The “best” of 2010

Illustration by Faraz Aamer

2010 will be remembered as the year Pakistan cricket finally got it right in all the wrong ways.
After years, if not decades, of relentlessly striving to reach the pinnacle of ignominy, everything awful finally came together perfectly in 2010 as the Pakistan team and its administration put on a near flawless showcase of chaos. This achievement is no mean feat for a team and administration constantly at the forefront of controversy and regularly setting the bar for public disgrace. Indeed, in the recent past we have promised and delivered years of such dizzying depths that we were at risk of becoming complacent in our own brand of, uh, excellence. After years of ball-tampering charges, embarrassing World Cup exits (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/6457689.stm), abrupt changes in leadership, dressing-room spats, terrorist attacks, Nasim Ashraf, drugs, bans, warts, death and more drugs, one would assume that Pakistan cricket could not possibly outdo itself any further.
How wrong we were.
In 12 months of what can only be considered a veritable tour-de-force of opprobrium, the Pakistan team and its administration put their heads together and assembled a year of such startlingly original lows that a mere fixing or doping scandal can now only be referred to as “the good old days”.
For your benefit I have sifted through the various scandals to afflict our country this past year to present you with the Top Five Scandals of 2010. Sure, there was inevitably some glory this year. We beat Australia and England overseas and mustered a few good ODIs. But why not focus on what we did best, which is to make utter spectacles of ourselves.
5. Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal investigated by the PCB
Coming in at last place is the on-going saga of Malik and Kamran. It speaks volumes of the quality of the top four scandals when you consider that Malik and Kamran only make it to no.5 despite their multiple misdemeanors through the course of the year. Various quarters have implicated Malik as the source of intrigue and dissension in the dressing-room, many times in concert with Kamran, and both players are considered harbingers of indiscipline. These guys are in so much trouble off the field that one tends to forget how bad they are on it, which is pretty damn bad. However that doesn’t seem to have stopped them from somehow making tons of money off their positions, a scam that the PCB seems to have belatedly picked up on.
4. Shoaib Malik’s love triangle
Say what you will about Shoaib Akhtar but, as far as we know, at least the poor guy doesn’t treat women the same way as Malik. The former skipper was apparently married to Ayesha Siddiqui, until she alarmingly discovered that he was the prince of Sania Mirza’s dreams. Apparently if you’re Hyderabadi, Malik is quite the catch and amidst much publicity, fanfare and socio-political critique a large chunk of mid-2010 was absorbed by Malik’s courtship of, and eventual nuptials with, Ms. Mirza. Their romance featured the hallmarks of all traditional love affairs – the confiscation of the paramour’s passport; the revelation of a pre-existing marriage certificate; the melodic vitriol of a right-wing nationalist political party. Truly, Romeo and Juliet ain’t got nothing on these star-crossed lovers.
3. The Lord’s No-Ball Debacle
WHAT?! No.3 you say! I must be out of my mind. There is no denying that in terms of impact, prominence and system-wide repercussions, the Lord’s spot-fixing scandal was off the charts. It dominated every local and international headline and will forever change the way we look at our players. But it’s precisely because of that saturation coverage that I’m relegating the scandal to mid-level stature. Frankly, I’m bored with it. In fact, the best part of the entire drama was when Veena Malik injected some life into it by accusing Asif of being a money-grubbing cad while she herself occupied the lofty position of being engaged to a US passport holder.
2. Now you see Zulqarnain, now you don’t
And just like that, poof, he was gone. The entire Zulqarnain episode was almost genius in its absurdity. Believing his life to be in mortal peril, Zulqarnain hotfooted it to England, taking the time out to succinctly explain his motivations through his facebook status: “Leaving Pakistan cricket because get bad msg fr 1 man fr lose the match in last game”. Then, safe inside a London hotel, he expressed concern over the wellbeing of his family. Wow. And here we thought Shoaib Malik was insensitive. However, Zulqarnain would never have made it to second place on this list without the support of the PCB since it’s precisely that lack of support and trust fostered by our governing body that lead to Haider resorting to his own short-sighted methods.
1. Ijaz Butt implodes
2010 was Ijaz Butt’s masterpiece. Unbeknownst to the rest of us, Butt has carefully been plotting his ascension to full-on dementia for some time now. He sowed the seeds as early as last year when he attacked Chris Broad for criticizing the PCB’s security measures just days after the venerable ICC match referee was the target of sustained gunfire. At the time we dismissed this as nationalistic posturing. Then, earlier this year, he announced a string of bans and penalties which were promptly overturned over the course of the following months. At that point the realization began to dawn on us that all may not be quite right with the old geezer. Yet nothing prepared us for Butt’s piece de resistance when he countered the various match-fixing allegations rightly leveled against our players by suggesting that it was the English team, rather, who were guilty of deliberately underperforming for financial gain. Apparently the last time Butt was chilling in bookie circles he overheard someone mention that it was the English players who were up to no good. Clearly this was sufficient basis to launch a public outburst and demand an inquiry. For this remarkable tactical foresight Butt finds himself at the top of this list. And I’m not even taking his battle of egos with Younis Khan into account which, by the way, Younis won.
So there you have it. You cannot help but be in awe of the creativity involved in delivering a year of non-stop, must-see, cry-in-shame depravity. Truly, our boys and management were misfiring on all cylinders this year. Will 2011 have any chance of matching up? Remember, that was what we feared before 2010. You underestimate this team at your own peril. Here’s to another banner year.

Rashid Latif arrives in Kabul ahead of coaching stint

KABUL: Rashid Latif, the former Pakistan captain and wicketkeeper arrived here on Monday to begin his stint as batting coach of Afghanistan.

Latif was appointed earlier this month to work alongside head coach Kabir Khan, another former Pakistan player. Though he will most likely remain based in Karachi, Latif will have to spend time in Afghanistan coaching both the national side and helping out with grass-roots cricket.
Despite the ongoing conflict he brushed aside any trepidation over security and insisted it’s not for him to be dealing with.


“That is not my concern I am being well looked after and my job is to focus on the coaching assignment,” Latif told reporters at his first press conference since arriving in the country.

Instead his focus is helping to continue the rapid improvement of a side that shot from the lower ends of the World Cricket League to one of the strongest non-Test playing nations in the space of a couple of years.

Recently Afghanistan qualified for the World Twenty20 and impressed with passion and verve despite their defeats to India and South Africa.

“The players are very keen to do well for their country, they have lot of pride and energy and that is a great sign,” said Latif.

Latif will formally start working with the team at a camp in Jalalabad from July 27. During the six-day training camp, he will return to Pakistan before accompanying the team on their tour to Scotland that includes an Intercontinental Cup fixture and two ODIs.

Ashes - Flintoff: Collingwood must be dropped

 

Former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff has called on the selectors to be ruthless and drop Paul Collingwood in favour of Eoin Morgan.

Collingwood has struggled for runs in the Ashes while Morgan has not played any part in the series which has seen England retain the urn. But Flintoff, who was forced to retire from international cricket last year because of injury, has backed one-day specialist Morgan to make his mark in the longer form of the game.

"I know people bang on about not changing a winning side but if England want to become the best side in the world they have got to be ruthless," Flintoff wrote in his column in the News of the World.
"Colly has been a brilliant servant for English cricket and is well liked by the management.
"This is England's chance to show there is no room for sentiment within their squad.

"Morgan is as mentally tough as anyone I've seen emerge recently. He's got the million dollar shots but they're so finely tuned he cuts out a lot of risk.

"There's a bit of the Kevin Pietersen in his ability to improvise and make risky shots look simple and he is as cool as they come under pressure."

Ashes - Strauss: SCG will be the true test

The final Ashes encounter is an acid test of England's ability to maintain their focus despite having already retained the famous urn, according to captain Andrew Strauss.

 

England retained the Ashes in Australia for the first time in 24 years with a crushing innings and 157-run win in Melbourne last week but Strauss again made it quite clear he did not consider the job done yet.
England, he admitted, had a habit of taking their eyes off the ball after successes, and letting the Australians level the series at 2-2 with victory in Sydney would be a huge disappointment.

"We didn't come out here to do that," Strauss said on the eve of the final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
"In a good position to win a series like this, it's important we take it. It's a big challenge for us, a lot of people have been patting us on the back and telling us how brilliant we are. But the reality is you're only as good as your next game."

"Every Test is a test of the England side, this one in particular because the Ashes are coming home and it's easy to take your foot off the pedal and that's something I'm desperate to avoid," he added.
"It's a challenge for us and I'll be very disappointed if we don't deliver."

Strauss does not have to look too far back for an example of how England have followed a major victory with a disappointing result.

Comprehensive winners by an innings and 71 runs in the second Test in Adelaide, England were routed by 267 runs in Perth in the third Test before turning things around again in Melbourne last week.
"If you look back at our record, we've been very good at coming back after defeats not to so good after wins. That's something we've got to put right," he said.

"Sometimes there are other reasons, sometimes the other teams play well, sometimes we just weren't in the right place mentally."
"We've talked about it a lot, I think the guys are very conscious of it ... It's fairly simple, it's not getting ahead of yourself, starting a Test match and not changing your gameplan just because you are ahead in the series."

Despite Strauss's obvious commitment to victory at the SCG, the tour would undoubtedly still be considered a success even if Australia were to win in Sydney.
For Strauss, though, captaining England is a longer term project and the fight against complacency will continue to the very end.

"We have made some achievements over the last couple of years, I think we've improved as a side in all forms of the game and we've still got further to go," he said.

"It's encouraging, you can take a lot of heart from the fact that we have been able to move forward as a side. We've got a pretty settled side and that bodes well.

"But if we forget the formula that's got us to where we are, we're going to be in trouble.

Federer beats Nadal to win ATP World Tour Final

Switzerland's Roger Federer reacts during a round robin singles tennis matc...

​London: Roger Federer sent a timely reminder to Rafael Nadal on Sunday, out-gunning the world number one to win the ATP World Tour Finals with an irresistible display of attacking tennis.

Federer, overshadowed this season by the phenomenal Nadal, won 6-3 3-6 6-1 in front of 17,500 fans at London's O2 Arena for a record-equalling fifth title at the year-ending finale, matching the feat of Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras.

Federer and Nadal set for grand finale

Nadal, who won this year's French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles to knock Federer off the top of the rankings, looked jaded after his epic semi-final against Andy Murray on Saturday and the Swiss seized his chance in style.

Federer fired down 32 winners in the one hour 37 minute contest to Nadal's 11 as he beat the Spaniard for only the second time in two and half years.

Nadal now leads 14-8 in their series dating back to 2004 but Federer's form since his shock defeat by Tomas Berdych at Wimbledon suggests the 24-year-old will be challenged hard for the sport's majors again next year.

In going through the round-robin tournament undefeated Federer also added $1.6 million (1.0 million pounds) to his considerable bank balance, although notching another victory over his great rival, and regular nemesis, was satisfaction in itself.

The 16-times grand slam champion roared with delight as he looped a forehand on to the baseline and, after a slight hesitation, Nadal opted not to challenge the call and began walking to the net to shake hands.

For the time since 1986 the world's top two players in the ATP rankings contested the final match of the season -- a fitting end to a tournament that attracted 250,000 fans over eight days to London's Docklands.

Though the match lacked the drama of their previous one in London -- Nadal's unforgettable 2008 Wimbledon final defeat of Federer -- it still provided a feast for a sell-out crowd as both players traded blows.

Nadal had the first sniff of a chance at 3-3 when he had Federer down 0-30 on serve but he was helpless as the Swiss reeled off four perfect points.

Asian Games

In the next game, Federer earned a break point with a forehand winner and converted it when he rolled a backhand beyond the reach of Nadal.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the Swiss had moved a set ahead but Nadal, playing in the final of the season-ender for the first time, levelled the match after breaking Federer's serve in the fourth game of the second set.

Predicting a winner at that stage looked impossible but Federer struck the decisive blow to move 3-1 ahead in the decider when Nadal hit a tired-looking backhand wide.

Nadal got to deuce on the next game but Federer slammed the door shut with an ace to move 4-1 ahead and there was no way back for the Mallorcan.