Take a look at India’s schedule at the World Cup.
They play six matches over the first thirty days. It’s going to be a slow crawl. When the IPL starts right after the World Cup, the contrast is going to be jarring.
Ten years ago, who would have thought One Day Internationals would seem like the slow, aging behemoth that they’ve become?
Imran Khan, on the the Pakistani musical chairs:
Mr. Khan said Pakistan cricket’s biggest mistake was changing the captains too often. “Tell me in which country is the (PCB) chairman or captain changed if a team loses. We make this mistake all the time, but we need to improve our system. Since I retired so many captains have been changed. It has served no purpose,” he said.
But former Test captains Aamir Sohail and Javed Miandad, who were also on the show, reminded Mr. Khan that in Pakistan the cricket system was different. “In no country was the board chairman nominated by the President nor did he enjoy the sweeping powers he enjoyed in Pakistan which led to unilateral decisions and problems in the team,” they said.
via The Hindu : Sport News : End ad-hocism, govt interference in cricket: Imran. (h/t Mitul)
The next Pakistan captain could be Shahid Afridi. Then again, it could be Misbah-ul-Haq.
Osman Samiuddin, tongue firmly in cheek:
Not least of Misbah’s achievements as captain – and this includes the series with South Africa – is that it went off without anybody being killed. No one ran away and no bookies have yet been sighted. Daniel Vettori even completed his press conference duties without insinuating anything untoward about Umar Gul’s fine fourth-evening spell in Wellington. It is a minor triumph.
via The latest chapter in Misbah’s extraordinary career | ESPN Cricinfo
He’s had quite a career so far, and has that innate quality Pakistani cricketers seem to have of being able to come back from the dead. Repeatedly. In my count from earlier this week, he may soon be #15 since Imran.
Kamran Abbasi makes the call:
The PCB has groomed a captain for this World Cup. His name is Shahid Afridi. He might have limitations, but, with senior colleagues around him, those can be overcome. The PCB needs to stop being precious about its own ego and start allowing Pakistan’s World Cup campaign to take shape. The longer any doubt lingers over leadership, the harder it will be for the team to gather any momentum before this year’s biggest tournament.
Imran Khan & Javed Miandad
Let’s first get this out-of-the-way– in my opinion, Pakistan has been the most entertaining cricket team of my lifetime.
Ok. On to business.
Bumbai mei khelte hain, Imran se darte hain
As with all good filmi melodrama, this story begins with a Khan.
In 1987, after the World Cup, two subcontinental heroes retired from cricket– Sunil Gavaskar and Imran Khan.
Sunny ascended to the commentary box. Imran got a call from the General– Imran Khan returned to cricket in 1988 at Zia ul-Haq’s behest.
(Note: Zia is the first, but by no means the last ul-Haq in our tale.)
At the age of 39, Imran Khan led his scrappy team to their first World Cup victory and promptly retired. Again.
Musical Chairs
And Pakistan cricket was never the same again. Over the next three years, Javed Miandad, Saleem Malik, Rameez Raja, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Moin Khan and Saeed Anwar had all been One Day International (ODI) captains. What’s worse, they all had to coexist on the same team. In the mid 90’s, Pakistan was a team full of former captains.
Here is the list of all Pakistan ODI captains since Imran (criteria: captained > 5 ODIs):
That’s fourteen captains in nineteen years. To contrast, Pakistan had played ODIs for nineteen years before Imran retired. In those years (’73-92), they only had ten captains— and only four that captained more than 5 matches, which has been our criteria so far. Four captains for the first nineteen years, fourteen for the next.
Compare with the rest of the teams in the same (’92-’11) period:
England comes close, mostly due to their post-Vaughan, pre-Strauss dithering.
And we haven’t even started to talk about Test cricket yet.
Except for short periods of stability, Pakistan has always had a captaincy crisis. The problem is even worse in Test cricket, where captaincy is generally a long-term anointment. Even in the long form of the game, Pakistan has had fourteen captains since Imran, while England has had seven, NZ and Australia five, Sri Lanka and India six. [Criteria for test captains is more than three tests as captain.]
And now, the Pakistan Cricket Board has announced a team, but no captain for the World Cup next month. Will it be Shahid Afridi? Or the third ul-Haq of our tale– the plucky Misbah? Perhaps, the PCB will decide they need a break from captains. Who could blame them?
Welcome to my blog about cricket.
Who am I?
As a kid growing up in Chicago, my first experience with cricket was when my father and his friends would get together to play on Sundays. There would be elaborate suiting-up and a little play, and then we’d all go out for Indian food.
That was before Gavaskar came to town. The first cricket match I ever saw was an exhibition match between the visiting Indian team and a local team outside Chicago in the early ’80s. My father instilled in me a sense of awe about Gavaskar. We got to meet him. Within 24 hours I had gone from never hearing his name to having discovered a new hero.
Me "playing" cricket
And then we moved to India. And cricket became my first love. This was the era of Gavaskar’s wide-brimmed hat, Vengsarkar at Lords, mustache-chewing Kris, and India coming off a World Cup winning high.
And then? Then came Tendulkar, after which it was a short 20-year hop, skip and a jump to becoming the best Indian team in history.
In the mean time, I moved back to the United States. I now live in Boston, getting my cricket fix through Willow.tv or living vicariously through Cricinfo.
Yes, but that doesn’t tell me if I’ll like your blog
Ok. Here are my cricket quirks:
What will I blog about?
My hope is to give context on players, teams and quirks of history through statistics and historical perspective. I’m not an expert player or analyst. What I am is tenacious.
I will be posting long-form on this blog about once a week. During the week, I will add pointers to interesting things I find around the web.
If you read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments and likes along the way.
OK, why is it called Deep Backward Point?
Because when I have a point, it’s fairly deep and mostly backwards.
Enjoy!
Deep Backward Point 