SPORTS Sunday, 26 April, 2015
Great expectations from a tour for pakistan, sri Lanka
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SPORTS DESK
AKISTAN A’s tour to Sri Lanka, which commences in Matara on Sunday, is being looked at by both countries as one that could help fill vacancies created in their senior sides. Pakistan have been the first country to suffer from the aftermath of the 2015 World Cup following retirements of senior players after suffering a 0-3 ODI series whitewash in Bangladesh. Along with Pakistan, Sri Lanka also had some senior players quitting ODIs after the World Cup. Both sides are going through a period of rebuilding. For Pakistan, where no Test-playing side has gone after the Sri Lanka team bus was attacked by terrorists in 2009, the resumption of A tours is a windfall. They are due to play three one-day matches and three four-day unofficial Tests against Sri Lanka A.”In the past it has been the policy of the Pakistan Cricket Board to have A-team tours but suddenly all A tours came to a stop,” Col Naushaad Ali, the Pakistan A manager, said. “But now with Sri Lanka
taking the initiative it has started again. It’s a wonderful idea to have an A series before the senior team arrives in Sri Lanka.” The senior Pakistan side is due to tour Sri Lanka in June for three Tests, five ODIs and two T20Is. Pakistan A, led by Fawad Alam, have seven players with international experience in their squad. “A-team tours is something that we have been missing for the last four-five years,” Mohammad Akram, the Pakistan A coach, said. “We have been going through tough times back home with no international sides coming to us. It’s not easy going and playing cricket always in Dubai and Sharjah. We have some good players coming through and there is no better place than Sri Lanka to start A tours again. “The Test and one-day series is a great opportunity for both boards to test their young new players. Both teams are going through a transition period and the tour affords youngsters a great chance to perform at this level and claim a place in the national side. “We had a good 10-day camp before we came here and the boys played some good cricket. We have a good mixture of
experienced and young cricketers. We know the conditions here are going to be tough and how hard the Sri Lankans play their cricket but we are fully prepared.” Romesh Kaluwitharana, the Sri Lanka A coach, said the tour was very significant as the hosts were beginning a new era. “After a World Cup there always come new ideas, new thinking and new players. This series will be a good opportunity for the players to showcase their talent and try and fill several openings that will become vacant in the senior side,” Kaluwitharana said. “Ashan Priyanjan (the captain), Kithuruwan Vithanage and Kusal Perera have at some stage played in the senior side. Kusal is a good ODI player but we need to see him scoring consistently. We also want to see whether he could be turned into a good Test player. “Kithuruwan has been playing only Tests. Why not try him out in ODIs and T20Is? He is such a good cricketer. Those are the things we can really work on during an A series. “We are playing against a very good side who are also rebuilding and they also want to come back very strong. With
this new set of players I am confident that we will give Pakistan a very good run, hopefully win both series and produce a few potential players who can be earmarked to play for the national side in the near future.” Kaluwitharana, who has been the Ateam coach for the past five years, said that he has been delivering at least seven-eight
players to the national side consistently but this series would be a challenge for him as he has been given a new set of players to work with. “It’s a big challenge but I am confident of delivering.” The one-dayers will be played in Matara, Hambantota and Colombo and the unofficial Tests in Colombo, Pallekele and Dambulla.
AFRIDI SAYS ‘BAD MINUTE OF MADNESS COSTS BURNLEY TIMES’ PART OF LIFE AS LEICESTER WIN AGAIN
SPORTS DESK Another day, another loss for Pakistan. That seems to have become the script for Pakistan on its tour of Bangladesh. But while the results may be shocking to many, the 4-0 scoreline, days after the ODI whitewash, is not entirely surprising. Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain, the enigmatic Shahid Afridi, has taken it in stride though.
“There is no need to be disappointed as there are good times and bad times in everybody’s lives,” Afridi said after his team went down in the only T20 against Bangladesh. Fast-rising Bangladesh exposed a new look Pakistan team under a new captain Azhar Ali in all three ODI matches played in Dhaka, winning by margins of 79 runs, seven and eight wickets. It was Pakistan’s fifth oneday series loss in the last 12 months. The dose was repeated on Friday as Bangladesh recorded their first ever T20 triumph over Pakistan, breaking a 7-match losing streak. Pakistan has now slumped to eighth in the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI rankings — their worst since the system was introduced in 2003. They are placed at the 4th position in Tests and T20s. But the 35-year-old Afridi
believes, Pakistan’s rookies have what it takes to deliver on the big stage and called upon fans to be patient. “We are assessing a lot of things and you will see that things will improve. I am very positive that the players are here to stay and going nowhere as they are our future stars.” “There are mistakes, which have to be dealt with, and we must move towards the betterment,” he said. The Pakistan Cricket Board has promised a review of the disastrous tour but has reiterated that there won’t be any knee-jerk reactions. “We shall not be pressing any panic buttons but will wait for the tour’s end before engaging in a thorough review of all factors.” Pakistan will have the opportunity to make things right in the Test series which starts on April 28. They would be bolstered by the return of stalwarts Misbahul-Haq and Younis Khan.
INJURED RAHAT ALI TO MISS BANGLADESH TESTS Rahat Ali has become the latest Pakistan player to be ruled out of the ongoing Bangladesh tour. Rahat has sustained a hamstring injury and will miss both Tests against the hosts. The PCB tweeted that a “replacement, if any, will be announced in due course.” Before this, injuries to Sohail Khan, Ehsan Adil, Yasir Shah and Sohaib Maqsood had forced them to be ruled of the ODI series which preceded the Tests. The first Test in Khulna starts on April 28. SPORTS DESK
NARINE-LESS KKR STILL A THREAT FOR ROYALS The news of Sunil Narine’s action being reported again would have come as a distraction for Kolkata Knight Riders amid their preparation for the home game against Rajasthan Royals, but judging on how their campaign has gone till now, they are in slightly better state than they were in the Champions League T20 last year when they lost Narine just before the final. With their fast bowlers - Morne Morkel and Umesh Yadav - in good wicket-taking form, Narine’s lack of wickets has not affected them. In Johan Botha and Azhar Mahmood, they have two experienced T20 campaigners waiting to fill in the gaps. The issue, however, is still grating and it will be interesting to see how Knight Riders respond. Royals, who lost two out of their three home games in Ahmedabad, are now on the move again and wouldn’t mind a Narine-less attack. The Eden Gardens pitch this year will also be to their liking; it has a good for batting this year, unlike the slow-turner it used to be. But after being strangled by Royal Challengers Bangalore, they need to prove to themselves that their policy of not holding back with the bat is one worth holding on to. Form guide: Kolkata Knight Riders LWWLW (last five matches, most recent first) / Rajasthan Royals LLWWW Watch out For… Gautam Gambhir has been in top form this season as well. With three half-centuries, he is already the team’s leading run-scorer, and has helped keep one end solid every time Robin Uthappa has fallen early. The most-prolific four-hitter in the IPL, he is also just one hit short of becoming only the third batsman to reach 3000 IPL runs. The day Tim Southee was running through the England side during the World Cup, Chris Morris was helping Lions take a first-innings lead in Johannesburg with a fifty after a wicketless spell the previous day. Two months later, he is now the lynchpin of the Rajasthan Royals bowling attack and has pipped Southee as the first-choice seamer. He has been good both at the start and the end of the innings, bowling with pace, and without, as per team needs. His angle and bounce will be key in neutralising the prolific Gambhir.
SPORTS DESK For the first time in five months Leicester have climbed out of the Premier League’s bottom three as their unlikely great escape edged a step closer to reality with a fourth successive league victory, a 1-0 win at Burnley. In what was billed a must-win match for both sides fellow strugglers Burnley spurned the opportunity to draw first blood when Matt Taylor missed a second-half penalty. Just seconds later the Foxes punished that error with Jamie Vardy scoring to at least prevent the otherwise-excellent Clarets’ centre-back Michael Duff suffering the ignominy of an own goal. The 1-0 scoreline meant Leicester won four successive league matches for the first time since October 1966 and, after 140 days at the bottom of the table before last week’s win over Swansea, they are now clear of the drop zone by a single point, something not seen since since November 17. For Burnley the wait for a goal goes on as another blank means they are one minute short of eight hours since they last scored on March 14. That win over defending champions Manchester City
COURTESY CRICINFO Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has described the national team as a “rudderless ship” after they were whitewashed 0-3 in the ODI series and beaten convicingly in the only T20I on their ongoing tour of Bangladesh. Speaking to a sports website, Ramiz said he was disappointed by the “lack of direction” and the lack of “fresh ideas” from the PCB. “They have gone to the players who have put a mute button on Pakistan cricket for a long time,” Ramiz said. “There’s no freshness of ideas or direction. It’s the same old logic to keep wickets in hand and then go hard in the last 10 overs. This is a throwback to the 80’s and 90’s stuff. I was hoping that the situation would improve but there is hardly any new direction given by the new coaching staff.” Ramiz, who is currently in India as a commentator for the IPL, believes Pakistan need to urgently set up a T20 league on similar lines as that “environment will help the players understand the game better.”
now seems a long time ago as they have taken one point from five matches and are now five points from safety. In the first half there was more penetration on the adjoining cricket pitch where England’s record wicket-taker James Anderson learned his trade - as the seamers made a couple of breakthroughs as Burnley Cricket Club’s first XI hosted Enfield in the Lancashire League. Burnley had been dealt a blow before kick-off when striker Sam Vokes was ruled out by injury, handing Lukas Jutkiewicz his first
THE LOWEST POINT IN OUR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY: RAMIZ “That (a T20 league) will really help them to concentrate on the game and play the game in the way that it should be played,” he said. “I hope the Pakistan Cricket Board works on it and somehow makes it happen. If not in Pakistan, then in the middle east. It’s not about money, it’s about the environment that Pakistan cricket so badly needs to share that experience and to learn from the greats of the game.” Describing the series in Bangladesh as “embarrassing” and the “lowest point in our international history”, Ramiz said the outcome was the culmination “of a badly thought out strategy.” According to him, Pakistan are no longer producing the same assembly line of talent as they did in the past, and even the players coming through are not being “used properly” by the team management. “I’m deeply concerned because I was hoping that some of the younger players would step up but they weren’t good enough,” Ramiz said. “Timid
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Premier League start in six months. The 26-year-old had more yellow cards (one) than goals in 25 previous Premier League appearances this season so it is safe to assume the Clarets were not pinning their hopes on any survival miracles from him. The best other chance of the half dropped to Taylor, making his first start since August 30 after injury, but he could not properly connect with a shot hooked over his shoulder from Duff’s header at a corner and Kasper Schmeichel clawed away the ball from close range.
is the right word, boxed in mentality, which is not expanding your range in T20 or 50overs cricket. It’s the way they’re brought up. “They have technical and mental issues. They don’t know how to construct a knock; those who know it don’t have the technical know-how. Some of them are suppressed by the environment because they are not sure whether they’ll play the next game. The overall strategy needs to improve. The coaching staff has to come to their rescue because gone are the days when Pakistan would have a well rounded and talented side.” The lone bright spark for Pakistan in the one-day series was newly appointed captain Azhar Ali, who scored a hundred and a fifty in his three innings to emerge as the team’s top-run getter. While complimenting Azhar on his solid start, Ramiz, who had advocated Wahab Riaz for the captaincy after Pakistan’s World Cup exit,
believes the door should be kept open on that option. “I believe that Pakistan cricket needs a tonic of aggression,” Ramiz insisted. “What I saw of Wahab Riaz convinced me that he has got the potential and arsenal to give Pakistan that all important positive direction. He could lead them into action because against Australia and throughout the World Cup he was the go-to guy. He would make things happen and that is the kind of individual I was hoping Pakistan would pin its hopes on. He was not even made the vice captain which is strange.” Ramiz was also not surprised by the ineffectiveness of Saeed Ajmal, who returned to the Pakistan squad after remodeling his action. Ajmal, who missed the World Cup, was able to pick up just one wicket in the first two one-dayers and went wicketless in the T20I. Ramiz believes it will be difficult for Ajmal be equally threatening as he felt his doosra has been neutralised by the new action.