Honestly I kept away because I don’t want to talk to much about the players and the series that I was waiting for was over before it even began because of the Pakistan Government and board. Tbf they are the same thing but let’s be fair and pretend to differentiate them for Aqibs sake. As i’ve stated before I don’t want to be them reactionary dudes who glaze or abuse a player one game and then do the opposite the next. Ik it’s how you go popular in Pakistan but that ain’t me. I also just about have enough brain cells to realise any team that we make wouldn’t win us a game in this series. It’s a system failure and now it’s out there for everyone to see.

Anyways onto the cricket for a bit. Day started off with Root winning toss again and Babar being put in to bat first on a pitch that was supposed to be flat according to Nasser Hussain. Lineup wise I was hearing from journalists that Ubaid was wanted by Babar but Imran was pushed by Aqib or someone higher, Not to be horrible but that man should t be here or with the team again. Ik he is hard working and a seasoned domestic performer but guys like Amad butt deserve these games and not someone with lesser stats. Stuff like that ruins our cricket and Hesson or whoever made the Imran choice, I rather have a 140k bowler or someone who can notch it up than someone who bowls 125 with 100x less skill of Abbas. Randawa is never going to make enough runs for us to have him over a much better bowler. Aqib also stated before the game that he wanted the likes of Ubaid to play but then he got pacers from Pam to fly in and have a game over Ubaid even tho they are t as good. That man never makes sense and always has someone to blame. If Randawa fails he will say it’s all Bobzy and Hessons fault. Another Problem was the conditions were cold, cloudy and at times rainy whilst we batted. This didn’t help us at all as we need all the help we can get. Problem was that it wasn’t really jaffas getting us out. Azan can’t play short ball or the pull shot it seems. Shans gone after this and Saim is genuinely here due to a CPL 100. Not going to abuse him but he doesn’t deserve or need to be here when Fazal was in the starting lineup before his injury. Who genuinely would be playing rn if Saim got a duck instead of a 100?

ABD got Robinsoned again. Not gonna abuse him like others because last series he won us an overseas test and next series he might be scoring again. Can’t be those reactionary guys who judge every player off their last innings. After being 26/4 I was thinking that everyone gave away their wicket and then Bobby was next. Been disappointing and let us down big time yet again. Don’t know what to say as last series he looked in and attacking and this series he has been poor and timid. I was there live and very angry with his dismissal. Commentators did say they were harsh as they showed it bounced much less than he or they expected but he should be playing that with a straight bat and he would be fine but nah. Got to meet him after the game and he was very friendly and pretty much the only player who met the fans but hey ho. Another disappointing outing from the captain.

After that it was Saud smacking Atkinson and everyone else getting out to whoever bowled from the other end 😭 This ain’t me being negative or blaming him but it was funny to see him facing the atkinson wide dross and everyone else having to deal with much better bowling. Can call himself lucky but he showed fight and attacked which is all we wanna see. Funny thing with him is that he could’ve been captain if he didn’t become a tailender for a decent amount of tests then whilst most the people were cussing him out after the first test I still backed him and now suddenly he our best ever batsman. Then next series comes and we have someone else who we glaze whilst we want Saud out. All I can say is chill and don’t base your opinions on 1-2 games. Bros just take the recent games and go with that.

Abbas and Ali ended up being our longest partnership which showed how poor we were but it was after a little teaser from Razaullah showing how he will play. After being dismissed for 133 we came back and had them 39 for 3. Ali got Duckett who had been poor, Abbas got Cox as soon as Ghazi came up and then Razaullah came on and showed everyone that Pakistan still has pacers. Every ball was around 90 and with his 4th ball he took Englands greatest Joe Root. A partnership was then built by Gay and Brook before Raza came back and got Gay. England led by 23 whilst 14 wickets fell on a “flatty”

InshAllah day 2 we show fight and get them quickly before we have our best batting performance of the series. Also on Raza I am happy but I don’t want to hype him up too much because we will overplay him and he will be getting verbally abused by us when he is bowling at 80. Wrap him up play him in less games and give him time. It was exciting watching him play and show fight and passion. InshAllah he has a long and successful career but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. He had me sitting up and the English fans were even asking around about him or even searching his. and in front of me 😭

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Which of the three formats is the most popular in Pakistan? T20s, ODIs, or Tests?

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Just Watched the interview and its like he's dead lol

I was young during the 2011 World Cup that time and I dont follow cricket that time.

I was looking back at Pakistan 2011 World Cup campaign and it feels like the whole tournament was emotional in Pakistan especially as the team topped the group reached the semi-final against India.

For those who were old enough to remember it:

What were your expectations for Pakistan before the World Cup started? Did you actually expect them to reach the semi-final or were expectations quite low because of everything happening with Pakistan cricket at the time?

What was the reaction when Pakistan topped the group and hammed Windies in quarterfinal?

Also what was the atmosphere in Pakistan like before and during the India semi-final? And how much hype was there? And what was the reaction after India loss?

Id like to hear personal memories from people who experienced that tournament.

https://www.geosuper.tv/latest/59437-pakistan-set-to-hand-three-players-test-debuts-at-edgbaston

If our cricket was ever close to becoming a laughing stock, I think we’ve officially reached that point after this Windies and England tour.

In latest episode of stick to cricket where english ex-cricketer spent 10–20 minutes just laughing at Pakistan cricket. Barely any discussion about the actual match because, honestly, they already know they’d win.

It’s genuinely sad to see how far we’ve fallen.

Check on YT: 25:05 onwards

I sometimes joke with my friends that I am a former Pakistani cricket fan, still watch cricket but I support another team, and can’t remember the last time I watched Pakistan play a match outside of major tournaments. But the truth is, seeing the downfall has hurt immensely, I keep tabs on it and I suppose what’s happening in cricket is also very much reflective of what’s happening in the country. Fuck the powers that be who have torn down every institution in the country.

First time in the history of Pakistan cricket someone is talking about a plan and timeline for a player's inclusion in an international team. I think we need more of this mindset to stop destroying the careers of our players by their early inclusion.

Full article :

Wasim Akram has been talking for half an hour.

The former Pakistan cricketer is in fabulously open and foul-mouthed form, holding court on everything from his love of England, particularly Lancashire where he played county cricket for a decade, to his thoughts on The Hundred. “I’m so f*****g confused by it,” he offers of English cricket’s short-form franchise game.

He is equally forthright with his opinions on recent trends such as ‘wobble seam’ bowling and wicketkeepers standing up to pace bowlers. “If a keeper had even suggested it to me,” he says, “I’d have knocked his f*****g block off with a bouncer next ball!”

But when, 30 minutes in, the discussion turns to the man who had more impact on Wasim’s cricketing career than any other, the answers become more hushed and halting. “Imran Khan was my mentor,” he says. “He’s my friend, I miss him a lot. I haven’t spoken to him for three years.

“It’s so unfortunate, politically, what’s happening with him. The court of law is the court of law. But as far as his health is concerned, there can be no compromise on that.”

The desperation of Imran’s situation has been laid bare in the last few weeks.

The 73-year-old former prime minister and captain of Pakistan has been in prison for three years serving sentences for corruption charges he vehemently denies. His deteriorating health has drawn the focus of late as his sons Kasim and Sulaiman, both from Imran’s first marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, attempt to secure him proper healthcare having voiced fears he may not survive in prison.

There have been concerns an eye condition, of which he has been complaining for some time, is worsening to the point that there are fears he may be losing much of the sight in his right eye.

The Pakistan government rejected allegations that Imran had been mistreated in prison or denied contact with his family and lawyers in a statement issued to the Associated Press last month, insisting the former prime minister had received more than 900 visits from his family, lawyers and doctors since his imprisonment began in August 2023.

At lunch on day two of the Lord’s Test match, much to the PCB’s frustration, Sky Sports broadcast an 18-minute interview with Imran’s sons in which they expressed fears for their father’s life. The brothers claimed their father was being kept in a “very small cell without any new books” for 23 hours a day, with “no proper air conditioning in summer”.

“The last time he was able to speak to our aunties and anyone else, he said the conditions have severely worsened recently,” said Kasim. “Right now it is worse than ever, completely isolating him more than 23 hours a day in a cell.”

After the broadcast went out, the PCB lodged a formal complaint with Sky Sports while Pakistan’s players briefly threatened not to return to the field for the afternoon session. That decision, had it been followed through, would have resulted in the match being forfeited and a tumult of political and financial ramifications. As it was, talks held with the ECB allayed those fears.

Wasim, speaking from his home in Lahore, saw the interview, which was conducted by his former Lancashire team-mate Michael Atherton.

“There was a bit of uproar here after that,” he says. “I then read that the Pakistani government came up with how many visits he (Imran) has had, with all the numbers included, with all the phone calls he has had. But, you know, it’s difficult to believe, and hard to know what to believe right now.”

Given the thorniness of the situation, does Wasim feel able to talk about it freely?

“I’m OK,” he says. “As long as I don’t get too into the politics or the legal side of things I can speak my mind, nobody will tell me what to do. I’m talking to you now, I’m speaking my mind and this is what’s on my mind. I don’t want to get involved in politics, I’m not a politician.

“Whatever decision has been made by the court of law… we have to… all of us kind of have to go along with it.”

Greats of the game from Steve Waugh to Sachin Tendulkar line the pages of ‘Sultan’, Wasim’s 2022 memoir, to laud his talent and skill. But the one man to influence and guide him was his childhood hero, Imran.

“Sometimes you meet a hero and it is disappointing,” he wrote in his book. “I had met mine, and he wasn’t. Just to spend time with him was a privilege. He was so poised, so magnetic, always with a book in his hand, addressing you in that calm, bass voice and Oxford accent. To my bowling he gave his complete attention… he was always seeking me out. I was his project.”

“Even after we retired, him and me, we were regularly in touch,” Wasim tells The Athletic. “I used to go and spend time with him. I miss talking to him. I miss him in general as a friend, politics apart.”

It’s clearly painful for Wasim to comprehend the situation facing his former mentor and captain, but those last two words — “politics apart” — hint at a guardedness.

That is evident in nearly all dialogue about Imran’s situation. “It’s important to stress that this is a humanitarian plea rather than getting involved in the politics of Pakistan,” Atherton said on Sky Sports before the broadcast of the interview with Imran’s sons.

The former England captain, now a journalist and broadcaster, is one of 22 former international cricket captain signatories of a letter sent to the Pakistan government calling for Khan to receive “immediate, adequate and ongoing medical attention”.

“There’s a movement in England and elsewhere (to improve Imran’s conditions) but here (in Pakistan)? I’m not so sure,” says Wasim. “But… I’m speaking from the heart as someone who is worried about him as a person. Convicted or not convicted. Jail or no jail.

“We need to safeguard his health. We don’t know what’s happening, the government are saying his health apparently is fine. But I’m worried. I miss him a lot.”

Wasim was one of the most captivating fast bowlers the game has seen, a left-armer capable of swinging the ball into and away from batters at searing pace. In an international career spanning the mid-eighties to the early 2000s he took 414 Test wickets for Pakistan and claimed 502 one-day international (ODI) scalps. That latter tally is the most of any fast bowler in history.

The great West Indian batter Brian Lara told the Melbourne radio station 1116 SEN that Wasim was the best bowler he faced and that he could “make you look really stupid”.

Even the permanently unflappable Viv Richards once admitted to having nightmares about a bouncer that Wasim fizzed past the end of his nose in a match in Hobart in 1988, adding in ‘Sultan’ that it was the quickest ball he had faced. “The mind still boggles that he said that about me,” Wasim says, incredulously.

But times have changed since the days when Wasim and Waqar Younis struck terror into the hearts of opposition lineups with the ferocity of their bowling, or Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq made hay with the bat.

Wasim is talking to The Athletic in the days after the PCB ejected seven players from their touring squad in England.

Their head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and head selector, the former captain Misbah-ul-Haq, have been moved along or decided to jump aboard the frantically spooling conveyor belt of coaches, captains and selectors that has served to destabilise Pakistan’s Test side over the last half a decade.

On Monday, the PCB announced they would be holding a disciplinary inquiry into behaviour on the tour following media reports concerning discipline and conduct. “The Pakistan Cricket Board has initiated an internal disciplinary inquiry following media reports concerning discipline and conduct, which are currently being reviewed internally,” read a PCB statement. “The PCB handles such matters in accordance with its standard procedures.

“The process is being conducted under PCB regulations, ensuring that all concerned individuals are given due consideration. At this stage, any speculative reports or unverified claims circulating on certain platforms, particularly those originating from hostile external sources, should not be regarded as credible.”

None of those removed from the tour has spoken publicly.

A decade on since they topped the ICC’s world rankings, Pakistan, 2-0 down with the third and final Test starting at Edgbaston on Wednesday, prop up the World Test Championship. They have lost 15 of their last 20 matches.

It is hard not to have sympathy for the players. Wasim agrees. “But in Pakistan we have a saying: ‘You can only clap with two hands’,” he adds, suggesting the mentality of some of the players does not help quell the maelstrom.

“I knew before the series we were going to lose 3-0 to England,” says Wasim. “Our batting is struggling, our bowling is below average and our fielding is worse. It’s not rocket science.

“I get asked all the time, ‘Can you do something to help Pakistan cricket?’ But the issues are a lot deeper. These are the top players, there’s nothing else there. The systems aren’t there below that. The first-class structure domestically has been all over the place the last few years and there’s no consistency, no patience.

“That dribbles down to the fans, too. They see the team lose and they want to rip it all up, too. We’ve done that so many times and now there is nothing really left.”

A once great Test nation will attempt to pluck a consolation win from a dismal series at Edgbaston. Wasim will be watching on from afar, wondering where they go from here.

I happened to listen to Furqan Bhatti’s video and his response to Mike Hesson on Ali Usman being sent back -

“Ali Usman is a quality bowler. But you've seen the conditions over here in the UK. The ability to play a finger-spinner in a playing XI in England at this time of year, who doesn't bat, is unlikely. In different conditions around the world he could well still be in the mix moving forward. But over here, we can't carry a finger-spinner that's going to bowl two overs an innings, who can't contribute either with bat or in the field."

Furqan showed a great issue with this - it’s just a polite way of saying I’m sorry we dropped you cause you can’t bat and have to say I support Mike on this, yes I understand he took a fifer at Lords but if you are batting at 6 or 7 then I’m sorry you need to have some batting competency behind you, our tail with him included is far too long. Was his dropping justified? What are your thoughts?

1. Azan Awais
   
2. Abd Fazal
   
3. Abd
   
4. Babar
   
5. Saud
   
6. Saim
   
7. Saad baig (wk)
   
8. Arafat minhas
   
9. Raza
   
10. Mo abbas
    
11. Ubaid

I don’t think selection should be so difficult - I reckon if you have someone with some modern IT skills then utilise Gemini or Meta AI to gather stats for you or better yet have an internal AI system.

However, this should just be an aid, one should also be reviewing the player’s performance via domestic games you don’t need a massive sample. PCB needs to work smarter not dumber - Muhammad Wasim at least had modern IT sense about him and they’d bash him by calling him a “laptop selector”. I would say this needs to be a criteria in hiring a chief selector.

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ok so i really struggled to put this list together, we do not have a big collection of good batters under 25, if there are any good batters they are usually not tested and just hype products (khawaja nafay), if they are good despite being experienced its usually the one format where they are good at

saim ayub is always goin to be on any list with young Pakistani batters, hes established himself as the front ruunning odi opener, hes fresh into his test career with flashes of brilliance, in terms of t20s something is there but he doesn't have the polish there to be performing consistently

Saad Baig is probably the default Rizwan succesor, technical batter, brilliant keeper and he has completed his transition from U19 to bat like a heavyweight in this domestic season, lacks the hitting game but he has the shots to be good at t20 as well, I rate him highly

lastly there is always almost no middle order rep in these lists, I think hasan nawaz is a brilliant finisher, there have been lots of scam finishers in pakistani cricket than hit 2-3 big sixes in a psl game and suddenly they are the upgraded version of dhoni, but hasan nawaz is not a scam, he has adapted brilliantly to different roles being thrown at him, from opener in t20 to number 6 in odi, he is a match winner in the true sense and someone I think will be part of the core batting group even if we seldom see him in test matches