Security clearance a must before Bangladesh series: ICC

DUBAI: Cricket’s governing body will carry out a proper assessment of security in Pakistan before deciding on sending match officials for a proposed tour by Bangladesh, an official said Wednesday.
International cricket has been suspended in Pakistan since terror attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009, which killed eight people and left seven visiting players and their assistant coach wounded in Lahore.
The attacks also injured reserve umpire Ahsan Raza of Pakistan and horrified match referee Chris Broad of England and Australian match umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis.
The incident forced Pakistan to play its home series at neutral venues.
Their team is currently playing England in the United Arab Emirates.
Pakistan have invited Bangladesh for a three-match one-day series in April this year in their bid to revive international cricket at home.
The Bangladesh government will send a delegation to Pakistan in mid-February to assess security in the country before clearing the tour.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had formed a Task Team to revive cricket in Pakistan in 2009.
The ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said the ICC will carry out their own assessment before sending match umpires and referees for the Bangladesh series, once it is cleared.
“Safety and security is a serious issue,” said Lorgat in reply to a question whether the ICC will send officials to Pakistan.
“There are grave responsibilities on any of us who send teams or match officials (to Pakistan) and we need to do a proper assessment before we come to any conclusion about touring Pakistan.”
Lorgat said the Board meeting in Dubai did not discuss the possibilities of international cricket returning to Pakistan.
“The board did not discuss international cricket returning to Pakistan as you all know they are presently engaged with a potential tour from Bangladesh and I think we need to see what unfolds before we get into that sort of discussion.

Muhammad Amir released from prison

Fast bowler Muhammad Amir has been released from prison in England, where he was serving a six-month sentence for spot-fixing.
Once considered cricket’s most promising star, 19-year-old Amir was found guilty in the scandal that shook the cricketing world in May 2010. Amir, along with then skipper of Pakistan’s test team Salman Butt and fellow fast bowler Muhammad Asif, had taken bribes from bookie Mazhar Majeed for bowling no-balls in a test match with Australia.
Undercover reporters from now defunct British publication News Of The World secretly videotaped the transaction.
In November 2011, Amir, Asif and Butt were found guilty by a London court.
Although Amir has served out his prison sentence, he is yet to finish his five-year ban period.

Pakistan crush England in second Test

ABU DHABI: Pakistan defeated England by 72 runs on the fourth day of the second Test to win the series 2-0 at Abu Dhabi Stadium here on Saturday.
England were shot out for their lowest Test score of 72 against Pakistan in all Tests. Left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman took six wickets.
Pakistan won the first Test by ten wickets in Dubai. The third Test will be played in Dubai from February 3.
England captain Andrew Strauss top-scored with 32.
England earlier dismissed Pakistan for 214 to give themselves a target of 145 to win in Abu Dhabi, but Andrew Strauss’s men again failed to deal with the host’s triple spin threat of Rehman, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez.
Ajmal finished on 6-25, while Ajmal’s figures were 3-22.
Pakistan, who play their home matches in the Gulf due to security problems at home, won last week’s first test in Dubai by 10 wickets.
Scores: Pakistan 257 and 214; England 327 and 72

Zia asks former Olympians to prove allegations or face music

KARACHI: President, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), Qasim Zia has said that those who blamed the federation should prove these or extend apology, Geo News reported.

Addressing a press conference here, Qasim Zia said former Olympians have leveled serious allegations, adding that they should take their words back or apologize otherwise federation will sue them in the court of law.

'Former players have defamed the name of the country by leveling allegations,' the PHF President said and added that players are not above the country and the game.

On the occasion, PHF secretary Asif Bajwa said Rs520 million has been allocated for betterment of Hockey Club of Pakistan, Karachi.

Butterfingered England allows Pakistan to recover

ABU DHABI: Half centuries by captain Misbah-ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq helped Pakistan recover to 256-7 against butterfingered England on day one of the second Test on Wednesday.
Misbah, who won the toss, was unbeaten on 83 while Shafiq made a composed 58 as scratchy fielding allowed them to put on a century-stand for the fifth wicket.
What was expected to be a batsmen’s pitch turned out to have more life than Pakistan expected. England, despite its missed chances, still made stumps with hopes of bowling out Pakistan for under 300, while the home side could harbor confidence of passing 300 as long as their captain stayed at the crease. He’s already been there for nearly four hours.
Misbah, dropped on 30 by James Anderson, hit five fours and four sixes. Shafiq, dropped on 53 by Alastair Cook close to the wicket, hit seven boundaries and a straight six off recalled spinner Monty Panesar.
Misbah took 142 balls to raise his half century but finished the day with a flourish by hitting Panesar for successive sixes in the last over.
England captain Andrew Strauss contributed to the poor day in the field when he floored a chest-high catch of Adnan Akmal before the batsman had scored, off Anderson’s second delivery with the second new ball.
Pakistan was struggling at 103-4 just after lunch, but Misbah and Shafiq resisted for more than two hours to regain momentum.
Misbah lofted Panesar for two successive sixes over the long on boundary early in his knock, but waited patiently thereafter to hit his first boundary after tea as the wicket eased out for batting.
Shafiq struggled for nearly half an hour but gained confidence with some crisp boundaries on both sides of the wicket.
He brought up his half century with a sharp single off Panesar before he was caught on the back leg by Graeme Swann while attempting a sweep shot.
Earlier, Mohammad Hafeez (31) and Taufeeq Umar (16) provided a steady start of 51 runs.
The openers were little troubled in the first hour and put on 41. Hafeez cut Swann’s very first delivery to backward point for a boundary, but soon the offspinner got his line right and bowled well in tandem with Panesar as the Sheikh Zayed Stadium pitch, which usually is a featherbed for batsmen, began offering assistance to both spinners.
Swann uprooted Umar’s off stump when the left-hander offered no shot to a straight delivery and Panesar bowled Hafeez off a beautifully bowled arm ball, only a delivery after dropping the batsman off his own bowling.
Stuart Broad provided England a sniff of running through the opposition when he sent Younis Khan’s (24) and Azhar Ali’s (24) off stumps cartwheeling in the second session in space of five runs.
Broad, who took 3-47, trapped Akmal for 9, then Swann, with 3-52, brushed the off stump of Abdur Rehman for a duck late in the day.
Panesar, playing his first test since 2009, replaced paceman Chris Tremlett, who has a back injury and will be flying back home.
Pakistan also made one change from the side that won the first Test by 10 wickets, with fast bowler Aizaz Cheema making way for young paceman Junaid Khan.

We’re not worried about Ajmal’s action: Trott

DUBAI: England batsman Jonathan Trott on Saturday refused to be drawn into the ongoing controversy over Pakistani off-spinner Saeed Ajmal’s action, saying it was up to the game’s governing body and officials to decide.
The prelude to the three-Test series was surrounded by Ajmal’s mystery delivery which he claimed to unveil against England.
Ajmal took a career best 7-55 and 3-42 to help Pakistan rout England by ten wickets inside three days, triggering doubts over the legitimacy of his bowling action which was already questioned and cleared in 2009.
Former England paceman Bob Willis sparked the controversy by saying he has problems with Ajmal’s doosra — a delivery bowled with the same action but turns the other way than an off-break.
When asked about Ajmal’s action, Trott said: “It’s not really my place, I’ve played against the bowler before and we’ve been pretty successful.
“With regards to delivery action and stuff, that wouldn’t be beneficial for us to worry about the legitimiacy of someone’s action, it’s important that we won the next game and don’t take our attention off that,” said Trott.
“It’s their (on-field umpires) job, its not our job to do anything with regards to opposition players, we’ve got to worry about outselves. The fact of the matter is we are 1-0 down and we’ve got to win the next match.”
The second Test starts in Abu Dhabi from January 25. Dubai will stage the thrid and final Test from February 3-7. The teams will also play four one-day and three Twenty20 internationals.
Trott, 30, praised Ajmal but refused to accept England needed specific preparations against him.
“Of course, whenever somebody takes ten wickets whether seamer or spinner, I don’t think you go around preparing for a specific type of bowling or a person you try and make sure that your game is in good order,” said Trott.
Trott said he was confident England can stage a comeback.
“Since I have been a part of this team for two and a bit years, we’ve had a few losses, but we have managed to bounce back in the following games, so it’s a case of hopefully being able to do that again,” he said.
England team director Andy Flower said he has his own views on Ajmal’s action.
“I don’t think that (Ajmal’s action) has got into the guys heads,” said Flower on Friday.
“Our job is to deal with whatever bowlers bowl against us and the ICC’s job is to police the guy. I have got my own private views and talking about them here is not going to help any situations,” said Flower.
Flower accepted England’s three-day capitulation was a shock.
“It was a bit of a shock. We played and batted poorly. Test cricket is a tough game. If you give people an opening like that they will punish you. The Pakistan side is good enough to do that,” said Flower, a former Zimbabwe batsman.

A visit to Saeed's supermarket of spin

by Andrew Hughes
As a fan of the three-day game, it was great to see England doing their bit to promote one of cricket’s classic formats. There were no wacky declarations in their homage to 1980s county cricket, but they did bring on Jonathan Trott for some joke bowling and they managed to wrap the whole thing up by the third evening. Well done, chaps.
Saeed Ajmal was their nemesis, a smiling purveyor of psychological cricket warfare and cunningly fashioned straightish ones that kind of do a little bit. On the face of it, there doesn’t appear to be much devil in the Ajmal style. If he sold his deliveries in a high street shop, the customers would soon be complaining about the lack of choice.
“Saeed, where are the teesras you said you were getting in? And these doosras here look very similar to your offbreaks over there.”
“Ah,” he would reply, with a grin, “But if you look very closely, you can see that one bends slightly this way, and one bends slightly that way.”
And it’s true. Of course, Ian Bell’s visit to Saeed’s Supermarket of Spin would end after a couple of minutes of confused browsing, with the wee fella running out, screaming, “I don’t know which one to choose! I don’t know which one to choose!”
Bell is, remember, England’s officially nominated “best player of spin”, which admittedly isn’t a great claim to fame, a bit like being the tallest of the seven dwarves or the least unpleasant Republican presidential hopeful, but still, if anyone could handle Saeed, it was going to be Ian.
That didn’t work out too well and now England’s only hope of leaving the Middle East with any semblance of dignity lies in their batsmen finding a way to identify the doosra, preferably before it hits their pad. At the moment, I doubt they’d spot it even if the ICC were to introduce a new rule requiring the umpire to hold up a card stating “Warning: Doosra!” at the appropriate moment.
They will though have some behind-the-scenes help. I don’t mean Merlin the magical bowling machine. I’m talking about the Sky commentators. We should never forget one of the fundamental principles of modern cricket, known as Murali’s Law, which states that the extent to which a spin bowler’s action is a problem is directly related to the number of opponents he has dismissed in the current series.
We have already heard Bob Willis talking ominously about long sleeves and crooked elbows and ahead of the second Test, Sky are working on a giant rubber protractor which Nasser Hussain will hold up in front of the camera every time Saeed bowls in order to give us regular readouts on his angle of arm-bend. Expect more public tastings of vintage Chateau Sour as the series goes on.
Pakistan fans, meanwhile, were having a fantastic time, watching a match in which their team started off well, carried on doing well and utterly refused to throw it away in the most painful way possible right at the end. And in between watching the clatter of English wickets, there was the added entertainment of goading Ian Botham via Twitter, a pastime which obviously I could not possibly endorse.
This metamorphosis from embarrassing shambles to casual success would be remarkable for most teams, but for Pakistan, it’s just another 12 months. With their opponents in disarray, the series is theirs for the taking. Providing they don’t do anything silly…

win will improve Pakistan image

England win will improve Pakistan image, says coach

DUBAI: Pakistan coach Mohsin Khan insisted Friday that the comprehensive ten wicket win over the world’s best Test team England will boost the image of his team.
“Our aim is to provide a boost to the nation and fans of Pakistan cricket, and to show the world that there is more to Pakistan cricket than just negatives like spot-fixing,” Khan told AFP on Friday.
Pakistan romped to a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series with two days to spare as England crumbled to 160 in their second innings with Umar Gul (4-63), Saeed Ajmal (3-42) and Abdul Rehman (3-37) sharing the spoils.
Khan said the team were determined to improve their performances and their image.
“This group of players is playing an important role in improving the image of Pakistan cricket, by playing tough cricket and winning consistently and therefore showing the world that Pakistani cricketers are among the best and they deserve respect,” said Khan.
Khan took over as interim coach after Waqar Younis quit the post in September last year. The 56-year-old was retained for this series but is likely to be replaced by former Australian batsman Dav Whatmore next month.
Khan praised off-spinner Ajmal for getting his second ten-wicket haul in Test cricket.
“Ajmal was brilliant and when you play against the best team in the world then getting ten wickets is a big achievement, but I would say that Gul, Rehman and Aizaz Cheema all bowled well and deserve credit,” said Khan, a former opener.
Khan said Pakistan’s good start gave them the upper hand.
“We had a wonderful start to the Test match and after getting five early wickets we thought that the game was in our hands and we knew that if we get a good lead we can put pressure on England and that happened to our plan,” said Khan.
England, who won the toss and decided to bat, were left struggling at 52-5 at lunch on the opening day — a position from where they could never recover.
Khan also praised the good job done by the batsmen.
“After we got to 338 (in first innings) we had a confident feeling that now we can bowl our way to the victory and Gul provided that with a brilliant spell, we were expecting a win but not inside three days,” said Khan.
Pakistan gained a 146-run lead on the back of half-centuries from Mohammad Hafeez (88), Adnan Akmal (61), Taufiq Umar (58) and Misbah-ul Haq (52).
“It was a great team effort and the boys gave their almost hundred percent, we must praise our batting as well, the openers gave us a sound start and then everyone chipped in by showing good fighting spirit,” said Khan.
“I hope the intensity and the hard work continues because we have just won the first Test and must show consistency to win the series,” said Khan.
The second Test starts in Abu Dhabi from January 25. Dubai will stage the third Test from February 3-7 followed by four one-day and three Twenty20 matches.