has played its fair share in helping those groupings resurface with Misbahul Haq’s authority in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) under threat. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, the PCB appointed Mohammad Hafeez the Twenty20 captain as well as Misbah’s deputy in ODIs and Tests.
“Misbah has started to feel the heat and the grouping within the team has led to its poor performance,” said a former selector close to Misbah. “It seems that Hafeez, despite being nominated for Twenty20 captaincy by Misbah, is working towards ODI captaincy too and Misbah has realised that.”
Pakistan has been poor in the ODI series and shocked all after losing seven wickets for just 13 runs during their chase in the 4th match. The performance of Hafeez, Umar Akmal (apart from last night), Shahid Afridi and Younus Khan has been below-par too. The official added that head coach Dav Whatmore, surprisingly, is in the mix as well, having overturned some of Misbah’s decisions, including the continuous selection of Akmal.
“Misbah grew frustrated with Akmal’s poor show and wanted to drop him but Whatmore decided against that. Whatmore used his power retain Akmal.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2012.
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Reader Comments (35)
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Hafeez is certainly looking cunning because his form has dipped every since he became T20 skipper and now he has set his sights on ODIs as well…. Its a shame that there are such players in Pakistan :s
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I would like further add that Misbah did a big mistake by nominating another captain and PCB committed a blunder by naming two captains becuz its in our culture ‘GROUPING”
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Whatmore should be given a clear line by the PCB which he should not cross afterall skipper is the leader of the ship but Whatmore wants to hijack it and create his own monopoly
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They all should sidelined and Saeed Ajmal or Mohammad Sami should be made the new captain to freshen up the things in Pakistan team!!!!
This will certainly be a +ve change :):)
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Misbah’s ouster from the captaincy will be faster than his batting.
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@Nahida… M.Sami??? Did you see what he did last night….he should be side-lined for good
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I read a story about whatmore that he did the same in Sri Lanka by removing the seniors he created his own power and rule the team making forceful changes of his liking…..
Certainly this also looks that Whatmore has decided to get rid of Misbah in order to get Shoaib Malik back in the side and to make Hafeez a long-term successor.
Note this date and remember “IT WILL HAPPEN SOON”
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This all is really embarrassing for Pakistan certainly :(:(
These Akmal brothers are corrupt and have backing of influential people
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One bad series and our the journalist are back at their best against the team. Patience is the ‘word’, we should have in ourselves. Its just the team is out of form and we lost. We should not believe in these speculations of grouping, our journalist needs to move forward and start accepting defeat rather creating a story out of nothing.
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Bring Kamran Akmal back if not as a keeper then as a batsmen, he has got aggression and better technique than many Pakistani batsmen. let him bat at no.3 or no.4 and see the difference. Dropping one or two catches has made him a scape goat but he has won several games on his own. I challenge any one to point out a single game in which he scored 40 or 50 runs and Pakistan lost.
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@SF ALI
Atleast he gave it all… However the piece is about grouping within the team u shud focus on that topic and for that matter Hafeez and Whatmore are to be blamed I think
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@Nahida.. I am not abusing any one here but your advice of switching captain isn’t a good one. And Sami?? come’on yaar
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i think misbaha is good captain but afridi is best option for pakistan in odi and t20
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Mental level of selectors and players is low. They still keep selecting a permanent failure – Afridi. He holds the records of maximum failures and yet they retain him. Why blame Misbah? Two captains was a humongous mistake. I thing Misbah should be made captain for all forms of the game for two years minimum and let him have authority in toto. See how we come back. That is a challenge.
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Mr. Nabeel Hashmi…..Your thinking cannot go beyond Politics. Instead of educating people of technical aspects…You are misdirecting the people’s attention towards Politics.
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Its time Mishah stepped aside. His decisions are bad, and his batting can’t even win matches.
Let Hafeez be in charge then.
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I blame the team’s poor performance on poor selection and poor coaching! Why did the PCB have to remove Mohsin Khan when he wasn’t doing so badly anyways. I don’t understand what’s so special about Whatmore…
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lol this news is crap and baseless. Pakistan has been loosing ODIs for quite some time now. lost 4-0 against average English ODI side. Nearly lost both the games against Bangalis in Asia cup and now 3-1 to SL. Problem is with the selectors and the think tank. They are just not selecting the right people and no matter who will captain this side, we are bound to loose. Limited over cricket is won by the batters while bowlers do the trick in test cricket. We need capable batsmen especially in top 3, most of the things will be fixed then. We can try out Ahmed Shehzad, Nasir Jamshaid in place YK and Hafeez. Also unfortunately we have to bring back K Akmal, atleast Akmal can bat while the others just keep missing the chances and are good for nothing with the bat. I would rather like to see this playing XI with this batting order :
1) Ahmad Shehzad 2) Nasir Jamshaid /Imran Farhat 3) Kamran Akmal 4) Azhar / Umer Akmal 5) Misbah 6) Hafeez 7) Hammad Azam/Razzaq 8) Afridi 9) S Ajmal 10) Gul / Cheema 11 ) Tanvir
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hafeez needs to start batting, before pushing for captaincy…. he could be pushed out of the team on poor form.
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@Huma Shah: True. He does not deserve T20 captaincy Recommend
c’mon guys, one day PAK lose and all of you complaint with such baseless allegations. It is a part of game, winning and losing does happen.
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Hafeez should be dropped to end this game once for all
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Cast you mind back to few months back in Asia Cup Final !! – How Aizaz Cheema- an intelligent and committed bowler not as flashy or quick as Sami bowled a great final over for Pak to defend 8 runs to win the Cup.In the traditions of great PCB Management You rewarded him by dropping him and bring back Sami (Talented but….) with all the hype and he fails to defend 15 runs ! Ironical but typical!
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Pakistan lost 4-0 in ODI and the 20-20 series against England when Mohsin Khan was the coach ..issue is not with coach but the team selection. Heck, look at this foolish selection….we already have good bowlers yet there were 3 reserve bowlers in the 15 men squad in place of batsmen. Cheema, Talha, Sami , Gul, Tanvir, Ajmal, Afridi, Hafeez lol why you need 8 bowlers in the squad when we already have strong bowling line up with 5-6 good options….why didn’t they included couple of batsmen in place of these mighty bowlers liken Sami or Talha when knowing the fact that we are struggling in batting department not bowling….this selection is mind boggling and its just not the case in this series but happening for quite some time now. Cheema was bowling reasonably well since last year, but he was not given a single match in both 20-20 and ODIs for God knows what reasons. Remember he bowled that crucial last over against Bangladesh when they just required 9 runs from it and he successfully defended the total while the likes of Sami/Wahab are good for nothing bowlers and are just selected because of their extra bit of pace. I will blame selectors for this debacle. And if they give lame justification that they selected this squad with the consent of Misbah and Whatmore then they better resign from their damn jobs and let Whatmore or Misbah having additional title of selectors as well.
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@ guys
Hafeez cannot be drop because he is fully capable bowler like Afridi now. Better to make him bat lower down the order. See my team and batting order for the same you all and comment.
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Hafiz shouldn’t even be in the team let alone the captaincy. His primary role in the team is of a batsman. He has always been a mediocre batsman, and is a regular based on his one or two performance. Below is his international score in 2012. You can go further back and is no different.
T20: 24, 0, 0, 0, 23
ODI: 6, 0, 0, 14, 37, 40, 105, 11, 89, 1, 29, 26, 5, 8
Test: 21, 13, 22, 31, 15(not out), 88
So, out of 25 innings, he only has 4 innings of any substance and has been rewarded with captaincy. This sums up how cricket is being run these days in Pakistan.
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Politics everywhere have not only spoilt cricket but look at hockey, squash, boxing etc we were not good but we were champions. Allah knows where are we pushing our country.
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Shahid Afridi is a big culprit………. jst look at him how he talked to media on hix arrival looks he want to get captaincy
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Umar Akmal needs to be kicked out of the side so that he learns from his failures otherwise its just a waste of time to give hum chances after chances
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Whatmore must have links with bookies because he was in IPL as well and that is the most corrupt tournament of the world.. everything is scripted there and players/officials are just paid puppets ———————————————- WHATMORE SHOULD be send back.
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PLZ MR ZAKA Ashraf wake up and see whats happening with Pak team. We want a probe and nation shud know what is going on behind the scenes
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Shahid Afridi should be made captain for ODIs and T20Is and Misbah may still lead the test squad.
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@ Hasnain
Agreed with that u say… will be a perfect combo
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Shahid Afridi is the one who is doing politics along with Whatmore he should be the one to be kicked out first and then Hafeez mr professor should follow the same way out of the side
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I think all of the players should be kicked out and we all would be playing for Pakistan in test…haiiinaaa??? :D:D
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