Pakistan Cricket Team: Crisis Or Bad Luck!

Now, I feel sorry for Pakistan Cricket team. Yes, they lack consistency, but their recent record in Cricket does not realistically highlight the quality cricket they have been playing.

It all started from the ICC Champions Trophy in 2009. Pakistan, the-then T20 World Champions, played against New Zealand in the Semi-finals. Pakistan Cricket Team played well, the game was very close, but New Zealand managed to hold their nerves and won the match.

Then Pakistani Cricket team toured New Zealand in the end of 2009. Pakistani team was winning the first test but eventually lost to the Kiwis by 32 runs on the last day. Pakistan Cricket team comprehensively won the 2^nd Cricket Test by 141 runs but the final match was without result. The series was drawn 1-1.

Just before the end of New Zealand tour, Pakistani

Asia Cup-2010: India Vs Pakistan Cricket History

Cricket claims to be the world’s 2^nd most popular sport in the world after Soccer. Although debatable, but when it comes to South Asia, Cricket is by far the most popular sport here.

South Asia is the power house of Cricket. And the most powerful cricket board, BCCI, the Indian Cricket Board, is also a part of South Asia. Over the years, South Asia has contributed a lot towards the game of Cricket. First, India and Pakistan produced legendary cricket stars like Sunil Gavaskar, Zaheer Abbas, Sarfaraz Nawaz, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Majid Khan…and the list goes on and on.

Then, Cricket spread its roots to the neighboring countries of these two arch-rivals. Sri Lanka started showing some great talent. And now Bangladesh is emerging as the 4^th strongest team of Asia.

But the Cricket in South Asia is mainly dominated by India and Pakistan. And when these 2 teams (India vs Pakistan) are up against each other, you are bound to get excited. No matter what the event is, no matter what the Cricket Ranking of each of these teams, no matter which era it is, when there is match featuring India vs Pakistan, the whole Cricket world expects a fascinating clash.

The history of India vs Pakistan Cricket is very volatile. More often than not, the two teams avoided playing Cricket against each other due to the several political tensions.

India Vs Pakistan History

Since 1978, there have been a total 118 ODI Cricket matches featuring India vs Pakistan. Out of which

Asia Cup-2010: History & Future!

Asia, not only the largest Continent on Earth but it’s the biggest region when it comes to the craze for Cricket.  Asia is really the power house of Cricket. Nations like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and now Bangladesh have contributed a plenty to the Cricket world.

Asia Cup is a tournament that features all these 4 teams in ODIs. The tournament was first played in 1984 in Sharjah, UAE organized by ACCA, the Asian Cricket Council. However, this tournament has not been held regularly due to the unfavorable political and Cricket affairs between different Asian nations, especially between India and Pakistan.

A total of 8 editions of Asia Cup Cricket Tournament have been held. India and Sri Lanka have been victorious 4 times each. The first Asia Cup was won by India in 1984. However, in 1986, Sri Lanka managed to become the Asian Champions. In 1988, team India regained the title.

Indian cricket team managed to defend the title in 1990-91. Then in 1993, the Asia Cup was scheduled to be held in Pakistan but due to political tensions, it was not held. In 1995, once again India cricket team managed to successfully defend the title. In 1997, Sri Lankan team came up as victorious.

Pakistan Cricket team could only win the Asia Cup Cricket Tournament in year 2000, held in Bangladesh. There was again a gap of 4 years when the Asian rivals locked horns again in 2004. This time, Sri Lanka reclaimed the title.

The last time Asia Cup was held in 2008, when Pakistan was hosting the event for the first time. Sri Lanka cricket team again managed to win the title when they beat India in the Final.

Now, the 9^th edition of the Asia Cup Cricket tournament is going to be held from June 15, in Dambulla, Sri Lanka.

It’s not easy to figure out the favorites for the Asia Cup-2010. Not because all teams are evenly good, but because the performance of these teams have not been impressive in the recent times. Let’s have a look at each team:

Team India:

Indian cricket team is struggling with

Why Team India Thrown Out?

What we predicted has happened. Indian Cricket team has been thrown out of the Tri-series in Zimbabwe, quite convincingly. The host Zimbabwe has beaten India twice in a week to remove Team India’s chances of playing final of the series.

So, what went wrong with Indian team? As we have already discussed in our previous post, the selection of team India was the main cause of the team’s dismal show. The team comprised of all youngsters with no big names. The most shocking decision was to exclude the skipper, MS Dhoni. The selection was pathetic.

However, I support the idea behind the selection, to give chance to the youngsters ahead of Asia Cup-2010. But the way this idea was executed, was absolutely unacceptable. You just cannot afford the risk of playing all the young 11, without any experience, and most importantly, under a very inexperience captain.

I also feel sorry for the youngsters who played in the tri-series. They were put under enormous pressure, with inexperience captain, and without any experience players to learn from. This might just ruin the future of these young Indian players.

This decision of excluding all the big names has backfired. India has lost the 2^nd position in the ODIs and has moved to the

Does Pakistan Need Shoaib Malik?

Well it’s disappointing. The Pakistan Cricket Board has once again taken a U-turn on their decisions. After banning and fining almost all the top players of the Pakistan team, PCB has now decided to take some steps back on the issue. PCB has lifted the ban from Shoaib Malik and halved the fine of Rs.3 Million. The fines on Umer Akmal and Kamran Akmal have also been relaxed.

However, the PCB has not taken any decisions on

Pakistan Team for Asia Cup, England: Something Missing?

I am astonished by the way Pakistan Cricket Board is running the Cricket affairs. PCB has taken back a number of decisions which they made haphazardly. Recently, PCB has announced a 35-member probable Pakistan Cricket squad for Asia Cup and the England Tour.

Shahdi Afridi has been given the charge of Captaincy in all the 3 formats of the game. Many people question his captaincy in the Tests when he has not played the longest form of the game for the last 4 years. However, I think with the limited options PCB has, Afridi may the ideal candidate for the job.

And if you appoint Afridi as Captain in ODIs and T20, then who will lead the side in Test?