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SPORTS Tuesday, 12 March, 2013
fawad takes giant strides in cricket SYdNEY: Fawad Ahmed’s cricketing journey began in a graveyard in his village in northwest Pakistan but could yet culminate in an Ashes Test for Australia at the home of cricket, Lord’s. Friends and former team-mates of the 31year-old, who fled to Australia in 2010 claiming he was targeted by extremists and now wants to play for his adopted land against England, said his talent was obvious at an early age but he never got the chance to shine in Pakistan. Syed Qamar, 35, who captained him in the northwestern town of Swabi, told AFP that even as a young man he was a matchwinner, baffling batsmen with the leg-spinner’s full repertoire of deliveries. “He was a highly talented bowler, his main advantage was his height and he could deliver leg-break, flipper, googly with ease,” he said. Ahmed played a handful of First-Class matches in Pakistan, taking a wicket in his debut match for Abbottabad in 2005, but Qamar said he became frustrated as there was little chance for him to break into the national side from Swabi. Ahmed’s relatives refused to discuss him or the threats against him, but family friend Mohammad Asghar insisted they were genuine, though there is no record of militants threatening cricketers in Pakistan or of attacks on domestic matches. Indeed, some of Pakistan’s best players have hailed from the restive northwest — former One-Day captain Shahid Afridi is from the lawless tribal district of Khyber and fast bowler Umar Gul is from Peshawar. Ahmed’s former team-mate Maqsood Ali, 38, said he always played with a steely determination. “Unlike most bowlers who shout and show excitement on taking a wicket, Fawad would behave very normally and remain quiet,” he told AFP. “Cricket was his passion. When he was not selected for the national team, he told me ‘I will play international cricket at any cost’.” Ahmed was granted a permanent Australian visa in November and quickly made a name for himself bowling for the Melbourne Renegades in the Twenty20 Big Bash League. He will be eligible to play for Australia once is granted citizenship, and the Cricinfo website reported that Cricket Australia (CA) is lobbying authorities to fast-track his application to make him available for the start of the Ashes in England in July. AgENcIES
I was very pleased with both the bowling and batting efforts in Dunedin and we plan to build on that in Wellington. –New Zealand coach Mike Hesson
Misbah ponders all-round failure BLOEMfONTEIN
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AgENcIES
batsman to see off more than half the overs, bowlers who could continually apply pressure, and committed fielding on the biggest ground in South Africa, is what Misbah-ul-Haq felt he needed in Bloemfontein. In other words, “everything went wrong,” and he admitted as much. Everything from selection - Pakistan were a seamer short - to the toss, where AB de villiers was happy Misbah sent him in, to the efforts with bat and ball. On a flat pitch, Misbah conceded that although he would have preferred a target of around 280, “even nine an over was chaseable,” to fall so far short was not a good reflection on Pakistan. The bowling was challenging - there was some swing from Lonwabo Tsotsobe and some bounce from Ryan McLaren - but it was not impossible to score. What Pakistan lacked was someone with the temperament to stay at the crease. Mohammad Hafeez was unlucky - “what can you do?” Misbah said in response to questions about the run-out but Nasir Jamshed and Younis Khan chased wide deliveries, Asad Shafiq misdirected a hook, Misbah was found wanting against the short ball and Shoaib Malik did not pick a slower one. “We needed someone to bat through,” Misbah said “It’s difficult when you are losing wickets to chase a total like that. Wickets in hand is key. You want your main batsmen to go in and keep scoring.” Having conceded a large total, it was important that Pakistan’s batsmen showed more discipline than their bowlers. The attack did not escape Misbah’s criticism. “We did not manage to take wickets, we could not manage to create pressure and the fielding was mediocre,” he said. It is not the time for crisis talks yet, though. Misbah chose to take a measured view of the defeat. “Everybody
knows what we did wrong. We need to improve the areas we are bowling, build more partnerships and every batsmen who is set needs to carry on.” Not so for South Africa. Even though the next match is five days away, AB de villiers said the boost this has given the team will serve them well for the rest of the series. “We’ve got confidence now,” he said. “We had a really good performance with a lot of pressure on us.” Expectation on South Africa was low before this series because they appeared an unsettled unit. It is only one performance but already they look ready to shelve
that notion as the former bit-part players had starring roles. Colin Ingram, Farhaan Behardien and Ryan McLaren were under the most scrutiny coming into the match and all three put in impressive performances. Ingram had to build an innings and a partnership, and faith in him appeared low when de villiers came in at No.3 instead of him. “It’s taken us a while to come up with some sort of plan for batting. When we have a solid foundation, like we did today, it’s a good time for me to come in,” de villiers explained. “I enjoy playing against the spinners and I can work it around a little.” Ingram followed soon after and helped de villiers create the “game changer,” with a 120-run stand. “We hussled between deliveries, we showed intent and we showed two good cricket brains,” de villiers said. “We played the spinners well so it was easy for me to bat with Colin.” Behardien showed his ability to finish, something that he has not managed to do so far. The end result was that the bowlers went into the second half with an advantage and McLaren exploited it fully. On his home turf, he used the short ball well and formed an important part of the seam quartet that tied Pakistan down. McLaren has not had his standout performance in ODI cricket yet, and with Dale Steyn returning and Morne Morkel close to recovery, he needed to do something to prove his worth. “It’s probably the most pleasing thing of all to watch Ryan develop,” de villiers said. “Every game I have ever played against, he has been a real fighter and even though he struggled in the past, to see him perform like this is great. He looks comfortable at this level now.” With an all-round effort from his charges, de villiers found the captaincy less of a burden and “felt more in control.” He was also able to gauge the level of commitment from the men he commands, and on the evidence of this effort, he was satisfied. “I can see guys wanting to be in this team and perform in this team,” he said. Even those who didn’t do that emphatically in previous games.
It’s not just about one incident: Clarke Michael Clarke is not happy with the standards of behaviour within his team on the India tour
MOHALI AgENcIES
Michael Clarke has stressed that the dramatic axing of four players including the vice-captain Shane Watson for the third Test in Mohali was due to a continued failure of some players to meet the standards set by the team. Watson flew home after being told he and three other players would not be considered for the match and is considering his Test future, although his departure was also largely spurred by the fact that his wife Lee Furlong is due to give birth soon. Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja failed to comply with an order from the coach Mickey Arthur to provide feedback on where they and the team could improve after the embarrassing loss in Hyderabad. But Clarke said the decision, made by
Arthur, Clarke and the team manager Gavin Dovey, was an example to players that no longer would they get away with cutting corners. “No doubt it’s been a tough day,” Clarke said late on Monday. “I want the public and the media to understand, don’t get me wrong, it’s not just about one incident. Firstly on this tour our performances have been unacceptable and there has been some stuff off the field [that has been unacceptable] for the standards an Australian cricket team needs to present itself to achieve what we are trying to achieve ... I know it is a tough day, a really tough day and it’s a tough decision, but at the end of the day if people are not hitting those standards there are going to be consequences. “Our head coach gave us two days off after the second Test, it was about freshening yourself up, get your rehab [done], your recovery, do what you have
to do, get everything right for the next two Test matches, because the next two Test matches are as big as you might have in your career and you have an opportunity to turn this series around. “We were asked to do one thing from the head coach. It was giving information back to the head coach about not only improving your game - what you’ve learnt from the first two Test matches - but also how can you help this team turn things around and have success. “It was a very simple task. Yes, it took a lot of thinking because you had to look at your game and where you thought you could improve, what you had learnt and what you could do to help this team level this series. In my opinion, for the four players to not do it, not only does it let the team down, it also shows a lack of respect for the head coach and in the Australian cricket team that is unacceptable.”
Watson may quit Test cricket after axing MOHALI AgENcIES
Shane Watson is contemplating his future in the game after being axed from the squad for the Mohali Test on disciplinary grounds and then leaving the tour to be with his pregnant wife. Watson was one of four players punished by the team management for ignoring team orders. Since being named Michael Clarke’s vicecaptain in 2011, Watson’s Twenty20 and ODI displays have remained strong but his Test appearances have been neither consistent nor convincing. His struggles in India despite being one of only two batsmen to have made a Test hundred on the subcontinent were a major contributor to Australia’s 0-2 deficit. There is little doubt Watson’s T20 career
will continue for he is schedule to return to India in April for the IPL, where he had also indicated he would return to bowling for his franchise rather than his country. In ODIs he has the lure of the 2015 World Cup to sustain him. But it is now plausible that at 31 he has played his final Test match. “Any time you’re suspended for a Test match unless you do something unbelievably wrong, and obviously everyone knows what those rules are ... I think it is very harsh,” Watson told reporters at the team hotel in Chandigarh. “At this point in time I’m at a stage where I’m sort of weighing up my future and what I want to do with my cricket in shane Watson general, to be honest. I do love playing, there is no doubt about that, but at this point in time I’m going to spend the next few weeks with my family and just weigh up my options of
At this point in time I’m at a stage where I’m sort of weighing up my future and what I want to do with my cricket in general
just exactly which direction I want to go. “There are lot more important things in life - I certainly do love playing cricket and that passion is still there and I feel like I’m in the prime years of my cricket career. From that perspective I still feel like I’ve got a lot to give. But from a holistic perspective I’ve got to sit down with my family and decide which directions they are.” Watson, along with James Pattinson, Usman Khawaja and Mitchell Johnson were told this morning by the coach Mickey Arthur that, in an unprecedented decision, they would not be considered for the third Test. After the loss in Hyderabad, inside three and a half days, Arthur had asked every member of the squad to let him know three points on how their individual performances and those of the team could be improved. These four players did not comply with the directive. Watson said he had been going to tell the team management that he would need to miss the fourth Test to be with his wife, who is due at the end of the month, but had been informed of his axing before he could do so. “I was about to communicate that to Mickey and the leadership group today but they obviously beat me to it by telling me I wasn’t selected for this Test match,” he said. “Also
overnight, things have changed and Lee wasn’t going to tell me things had changed because she knew how much it meant to me to be able to play this Test match. It was due in a couple of weeks but it’s looking like
things have sped up a little bit.” With four players unavailable, Australia’s squad is down to 13 players for the Mohali Test, and if wicketkeeper Matthew Wade’s ankle does not heal, they will have to pick a team from 12.