Tit-for-tat: PCB may sue Jonathan Trott for altercation with Wahab

LAHORE - The Pakistan Cricket Board is holding meetings with its legal team to prepare a solid reply to the English and Wales Cricket Board's letter seeking apology and as part of the legqalities it may also take legal course against England player Jonathan Trott for altercation with Wahab Riaz before the Lords ODI.
England batsman Jonathan Trott after his clash with bowler Wahab Riaz before the fourth one-day international at Lord’s gave another twist to the whole episode of match-fixing that also recorded PCB chairman giving statement about fixing in the England team.
PCB chairman Ijaz Butt had conferred with his legal team over the possibility of filing legal action against Trott for allegedly calling Riaz "a match-fixer" while the two teams were warming up in the nets, the source said.
The two players scuffled and had to appear before the match referee over the incident, with Trott apologising to Riaz.
“There is a strong likelihood that the PCB, in a tit-for-tat response to the threat by the England and Wales Cricket Board to sue Butt over his remarks against English players, will go after Trott,” it has been learnt.
The ECB has demanded a “full and unreserved apology” from Butt for his allegations that England players had engaged in match-fixing. Butt made the claims to a Pakistan television channel after England lost the third one-day international at the Brit Insurance Oval.

Afridi mulls Test comeback

Shahid Afridi will consider coming out of Test retirement for Pakistan's series against South Africa in November.

Afridi leads his country in the limited-overs cricket but quit the Test arena in July after Pakistan lost to Australia by 150 runs at Lord's - his first appearance in the five-day format in almost four years.
He returned to the helm to oversee Pakistan's fightback in the one-dayers at the end of a difficult tour of England, coming from 2-0 down to level the series before losing the decider at the Rose Bowl.
Afridi described the trip as the "most difficult" of his career, Pakistan also lost 2-0 in the T20s and 3-1 in the Tests.

Overshadowed

Results, however, were overshadowed by events off the field, Salman Butt - who succeeded Afridi as Test captain - and seamers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were suspended by the International Cricket Council following allegations in the News of the World of spot-fixing during the the fourth Test at Lord's.
All three - plus fringe squad member Wahab Riaz - were interviewed under caution by Scotland Yard detectives as part of a police investigation into the claims.
The ICC also publically revealed they are investigating Pakistan's scoring patterns during the third one-day international, which they tourists won by 23 runs, based on information passed to them by The Sun newspaper.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt responded by saying he had heard in "bookies' circles" that England threw the third one-day international - a claim denied by England's players, who have since demanded an apology from Butt and threatened legal action.
"The best part of the whole tour was that the players showed unity even in difficult times and gave a good fight in the one-day series against England," Afridi said on his arrival home at Karachi airport.
"It was tough because of the controversies and became very difficult to cope with, because every time we went out of the hotel people passed remarks against us.
"Because of the controversies on the tour, it was the most difficult tour of my 14-year career."

Selfless

Pakistan are due to play two T20s, five ODIs and two Tests against South Africa from October 26 to November 24.
The matches are taking place in Abu Dhabi and Dubai as Pakistan remains off-limits for touring sides in the wake of a terrorist attack on Sri Lanka's team bus in Lahore in March 2009 that left eight Pakistanis dead and seven members of the Sri Lankan squad injured.
With Butt likely to still be suspended, Afridi is willing to end his brief Test retirement if it is deemed to be in the interests of the team.
"I will think about it and if the team needs it, I may consider playing the Test series against South Africa," he said

'Some elements trying to destabilise cricket team'

KARACHI: Pakistan one-day skipper Shahid Afridi has said that some elements are trying to destabilise the Pakistan cricket team.
Talking to the media at his residence after returning from England, Afridi said it was one of the most difficult tours for him as a captain, as he had to handle the team as well as the foreign media.
He said Pakistan has given foreign media a chance to attack the team, adding that some other players were also quizzed following allegations.
He stressed that no Pakistani player is involved in corruption, adding that players have to take a stand and make themselves strong.
The skipper said Shoaib Akhtar has had a good comeback and the pacer is in excellent form.
Afridi said the morale of the players is high and the team has shown improvement.
However, he said the team was weak in fielding, which eventually turned out to be the main reason for the team’s loss.

Pakistan cricket team’s four month long journey away from home comes to an end, finally

The Pakistani cricket team has arrived back in Pakistan after a four month long tour of Sri Lanka and England. This tour will be remembered for a long time for many reasons, both good and bad. The team arrived at Lahore except for four players including the captain Shahid Afridi who arrived in Karachi. In his statement upon arrival, the captain said that the tour had been the most difficult of his career.

The tour began with Pakistan playing the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. From there the Pakistani team headed to England, where they played a T20 series against Australia as well as a test series. This was followed by a controversial test, T20 and ODI series against England.

Speaking to journalists upon arriving back, Shahid Afridi stated that the controversies that surrounded the tour made it very difficult for players to focus on the games themselves, and all the attention was widely unnecessary. Despite that, Afridi said that he was proud of the team for still battling those pressures and giving good performances especially in the two ODIs that the team won.

Waqar Younis, coach of the Pakistani team, said that the tour had taken a toll on the team’s support staff as well because of the effort needed to keep the players upbeat amid the barrage of allegations. He added that four months away from home had an adverse effect on every player and staff member, and even though success against Australia helped mitigate some of that, it wasn’t enough.

In England, Pakistan played two T20s against Australia which Pakistan won 2-0. After that, Pakistan played two test matches against Australia, in which Australia won the first match and second was won by Pakistan. This was Pakistan’s first test win against Australia after 15 years. In both the T20s and the test matches, Pakistan was effectively the home side.

After Australia, Pakistan played a four match test series against England. England won this test series by 3-1. Two T20s were then played between the two countries which were also won by England. In the last stage of this long tour, Pakistan played a five match one day series against England. This ODI series was an exciting one as Pakistan fought back from 2-0 to 2-2, but then meekly lost the decider.

The next assignment for the Pakistani team is a home series against the South Africans in UAE. This includes two tests, two T20s and five ODIs. This series kicks off in October. Perhaps more importantly however, Pakistani fans’ eyes will be glued to their television screens in the hope of catching any news about the fates of Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt – the trio that was alleged to have participated in spot fixing scandals in the recent tour of England. These three players are vital cogs of the Pakistani team, and a resolution of this issue would help Pakistan determine which side to take to the 2011 World Cup which is getting increasingly closer.

Boom Boom Afridi: The most intriguing cricketer of all time

Shahid Afridi, the current captain of the ODI and T20 Pakistan teams, is one of the most interesting all-round cricketers of all time. He has rightly earned his nickname ‘Boom Boom’ because of his explosive batting style, but over the years he is becoming renowned more for his aggressive spin bowling. Afridi has some of the best batting averages in the game and he has achieved some unbelievable records. Yet, the other interesting fact about the Pakistani captain is that he is also one of the most inconsistent players of all time. He is the only player in the game ever to score 6000 ODI runs but have an average of only 25. The current spot fixing controversy has left Afridi reeling and he is desperately trying to regroup his players and win the ODI series. Hopefully he will emerge a better player and a better captain at the end of these ordeals.

Afridi made his international debut at the age of 16 for the Pakistani team as a leg spinner. Even though he was supposed to be a spinner, he started to become better known as a pinch hitter. The interesting aspect of his game was the fact that when he would come out to bat he would hit huge strokes, make a decent score, push the teams’ total and then promptly get out. He became known for his ability to hit sixes and make very large scores in a short period of time. In what was only his second match, he scored the fastest century of all time, achieving it in only 37 balls. He also shares the third fastest century along with Brian Lara, scored from 45 balls. He even holds the record for the sixth fastest century which he achieved in 53 balls. Overall in the ODI format of the game he has reached not only 6000 runs but he’s also managed to take over 270 wickets as well. He is one of the best all-rounders in the world at the moment. In early 2010, Afridi was named as the captain of Pakistan in all three formats of the game, though he later retired from test cricket.

Over the years, a lot of people have felt that Afridi was too inconsistent to play in the test format of the game. But, he still has some notable innings to his name and has achieved some great feats in the test format of the sport. His reason for retiring from test cricket was that he felt that his style of play was not suited to the longer version of the game. Afridi’s batting style is very aggressive but then so is his bowling style. A lot of people comment on his batting but over the years with his explosive batting performances slowly diminishing, he has become better known as an attacking spin bowler. One of the best aspects of his bowling style was that he would bowl ball after ball in very quick succession and in doing so he would disorient the batters who are used to pauses between balls. Additionally, he is also able to reduce the run rate of a team in the process. His most fearsome delivery was the fast ball. He is one of the only spin bowlers in the world who was able to bowl the ball at 80 mph and has also been known to bowl the odd bouncer at a batsman. Over the years even his fast ball is rarely seen anymore and it looks like Afridi could be close to retirement.

The great player has not been without controversy in his career though. In 2005, he was caught by cameras stomping on the pitch during a match. It looked like he was trying to ruin the pitch so the ball would swing and spin more so as to favour the Pakistani team when it was bowling. In 2007, he was suspended for four games after he swung his bat and almost hit a spectator who was swearing at him as he walked back to the dressing room. One of the worst incidents of his career took place earlier this year when he was caught on camera chewing a ball. He was trying to tamper with it to change its shape so that it would swing better. He had put all those controversies behind him only to find then that he was suddenly caught in the middle of the current spot fixing scandal that has engulfed the Pakistani team.

It seems that Afridi will retire from the sport of cricket soon because it looks like his explosive hitting power and his ability to bowl the faster delivery have deserted him. He is 30 years old but he may still have a few years left in him. Afridi will always be known as one of the greatest, yet craziest, all round players to set foot on a cricket pitch.