Umar Akmal: injured or legacy for brother???

Umar Akmal (chotu as they call him) made the whole nation wonder, for about 3 to 4 hours, about his place in the side. As they told (GEO news) that he may not keep against Zimbabwe or may not even be part of the squad but its been cleared now, he is fit and will be available.

                 brother or country?

A few hours ago we got the news that Umar Akmal has got injured during a practice session and may be out of his first ever World Cup 2011. The big question here arises is why does Umar Akmal gets injured every time Kamran Akmal’s place in the side is in jeopardy.

Last time Kamran Akmal had a torrid time with the gloves, although mostly its in every match, was in the Sydney debacle and to replace him a wicket-keeper, Sarfraz Ahmed, was called from Pakistan and to protest this his brothe Umar Akmal faked an injury and got fined for it too.

This time there was no official confirmation of faking an injury but the situation to get injured makes everybody, not only me, wonder BIG TIME! Is it only about his brother even more than his Country? We respect him for the immense talent he has got and specially his presence in the field is very important but we have only one question for him WHY? WHY? WHY?

and in the end to prove that everbody else thinks the same, not only me:
GEO news: ”Umar Akmal sacrifices again for brother.”

Pakistan can’t take Zimbabwe lightly!

Sri Lanka, one of the co-favourites have played good cricket, albeit in patches. The expectations attached to this team are, as yet, unfulfilled, and Thursday presented a great opportunity to them to overwhelm their opponents in front of their partisan fans.

Admittedly, Zimbabwe had not been able to produce their best form, which gave rise to them pulling off a stunning upset. The opening duo of Upul Tharanga and Tillakeratne Dilshan produced a glittering partnership and it negated Zimbabwean skipper’s thoughts of early breakthroughs after electing to bowl first. The other factor for his decision was the chance of heavy dew in the second half of the match.

Sri Lanka were well aware of this and with the wicket gradually getting slower with the older ball, knew that strokemaking would be difficult too.

Their openers came out with a mission and proceeded to flay the bowling to all parts from the beginning and posted a huge stand that only hindered Zimbabwean bowling figures. Both players pulled, cut, drove and swept with panache. In spite of many bowling changes, the onslaught continued for the hapless bowlers. Dilshan reached his ton with 12 overs to go and briefly threatened Sachinís double ton record. At the other end, Tharanga reached his maiden World Cup ton. He is a beacon for his side and has been consistent and it was pleasing to see him convert a start into a substantial score, which would’ve no doubt increased his confidence.

Zimbabwe gained some revenge by picking up late wickets as the home side pressed for late runs as records tumbled with Sri Lanka ending up on 327-6. At one time 350 was on the cards but by going berserk and promoting sloogers up the order, they missed the opportunity.

The Kiwis scoring 114 runs from six overs against Pakistan was a rare occurrence. And Sri Lanka just couldn’t repeat it. So the wiser approach for batting power-play is to aim for 40 runs by relying on cricketing strokes which also prevents the loss of wickets.

Brendon Taylor would’ve pumped up his charges with the talk of Ireland’s win against England, India’s draw with the English at the break; asking them to draw inspiration from that. Zimbabwe had a chance.

And Taylor and Regis Chakabva ensured a good start. Their approach was refreshing and without taking too many risks, they took the score to 100. As the partnership started to threaten an upset, Kumar Sangakkara turned to his last resort — Muttiah Muralitharan.

Now was the time for the Zimbabwean batsmen to ensure that they didn’t get carried away. But Murali’s guile was too much for them as he gave the Sri Lankans the vital breakthrough which triggered a collapse before their hopes of an upset were crushed as Dishan showed his ability with the ball too.

One hopes that the Pakistan team watched the game and wouldn’t take Zimbabwe lightly as it would only result in a fallback to 2007 when we suffered humiliation at the hands of the Irish. Zimbabwe have decent cricketers who can spring an upset.

PCB integrity committee asks Malik, Kaneria to give documents

Pakistan's discarded Test players, Shoaib Malik and Danish Kaneria have again been told by the Pakistan Cricket Board's integrity committee to produce relevant documents in order to fast track any chances of them being cleared for national selection. Reliable sources in the board said on Friday that

the situation concerning both players was being dealt on a case to case basis by the integrity committee that was constituted by the board after the spot-fixing scandal broke out in England last year.

The committee, which includes a former high court judge, is tasked with scrutinising the background of every player before he is cleared to play for the national team.

So far the integrity committee has not cleared Malik or Kaneria despite having several rounds of talks with them.

"Both cases are different. While in Malik's case the committee wants him to provide more details about his bank accounts, assets and mode of earnings, in Kaneria's case his issue is related to him being investigated by the Essex police last year in connection with a spot-fixing scandal in county cricket," a source explained.

The Test-leg spinner was investigated by the Essex police last year for his alleged involvement in fixing a Pro-40 county match against Durham in September 2009 with teammate Mervyn Westfield but the police later cleared Kaneria saying it had found no evidence to incriminate him in the case.

Westfield, however, was charged by the police and is now facing criminal charges.

The source said that Malik appeared to be very keen to get clearance as soon as possible as he had himself requested for a hearing recently and held discussions with the committee members.

"He has given the committee more details about his assets and accounts but the members have asked him for some more details, which he has promised to come up with soon," the source said.

Cricket-Pakistan's Umar Akmal suffers finger injury - team

 Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal has suffered an injury to his right index finger in a training session and was rested on Friday for team practice ahead of their match with Zimbabwe on Monday.

Akmal was rested while the rest of his team mates were practising in a simulated match.

"There is no swelling at all. He is perfectly all right," team manager Intikhab Alam said.

"We just want to make sure that everything is okay, that's why I sent him to get an X-ray and scan also. It's cleared and he is okay.

"We are resting him for precautionary measures. He got injured on his right index finger when he was fielding yesterday."

Akmal has been the second highest scorer for Pakistan with 167 runs in the four World Cup Group A matches so far played after Misbah Ul Haq, who has scored 192 runs in the same games.

Pakistan will meet Zimbabwe in their next round robin match at Pallekele on Monday after New Zealand defeated the 1992 champions by 110 runs on Tuesday. (Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Jon Bramley; To query or comment on this story email 

PAKISTAN SKIPPER SHAHID AFRIDI NOT PUTTING THE ENTIRE BLAME ON KAMRAN AKMAL FOR THEIR NEW ZEALAND DEFEAT

Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi has reportedly expressed that wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal is not the only the one responsible for their disappointing defeat in the group match against New Zealand on Monday, March 8, at Pallekele.

Kamran Akmal had a dismal display in the match against New Zealand. He ended up dropping two regulation catches in the same over, which would have sent Taylor back to the pavilion. These were costly mistakes as Taylor went on to score 131 not out. The missed catches also seemed to bring down the morale of the rest of the team as Pakistan started imploding miserably.

The bowling line-up ended up giving away more than 100 runs in the last five overs. The batting line-up didn't do much better either as the openers gave an unimpressive start to a lackluster batting show.

Afridi added that Kamran would not be forced out of the team at this point, as it would disturb the momentum of the team in the ICC World Cup 2011. He stated, “Kamran has done a lot of hard work for this World Cup, but he has not lived up to that level, and we suffered a lot after he couldn’t perform.”

The Pakistan captain did appreciate Akmal's previous performances and admitted that the keeper was a match winner. 

Nevertheless, the captain said that despite Akmal’s poor performance, the team and cricket gurus should cheer him up instead of pointing fingers at him as that would only serve to hurt his confidence more.

Afridi added that he was not sure whether Kamran would play the next match against Zimbabwe on March 8, at Pallekele. But he insisted that the stumper should be given a chance to prove his standing in the tournament, as he is a very talented player.

The veteran all-rounder is of the view that the team will regroup immediately for their next group match against Zimbabwe.  He stated, “Because of the way we have batted, bowled and fielded everyone should get angry but then we have to forget this anger and we should have confidence for the next match.”

Afridi also impressed upon the openers, Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad to find form soon as their poor performance was putting unnecessary pressure on the middle-order. Also, although he termed the openers 'perfect' for the job, Afridi didn't rule out the possibility of opening with Kamran Akmal in the future matches.

Afridi eyes semis spot

Shocking defeat at the hands of New Zealand in Pallekele has deeply disappointed Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi but has not weakened his confidence for the ongoing world cup. He told the visiting Pakistani media men on Wednesday night at Kandy that the team had to move on and concentrate on its next three matches including the quarter final against unknown opponent. 
He said he was eyeing a semi final place for his team despite what had happened against New Zealand. The team could reach there but it had to forget what had happen and concentrate on preparing and planning for those matches which would help them to reach the last four stage. Afridi had invited for personal dinner all the Pakistani newsmen covering action of the national team in the ongoing competition in teams hotel at Maha Valley Ridge which one of the two four star hotel in this hilly resort also famous as a home of holy tooth relic of Lord Buddha.
All those visiting newsmen based in Kandy attended the sumptuous dinner but those who shuttle between Colombo and Kandy could not come to the hotel. The dinner was expected to be an informal gathering but when the media put questions to him he obliged them. 
Responding to a question about the feeling of deep hurt that millions of fans back home were feeling after the team succumbed to 110 runs loss to the Kiwis, he said that was natural reaction of the public which had supported the team and always wished them well and prayed for it. He said he could understand the feeling of disappointment in public. The team respects their feeling and itself was disappointed about its performance.
However, as the competition was approaching the completion of first group league. It was time to plan and move on because it had before it three important matches including match against Zimbabwe at Pallekele on March 14 and the most crucial contest against Australia on March 19 followed by even challenging the quarter final.