The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid press who should better be called “ blackmailing phone hackers ” are at it again. The gutter press like News of The World & The Sun are waging a campaign of misinformation against Pakistan cricket team . These are the same “newspapers” that get dragged into courts for many false stories and absolute lies. Phone hacking of parliamentarians is just one example of that. These newspapers hunt down Pakistanis every time this team visits England. Be it the false unproven allegations of ball tempering or match fixing. In their view of the world, England can never lose fairly and especially against Pakistan. There must be something corrupt about an England defeat to Pakistan. Pakistan cricket team pays the price for English press’s hatred against the Pakistanis especially & Muslims in general who are living in United Kingdom. The press spew venom at Muslims anytime it wants. For example today’s main headline in Express newspaper

By Sikander Hayat No matter how good Kamran Akmal is in batting, his performance with the gloves is nothing but abysmal. He single headedly cost a test series in Australia by dropping half a dozen catches in Sydney and now in Nottingham he has done the same. I believe he needs to be rested and someone one else be given a chance. Kamran can still play one dayers/20 20s but he is not a good enough wicketkeeper to play in the test cricket in his current form. On top of that there are consistent rumours about his involvement with the match fixing and other disciplinary issues. It is time to reassess his contribution to Pakistan cricket team and if found wanting than dropped from the team immediately. Related Posts: 1. Can Pakistan beat Australia Today? 2. Muhammad Sami & Muhammad Asif Destroy Australia 3. Is T20 Cricket Killing Pakistan Test Cricket?

By Sikander Hayat This is a million dollar question. To a neutral observer it’s a no brainer. 40 runs with 7 wickets in hand, surely Pakistan cannot lose from here. Stranger things have happened when Pakistan steps on a cricket ground. The ghosts of Sydney are still haunting Pakistan and the only way to exorcise them is by beating Australia today. Salman Butt will consider himself the luckiest man on this planet if Pakistan pull this one off. After 15 years of humiliation and 13 consecutive defeats, Pakistan is on the verge of a breakthrough and they better win this one.

By Sikander Hayat India has beaten Bangladesh in the first cricket test. Mushfiqur Rahim made a well played hundred in the 2nd innings and gave the crowd something to cheer about. It has to be said that Bangladeshi batsmen threw away the advantage that their blowers gave them in the first innings by bowling India out for 243. If they had taken a good lead on a pitch which played quite well, they could have put India under pressure but their batsmen played some ordinary shots and got out cheaply. It has to be said that India played below par as well; at least in the first innings but Bangladesh never pushed India too much and never came close to winning this match. Bangladesh cricket team has still a long way to go before they can be taken seriously in a test match or in any form of the game for that matter. Related Posts: 1. England Cricket Team Involved In Ball Tempering In Cape Town 2. Writing Is On The Wall For Pakistan Cricket Team In Hobart Test 3. Shane Bond Retires From Int

By Sikander Hayat Muhammad Aamer dropped not only a catch but with it a match as well. Muhammad Aamer dropped Ricky Ponting at the start of his innings and he went on to score a double hundred. I said earlier as well that Pakistan can never be a good test team or for that matter a good cricket team until it holds all of its catches. A bad piece of ground fielding here and there is forgivable but not a dropped catch. When Aamer dropped the catch, Muhammad Asif the bowler was a sight to behold. Dropped shoulders, dejected and devoid of any positive body language. Pakistan lost the match there and then. Related Posts: 1. Is T20 Cricket Really Killing Pakistan Cricket?

By Sikander Hayat England bowlers have been found to be involved in tampering the ball during the test at Cape Town. ICC have decided not to take any action despite the fact that the television cameras clearly show Stuart Broad & Jimmy Anderson doing ball tampering to make the ball reverse swing. My only question is that if this was Pakistan, the whole world media, the ICC and everyone else would have been crying at the top of their lung capacity to say Pakistanis were cheats but in case of England, there are no voices to be heard from the “esteemed” British media and the rest of the world. Why are there double standards when it comes to Pakistan? Why England crickets are not called cheats when clearly they were involved in cheating. When Pakistan had a great bowling attack in the form of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis & Shoaib Akhtar, who could bowl reverse swing at 100 miles per hour, it was called cheating but when England bowlers bowl reverse swing, it becomes art. You decide.

By Sikander Hayat Kamran Akmal single handedly cost Pakistan a match which was in the hands of Pakistan. He dropped 4 catches in the second innings. This is criminal. This guy has cost Pakistan the match. This is it. Pakistan has lost it. Kamran Akmal is really down on confidence and needs to be rested for some time. Australia played really well aided by the worst captaincy in recent times. Pakistan's negative tactics had put them in a very bad situation. Absolutely rediculous captaincy by Muhammad Yousuf. Pakistan needs to have three different teams for each format of the game. Otherwise there is no chance in hell for this Pakistan who have lost all 7 test they played last year and the first one this year.

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan have not won a test match against Australia for last 15 years but tomorrow Pakistan has a historic chance of winning one. At the end of 3rd day’s play, Australia are 80 runs ahead in their second innings with 2 wickets remaining. Pakistan bowled really well, especially Danish Kaneria & Umer Gul bowled with great heart. Umer Gul proved that his inclusion was the right one and took important wickets at important times in the second innings. The match would have been over by now if Kamran Akmal had not given Australia at least five chances during the day. It was a day when he forgot to keep wickets and just like his brother Umer Akmal forgot to catch as well. He must up his game both in wicket keeping and batting to give Pakistan a chance to win. His batting could prove vital on the 4th day when Pakistan will chasing in their second innings. Pakistan will be chasing a score between 150 & 200 and given how Pakistan has fared in the past run chases, it wi

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan squandered a chance to push Australia out of the test match in Sydney . The wicket of Muhammad Yousuf was crucial and his dismissal was a tame one when he was completely set and timing the ball sweetly. Given that Pakistan is playing against Australia, this match is evenly poised. Pakistan have a very poor record of chasing even small totals in the 4th innings and chasing anything above 150 would be a very hard task indeed. Pakistan should have batted Australia out of the match but given the fragility of Pakistan batting and lack of hundreds impeded their progress. Any hopes of an easy victory are no longer in the minds of fans but the fears that Australia will score above 400 and win the match are bugging every Pakistani supporter. Umer Akmal needs to understand that he is playing test cricket and not T20 because every time he comes to bat, he wants to hit every ball out of the park. The dismissal of Muhammad Yousaf sparked an almighty and very fam

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan cricket team played really well on the first day of the Sydney cricket test and bowled Australia out for 127. Muhammad Asif took 6 wickets and Muhammad Sami took 3 wickets to put Australia under great pressure after Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch which was green with overcast conditions. This decision might come back to haunt him later in the match which despite losing time on the first day is moving fast on the first day in cricketing terms. One full innings is over and Pakistan are 14 without loss of any wickets. The most amazing thing about this match is the return of Muhammad Sami and as I wrote previously, this is the last chance for him to prove that he has what it takes to be the spearhead of the Pakistani attack. Muhammad Sami was the biggest difference from the last match when after Muhammad Aamer and Muhammad Asif had no back up. Rauf should never had played the last match but what’s done is done and now is the time i

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan cricket team captain Muhammad Yousuf has said that T20 cricket is affecting Pakistan’s performance in test cricket. He made these comments after losing the Boxing Day test match to Australia. I believe that it is not the T20 cricket which is hampering Pakistan’s test cricket but wrong selection for each format is to be blamed. Pakistan have lost last three series in Australia 3-0 , 3-0 and 2-1 respectively under different captains and at a time when there was no T20 cricket around. So blaming T20 is not the answer to our problems. Instead embracing it as part of future of cricket will make the job easier. Pakistan has bundles of talent in its domestic cricket but we keep insisting on using the same players for every format and even when cricket board shows some courage to leave these powerful players out, the powerful lobby in Pakistani media comes into action and put so much pressure on the cricket board that they have to bring these players back into the t

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan lost the Boxing Day test match without a fight on the last day. The whole team was practically out before the lunch session and Australia cleaned up the remaining two wickets after lunch. As I said in my earlier posts, this Pakistan line up is capable of around 250 runs in an innings and anything beyond 250 is out of their reach and there was ample evidence of this fact in the match. Australia won the match convincingly and it seems that they will win the series 3-0 as well. After all Pakistan lost the last two series in Australia 3-0 so it wont be much of a surprise but this Australian team does not have McGrath or Warne. Pakistan must somehow muster courage so that individuals can score hundreds as it seems that after scoring about 30 to 50 runs they think that they have done their jobs and there place in the team is secure. The other most important thing is the fielding. Pakistan lost the match because of their abysmal fielding on the first day when they g

By Sikander Hayat Apart from the dogged batting and great bowling from Muhammad Amer there was very little to cheer about Pakistan’s innings. Muhammad Amer played an innings which must have showed the other “proper” batsmen how to at least resist constant onslaught by the Australians. Umer Akmal showed some class but played too many shots in quick succession and paid the price for it. He looks the future of Pakistan batting by the way he played but need to choose the right ball to hit. Misbah played well but ran out of partners in the end which shows that unless top three in the Pakistan line up score runs, Pakistan has no chance in hell to win against the major oppositions. Australia now has over 300 runs lead with seven wickets remaining and two full days to go. They would look to score about 450 and give Pakistan a day and three quarters to save the test match. It will be highly unlikely that Pakistan can save this test match from here onwards unless there is something out of the or

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan’s top order collapsed once again as a house of cards. Ricky Ponting took pity on Pakistan bowlers and declared the Australian innings at 454/5 because there was no penetration in the Pakistan bowling attack which was severely demoralised by the absolutely abysmal catching. At the end of day 2, Pakistan were 109/4 and all too familiar Pakistan batting collapse is well underway on the same pitch where night watchman Nathan Hauritz scored 75 without much trouble. Pakistanis never get bamboozled by the surface really because the average score by any Pakistani test team is around 250 no matter how hard or easy the pitch may be. It will be a minor miracle if Pakistan can draw this match from here onwards. Batsmen at the crease are Muhammad Aamir and Umar Akmal. Yes, the same Umar Akmal who gave Australia such a good start by dropping Simon Katich.

By Sikander Hayat No player should be allowed to play in the Pakistan cricket team if they cannot field properly. Pakistan drooped at least three catches to let Australia off the hook when Australia should have been 60/2 at one stage but two simple catches were dropped by Umar Akmal & Misbah-ul-Haq. Then other Akmal brother Kamran Akmal dropped Ricky Ponting off the bowling of Muhammad Asif at the start of Ricky Ponting. Pakistani players, it seems, cannot catch to save their lives and a test match in which they should have established their authority at the very start on the boxing day will now probably end up with Pakistan on the losing side. Pakistani players not only drop catches but they laugh after dropping them as if nothing had happened. The prime example was the catch drooped by Misbah when he drooped Shane Watson and then grinned for what seemed like an eternity as if he felt no shame at all. I believe that Pakistan cricket board should only pick players who can and are w