Misbah the problem is that you appear bereft of ideas at times, the ‘safety first’ approach worked initially but smarter opponents have figured it out eventually. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
I remember your Test debut against New Zealand in 2001, most cricket fans around the country were happy to see an educated, unflappable and seemingly cool-minded batsman with an MBA degree solidifying our middle-order.
After a rather inauspicious start you made a roaring comeback in 2007 and almost won us the World Twenty20 in 2007.
Fast forward to 2010; you took over the reins of captaincy in arguably the toughest time in our cricketing history – post the spot-fixing scandal.
Your safety first approach did wonders initially and we succeeded in keeping South Africa at bay, registered impressive series wins against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, before whitewashing England in arguably our greatest Test victory to date.
This year has been a real tough one for you and the team despite your own batting form.
This year your captaincy has also tapered off and like most mortals trapped in adversity you feel that the world is conspiring against you.
But keep the theories aside please and reflect on the reasons of this ignominious run.
Recently we have allowed teams to recover and post challenging totals after running through their top orders like a knife through butter; similarly the batsmen have failed to exert their presence at the crease and have gone in their shells at the wrong time when the occasion was crying out for some sensible strike rotation and intelligent run accumulation.
Here are a few instances:
• In the Cape Town Test against South Africa, the combined force of Robin Peterson’s counter-attack and a run rate of 2.23 runs in the second innings resulted in Pakistan squandering a golden opportunity of winning a rare away Test against a top class opponent.
• The tied ODI against the West Indies in St. Lucia, where the last pair scored 15 runs in the last over to secure a tie, when your captaincy and field placing was listless as commentator Ian Bishop was tearing out hair from his otherwise bald head.
• The second Test against Zimbabwe in Harare, where Pakistan’s run rate was 2.19 spread over 105 overs. On day three you and Younus Khan scored 29 runs off the first 20 overs, as the lowest ranked Test team was allowed to dominate and eventually eked out a famous win despite your own herculean second innings effort.
• In the first ODI against South Africa of the latest series in the UAE, the Proteas were 129 for eight, when the last two wickets added a match winning 64 runs.
Misbah the problem is that you appear bereft of ideas at times, the ‘safety first’ approach worked initially but smarter opponents have figured it out eventually.
My friend you are dear to cricket fans, most of them sympathise with you but there are hardly any Misbah moments especially in do-or-die/high pressure ties that gave us goosebumps like Javed Miandad’s last ball six, Inzamam-ul-Haq’s Auckland 1992, Karachi 1994, Multan 2003 heroics or the tonic that was Salim Malik’s Kolkata assault of the mid-eighties….. care to change that?
For now remember we are all behind you, lead the team and make your boys fight and you will see the passion resonate through us all over again, and please don’t blame your team for failures, this is not the way leaders operate.
All the Best for the South Africa Tour
Published in The Express Tribune, November 20th, 2013.
Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.
COMMENTS (30)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1729161093-0/liam-(4)1729161093-0-165x106.webp "article")
1732603002-0/lamar-(4)1732603002-0-165x106.webp "article")
1732606500-0/BeFunk_§_]__-(53)1732606500-0.jpg "houbara bustard case sc bench dissolved as justice mandokhail recuses himself")
1732607286-0/Untitled-design-(2)1732607286-0-270x192.webp "belarus president receives guard of honour at pm house")
@writer: Did you find any Misbah's moment in a do or die situation game last night ???
These were five minutes of my life I am never going to get back. Go get a life instead of wasting time of others.
Dear authot, whoever you are - I suppose the days are gone when authors had the guts to give their name when writing open letters....
Nevertheless, you seem to be more sentimental and less objective in your analysis. Misbah defended his team tooth and nail, not balme it for the failures. Yes, if the batsmen ail, they need to take cop for that, but he has defended them in every interview. Take najamsethi's recent one for example. I found Misbah - the tru leader that he is, defending his team every minute....
I suppose last night's result would shed a different light than your sob story.
Come out - be a men. tell us who u r!!
What a waste of an article. Look at the grudge the writers shows against Misbah by saying : "please don't blame your team for failures, this is not the way leaders operate." The same genre of critics started the famous negative campaign of 'mr. tuk tuk' against the master batsman on social media. Now the gentleman writing the article is trying to release the hate in the mask of a well wisher. MR. WRITER, what do you expect him to do when his fellow players are not scoring at all. What if his total score exceeded the over all score of all other batsman in almost every 2nd series. what if his openers don't give him a good start EVER. The man always motivated his team mates but enough is enough...how long????now come on and write sensible stuff plz
@007: your comments made my day :)
This is called healthy criticism Sports anchors should learn from this article
The problem with Misbah, the batsman, is that he lacks the ability or perhaps the luck to finish off a game. Pakistan has always had players who, on their day, would win us a game single handed and would not complain of others not performing. On the other hand, Misbah, on his day, seems to be just converting a defeat into a less shameful one.
Moreover, the relative success of his infamous "tuk tuk" style of batting has also caused juniors to adopt the same approach and as a result the "singles" have absolutely vanished. The art of pacing an innings properly has not been exhibited by the Pakistani batting lineup for quite a long time now!
Just because Misbah does not play test matches or 50 over internationals like one plays a T20 does not make him lesser of a batsman. I would rather see him score low and get out defending a ball in a test match, trying to save the sinking ship that Pakistani team usually resembles, than seeing Afridi get out at a better score trying to hit every ball out of the ground. Only people who play on the streets without much knowledge of the game oppose Misbah.
The letter started with a false statement Misbah was cause of defeat in World T20 against india in pool match and always remain the same throughout his career except very few instances
@PRAMOD KUSHWAHA:
99% of Indian programs are cheap copy of western media including the crap bollywood. First correct yourself before correcting others
@PRAMOD KUSHWAHA Not everything is started by Indian news papers and followed by the world. Please check the stats before commenting. History of open letter dates back to 19th century. Some popular open letters can still be found online. For e.g.:
"J'accuse" (French pronunciation: [ʒaˈkyz], "I accuse", or, in context, "I accuse you") was an open letter published on 13 January 1898 in the newspaper L'Aurore by the influential writer Émile Zola.
"An Open Letter to XYZ"..... DUPLICATE format of AAJTAK (india) online news paper...... http://aajtak.intoday.in/
The days have gone when Javed Miandad, Inzimam, Saeed Anwar, Muhammad Yousuf, Salim Malik playing their best possible knock to win the matches. Where is bowler like Imran Khan, Shoaib Akhtar, Muhammd Aamir & Muhammad Asif, Waqar Younus, Wasim Akram. Now the ICC high ranked bowler Saeed Ajmal is also not affective against S.A. We always found him late striker of the ball and taking wickets when the opponent team made a solid start and huge totals.
Well written letter and i tend to agree or i must say, i completely agree... we should back at least Misbah becoz, he is doing his part.. let's hope for the best in current series..
Inzamam saved our face in Multan in 2003, not 2000. Please get your years right atleast. Rest I completely agree with you. Safety first approach was necessary in 2010 but we need to evolve now.
I agree. Frankly, Misbah is like 'Andhon mein kaana raja'. I seriously doubt Misbah's abilities as a world class batsman. To date, only 4 hundreds in 39 test matches (78 innings) and yet to score a century in ODIs. At the risk of repeating the author, I couldn’t recall a single Misbah moment in his 126 ODIs. 50 odd runs are good enough to rule our cricket saga. Perhaps, we are reaching our new lows: no world class fast bolower; no world class btsman; and fielding, a perennial issue not much to talk about.
Its our national pastime to bash our heroes. Misbah has had a great year as a batsmen.For him to succeed as a captain,every member has to perform
@jafri , no one is blaming Misbah. I liked the letter for its very balanced approach. THe onyl thing we are taking about is Captaincy. Being a captain , you have to encourage the team instead of criticizing.
@Pakistani: we have tried that option already to have a young captain in the form of shoaib malik. And i think that was the point where we made a disastrous mistake and that was the beginning of our team's real collapse. Shoaib malik got involved in to many politics and we lost players like Mohammed Yousuf. Our young guys are not mentally mature enough to handle the politics inside the team. Only a senior/respected by all other teammates member can do the captaincy job for pakistan. See the examples of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Inzamam.
Only time will tell Misbah bashers what's the worth of this cool headed sensible man. Let him retire from cricket and the truth will come out on its own. One of the biggest problem is that our batsmen have been fooled to play 'their natural game'. Eventually, Afridis and Akmals come to the crease, and instead of building their innings, try to throw their bats at every ball flying past them. Batsmen with brains (S. Waugh, Dravid, Laxman etc) would play according to the situation of match, pressure, bowling, field placing, target etc. That's exactly how Misbah also plays. In one of the recent one day matches, we lost half the lower order wickets for less than 20 runs. Among them the 'charismatic' Afridi was also there. Instead of using his brains (if he has any), he threw away his wicket and Pakistan lost. Later, he tried to silence his critics by saying that he's a Bowling All Rounder. Then why does the world call him Boom Boom?! And if Misbah is to be removed from captaincy, then will somebody tell us who's the next choice? Is there anybody who performs, handles pressure, has good leadership skills, is acceptable to players' mafia, uses his brain and knows how to handle media? Misbah still remains the best choice avialable. Let him play, let him lead. Yes, do give a kick to Hafeez, Afridis, Akmals, Jamsheds and other players who've become a liability on the team.
There are no other players in this team right now except Misbah for captaincy. I think they need to revamp the whole team like SA did after Cronje incidence and made Graeme Smith captain at very early age. Please for country's sake getrid of Afridi and Hafeez. These 2 are like rotten metal (looks bad and useless). Also when making new contracts with players, all of them should be evaluated by qualified personnel and set targets, if one can't achieve the target send them on their way. Why can't we find one decent wicketkeeper in a country more than 180 million people.
It is unfair to put the entire blame on Misbah. A leader leads by example, and Misbah has done that. He has shown that test cricket is a game of relentless patience, mental dexterity and boundless maturity. The problem is that the other so-called talented batsmen such as Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, and the others have none of these qualities that only Misbah and Younis Khan posses.
The other batsmen should either grow up or take early retirement. They are mostly deadbeats.
So when are we expecting one for Shahid Afridi's attention?
Inzi at Multan was 2003, not 2000 :) 138* v Bangladesh to give us a 1-wicket win under Rashid Latif's captaincy
Spot on! I am saying this for months now that misbah and hafeez need to stop criticizing his players and look at their own performance. Misbah might have a better avg than the rest of the team this year but his failure to motivate and inspire his players has cost us. There is too much politics going on within the camp and neither of our captains has done anything to solve it. He needs to be aggressive and demand performances from his players rather than just criticizing all the time. You select the same players over and over again yet you have not made a team capable to challenge on all fronts. It is the captain's responsibility to change the face of the match as De villers and dhoni does when their team needs them the most. Misbah can retain his spot but needs to leave his post as a captain and Pakistan needs to groom a new young player rather than giving a 30 year old the reign. Having a young captain can be a mistake but in the long run it is for the best for pakistan cricket.
I liked the letter for its very balanced approach. Yes Misbah is good and best choice in current lot. But there is room for improvements, which should be addressed immediately.
I totally agree!!!!