can pakistan ever lose a game...

shared by straight point on Thursday, October 08, 2009

...without match fixing involved that is...?

while there is no denying that pakistan didn't push themselves against australia they would have normally had their chances depended on the outcome of the match... even before the match started pak fans were discussing the fact that how pakistan wants to meet 'weak' new zealand at wanderers assuming they have already won the semifinal...

this is what i commented on pakistan chances couple of days before their match...

regarding your match against nz... i have this feeling pakistan is taking it very lightly the match is going to be at wanderers where they were reduced to five for nothing against a weaker westindies... and with your lower middle order have been hardly tested... caution won't hurt pakistan's chances...

the fact that was confirmed by team pakistan attitude that new zealand is there just to make up the numbers and the way pakistan played in initial part of their innings... even then i won't be surprised if they would have thought that the target of 230 odd is enough for them to defend against new zealand...

the loss of pakistan can be attributed to the fact that first they didn't push themselves and in second match they allowed new zealand to pull the red carpet beneath their feet... for being arrogantly complacent...

but powers at pakistan cricket just can't digest the fact that pakistan team can be defeated by anything but for match fixing... not by the better cricket from other team... not by opposition team being the better team on given day... nothing... but only match fixing can cause pak defeat...

but this time they have beaten themselves with the stretch of imagination... they have accused indians (bcci) of influencing umpires so that pak can be defeated in the semifinal...!!

so what about our 'inability' to influence umpires when WE played against them...?

needless to say that these 'gentlemen' are harming pak cricket more than anybody... and i don't know if they have time and inclination to look within for a change... but more importantly if only they can learn to keep their mouth shut when mic is placed in front of their mouths... in search of cheap 15 minutes to the fame... pakistan cricket would be alive and kicking...

21 comments:

Purna said...

I agree SP. They are such a disgrace to cricket. I don't understand why there are no sane men in the PCB. And I don't understand why people from the subcontinent can't stop hating on their players. Pakistan just wont the T20 WC and that glory lasted for only about 6 months before they started ripping their team apart again. The losses are talked about way too much than the wins. It's a shame that we don't know how to appreciate our team. And I am including Bangladesh and India in this.

Anonymous said...

the answer. throw away Butt. Get in some sane player. Hard to find. All publicity mongers and failed admins come to picture -- Latif, Nawaz, Javed and all..

Inti Alam even goes to an extent that Pak should review their relations with India (Cricket).

And then when their team lands in any trouble, they want India to bail them out.

Hypocrisy doesnt work.

Somebody like Waqar or Wasim should be running PCB than the headless Butts.

namya said...

SP,

A fixed match produces a winner as well.. The fact that Pakistan were underdogs in WT20 but won it should raise doubts as well.:-)

straight point said...

they must learn that pak can't win every game they play... and stop coming up with the tape recorded version of 'match fixing'

however, i can't say aout bangladesh... but here in india tho we to scathe defeats but we seldom see beyond their performances... :)

straight point said...

sam... until unless the mindset changes wasim... waqar or for that matter even imran won't be able to do anything...

there's too much emphasis given to the reaction of masses and hence the rush to appease them with senseless statements...

unfortunately i don't see any change happening regarding this...

straight point said...

interesting angle namya... :)

so they should play the tape recorder (of match fixing allegations) even then they won!!

hahaha...

Wasim said...

"they have accused indians (bcci) of influencing umpires so that pak can be defeated in the semifinal...!!

Guys!I think before we jump on the gun we should first figure out who said what.

Nobody at PCB accused BCCI,
one local sports minister Dr Shah accused Simon Taufel to have wronged Pakistan under the influence of Indian Book makers.

I hope you guys don't think that BCCI and Indian Bookies are one and the same thing:))

Pcb chairman and several others officers vehmently negated that statement.
Umpiring was a bit inconsistent but that is a part of the game I think Dr Shah went to an extreme.


Nobody is saying that no other team can defeat Pakistan fair and square.

But to lose from a winning position and do it quite consistently is quite troublesome.

Several theories were flying around regarding Pakistan's match against Australia.

The ground reality was that Pakistan went for a victory a bit too late they shouldn't have rested Aamer and they should have played U Akmal before Misbah.

I agree with Intikhab Alam that no team can design to stretch a match to the last ball.

But were Pakistan's chances hampered by sidelining Aamer and U Akmal? Yes.

Pakistan were never 5 for nothing against West Indies, they were 5/76 chasing 133, but that was a different pitch and Windies pacer Tonge bowled a great spell.

The pitch on which semi final was played had no movement in it, it had a bit of bounce but that was all, it was just like a hard cemented pitch.

The manner in which our batsmen played second string Kiwi bowlers like Butler and Franklin, it looked as if they were batting on a mine field.

Kiwi bowling and the nature of the pitch got exposed when 17 year old Aamer along with Saeed Ajmal who can't bat at all, scored 35 runs in the final five overs.


YK didn't even attempted to use power plays. You can't call it complacency.
Aalowed the Kiwi batsmen to settle in by not choking the singles.

He bowled out Aamer and Afridi too early, took Malik out of attack because Elliott was having difficulty in scoring against him and brought Rana in who gave a lot of runs but YK persisted with him till end.

Where there is smoke there is usually fire, people in Pakistan do have doubts about the integrity of a few players in the team and that is what which is being investigated.

straight point said...

thanks for giving info from other side of view wasim...

however... correct me if i am wrong but when pak was on winning positions in both matches against australia or new zealand...? to me pakistan was playing catchup game in both matches...

its also a fact that pakistan would have played differently had its chances were dependent on oz match...

the only chance when pakistan could have come in the game against new zealand was when elliot's sitter was dropped by YK protecting his injured finger... but then you have to take it once he decided to play in spite that injury...

so playing tape recorded tone every time when pak loses sounds bit rich to me... and the bigger problem is that even if you remove the 'usual suspects' this nuisance is not going to stop...

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Wasim said...

SP

My reference was to the Odi series in Dubai and the SriLankan series.

You yourself are admitting that "there is no denying that pakistan didn't push themselves against australia"without match fixing involved that is...?

So they just did it for the heck of it:))

You are giving a mixed signal here on one hand you are trying to prove that Pakistan didn't throw away their match against Australia on the other hand your whole post gives the impression that they did throw away the match to keep India out or to face Kiwis in the Semis but you didn't used the term "throwing away" and used a more ambigous term "not pushed enough" just to prove your other point.

I think you have to be a bit more explicit over here.

I have already explained in detail what was done wrong in the match against Newzealand so won't repeat it.

As regards the tape "recorded version" I think the criticism of top PCB officials by Indian bloggers is also a tape recorded version.

Nobody here bothered to read the statements of Butt & co vehemently denying and rubbishing all the conspiracy theories involving match fixing by Simon taufel and carried on with their favorite hobby of maligning PCB officials.

"They are such a disgrace to cricket. I don't understand why there are no sane men in the PCB"

"throw away Butt. Get in some sane player. Hard to find. All publicity mongers and failed admins come to picture -- Latif, Nawaz, Javed and all..

We all are entitled to our perceptions and opinions and we all have our biases.

Whether it's a case of wrong perception or it's a case of bias hopefully we will find it out when the matter is further investigated.

Anonymous said...

Just look at the fire now when Pakistan lost to Australia and NZ. Imagine what would have happened if YK had lost it to India.

the same ministers and admins would have been mad and the allegations of the match fixing would have been even louder.

And there was a quote from Mr Alam about how India trying to defame Pak, here are the excerpts :

The truth is that it is hard for the Indians to digest the fact that this year in two major tournaments their team, whom they tagged as favourites, was eliminated in the first round and our team not only won the Twenty20 World Cup but also reached the semi-final of the Champions Trophy," he said.

"It is hard for them to accept that we did much better than their team in the Twenty20 World Cup and Champions Trophy,"

Why would Indian media bother about Pakistan ? THey have got good feed to live upon the early exit of their own team and come up with some real funny headlines about them. They wont even look to the other side of the border.

I have not seen any coach of any cricket team do such a loose talk. Mr Alam is the most successful coach Pak has ever got. If i am not wrong he was the head coach in 1992 and then he was again in 2009.

And how things change quickly. Not so long ago he was on the other side of the border to coach the Punjab team for the Ranji trophy games.

There are the same people who are always quick to criticise the team whenever the team loses. Rashid Latif, Sarfaraz Nawaz and few ministers would have their tapes ready. they just need to change the names, year and the tournament.

People dont get fed up of this silly rants of Match fixing on every loss.

Som said...

I don't think there is any solution to the cynicism. Come on, they won the T20 World Cup the other day. GIve thema break!

straight point said...

wasim

its not new phnomena... many teams earlier dint push themselves on matches which results does not affect the tally... whether this can tantamount to match fixing is an open debate...

what we all are sick of is the obsession of some guys with match fixings and blaming everything on india...

while searching for the news i came across this link and i could not beleive my eyes that its imran khan who said something like this...!!!

what purpose its going to serve pak cricket... they all are just dong lip services to appease masses and in doing so losing any credibility if there was in first place...

straight point said...

exactly sam... i think by now even pakistan avaam too would have got fed up by now... or is it...?

straight point said...

indeed som... there can never ever be solution to cynicism...

paksitan was in finals of 2007 t20 world cup they won it on 2009 they were in semifinals of CT after five years that too after virtually not playing cricket for so long... what more you can ask from a team... win bloody every single game? bacche ke jaan logay yaar... :)

Wasim said...

SP

The link is not from a reputed website, I regularly check leading Pak newspapers and never read such statement from Imran, You can go back and check the archives of Dawn and The News which are the two leading newspapers in Pakistan.

As regards the cynicism regarding winning every game, I think you are missing a few very important points.

You are ignoring the fact how Pakistan lost the Odi series against Australia and the series in SriLanka.
You are also Ignoring the fact that the performance of Pak team has varied between club level to world class during last several series played under Younis.

Australia has won consecutively for many years we believe that the current team if plays according to its potential can win more consistently.

The form of pak players varies from one extreme to another during a series and this is happening consistently, there are only a few players who are the main culprits.

straight point said...

no i am not ignoring wasim... infact i remember discussing these matches with you... i also agree that pakistan team is hot one day cold on another and there is no consistency either... but pakistan has always been like this since i remember following them... isn't it...?

you can criticise them for being lackluster on field... you can criticise YK as captain or as batsman but why not for once anyone comes up and say we lost the match coz we dint play well for a change... is this so hard...?

Poshin_david said...

Nice new layout mate......

straight point said...

thanks cpd...

Wasim said...

SP

Pakistan has never been so inconsistent as they are under YK especially in Odi's.

When Pakistan was playing under Malik this criticism of match fixing never came up, yes a few times people did blamed a few players for under performing because there was an open revolt going on against Malik.
So I don't know why are you adamant in proving this point.

When a batsman's range of strokes and a bowlers line and length change with in a couple of days you don't call it lacklustre.

straight point said...

wasim...

the problem with YK is you can call it so... is that he has raised expectation of all fans by winning t20 world cup and now they expect pak to win every game which obviously can not happen... as i said on your blog... i don't know what other problems YK has... so i can't really comment on them...

but i agree that given he has largely got the team he wanted... he certainly can not complain... and his insistence on playing even with injured finger cost pak the games and may be final spot in CT...

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