'Amir needs rehabilitation not punishment'

Taunton: Former England captain Michael Atherton feels 18-year-old Mohammad Aamir, one of the three Pakistani cricketers named in spot-fixing in the fourth Test against England at Lords, should be helped with rehabilitation instead of being banned for life if found guilty.

"Admittedly, if these allegations are proven accurate, to reprieve Aamir at the expense of anyone else involved would be arbitrary and, in a sense, unfair. It would give succour to those who argue - rightly - that the events of the past few days are a direct consequence of a failure to act on the excesses of the past.

"Yet that would be to ignore the obvious: that Aamir is a potent symbol right now, of what was, what is and what might be," wrote Atherton in his column in for The Times on Tuesday.

"He should not be punished as an example to the rest, as everyone seems to suggest, rather he should be made aware of the issues, educated, rehabilitate and held up as an example of what can be achieved.

"Aamir’s rehabilitation should be at the heart of the cleansing of Pakistan cricket. The brilliant young bowler is not the cause of the problem but the most tragic consequence of it," stressed Atherton.

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Pietersen faces ECB probe over Twitter post

Taunton: Kevin Pietersen faced the prospect of disciplinary action after announcing via social networking site Twitter on Tuesday he'd been dropped from England's squad for the forthcoming Twenty20 and one-day internationals against Pakistan.

The news was confirmed several hours later when the squads were announced formally by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Pietersen could be in trouble for revealing squad details before the official announcement, with an ECB spokesman telling AFP: "We are considering the circumstances surrounding it (Pietersen's Twitter post).

"The 30-year-old batsman was clearly unhappy at the decision telling followers on his account kevinpp24: "Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too. It's a fxxx up."

In a post cut short, seemingly because of Twitter's 140 character limit, Pietersen added: "Surrey have signed me for l ... (blank). But Pietersen's season was far from "done".

The ECB announced he would spend the rest of the season on-loan at Surrey.

England have asked Hampshire, Pietersen's county side, to play him in a couple of fixtures this season.But with Pietersen having made it clear he would be leaving Hampshire at the end of the season, the southern side have refused to select the South Africa born batsman.

In the ECB squad announcement statement, Pietersen was in far more conciliatory mood than he had been in his Twitter post.

"While I'm naturally disappointed to have been omitted from the England squad I fully understand the reasons why and will be doing everything I can to get back into the England team. I have no issue with the selectors omitting me from the limited overs squads and my sole focus now is working on my game ahead of an exciting winter."

"I would also like to add my huge thanks to Surrey for giving me this opportunity and I hope I can repay them with some runs."

England national selector Geoff Miller said: "Kevin Pietersen has been omitted from both squads as we feel that his game would be best served by getting as much cricket under his belt as possible before a long and challenging winter."

"Kevin has proved on numerous occasions he is a world-class player and we know he'll benefit from getting more time in the middle to work on his batting and get his game back to the level he has shown throughout his career," former England off-spinner Miller added.

Pietersen has never been dropped, when fit, from an international side since his England career started in 2004.

But the former captain has struggled for runs this English season and managed just one fifty, a scratchy innings of 80 in the second Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston.

Pietersen, out for a duck in England's innings and 225 run win in the fourth and final Test at Lord's, where the hosts' victory saw them to a 3-1 series win, was man of the series in the team's victorious World Twenty20 campaign in the Caribbean this year.

Australia batsman Phillip Hughes was reprimanded for revealing on Twitter he had been left out of the side for the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston last year while Yorkshire duo Tim Bresnan and Azeem Rafiq have both been disciplined for expletive-filled Tweets.

England are scheduled to play Pakistan in two Twenty20 internationals, in Cardiff, on Sunday and Tuesday, and five one-day internationals.

The series is set to take place against a backdrop of 'spot-fixing' allegations engulfing Pakistan after a British newspaper sting claimed they'd bowled no-balls to order during last week's fourth Test against England.

Pakistan lost by an innings and 225-runs in what was their heaviest Test defeat of all-time as England took the four-match series 3-1.

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'Spot-fixers should be fined, not banned'

New Delhi: Pointing out the difference between spot-fixing and match-fixing, the former Pakistan captain Imran Khan said that both terms are different and should not be mixed.

While talking to CNN-IBN, the captain of the World Cup winning side said, "Spot-fixing is not throwing away the complete match but match-fixing is just that.""

By bowling no-balls and playing a maiden over does not affect the outcome of the game but in the match-fixing the whole team deliberately gets involved and change the outcome of the game," he added.

The former Pakistan skipper were also not in favour of a life ban to players involved in spot-fixing and said players involved should be dealt seriously and imposing heavy fines and not life ban.

"There should be some definite amount of ban given but not life ban for the players who are involved in spot-fixing", Imran said.

"Crime does not pay, so the players who are involved in spot-fixing should be fined heavily. There should be huge fine so that players suffer financially and it should hurt their pockets," he added.

The cricketer-turned politician Imran also said that the new way of fixing is just a way to make money in short span of time and it is extremely difficult to spot.

"Spot-fixing is just the way of making quick money and it is impossible to find out, so the players should be fined heavily and maybe a limited ban should be imposed but not a life ban."

Talking about match-fixing, he told, "he was more concerned about the allegations where the whole Pakistan team deliberately threw the Sydney Test match in January against Australia."

Former Pakistan great continued by saying that back in 1993 when the first match-fixing matter came up with the Pakistan board, it should have been dealt in a better way.

"In 1993 when the the enquiry happened, if the enquiry had been followed right through the end, if the right measures had been taken and they would have tried to reach the root cause of the problem, Pakistan cricket won't have been facing this problem", he added.

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Younis Khan not linked to Majeed brothers

Younis Khan, the former Pakistan captain, was one of few players from the national squad who did not sign with UK-based agent Azhar Majeed during the 2006 tour.

Azhar's brother, Mazhar, is at the centre of the spot-fixing controversy surrounding the Lord's Test between England and Pakistan. He was arrested by Scotland Yard on Saturday following an undercover investigation by News of the World but released on bail without charge the following day.

The brothers are believed to have formalised their relations with members of the Pakistan squad on the 2006 tour and, though it remains unclear whether any official agreement was signed, over a number of years Azhar and Mazhar have handled various sponsorship and marketing contracts for the players in the UK.

Cricinfo understands that Younis was approached but turned down the offer and signed up with another agent, an agreement that lasted till 2009. He does not have a representative in the UK currently.

Younis stepped down as captain of the Pakistan side last November after an ODI series loss to New Zealand, claiming that he no longer had control over his players. He was called up for the ODI series in Australia where he played under Mohammad Yousuf's leadership. Soon after the series he was punished by a PCB inquiry committee which ruled that he would not be picked for future Pakistan squads for an indefinite period of time.

Younis appealed against the decision when it was referred back to the PCB by a tribunal. There it has remained, however, reportedly due to personal differences between the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt and Younis. Despite calls by a number of ex-players, Younis has not returned either to the Test or ODI side since the Australia series. 

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Mohammad Amir earns sympathy amid scandal

Former Pakistan captain, Ramiz Raja, and the former coach, Geoff Lawson, have both spoken out in defence of Mohammad Amir, Pakistan's 18-year-old fast bowler whose alleged involvement in the Lord's spot-fixing scandal is threatening to destroy his burgeoning career.

Amir was a revelation during the recent four-Test series against England, in which he collected 19 wickets at 18.36 and proved unplayable at times in helpful swinging conditions. He picked up consecutive five-wicket hauls in the final two Tests, including a career-best 6 for 84 in England's only innings at Lord's.

However, on the eve of the final day of the series, he was one of four players - along with his captain Salman Butt and fellow new-ball bowler Mohammad Asif - to be named by The News of the World in an alleged scam involving bowling no-balls to order, a situation that has led many commentators, including England's former captain, Michael Vaughan, to call for a life ban.

However, Ramiz and Lawson both expressed sympathy for Amir, and believed the greater blame lay with the men who had led him astray so early in his career. "To see an 18-year old boy being dragged into the controversy is the worse part," Ramiz told Cricinfo. "He had the world, everyone was raving about the talent and praising him. It is such a sad moment in cricket.

"Amir comes from a humble background," Ramiz said. "He is 18, with an impressionable mind, and if he has been keeping bad company, it's possible he could have been drawn [into wrongdoing]. But if that's the case, then the guys who got him in should be put behind bars because they've spoilt a grand career. They've infiltrated and spoilt a young mind, and it's such a shocking state of affairs."

Lawson, who coached Pakistan for 15 months between July 2007 and October 2008, said: "For me, it would be a great tragedy if a young man such as Amir, a shining light of hope, has been led astray." But he also added that Pakistan's socio-economic situation needed to be taken into account before rushing in to judge the alleged actions of its cricketers.

"We must remember that we are judging these guys by the standards of our own country, when their situations are vastly different," Lawson told The Age in Melbourne. "The first time I met Mohammad Amir was when he was 16, coming to an Under-19s camp. He comes from a small village near the Swat valley and was delayed by three hours because the Taliban had closed the highway. That doesn't happen in this country."

"One thing that struck me about Amir was his constant smile, his zest for the game," he said. "That has not changed. I will never condone any form of fixing, but we should consider that a cricketer might not be thinking of personal gain but of getting money to buy a generator for his village because they don't have electricity.

"I don't think Pakistan should be banished, we have seen it survive some incredible on and off-field turmoil," Lawson said. "But I will say that the present Pakistan administration cannot escape some of the blame for this. What they need right now is positive leadership and they don't have it.

"When I was there the board did not have people with vested interests, they were business people who treated people fairly, remunerated the players well. The first-class players were looked after and paid well and it made a difference.The [current] Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt is not a leader, he should not have the job, he is incapable." 

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Stop the tour, save the game

Before anything else, let this be said. No two cricketers have brought more joy in the last 12 months to the true lover of the game than Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. Say what you must about the spectacles of strokeplay or close finishes in the shorter forms, there is nothing quite as sensational, or dramatic, as a pair of quick bowlers bursting through a batting line-up. And none has provided these more regularly - and more eye-pleasingly - than the two Ms, who have in a short time built a partnership worthy of comparison with the two Ws.

What tragedy, then, not only for Pakistan but for anyone who cherishes a good contest between bat and ball, that the two should find themselves entwined in a controversy of the most heinous kind. Judgements mustn't be rushed, and life has prepared us for bizarre twists, but irrespective of where the story ends, Pakistan cricket has again plunged into an abyss, and till the players are either absolved or punished, the game will not feel normal.

It is difficult to remember anything more unreal on a cricket field than the final session of Pakistan's last Test of the English summer. The fizz had gone out of what had been a delightful series. There was the obligation of Test to be finished, but did anyone have the heart to play? The English players seemed to go through the motions, perhaps deflated by the thought that a magnificent come-from-behind victory was now certain to be overshadowed by events off the field.

What must have been going through the minds of the Pakistani cricketers? It was impossible to take one's eyes off Amir, but for reasons different than those of a couple of days ago, when he was utterly compelling as he glided in and made magic with the ball. Now you watched him walk in with the knowledge that every eye in the stands looked on in judgement. A wan smile tried to hide the storm that surely raged within as he tried to defend his mere wicket with a shadow looming over his honour. The heart ached for the bowler who had captivated us all year. Surely a boy so gifted couldn't have let his soul be corrupted at such a tender age? It was a relief when Graeme Swann spun a ball past his bat and bowled him. Surely we'd see Amir bowl in a Test match again? The alternative is too depressing to contemplate.

The bond between the fan and the sports hero is among the purest in the world. It is also among the most sacrosanct. Fans might appear impossibly demanding and cruelly unforgiving at times of failure, but in reality their affection is unconditional. The most important aspect of this relationship, however unilateral, is faith. Fans may curse their heroes in the hour of disappointment, but they rarely lose faith in them. Failure hurts because it is real. Sportspersons can sometimes be forgiven for taking adulation for granted, but they must never test, much less abuse, faith. Once shaken, faith is the hardest to restore.

That's why the administrators must act urgently, decisively and clinically. Nothing can be more damning and debilitating for a sport than allegations that faith has been sold. Cricket was lucky to recover from the last match-fixing scandal as quickly as it did, but the loyalty of fans cannot be taken for granted.

Irrespective of how the investigations go, Pakistani administrators must ask some tough questions of themselves. Why is it that their cricket has not managed to shake off the ghost of match-fixing? Why will the whispers around their team not go away? Is it because the board itself is so dysfunctional and so utterly shambolic that it has been unable to provide any sense of stability, let alone guidance, to its cricketers?

Or is it because it never managed to make a clean break with the match-fixing, merely chopping down a few rotten trees but letting the seeds remain? Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum, who presided over the match-fixing enquiry and himself admitted to being lenient towards a player or two, has blamed the PCB for not implementing his recommendations in full. Too many players indicted by him were let off with fines and left within the system. It's hard to tell what message it sent to the players, and hard also to deny that the taint of match-fixing has never been fully cleansed.

True, innocence must be presumed till guilt is established, but the videos are disturbing and the allegations grave. It's hard to imagine how normal cricket can be played under such circumstances. Until the players are absolved, or punished - and anyone, however promising, found to have compromised the sport must be banned for life - cricket will be meaningless.

The PCB must suspend the tour and get on with the business of finding the truth. Among other things, there has been talk of matches in the ODI series being fixed. Cricket can't be played in an atmosphere where even a fair result will be doubted. It's terrible for the fans and even worse for the players.

The cost of losing out on a few one-day games is a trifle before the cost of the sanctity of the game. Mohammad Amir must either stand tall or never bowl a ball again. Nothing in between is acceptable. 

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Murali says Yuvraj still a top batsman

Chennai: India's middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh is only going through a bad phase in his career and will certainly make an impact in the 2011 World Cup, says legendary Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

Speaking on the sidelines of a function here on Monday to felicitate him on his achievement of 800 Test wickets, Muralitharan said Yuvraj was only going through a bad phase that afflicts every cricketer.

"Yuvraj is a great batsman. All cricketers go through bad phases. I think the media has to be careful in criticising him. This has put a lot of pressure on him and he is reacting. But he will certainly make an impact at the World Cup," he said.

Yuvraj scored only 75 runs in four matches with a highest of 38 and averaging 18.75. 

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Credibility concern over Eng-Pak ODIs: Vaughan

London: Cricket authorities were under pressure on Monday to cancel the rest of Pakistan's tour to England after lurid match-fixing allegations swirled around a string of recent matches.

Scotland Yard detectives were questioning top Pakistani players as the cricket world reacted with shock and dismay at reports that hundreds of thousands of dollars had changed hands in match-fixing schemes at Test level dating back months.

Ex-England captain Michael Vaughan said any further matches against the tourists would have "no credibility" in the light of the damaging allegations. The latest scandal broke when Britain's News of the World claimed on Sunday that it had paid fixer Mazhar Majeed 150,000 pounds (230,000 dollars) for advance details of three no-balls in the fourth and final Test between Pakistan and England as part of a betting sting.

England won the game at Lord's in London - the prestigious ground known as the home of cricket - on Sunday, meaning they took the series 3-1.

Majeed, a 35-year-old who is an agent for several Pakistan players, was arrested by police on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers in the wake of the report but was released on bail late on Sunday. Scotland Yard have also questioned Pakistan captain Salman Butt, plus star strike bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif.

Butt, Asif and 18-year-old Amir - who was named Pakistan's man of the series - all had their mobile phones seized. The news has sent shockwaves around the world of cricket, which prides itself on its reputation for fair play, raising questions about the fairness of previous games and leading to calls for Pakistan's looming one-day series against England to be scrapped.

Former International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed even said there was a "fairly compelling case" for suspending Pakistan from world cricket. "It looks as though it is endemic that several of the team members are involved and have been for some time," Speed told national radio.

"So perhaps they need a rest. It looks a fairly compelling case."

Former England batsman Allan Lamb called for the upcoming one-day series between Pakistan and England to be scrapped. "I believe that the one-day series shouldn't go on," he told BBC television. Ex-England captain Vaughan wrote in the Daily Telegraph that England "would not want to play against" Pakistan in the games, which would have "no credibility".

The news has also hit hard in Pakistan, with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the claims "have bowed our heads in shame", as he launched an investigation. President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed his disappointment at the allegations and is being informed of developments, while federal sports minister Ijaz Jakhrani promised any players found guilty would not play for Pakistan again.

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Pak face more allegations of match fixing

More skeletons tumbled out today in the match-fixing saga with reports saying that the first Test between England and Pakistan in the just-ended series and Pakistan and Australia in Sydney in January were also fixed.

Meanwhile, another report claimed that the Pakistani players were found with cash exceeding their daily allowances during a Scotland Yard raid on Saturday night.

The bookie at the center of the storm, Mazhar Majeed, who was arrested on Saturday and released on bail last night, is seen claiming that the result of the Sydney Test between Australia and Pakistan was rigged in the video of the sting operation conducted by British tabloid 'The News of the World'.

In the video, Majeed is seen boasting about the fixed result of the Sydney Test and the money he earned from it.

"Let me tell you the last Test we did. It was the second Test against Australia in Sydney. Australia had two more wickets left. They had a lead of 10 runs and Pakistan had all their wickets remaining.

"The odds for Pakistan to lose that match, for Australia to win that match, were I think 40-1. We let them get up to 150 then everyone lost their wickets," newspapers here quoted Majeed as saying in the sting video.

"We made 1.3 million pounds on that one. But that's what I mean, you can get up to a million. Tests is where the biggest money is because those situations arise."

Australia clinched an unlikely 36-run win in the match after Pakistan lost nine wickets for a mere 89 runs. Pakistani Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal dropped four catches in the match which helped Australia recover from a potentially losing situation.

The ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit had investigated the match but gave it an all-clear.

Compounding the Pakistan cricket team's woes was a report which claimed that the side's players rigged the opening Test against England, which the hosts won by a massive 354 runs last month in Nottingham.

According to British tabloid 'The Sun', Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick was told about Pakistani players being involved in match fixing a month ago.

"Police were told a month ago about match-fixing in the England v Pakistan Test series. Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick was tipped off over alleged corruption in the first match," the tabloid claimed.

Quoting a source, the newspaper said that an informer had given "credible" information about match-fixing by Pakistani players to the police here.

"The information given to Assistant Commissioner Dick was credible. But such an investigation would have soaked up a huge amount of resources, with no guarantee of a result," the source was quoted as saying.

"The intelligence was still being analyzed to see if there was any possible way forward. It now transpires that corruption has continued.

"With what emerged yesterday and the information supplied four weeks ago, it's hard to see how people will look at cricket the same again. Millions will have been watching on Sunday wondering if it was real or not," he added.

The new revelations are bound to damage the Pakistan cricket team's reputation even more after the sting operation "exposed" 'spot-fixing' by pacers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir, who were allegedly paid by Majeed to send down no balls during the lost Lord's Test against England.

The Pakistani cricketers implicated in the scandal, including Test captain Salman Butt, Asif, Aamir and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, have had their mobile phones and reportedly their passports confiscated by the police.

But the storm has failed to force a resignation from Butt, who has reacted by saying that, "I haven't heard any allegations, except just taking my name. There's nothing I've seen or been shown on TV that involves me."But rattled by the bookie's claim about the Sydney Test, Cricket Australia said the allegations are "most disturbing" and called for a thorough investigation into the scandal.

"The reports from the UK are most disturbing and we look forward to the outcome of rigorous investigation by the UK authorities as well as by the ICC," CA chief James Sutherland said.

"It is critical for cricket that the public has confidence in the integrity of the outcome of games, which is why CA and other ICC members have supported the significant world cricket investment in anti corruption over the last decade or more," Sutherland added.

Sutherland said that so far CA has not had doubts about the Sydney Test.

"CA had been in no doubt that Australia had won that game on the merit of their on-field performance and will now wait on evidence from UK and ICC investigations before making any further comment," he said in a CA statement.

Equally disturbed by the turn of events was Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who said if the match-fixing slur is proved right, all individual milestones by his players in the Sydney game would be "tainted".

"The thing that I'm most worried about if any of this is proven to be true is some of the individual performances that took place in that game," he said.

"You look at Mike Hussey's second innings hundred and Peter Siddle's batting and the way he was with Mike Hussey that day and Nathan Hauritz taking five wickets on the final day to win us the game.

"All of those individual milestones will be tainted as well," he added.

Ponting insisted that he never suspected anything fishy during the match.

"Not at the time, no, I had no idea about anything like that at all," Ponting told 'ABC Radio'.

"The way we won was one of the more satisfying moments that I've had on the cricket field. And now when some of these things come to light is when you start to slightly doubt some of the things that have happened. It's not up to us to worry about that anyway," he added.

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Afridi returns to Pakistan betting scam fall-out

LONDON — He may be a proven ball-muncher and pitch scuffer but Shahid Afridi is now charged with leading Pakistan out of the mire of a corruption probe and to victory in one-day series against England.

Last month, Afridi resigned the Test captaincy -- having returned for only one match after a four-year absence from the five-day format -- following Pakistan's 150-run defeat by Australia at Lord's.

He now returns to a team smarting from an even bigger Lord's loss by an innings and 225 runs -- Pakistan's heaviest Test defeat of all-time -- which saw England to a 3-1 win in a four-match series.

But even the scale of that reverse has been overshadowed by allegations in Britain's News of the World.

The Sunday tabloid claimed it paid 150,000 pounds (230,000 dollars, 185,000 euros) to a middle man in return for details about the timing of three Pakistan no-balls against England in the fourth Test at Lord's.

The report alleged Pakistan seamers Mohammad Aamer - the tourists' man of the series - and Mohammad Asif delivered the blatant no-balls at the exact points in the match agreed with the alleged fixer.

News of the World also alleged that Salman Butt, Afridi's successor as Test captain, was implicated in the no-ball probe.

Although a team game, several aspects of cricket -- such as bowling no-balls -- are essentially dependent upon one player and that make it particularly susceptible to so-called 'spot-fixing' where unscrupulous gamblers can rig the result of one incident rather than the more complicated business of 'fixing' a whole match.

Even when he stood down as Test skipper, Afridi made it clear he wanted to lead the one-day side, whom he captained to victory in last year's World Twenty20 in England at next year's World Cup in the sub-continent.

In the immediate aftermath of their crushing Test loss at Lord's, there were doubts as to whether Pakistan's two Twenty20 internationals and five one-dayers against England, which start in Cardiff this coming Sunday, would go ahead.

But Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed said: "As far as I'm concerned the one-day series is still on.

"We are moving to the west country and we will play all the one-dayers and all the T20s."

Saeed, speaking at a Lord's news conference alongside Butt, told reporters: "As far as the allegations are concerned, I would still call them allegations.

"It's not really for me within 24 hours to pass a judgment on whether they are true or not."

Saeed also confirmed Butt, Aamer and Asif had their mobile telephones taken away by police on Saturday after being spoken to about the allegations.

"The three gentlemen have had their phones confiscated."

Butt though was in defiant mood.

The 25-year-old batsman pointed out how under his leadership Pakistan had bounced back to draw 1-1 against Australia and beaten England at The Oval by four wickets in the third Test .

"Pakistan has won a Test match against Australia for the first time in 15 years and against England for the first time in nine years," Butt said.

"Does that make me resign from this current situation?"

Butt was invited several times to say if the allegations were untrue but he replied: "They include quite a few people and they are still ongoing and we will see what happens."

Afridi, 30 is no stranger to controversy himself, having been one of seven players either banned or fined by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) following the team's winless tour of Australia earlier this year where he was seen biting the ball during a one-day match.

And during England last's tour of Pakistan, in 2005/06, Afridi deliberately scuffed up the pitch in Faisalabad.

Pakistan's next match is a tour game against western county Somerset in Taunton on Thursday.

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Selectors, sins and bins

"I'm going to help pick a few names out of the hat." So quipped David Gower, that master of gentle sardonicism, shortly after being reappointed England captain in 1989. By the end of that summer's Aldermanning by Allan Border's revitalised Australians, the newly-formed England Cricket Committee had plucked 29 names from their topper, 13 of whom played just once. What is generally forgotten is that three debutants, Mike Atherton, Angus Fraser and Devon Malcolm, all went on to carve their names in the nation's heart.

Even during their most blush-worthy periods, selectors are seldom utterly wrong. And nor, even when all is going swimmingly, do they necessarily get things wholly right. Thus it was with the unprecedentedly early announcement of the England XI for the Oval Test. The timing, three days before the toss and plainly designed to reassure Alastair Cook, exemplified the sensitivity and fairness we have come to expect, even demand, in the age of the central contract. File it alongside dads attending births as a sign of progress. The retention of Stuart Broad, conversely, smacked of warped priorities and mangled morals.

Team selection is only straightforward when options are limited or the occupants are uniformly in form. When you've won six Tests on the trot, regardless of the poverty of the opposition, it is too easy to leave well alone. Yet victory can mask deficiencies, as Alec Bedser and pals acknowledged after the 1981 Headingley Test, responding to a magical, if somewhat fortunate, triumph by dropping one of the conjurors, Graham Dilley, a fast bowler who'd reserved his sorcery for the striker's crease, in favour of John Emburey, a spinner. Sentiment be damned.

Another improbable win followed, at Edgbaston, with Emburey to the fore, whereupon two more heroes were shelved for the next chapter at Old Trafford: keeper Bob Taylor (skipper Mike Brearley insisted on recalling an all-round mini-genius, Alan Knott) and allrounder Peter Willey (Chris Tavare stiffened the top order). Not even hindsight could find fault.

As a show of humanity and faith, sticking with Cook - who at 25 has already racked up 12 Test centuries, more than Ted Dexter, Mike Gatting or Tom Graveney managed in their entire careers - was admirable. Brave, too. Over England's last 15 Tests he has averaged 36.57, , least among the regular specialists; subtract 401 runs at 66.83 against Bangladesh and the fruits, such as they are, have been 550 at 27.50 in 20 knocks, with one hundred and three fifties. Twenty-four innings for Essex this summer have yielded one hundred and five fifties, three of the latter, instructively, in Twenty20, a format wherein he has flown the flag just four times. Form is a distant memory, class barely detectable. Yet just as the Australian selectors stuck with another opener, Mark Taylor, while he, their captain, was enduring 21 innings without reaching 50, so another factor has spiced up the usual calculations - Cook is, after all, Andrew Strauss's heir apparent. Besides, what better for waning confidence than back-to-back games on those flat mattresses at The Oval and Lord's?

On another level, retaining Cook is unpragmatic if not downright foolish. Pakistan might be demoralised in the field and bereft with the bat, but the quality of their pace attack, even in the absence of Umar Gul, would be an ideal examination for an alternative opener such as Jonathan Trott, Michael Carberry, or even a young thruster such as Yorkshire's prolific Adam Lyth.

Albeit batting down the order, Carberry was a key figure for Hampshire on Saturday, when Twenty20 Finals Day at the Rose Bowl brought an undeservedly rousing conclusion to the competition's un-businesslike excesses (if more fixtures than an entire County Championship campaign doesn't qualify as overkill and misplaced priorities, I am at a loss to know what does). On an occasion marred only by Kieron Pollard's horrific injury, and decided somewhat surreally by Somerset's ignorance of the law governing runners, the main joybringers were a terrific trio of 19-year-olds: Hampshire's flighty left-arm slowie Danny Briggs and nifty stumper Michael Bates plus, most thrillingly of all, Taunton's inventive swashbuckler Jos Buttler. To see Cook free his arms and slap a few "have-at-thee-o-vile-critics" boundaries was a tonic too, not least because he put his foot in it, or rather, his feet.

Distracted as he is by all those obsessive-compulsive trigger movements, can we wonder that Cook has scant time for footwork? Even when those soles do shift, it is all too often too little, let alone too late. And there lies the rub. Gower, Virender Sehwag and Marcus Trescothick are rare exceptions to the golden rule: light feet = big feats. Nor is it any coincidence that all three are/were attacking batsmen with fast hands, enabling them to make light of such a flaw.

Significantly, bar a stoical and crucial 118 in Durban, Cook's best two innings during his personal recession have come when he's let his hair down - 95 in a dash over three hours to give his side a flying start in that drought-breaking Ashes victory at Lord's, and a match-winning century in Dhaka against the clock. Brett Lee, Shaun Tait, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz and Stuart MacGill might also recall his rollicking 214 off 238 balls for Essex in 2005. Here, one cannot help but conclude, is where salvation lies.

FOR BROAD, SALVATION almost certainly lies in the opposite direction. Until this summer, I had only twice been ashamed of an England bowler. The first time was at Lord's in 1971, when big, bad John Snow shoulder-barged little Sunil Gavaskar as if disputing possession in a schoolyard soccer scrap. The second offender, more improbably, was Steve Harmison, a courteous and generous soul, who in Faisalabad in 2005 somehow saw fit to hurl the ball at Inzamam-ul-Haq and hence, with the complicity of the umpires, run out Pakistan's captain as he took evasive action. When Broad fired the ball at Zulqarnain Haider at Trent Bridge, he committed a more grievous sin than Snow or Harmison. And not just because, in doing so, he may have aggravated the finger injury that truncated Haider's tour.

Unlike Snow, Broad didn't have the alibi that he was trying to field the ball while contending with a scampering batsman. Unlike Harmison, he couldn't even claim, however tendentiously and self-servingly, that he was aiming at the stumps. No, this was purely a fit of pique, an eruption from the bubbling well of frustration. Snow was suspended for the next Test, five priceless paydays lost; to Broad, who shops at Dolce & Gabbana, confesses to having a "thing" for expensive watches, and has his suits handmade, a £3000 ICC fine amounted to a mild tut.

Trouble is, while Chris Broad also played at the highest level, and was even reborn as an estimable ICC referee, he hardly set his son the finest of examples. For too long now, in fact, son has appeared hell-bent on outdoing father, diluting and diminishing his own considerable achievements with even more egocentricity and petulance. Stepping over the line is becoming a nasty habit. Compassion is due - his stepmother died last month - but forgiveness would be simpler were it not for the lengthy charge list. Shahid Afridi bites balls and gouges pitches, but when it comes to sullying the game's largely good name, Broad Jr's look-at-me surliness is fast making him Public Enemy No.1.

It needn't be this way. Such is his ability with new ball and old, Broad has it in him to lead his country's attack for the next decade, and even become England's most complete seamer since Ian Botham's pomp. He could also be a vibrant No. 8 once he learns that singles are as important as sixes. First, though, he must master a nobler art - humility.

Unlike the likes of Dennis Lillee and Javed Miandad, Broad is playing in an era of goldfish-bowl scrutiny, one in which cricket's hourly reach can be measured not in thousands but billions. Misdeeds, thanks to satellite TV and the internet, are far more visible, rectifying them vastly more necessary. Which is why Broad should have been suspended for this week's Test, if not longer. In resisting an option that would have sent appreciative waves rippling across the oceans, the selectors failed to send the requisite message: no player, no matter how valuable, can behave with impunity. The choice, though, should not have been theirs (even though, apropos the Snow incident, it was Bedser and his co-selectors who claimed responsibility for dropping the Sussex man on disciplinary grounds). In ducking any official sanction, the England and Wales Cricket Board did not so much pass as chuck the buck.

The obvious antidote, if we are to make Broad and his ill-tempered ilk think twice, is to take one leaf from rugby's book and another, however reluctantly, from soccer's. Umpires who are privately unhappy about the way technology is eroding their responsibilities would surely not be alone in welcoming both the sin bin (a session or day in the pavilion, depending on the length of contest) and a punitive card system (bacon and egg instead of red and yellow). And yes, those who attempt to pervert justice via the UDRS - umpire misses blatant edge, decision overturned on appeal - should be eligible.

It's a pity, however inevitable, that it should come to this, but the prospect of having misdemeanours so openly exposed and instantly punished, in the team sport that values decorum and propriety like no other, ought to prove a worthwhile deterrent. Throw in an annual "It's Not Cricket" award for serial offenders (The Grace Trophy?) and we may really get somewhere. 

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Waqar & Co furious over team selection

LAHORE: While the limited-overs series against England nearing, another crisis seems to be knocking Pakistan cricket after it emerged that coaches of the national team are not happy with the team selection, and were even about to quit the job before refraining from taking such an earth-shattering decision.
According to sources, head coach Waqar Younis, assistant coach Aaqib Javed and fielding coach Ijaz Ahmed, with Pakistan playing the final Test against England at Lord’s, had given their input regarding changes for the limited-overs contests — including two Twenty20s and five One-day Internationals starting with the first Twenty20 in Cardiff on Sept 5.

However, after the PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt’s meeting with limited-overs skipper Shahid Afridi and chief selector Mohsin Khan in Lahore on Tuesday, the chief selector picked the limited-overs team, claiming other members of the selection committee and the head coach had been taken into confidence before announcement of the 16-member squad with five changes.

Though sources said all the three coaches in England were all set to drop a bombshell by quitting the job after finding that their recommendations over the team selection were not being given any weight, later, they reviewed their decision and refrained from taking such a big step during the tour.

As Mohsin is also to go to England to witness the limited-overs matches and to discuss planning with the captain, coaches and manager about future competitions including the forthcoming series against South Africa in the UAE, there are chances that Waqar, Aaqib and Ijaz Ahmed will lodge a strong protest for not taking them into confidence while naming the limited-overs squad.

Surprisingly, the PCB has decided to finalise the ODI team here in Pakistan instead of doing it in England, where all the stakeholders are available for detailed discussions.

Players who have been selected for the ODIs and Twenty20s are Mohammad Hafeez, Fawad Alam, Shahzaib Hasan, Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar. While those were axed are Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Umar Amin, Shoaib Malik and untested pace bowler Tanvir Ahmed. 

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Men behaving badly in the Lord's pavilion

The Centenary Test at Lord's in 1980 was intended to be a celebration of a hundred years of Test cricket in England. Off the field it lived up to all expectations, as a mass of former internationals assembled in London from around the world to enjoy a week of reminiscing and parties. Sadly, on the field the Test was marred by the weather and best remembered for an altercation on the Saturday, when an MCC member assaulted one of the umpires.

The original Centenary Test - in Melbourne in March 1977 - was a tremendous success, with the match itself going down to the wire and even producing an identical result to the first encounter, a win for Australia by 45 runs. The huge crowds had barely left the MCG before plans were being drawn up by the MCC for a similar event in England.

The first Test in England had been played at The Oval, but staging the Centenary Test there was ruled out on commercial grounds. Lord's held around 24,000, The Oval 16,000. It was also argued that Lord's was the spiritual home of the game. Even on such a sentimental occasion, the money men had the final say.

The assembly of Ashes greats at Lord's for the first day of the match, September 2, 1980 was remarkable. The oldest Englishman was Percy Fender (90), while Australia's senior was Stork Hendry from the 1921 tourists. I remember walking round the ground an hour or before the start of play and being left open-mouthed at the mass of legendary players casually chatting behind the Q Stand (now the Allen Stand), which was reserved throughout just for them.

Sadly, unlike in Melbourne, the game itself was poor - "inconclusive and dull" to quote David Frith in Wisden Cricket Monthly. Time lost to the weather (10 hours in all) did not help, but neither captain appeared prepared to take any risks, and on the fifth and final day England chose to ignore a stiff target set them by Greg Chappell. In warm late-summer sunshine, what should have been a great match petered out into a forgettable draw.

But it was the events of the third day that dominated the headlines and were remembered long after the game itself faded from the memory.

After delays on the Friday, a dry night meant there was every hope play would start on time on the Saturday. But a two-hour downpour in the morning left old creases towards the Tavern-side of the square sodden. To make matters worse, as the sell-out crowd milled around, the sun came out. All spectators had to entertain them under a clear blue sky was a regular procession of umpires and captains to and from the pavilion.

As the delay continued, the crowd's frustration grew and, fuelled by alcohol, they became more vocal. In his book Lord's, Geoffrey Moorhouse, who had access to many of those involved, said the ground staff thought play could start after lunch. Chappell told the umpires he was prepared to play ("If it helps you two lads to get the game started then I'll go along with that") but not so Ian Botham, England's captain since the start of the summer. Jack Bailey, the MCC secretary, told reporters that night that "MCC wanted play to start earlier".

With tedious regularity the four men inspected the pitch alongside groundsman Jim Fairbrother and then returned to the pavilion. That there was disagreement between them, made clear to all by often vigorous head-shaking and gesticulating, only served to stoke up the crowd.

"Had Botham been of the same mind as Chappell, they could have taken the matter into their own hands," John Woodcock wrote in the Times. "They were not obliged to, though, and in their maddeningly pedantic way, the umpires, with Botham's approval, worked to rule."

As umpires and captains headed out at 3.30pm for their fifth inspection, Botham was struck on the head from behind. Despite that, no additional security was called for. Dickie Bird said in his autobiography that out in the middle, against a backdrop of booing and jeering, he said to the captains: "Come on, lads, we can't keep going like this. Let's give it a go in 15 minutes."

As they returned Moorhouse said "it was apparent from all parts of the ground that MCC members had gathered more thickly than usual around the [pavilion] steps". As umpire David Constant started to walk up the steps he was subjected to a barrage of questions and comments, some abusive. So densely packed were the members that they were inadvertently blocking the umpires' path, and Constant pushed one to try to force his way through. The man responded by grabbing Constant's tie and almost pulled him to the ground. What followed was a brief melee as Chappell and Botham leapt to Constant's aid.

Bird was still out in the middle, supervising the spreading of sawdust, although he was shocked when he got back to his dressing room and saw a deeply shaken Constant. "We both sat there with tears in our eyes."

What was especially unfortunate was that it was claimed Bird and Constant had asked the MCC for extra covers on the old wickets as they had identified a potential problem in their pre-match inspection. The request was ignored.

"While it lasted only a minute or so, it was quite a to-do," Moorhouse noted. "It was a disgrace not only to English cricket but to the game in general," Frith added. "Such behaviour is of course deplorable," wrote Denis Compton in the Sunday Express, "but I can understand the members' sense of frustration."

Chappell said that some of the language used by the members "embarrassed me" (a surprising claim from a man who had played alongside his brother, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee), adding that the one who grabbed Constant "should be put in a cage". Botham said it was "more like a football terrace". When play finally got underway at 3.45pm there was a police guard inside the Long Room and on the stairs in front of the pavilion.

Amid the flurry of media comment, almost all of it apportioning blame to the MCC, it was expected the member who assaulted Constant would be thrown out. But after 19 members were questioned in the fortnight following the incident, it took another two months for any announcement to be made.

When it came, it was a classic establishment fudge. Peter May, the club's president, said while some members "had behaved in a way wholly unbecoming to the club", action had been taken, but he refused to reveal what that was. It only subsequently emerged the punishment was a stiff letter of warning from the secretary about future conduct.

The argument put forward by the club was that the individual who had assaulted Constant was only one of around 50 members who had behaved badly; he was also supposedly a non-drinker and claimed to have grabbed the tie "to stop himself falling over".

"It was a classic example of what MCC committees do when considering many things on their agendas," Moorhouse concluded. "Dwelling on every question from every conceivable angle until everyone is so confused by the alternatives that no clear decision seems possible or even desirable."

The final word, as is often the case, goes to Bird. "It was a very sad day all round. A marvellous occasion ruined by that one day." 

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Grand fightback ruins Amir's party

Nadir of the day
"I've got to look at the positives and drag my confidence up, which has been hammered in the last 18 months. I'm nowhere near the person I used to be but I've got to keep trying to work at it." Those were Kevin Pietersen's words on the eve of the Lord's Test, as he poured his heart out to Mike Atherton in an interview for Sky Sports. Unfortunately for Pietersen, his quest for redemption is far from over yet, after a horrible dismissal that raised a whole new host of doubts about his mindset. After arriving at the crease a mere three balls into the day, KP watched from the non-striker's end as Mohammad Asif sent down a maiden, but rather than afford himself a sighter in prodigious swinging conditions, he flung a wild drive at an outswinger from Mohammad Amir, and snicked his first ball to the keeper. The atmosphere as he returned to the pavilion was reminiscent of Ian Botham's infamous pair in 1981 - with none of the members quite knowing where to look.

Bowler of the day
Amir's astounding onslaught ripped the guts out of England's innings, as he claimed 4 for 0 with his first ten balls of the day, and in the process inflicted ducks on England's No. 4, 5 and 6 - for the first time in the team's Test history. But his most notable dismissal, for a number of reasons, came in the second over of his post-lunch spell, as Matt Prior's plucky resistance was ended by another well-directed outswinger. Amir sunk to his knees to perform a celebratory sajda, as well he might. He had completed his second five-wicket haul in the space of six days - to become, at 18 years and 136 days - the youngest man to etch his name on the Lord's honours board. In the same breath, he overtook Daniel Vettori to become the youngest bowler to reach 50 Test wickets, and celebrated the achievement two balls later by inflicting England's fourth duck of the innings on Graeme Swann.

Anchor of the day
England's batting coach, Graham Gooch, yesterday suggested that England's batsmen had forgotten the art of building Test innings, but one man in the top six was totally exempt of that charge today. Jonathan Trott's ponderous batting style has had its detractors of late, not least in the last Lord's Test against Bangladesh when he ground along to a career-best 226. But today the value of a man who puts a price on his wicket was plain for all to see. With impeccable judgment and a calm assurance on the front foot, Trott arrested the rot in England's middle order, notched up his third Test century and in the process went past 1000 runs in Test cricket. This is his 23rd innings, putting him equal with Mike Atherton and Kevin Pietersen, among other notable England batsmen.

Impetus of the day
Stuart Broad's backfoot cover-drive was once likened by Geoffrey Boycott to that of Garry Sobers, but his batting had been in the doldrums of late, with just 106 runs in 11 innings since the Ashes, until he rediscovered his rhythm with a combative 48 at The Oval last week. Suitably emboldened, he put his recent troubles behind him with a brilliantly belligerent maiden first-class hundred, one that was greeted with a raucous standing ovation from an absorbed Lord's crowd. On 88, he had gone past his father, Chris, to become the highest-scoring Broad in a Test at Lord's, having already, on 73, emulated Trott in passing the 1000-run mark. It's not inconceivable that he could complete the double in this Test as well. He is currently on 94 Test wickets, and so needs six in the match to become the 11th Englishman to reach the mark, and the first since Ashley Giles and Andrew Flintoff, who brought up their 1000 and 100 in the same Cape Town Test in January 2005.

Partnership of the day
In a series marked by stunning batting capitulations, Broad and Trott's eighth-wicket alliance has the look of a match-seizing moment. So far in the series there have been just seven century stands - compared to 60 in single figures - and by the close the pair had eclipsed Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood's 219 at Trent Bridge. It was the second time in consecutive Tests that Broad had been involved in a 100-run stand for the eighth wicket, having added 119 with Matt Prior at The Oval, and by the close, their stand was sandwiched at No. 2 in England's all-time standings for the eighth wicket, between those involving Gubby Allen and John Murray, the only other England No.9s to make a Test match century.

Reprieves of the day
It was rather a case of horses and stable doors, but when the part-time legspinner Imran Farhat found Broad's edge twice in consecutive deliveries in the 101st over of the innings, the reaction of Yasir Hameed at slip summed up the extent to which Pakistan's morale had been battered. The first snick flew at a catchable height straight past his left hand and away for four, the second looped up off a leading edge and was fumbled as Hameed dived across to gather. Broad had been on 121 at the time, and he had added just one run to that total when Saeed Ajmal successfully appealed for lbw. Broad, however, correctly decided to use his review, and Ajmal was distinctly dischuffed to discover that the ball would have been sliding down the leg side. 

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Amir's inspiration not enough for Pakistan

An ambulance screeched past the Grace Gates at Lord's as Mohammad Amir started the first over of the day from the Pavilion End. The impact of those loud sirens lingered long in the ears of the thousands clustered inside the ground as Amir shot out the England middle order with the ruthlessness of a sniper. His attack was cold-blooded, quiet and quick. All of England shivered on an overcast Friday morning.

Having been unlucky during the brief spell of play possible on the first day, when a hapless Umar Akmal dropped an easy offering from Alastair Cook, Amir returned today undaunted and not haunted. Also, he was that bit smarter after Waqar Younis, Pakistan's coach, had suggested he bowl a little closer to the stumps having noticed him going wider on Thursday afternoon.

A quick learner Amir did not break any sweat in adopting the suggestion. In his first three overs of the day he fired in one unplayable delivery after the other, casting a spell over a startled England line up. Cook, who seemed to have crushed his demons at Edgbaston with a resolute century, was forced to play the perfect outswinger which he duly edged to Kamran Akmal behind the stumps.

The fact that Kevin Pietersen was hunting in the dark for fluency was not lost on Amir as he slanted a fuller and wider delivery that was thoughtlessly chased leaving Pietersen to pay the price. Paul Collingwood was next, going back deep in the crease only to be beaten by an in-ducker that swung in sharply to trap him in front. Amir then proved that Eoin Morgan still has plenty to learn at Test level as he drew Morgan into an outside edge third ball. Amir's mind never stopped ticking and England looked in danger of folding for a total under 100 for the first time this summer.

Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior persevered to avoid that ignominy but Amir achieved a personal landmark when he induced the England wicketkeeper to edge a delivery that straightened late after pitching. It was Amir's 50th Test wicket. He may not be the quickest to the landmark, but his statistics reveal a young talent that is unique. In his 14th Test, Amir's strike-rate is 55.6 with 51 wickets. It compares well with some of the best fast bowlers of this generation: Wasim Akram (63.7/45), Waqar Younis (38.7/71), Dale Steyn (42/61) and his team-mate Mohammad Asif (44.2/70). Just 18 years old, Amir is already walking the same path the good and great started out on.

Numbers, though, aren't a true reflection of Amir, who is on the shortlist for ICC's Emerging Player of the Year. It is his fighting attitude, his perseverance, his knack of reading batsman's grey areas, and his ability to ignore the woeful fielding mistakes that stand out like logos of prestigious brands. It means the captain can depend on him regardless of the conditions. The captain can throw him the ball when the situation is getting out of hand. The captain can walk up to him to seek advice. Champions prove pressure builds them and Amir is already a matchwinner.

Earlier in the summer, against Australia at Headingley, on the first morning in severely overcast conditions, he put Pakistan in the winning position straight away by rattling the Australians into submission. Then, in the third Test of this series at The Oval, in far brighter light on the third afternoon, on a true pitch, he worked hard on the ball to get the reverse swing to trigger England's sudden collapse and put Pakistan in a winning position.

A critical element of Amir's success is he enjoys his bowling immensely, just as he is enthusiastic about targeting the opposition's best batsmen. Even if he is only a teenager in Test cricket he already has an enviable list of victims: Ricky Ponting and Andrew Strauss (four times in four matches); Collingwood and Cook (three times in four matches); Michael Hussey (three times in four matches).

Sadly for him, and Pakistan, the day did not end in the rousing fashion it had begun. Butt missed a trick when Amir and Asif had England under the cosh before lunch. Instead of having fielders at vital close-in positions such as a third or fourth slip, an extra gully and a short leg, Butt showed his inexperience by wasting men at thirdman, deep point and deep square-leg. The wilting English hearts suddenly started swelling with hope and by the end of the day it was England who held the edge in the final Test. "If we were 110 all out this Test series would end two-all," said Stuart Broad, who got his name on the honours board at Lord's with a maiden Test century.

Amir, the youngest bowler to get a five-for at Lord's (he became the youngest to achieve the feat in England at The Oval last week), was proud but pointed out it was disappointing to end the day behind England. "It was special day considering I got the best figures in my career but I'm a little sad because they are [now] in good position. Now we are on the backfoot."

Yet Amir and Asif, his comrade-in-arms, who was unlucky not to take a wicket today despite delivering his usual stack of marvels, will return unfazed in the second innings to create panic in the minds of the batsmen. Renowned for their unpredictability, Pakistan can be certain of that. 

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Call back Dravid to Team India: Akram

New Delhi: Senior batsman Rahul Dravid should be called back to India's ODI team as he still has lot to offer to the country in the 50-over format, feels former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram.

"Dravid still has a lot to offer in ODIs. I believe that Dravid should be brought back into the (one-day) team. In the sub-continent, the current batsmen can do well, but on the overseas tours, India need a solid and experienced batsman like Dravid," Akram said.

Akram also was not happy with the current bowling line-up of the Indian team.

When asked about his reported comments that some of the India players were "softies and lazy", the former left-arm pacer said, "I was not talking about the whole team. I was only talking about the bowlers.""Look at Munaf Patel, (S) Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan and RP Singh. They all were very promising in the beginning. They had everything a bowler needs. Now you look at them. They have waned, for reasons beyond me," Akram said.

The cricketer-turned-commentator also feels that a packed international schedule is taking toll on the players of the Indian team.

"There is a series between these two teams every two months. It is very natural that the Indian players have lost interest in the contests. I am sure the same is the case with the Sri Lankan cricketers," he said.

"Indian players are in the habit of playing in front of more or less 60,000 people and now they are playing amidst almost empty stands.

"Obviously, their performance will get affected. They are a top team in both Tests and ODIs and only too much cricket is their undoing at the moment," he added.

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Fawad Alam eager to cement place in Pak team for 2011 World Cup

Pakistan left-hand batsman Fawad Alam, who believes that he has the ability to transform himself into a genuine all rounder, has said he is looking forward to cement his place in the one-day team ahead of the 2011 World Cup.
Alam, who has been named in Pakistan's 16-man squad for the upcoming five match series against England, said he is still awaiting a proper chance to prove his talent.
"I feel I can become a genuine all-rounder. I only need to be given a proper chance to prove myself and I am sure I can deliver," Alam told PakPassion.net.
Alam, who bowls slow left-arm orthodox, said he is aware of the challenge and would deliver his best during the one-day series to win the faith of the selectors.
"The World Cup isn't too far away now and with series against England, South Africa and New Zealand prior to the premier one day competition, I know that I have to deliver and that the competition for places is intense. I have faith in my ability though and hope that the selectors give me the opportunity to deliver," he said.
"It's time to ensure that I perform well whenever I am given the opportunity, as preparations for the World Cup are now in full swing," said Alam, who has played 17 ODIs for Pakistan, averaging an impressive 40.87.
He last played an ODI in January this year, against Australia in Perth. (ANI)
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Moin slams PCB chairman, chief selector for ignoring Younus

KARACHI: Former Pakistan Test captain Moin Khan has slammed the cricket selection committee and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman for once again ignoring experienced batsman Younus Khan for next month’s five-match one-day international series against England. “I am deeply disappointed with the treatment meted out to Younus by PCB chief Ijaz Butt and chief selector Mohsin Khan,” he was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

“jaz has made it a matter of ego denying Pakistan an opportunity to field strong team and increase Pakistan’s chances to win,” said 38-year-old Moin, who played 69 Test and 245 ODIs for Pakistan.

He advised chief selector Mohsin to resign if the PCB chief doesn’t listen to him. “PCB chief must not make Younus matter a personal issue and should make decisions in the interest of the country. When the PCB chief has forgiven other players, what stops him from pardoning Younus,” he added. He was of the view that inclusion of Younus could have made Pakistan a formidable side in the ODIs. He said after victory at the Oval, Pakistan would be in a better frame of mind for the fourth and final Test starting at Lord’s from Thursday (today). However, he said the team should focus on their batting problems because ball would be swinging and moving all five days at Lord’s as compared to batting friendly conditions at the Oval. He said the Pakistan batsmen must score more than 300 runs to have any realistic chance of squaring the series. “Our bowling is really strong but the batsmen need consistency,” he maintained.

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Foxes, lizards and other bowlers

I no longer support teams, only bowling. This is an ecologically conscious decision, of course, a petition for preserving the balance of cricket. But it is also driven by greed for the comedy that is a batting collapse (Pakistan and England are somehow the funniest). Much of it, however, has to do with the rare pleasure of brilliant bowling. And last month was a beaut. Test cricket was back again, even though it lost yet another of its ace bowlers. Murali, Warne, Kumble, McGrath, Pollock, Vaas, Lee, Flintoff, Bond - by a rough count that's 4000 Test wickets gone in the last three years.

England and South Africa are the best venues to watch bowling nowadays. Australian pitches lately bounce as sorrowfully as dead kangaroos. Broken Indian pitches used to have their moments of glory (Mumbai 2004, Kanpur 2008), but match referees and the media have terrorised them into terminal blandness. South Africa's have pace, bounce, seam. But England has rain; rain enough to put juice into pitches and wobble in the air, but not enough to wash out matches altogether. Rain is critical to the ecology. Rain made uncovered pitches the exquisite roulettes we read about. And rain, drawing sweat from the surface underneath covers, still makes excellent bowling legendary.

On two wet first days at Lord's and Headingley, Pakistan's two Ms - may their success be as great as the two Ws - along with Umar Gul, hooped and frisbeed all around the Australians in collusive joy.

Mohammad Amir is a bee. He buzzes in his run-up, the ball buzzes in the air, either way, and off the pitch, either way. He buzzes in appeal. Honeybees die after a single sting, but not Amir. He chews gum with teenage vigour. He takes the hair out of his eyes. He buzzes in again.

Mohammad Asif is a snake (Wasim was both snake, King Cobra, and bee, Queen Bee. Waqar was a bull. Imran was a stallion. Shoaib is an unnamed genetically modified species comprising Shoaib Akhtar and occasionally Salman Khan).

Asif is no ordinary snake. He is both venomous and a constrictor. This is a very wise and languid snake indeed. He cannot be provoked into reckless bites or over-exerting constrictions. Doesn't have those ways. He may plot his prey days in advance, observing the victims. He fattens them if need be. Then he begins to paralyse them. One limb, then another, and another, then the entire nervous system. At last he slithers in, cool, wraps himself around, gentle, and swallows whole. Pups are tormented by him. Did you watch Michael Clarke?

How he laughs at desperate flingers. Osman Samiuddin tells the story of Asif narrating a tale from a domestic match. Asif is watching a whippet-like, floppy-haired, largely futile fast bowler, in and out of the national team for a decade, going at it as usual. "Pace pe pace. [Pace on pace]" Asif jogs in calmly, wrists it this way and that, picks up a couple of wickets. It is hot. He heads for the pavilion. The fast bowler is still at it, still wicketless. "Pace pe pace." Asif drinks tea, smokes a ciggy. Outside in the heat, "Pace pe pace." Asif returns. Takes two more.

Closer home, before the horror of Colombo, there was some eye-catching bowling in Galle. Ishant Sharma is a giraffe, though arguably more an ostrich. Neither animal has our very tall and thin fast bowler's Adam's apple, which leads his gangly loping run like a spear, his hair (unlike Pakistani hair, which is invariably cool) racing behind him like something forgotten. Ishant needed rain. Once he had it, he stood the ball on the seam, jagged it both ways, fast and sharp. He was coming in like the breeze, floating like a long ghost in follow-through. Preserving Ishant, however, might be a challenge too big for the Indian conservationist.

At any rate, Ishant was easily outbowled by Lasith Malinga, who is a frill-necked lizard. As that creature throws opens the startling umbrella around its neck to frighten predators, so Malinga - who otherwise smiles like a little girl with ribbons in her plaits, who kisses the ball softly every time he bowls it - so Malinga unveils at the very last moment the shock of his delivery action. And each time it is indeed a shock.

Bowlers have all kinds of philosophies. An uber-genius like Garry Sobers (who was the whole Ark) could say it depended on - not on the pitch, the day, or the match situation, no, it depended on the ball, its "character". "Some swing or spin, some don't." Ah! For others, like Jeff Thomson, "I just roll up and go whang." Malinga slings it like Thommo, and that's his approach. If the bouncer don't get ya, the yorker must.

Finally, there was a long and anxious bowl, one final time, from the great Muttiah Muralitharan. "Hello, superstars," he told MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh in the first innings, "this is Test cricket. Remember it well." In the second he grinned, he bore, and got to 800.

Murali is described often as a fox. This seems right. Unlike hedgehog bowlers who pursue one big idea, Murali, like a fox, had many ways of pursuit. Like a fox he did not hunt in a pack. Like a fox he was himself cruelly hunted for sport in some parts of the world. Fox-hunting was banned a few years ago in England, but is still legal in Australia. 

Source

T20 World Cup: Jeet ka Safar (Mohammad Amir)

Which is the world's best bowling attack at the moment?

Harsha Bhogle: On Time Out with Harsha today we are going to discuss the state of bowling around the world. We have Ian Chappell and Sanjay Manjrekar in the studio going country by country, and we've got an expert comment from Allan Donald. Then we will go across to S Rajesh to find out exactly what the numbers show and which country is doing better.

Ian, let me start with you. Are you happy with the standards of bowling in international cricket? Do you think they are dropping a little bit? You think the pitches are affecting the bowlers a little bit these days?

Ian Chappell: I think we have seen pretty competitive cricket in last 12 months or so, and a couple of things have contributed to it. The main thing is the more even spread of good bowlers. I think we have got four what I could class as outstanding attacks and two quite good attacks. Then throw in the fact that Champions Trophy last year in South Africa had some pitches with a bit of life in them, the administrators in Australia before last summer asked for a bit more grass on the pitches, which helped the bowlers quite a bit, and in England for the last two seasons we have seen a lot of swing around. So in general, in those conditions, the bowlers have prospered quite well. In the subcontinent it is perhaps a different matter. The pitches there tend to favour batsmen and bowlers have a bit of a hard time there.

HB: Sanjay, are you generally happy with the health of bowling?

Sanjay Manjrekar: Actually the reason why the bowling is the way it is is because the cricketing conditions have changed a lot since 50-overs cricket flourished. To prepare a good pitch was to prepare a flat pitch, and that started happening due to limited-overs cricket because people wanted to see fours and sixes. So the curators were under pressure to prepare a pitch which is good for run-scoring, and just to make sure that it made for good viewing, runs being scored quickly.

The curators also started making the same sorts of pitches for Test matches. That's when the bowlers started talking about right areas, when they realised that most pitches around the world were flat. What it meant was to bowl outside the off stump, be patient and wait for the batsmen to make a mistake. For a good 10-15 years, they realised that there was nothing in it for them and they have to bowl in the right areas. That is starting to change, as Ian mentioned. Also, the curators have realised that for Test cricket to become more attractive, the crowd also wants some more life in the pitch. So basically everyone is adjusting to the way cricket is changing through various periods and decades.

I would like to believe that the administrators will now react to the market. We live in a world where the market dictates where your product is heading. The administrators will start responding and you will see more life coming into the pitches when they realise that we need balance between the bat and the ball to get the crowds in, to get the viewership back in Test cricket. I liked the pitch at The Oval; it's got something for the bowlers.

HB: Right, I am going to ask both of you to analyse each country. We are not going to look at all 10 countries, but we will look at the top six. We are looking at the bowling side of each country, and we will start with Australia. They have always had a fair tradition of wrist-spin bowling, but Chappelli how to do you rate the fast and fast-medium bowlers in Australia? They have been injury-struck. I mean, Peter Siddle looked a decent bowler, then he got injured; injury has taken Brett Lee out of the game. So are you happy with the state of Australian bowling these days?

IC: I think the pace bowling is pretty good. Doug Bollinger made a big difference to the Australian side when he came in last season; he bowled extremely well in Australia. Ben Hilfenhaus coming back also gives them a bit more variety. Mitchell Johnson is a wicket-taker, and the fact that he has struggled the last two times he has bowled in England, once against England and once against Pakistan, suggests that he needs a little bit more bounce to be at his devastating best.

Nathan Hauritz is steady, and I think he has improved. It is hard work in Australia to be a finger spinner. You need to be an exceptional finger spinner to be successful in Australia. Steve Smith, you are probably looking at another two-three years before he develops, and hopefully he will develop as a bowling allrounder. That's what Australia really needs. They need Smith to be able to bat in the top six, but also be able to get into the side for his bowling. And I think it is probably about two or three seasons away before he gets to that stage. I think Australia, at the moment, are a pretty decent attack - probably more so for Australian conditions than English conditions.

HB: In fact, I was about to ask Sanjay: are they an all-weather, all-conditions bowling side?

SM: That is the key point here, when you are talking about bowling attacks: which conditions are these bowlers operating in? Then you visualise those bowlers or assess their performance from the past results. When you look at bowling attacks from around the world, Australia will still perhaps be number one, because you can imagine that attack being pretty good on Indian conditions and in Sri Lanka as well.

One of the key aspects of bowling, I think, which slowly seamers are discovering, is the length. We were talking about the channel outside the off stump. I think length is the key. When you don't have anything coming from the surface, we have seen Lasith Malinga use the length beautifully to get wickets. We have a history of Pakistan bowlers not worrying about the surface and using the length of their bowling. Getting everything in the air, trying to beat batsmen in pace and not using the surface at all by bowling the ball full. That's where Australia is good. They have got Mitchell Johnson, who uses the length well. Bollinger is also quite happy pitching the ball up. So attacks, especially the Indian seam attack, which depends too much on the pitch, where they look to bowl around good length or short of good length, are the ones that will struggle on flat pitches. Australia and South Africa, to me, are the attacks that can perhaps make an impression in all sorts of conditions.

HB: We will come to those in a minute, one point answer from you - out of 10, how many points for Australia? I don't want you to go into the past.

SM: As they stand today, I would give them 7-8 points on a scale of 10.

HB:Chappelli, 7 points for Australia?

IC: I would give Australia 6.8 points.

HB: Trust you to have that little difference. Let's move on to England, who for the first time are showing a fair amount of consistency in team selection. It's not that you see a different bowler coming in every Test match, as you saw about a decade ago. They have got a swing bowler in James Anderson, they have got a very steady bowler who gets good bounce in Steven Finn, and a hit-the-deck bowler in Stuart Broad. And they have suddenly found this wonderful finger spinner in Graeme Swann, who has just hit 100 Test wickets. How do you rate England?

IC: Well, I think England have got a very good attack and I would be interested in seeing how they go in Australia. I am just not sure how good they would be in Australian conditions. I think Swann is that exceptional finger spinner that you need, and I think Swann should bowl pretty well in Australia. Anderson hasn't proved himself to me yet, and the Australian tour will give him the opportunity to show that he can be a really top-class bowler when the ball is not swinging. That's the other thing that he needs to do to take a step towards being a real top-notch bowler. Stuart Broad and Finn, they should bowl all right in Australia with their height and bounce, but that can also be a bit of trap. If you continually bowl a bit too short in Australia, against batsmen who can play horizontal bat shots, then you can take a bit of caning. So England, I would rate them the best attack at the moment, but that's in their own conditions. In Australia I am just not quite so sure about that.

HB: So in England, 6.9 and in Australia 6?

IC: England in England, 6.95 to be exact, Harsha.

HB: Sanjay, you like what you see with England?

SM: Yes, but as Ian said it's a good attack in English conditions. Also, when you talk about attacks you have to talk about the captain. It is important to know the captain's attitude towards the game, and just watching Andrew Strauss it seems that he likes to play the waiting game. So on flat pitches this England bowling attack might be waiting for just too long, and that could be a problem. So perhaps it's a good attack in English conditions, because they are used to those conditions and there is more help for their seamers. There the captain will succeed in the waiting game if he just keeps bowling outside the off stump. In flat conditions - I am imagining this England attack on a typical Indian pitch like Ahmedabad - it's not a threatening attack.

HB: So how much out of 10?

SM: I will go with about 6 points, just because I think the best spinner in the world is with England right now.

HB: Sorry Chappelli, I did not ask you for England in conditions outside of England? You rated them 6.95 in English conditions. And outside of England?

IC: Probably 6.5 at this stage.

HB: Those are the numbers to beat as we head towards South Africa, which probably has the best new-ball bowler in the world at the moment, in Dale Steyn. There is Morne Morkel, who in those conditions can get good bounce, steepling bounce; he's a tall man. Makhaya Ntini's replacement is not yet visible. Paul Harris and Johan Botha, they have not really set the world alight. Sanjay, your thoughts on South Africa's bowling attack?

SM: When you compare the South African attack with the Australian bowling attack, you see clear difference in their bowling ability. Australians historically have had more ability per bowler in their team. But a South African attack in South Africa is a tough one. If you look at the records of Indian batsmen, all the great Indian batsmen, they have a good record in Australia, but in South Africa all of them have records that are not great.

HB: Why do you think that is the case?

SM: Just tough cricket, I guess. South Africa just play really well at home. Not very attacking - as I said they are quite happy playing the waiting game, bowling outside the off stump. Maybe, just temperamentally they come out differently on their own pitches. They understand them. Just enough help, pace and bounce as well, and that helps them apply the theory of waiting, which works.

I also liked the way they bowled in India in the last series. Steyn was outstanding - he got seven wickets on a flat pitch. Harris, he bowls a negative line and the tactics are debatable, but he keeps pressure on from the other end. So on flat pitches he can complement fast bowlers well. So I like the South African attack in all conditions.

HB: Chappelli, fast bowling looks all right, but maybe not much depth outside of Steyn and Morkel, and in spin bowling. Are you happy with the overall look?

IC: I have got a query against Steyn as well. He is a very fine bowler when he is on, but he strikes me as someone who might be moody. I have seen a couple of times when you think, "What the hell is going on here? He is not doing much." Then suddenly you get a bee in his bonnet and he is a different bowler.

There was a classic example when Phil Hughes got his hundred in Durban. Steyn did not go after Hughes at all until he got the hundred. I was starting to wonder: since when do you have a handicap in Test cricket, where they let you get hundred before they get after you? So that's my query with Steyn. When he is good, he is very good, but he is a little bit moody.

Morkel, I think, has got room for a lot of improvement. If he gets it all together then he could be one of the really top-class quickies around. I think he is improving. He seemed to lose line and length every now and again, but he is cutting down on those occasions.

Their third seamer at the moment would be Wayne Parnell, but he has been injured a bit. They have tried Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Friedel de Wet, but they really haven't got a third seamer. And Harris, to me, is just a good honest, negative bowler, who will try and tie you down. It's a typical South African ploy: try and keep things quiet until your frontline quickies are ready to come back again. Harris has had more success than I think he should have, but that's a credit to him.

I have got Australia, England and Pakistan better than South Africa at the moment. I have South Africa at 6.2 points.

HB: So it's 6.2 for South Africa. This is becoming like gymnastics judges - numbers flashing on the big screen. Sanjay, what's your number for South Africa?

SM: Just a little below Australia. I gave Australia 7-8, so I will give South Africa 7 points.

HB: Now, your favourite side in the world. I know you get excited watching Pakistan. Favourite in that they tingle your senses a little bit. When Pakistan are playing, you don't know what to do. Suddenly Mohammad Amir appears out of nowhere. Mohammad Asif, when you think his career is over, he comes back, maybe five or six kph slower, but he is bowling well. Then a Wahab Riaz comes out of nowhere and picks up five wickets. There is still a Sohail Tanvir somewhere, Shoaib Akhtar, maybe Mohammad Sami, there is Rana Naved… all of them are around. Two years ago the attack was completely different.

SM: That's why you want Pakistan around. I am so glad that we are seeing Pakistan in action. Their top-order batsmen are struggling a bit because they are playing in conditions they don't like.

HB: The conditions are good for their fast bowlers though.

SM: Exactly, but that's been their problem. Pakistan's problem has been the top-order batting, which is getting even more exposed in helpful conditions, but it's the bowling that we have to talk about, and that's where I really get excited with the talent.

And this has got to do with the culture that they have in Pakistan. It's nothing to do with the academies that they have, or some bowling coach who gets them to do their biomechanics well. It's just the kind of culture that they have. If you have an Under-19 selection, and if you ask the kids to line up as batsmen and fast bowlers, then you will perhaps have a longer queue to bowl fast at the nets rather than batsmen wanting to bat.

HB: Everyone is raving about Mohammad Amir?

SM: For a young bowler, he is almost a complete seam bowler, and that very rarely happens. You see fast bowlers develop and become complete after four or five seasons. This guy is really gifted, and when I talk about lengths, these are the guys who bowl the attacking lengths. Again, it's the culture. They have seen the likes of Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram bowl the full-length deliveries, the bouncers, the slower deliveries and everything, and that's why they like to do it as well. Also they have no choice but to do something in the air, because pitches back in Pakistan are like concrete pitches, bowlers' graveyards. But in spite of that, they want to bowl fast and they have so many fast bowlers coming through the ranks. And that is purely because they know that length and they try and get quick in the air.

HB: It's an interesting one, though. They are hardly going to play any international cricket in Pakistan, sadly, by the looks of it. So as all-weather bowlers, 6 points, 7 points?

SM: I am not going to give Pakistan too many points because their problem has been the back-up, which is catching. For good seam bowlers, good fast bowlers, you need a good slip cordon as well. One of the reasons why the 80s attack of the West Indies was great was because they had a great slip cordon. It was like a fishing net behind the stumps. So because the back-up isn't great, I am going to give them about, just 7 points.

HB: Sanjay is the polite one for the bowlers. Chappelli, you are one who is in the sixes; he is in the sevens. What do you think of Pakistan?

IC: I think Pakistan have got a very good attack, and because they are going to play a lot of their cricket in England, I think that suits them greatly. The difference, I would say, between Mohammad Asif, and other bowlers like Steyn and Anderson... Anderson, I think is becoming more consistent, but you still are just not sure what you are going to get. But with Asif, even if he doesn't take wickets, he is going to bowl well, he will beat the bat, and he is a real artist. I think he is a tremendous bowler.

Mohammad Amir is also a terrific young bowler, but the only worry I have about him is that they are going to use him so much that they will wear him out fairly quickly. And Sanjay did point to the fact that they have got a horrible catching cordon. Although it looks like that they might have got a good one with the opening batsman they got in for the Oval Test match, Yasir Hameed. He took a really good catch, and I have seen him take one or two good catches as a substitute. But you never know what you are going to get from Kamran Akmal - some days he's got bricks in his gloves. So that makes it very hard for the bowlers, when sometimes you have to get the guy out three times. Umar Gul is a good bowler; he is a bit inconsistent, but when he is good, he is really good.

They have got quite a bit of talent in spin bowling. Saeed Ajmal is a good bowler and Danish Kameria has got all the ability in the world, but he cannot work out his field placings. I cannot believe that the guy has got about 260 Test wickets and he hasn't got a clue about placing his field. If he ever got his field right and got some sort of plan into his bowling, then he could be terrific.

HB: Maybe he needs a better captain?

IC: Mate, if you are a bowler and your livelihood is depending on you getting wickets then why the hell wouldn't you know what field placing you want? I think he has got a good young captain now. I think Salman Butt is the right guy, he has got stability and is an intelligent young bloke. But I have got a query, as to why the hell the bowler doesn't know what field he wants? I wouldn't put too much blame on the captain.

HB: How much would you rate them Chappelli?

IC: I have given them 6.75 points, and if they had a decent fielding side then they might be about 7.5 points.

HB: [laughs] Now for the last two teams. We are going to club them together largely because they are always playing against each other. So it's almost like they are always together - India and Sri Lanka.

India, I think, has a really desperate problem because their one world-class bowler, Zaheer Khan, is out and I think slowly India have to get used to the fact that Zaheer Khan is not going to be available all the time, because he seems to be carrying a lot of injuries. But the rest of the seam bowling or swing bowling is really about who is not playing, who is injured, who is in the garage rather than driving on the road. And is Harbhajan plateau-ing, I wonder?

SM: Yes, I think that has happened for a while, and I think we have to accept that this is what Harbhajan Singh is all about. In the last five or six years we have expected Harbhajan to bowl differently. When he arrived on the scene he was brilliant. I think it was one of the very rare performances from an Indian bowler, in the series against Australia in 2001, which India won at home. On good pitches he ran through the opposition, a very good batting unit, and won the series for India. That hasn't quite happened with too many Indian bowlers, so obviously that was a rare performance. But after that, with age and playing a lot of cricket, the opposition knows what you are all about, and he hasn't evolved too much, and I think he has stagnated as a bowler. Still, a wonderful bowler whom the captain finds dependable. He is not really going to let you down badly but he is also not going to surprise you with anything different.

HB: But apart from Harbhajan, in what is traditionally considered the home for spin bowling, are the Indian stocks looking bare to you? Do you like Pragyan Ojha? Do you like Amit Mishra? Do you like Piyush Chawla? And there is no one beyond them.

SM: I am not terribly impressed with the two legspinners. I was excited to see Amit Mishra for the first time, but that was in a limited-overs game. After watching him bowl on some decent batting pitches, he looks pretty limited. Of the three you mentioned, Pragyan Ojha could be the pick, but India have some problems with the spin department. And again, it's got to do with the culture that India has - nobody really wants to be a bowler.

HB: And the fast bowlers are just coming and going. Irfan Pathan has come and gone. Ishant Sharma has gone, come, gone, come and now you really don't know where he is. RP Singh has fallen off the radar completely…

SM: I had some hopes from RP Singh, because he looked like a guy who could produce two wicket-taking deliveries on flat pitches. Of the lot, Praveen Kumar to me, if Zaheer Khan is not fit, looks the only bowler who is quite capable of taking wickets right up the order.

HB: Points for India…

SM: From the teams we have discussed, India looks pretty ordinary as a bowling attack. So I would go with 6 points.

HB:Chappelli, can you club the two together and give points for India and Sri Lanka?

IC: Well, they both have got similar sorts of problems - not much depth in pace bowling. Zaheer is very good when he is playing but he seems to be injured quite a lot. Ishant Sharma, I am hopeful, will come back, and it does appear that his performances, certainly statistically - I haven't seen him bowling lately - seem to be improving. Which is good news, because I thought he was a terrific young bowler. Harbhajan, to me, has been a very defensive bowler for quite some time now.

With Sri Lanka, you've got Lasith Malinga, who is terrific. The rest of their pace attack is pretty ordinary. Ajantha Mendis, I think the world's batsmen have worked him out a bit, and I don't think he is anywhere near as dangerous as he was. I haven't seen enough of Suraj Randiv to know much about him.

So I have got India at 6.1 points and Sri Lanka at 5.9 points.

SM: The Sri Lankan attack looks slightly better than India's. If Zaheer Khan is fit then maybe they're on par. But Malinga has come on really well as the strike bowler. He comes in looking to get wickets and he produces some really good deliveries to get some really good batsmen out. Ajantha Mendis, people have worked him out but I love this guy's temperament; he has got accuracy, and he has got a couple of deliveries that will always trouble at least two batsmen from the opposition. Impressed with Randiv. I think he has got good temperament. Maybe skills-wise, he is nowhere in the league of Murali, but there is something there with Randiv that you can work on. So that attack, at this stage, looks better than India's.

HB: So you are going with...?

SM: I think 6 points, close to England.

HB: Okay, we have given points. But if we hadn't given points, we just woke you up at night and asked you the best bowling attack in the world today. It would be…

SM: Australia.

HB: Chappelli?

IC: Well, the first question I would ask is, where they are playing?

HB: All weather.

IC: If it's in Australia, then I would probably go with Australia. But if it's in England then I would definitely go with England.

HB: And the subcontinent?

IC: I might go for England ahead of Australia, because of Swann's ability. Pakistan on the subcontinent would be very difficult, but there again you've still got the same problem. If you can give Pakistan bowlers another fielding side, then they would probably be pretty tough.

SM: I think the challenge in the subcontinent is not as much about the bowling talent you have as how you play as a unit. If you ask the Indian batsmen which is the attack they wouldn't want to face in India, then I think Australia and South Africa would be right up there.

HB: While on the topic of bowling, no one better than Allan Donald to have on the show, and our programme today is all about the state of bowling in the world. Are you happy with the kind of bowlers you are seeing or do you think it's just sort of being phased out a little bit?

Allan Donald: I'm very happily retired right now. The amount of cricket that players play these days… everyone talks about quick bowlers around the world, the likes of Brett Lee who have retired from Test cricket, the likes of Dirk Nannes, who doesn't want to play even domestic four-day stuff, is quite worrying. I think it has taken its toll. The pitches prepared around the world have become an absolute joke. I suppose I speak for the whole fast-bowling fraternity. The flat wickets - you look at the scores these days, it's becoming quite worrying. The volume of cricket has taken its toll on some of the greatest bowlers in the world right now.

HB: Do you think that it is reason why we are not getting a great new crop coming? I know Pakistan keeps throwing up people from time to time. England have just thrown up a Steven Finn, who is not really a fast bowler but a sort of McGrath kind of a bowler. Do you think it's the pitches that are a problem? Didn't you have flat pitches when you and Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and Glenn McGrath and all the others were bowling?

AD: You look at Wasim and Waqar. Those two were the most skilful bowlers on any pitch around the world. Especially in their own backyard, they reversed the ball beautifully. They had real pace through the air. These days you've got Shaun Tait, Dale Steyn and Brett Lee who are capable of doing that, but those two were the most unbelievable. Wasim was the most skilful of all bowlers. He was outstanding whether he was reversing over or round the wicket. You just never knew what was coming.

I don't think we played as much cricket as the modern-day cricketer plays today. The schedules are ridiculous, bowlers are subject to a lot of hard wickets, very flat pitches. It's boring Test cricket to watch at the moment. The recent Test match between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo - I just cringed watching that. That doesn't make for any viewing whatsoever. The wickets were far too flat. So we will see bowlers diminishing as the years go on. Something's got to be done about the pitches.

HB: Interesting you say that because the averages that bowlers are generating are starting to move up as well. Good fast bowlers averaged 22, 23, went up to about 26, 27. They are now going into the high thirties. But there are still a couple of people who are bucking the trend. Dale Steyn would probably have been a good bowler in any generation. Jimmy Anderson, when the ball in swinging around, is all right. So there are still a few good bowlers around. Pakistan seem to have one every Test match.

AD: You have Mohammad Amir from Pakistan. Dale Steyn keeps churning it out. He is a fantastic performer right now. James Anderson as well, swinging the ball through the air. Your skill level has got to be of such a standard in the modern-day game that you've got to move the ball through the air. You've got to have the capability of moving the ball through the air with the new and the old ball on certain surfaces. Steyn keeps doing it. At the moment he's got the best strike rate of any bowler. Pitches are one thing, what really concerns me is the amount of cricket the players play these days. It's the survival of the fittest, really, in all conditions, but we'll just have to monitor the volume of cricket these guys are subjected to these days.

HB: Okay Allan, I am going to put you on the line, almost like someone is facing up to you in your prime. I am going to give you three fast bowling pairs, and you tell me who you rate as best among those. From Pakistan you have Mohammad Asif, who has come back, dropped in pace, but is bowling well with Mohammad Amir. England have got Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, and in South Africa we have got Steyn and your boy, Morne Morkel.

AD: I'll try not to be biased. At the moment, at Test-match level, Dale Steyn is the best bowler in the world. I would give Morne Morkel just a year or so from now and I think you've got the best partnership in world cricket.

HB: Let's run through all the sides. Your favourite cricket team in the world, Australia - are they struggling with their fast bowling? You are happy with what you see with their overall bowling? There is not much of a spin bowler there; Hauritz is averaging very high.

AD: Mitchell Johnson's very good. They've got a settled attack. They've got one of the better attacks in the world at the moment.

HB: Dougie Bollinger looks all right as well?

AD: I met Doug Bollinger in 2006, during the High Performance Camp. He's become a consistent member of the Australian side. He keeps doing it on all surfaces. A very skilful bowler.

HB: On a scale of 1 to 10, Allan, how many points would you give Australia today?

AD: Around 6 or 7

HB: Let's talk about England - Anderson, Broad, Finn. In English conditions they are very good. How many points would you give them?

AD: 6 or touching 7

HB: You think they will be just as effective in other conditions, or do you think they are a very English-oriented attack?

AD: They're good in English conditions. It'll be very interesting for them to go to Australia during the Ashes and bowl on those flat pitches.

HB: With the Kookaburra ball?

AD: With the Duke ball, they're pretty good. Anderson is the bowler, for me, who really stands out in that regard. Broad is pretty much a line bowler, though he's quite aggressive. But in Australian conditions, with that ball, they're going to need something off the deck as well. So they're going to be tested during the Ashes.

HB: Pakisan, how many points out of 10? As they stand now, because you don't know if three months later they will be the same bowling side.

AD: Five

HB: Okay, that's Pakistan. Though you have already said that you rate Amir high. Now the two teams you've seen a lot of sitting in a television studio - Sri Lanka and India?

AD: Those two sides are battling at the moment. Malinga for me is outstanding, on any surface. India have big problems, especially with regards to how they're going to take 20 wickets. You look at Harbhajan Singh, he's actually leading that attack at the moment, which is worrying.

HB: How many points for Sri Lanka and India?

AD: These are the sides that will struggle bowling people out. 4.

HB: Not bad. I think India would not mind having same points as Sri Lanka. Last one for you: South Africa now have a couple of spin bowlers - in Johan Botha and Roelof Van der Merwe, and Paul Harris is still around. Steyn and Morkel look good. Maybe you still need a replacement for Makhaya Ntini. But I am going to leave that as a last ranking for you.

AD: I don't really see South Africa bowling people out with their spinners. They never have and I don't think they ever will, unless Johan Botha starts playing in the Test side. I don't think Harris is an outstanding bowler. He does a good holding job. But South Africa's seamers Morkel and Steyn, with no more Ntini - I would say they are the same as Australia. 6 or 7.

HB: Okay, Allan Donald wonderful talking to you, and getting your views on fast bowling. Maybe somebody will listen to you and realise that good wickets are not only good for fast bowlers but good for cricket as well. 

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