Redemption

by Satish Sekar

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Setting the Record Straight:

After their acrimonious tour of Australia the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) punished seven players for infighting. Then captain Younus Khan and vice-captain Mohammad Yousuf were banned indefinitely. Shoaib Malik and Rana ul-Naved were banned for a year and fined while Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and his brother Umar were fined and their conduct monitored for six months.

Despite assurances that his career was not over, a hurt Yousuf promptly retired from international cricket. Khan was determined to clear his name and successfully appealed against the indefinite ban imposed on him by the PCB. Yousuf – lacking match practice – is believed to be getting ready for his return to Test cricket. Despite winning his appeal Khan was dropped for the current tour and continues to play for Surrey.

 

Afridi was named captain and justified Khan’s exclusion due to loss of form. His team of youngsters have an early opportunity to set the record straight. Pakistan – never a team to shy away from giving youth a chance – needs to blend the brash fearlessness of youth with the tempered hand of experience.

 

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly concurs. “It’s just about showing them the right way,” he told us recently. “I’m sure Afridi has got the responsibility in doing that. If he can get those boys together on the park and get them to play together they can win Test Matches.” Next week they have an opportunity to erase the pain of the drubbing down under in two Test Matches, beginning at Lord’s.

 

“It’s going to be a tough series for them,” Ganguly said. “It’s going to be important for them to stand up and deliver. They need to put up gutsy performances and that’s the way they need to play these series. There will be hard times and if they hold back, they could be washed away, but if they stand up and be aggressive and gutsy they will come out well in this series.”

 

Spirit and Expectations:

The series, sponsored by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) offers Pakistan the opportunity to play at the highest level, even if that can’t happen in their country. Sussex and Pakistan bowler Yasir Arafat welcomes the initiative.

 

“I think that it is a good thing –  sponsoring the Pakistan series – and I hope to have a very good series because we can’t play in Pakistan because of the conditions back home,” Arafat told us exclusively. “I think it’s going to be a good thing, because there is a lot of Asian support – Pakistani support – over here. It’s not going to be like we are playing away anyway when we play in England. We feel like we are playing at home.”

Australian anticipates a good, but unpredictable series. “I don’t think they’re as well prepared for these conditions as we are and their preparation is not as good as us because we’ve played a bit of cricket leading up to the Test series, but you know, you just don’t know who their captain will be to start with – who’s in the line-up,” he said. “Is Shoaib Akhtar playing? Is Afridi the captain? I don’t know. I don’t know any of those questions.”

So what does he expect from the mini-series? “You ask what my expectations for the first Test is?” he said. “They don’t play cricket as much as they did before, but one thing I’ll always say about Pakistan – I’ll never underestimate Pakistan,” says Waugh. “They’ve got an amazing amount of talent and they can come together really quickly and when you least expect it they can play a great Test Match.”

 

Legend:

Waugh is the most capped Australian cricketer of all time in both one-day internationals and Test Matches. He played 168 Tests, scoring over 10000 runs with 32 centuries. Waugh is an all-time great of Australian cricket and was inducted into the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame last January. After a poor start in Test cricket Waugh proved his class retiring with an average of over fifty – the sign of a special player. His first century came in the 1989 Ashes tour, well over three years after his début.

 

Waugh stood out on Australia’s tour of the Caribbean in 1995. It marked the passing of the baton from the great West Indies side of the Seventies and Eighties to Australia. Waugh stood up to giant fast bowler Curtly Ambrose during an angry confrontation. His batting on that tour established his reputation and played a very important part in winning the series.

 

After the ageing Mark Taylor was dropped from the one-day team, Waugh took over the captaincy. He became skipper of the Test team as well later and set a new record of sixteen consecutive wins in Test Matches. Waugh retired in 2004, having captained the Australians in 57 Test Matches, winning 41 – a record recently surpassed by his successor Ricky Ponting.

 

Waugh’s credentials to judge talent are exceptional and he sees plenty in Pakistan’s young team. “The one thing I know is they’ve got amazing talent,” Waugh said. “Umar Akmal is a star batsman. He’s as good as anyone going around. He’s an amazing talent and they’ve got good quick bowlers, so they’ve got potential match winners.”

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