relation(Shoaib Akhtar, Bob Woolmer) =? relation(Sourav Ganguly, Greg Chappell)
Increasingly it looks like it.
Here's the latest from the other side of the border.
This is great - here's more: Shoaib's county chairman is absolutely disgusted with him and we all know what SG's Lancashire mates had to say about him.
Btw I had posted my thoughts on Akhtar just recently here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
As Osman Samiuddin points out "Pakistan's obsession with Shoaib Akhtar's fitness and commitment" (and just about everything else) is nothing new, it is "increasingly a pre-series ritual" as he calls it, which now must be, bordering on a pre-everything ritual by the looks of things. But this is hardly anything like the GC-SG saga was/is... that was between captain and coach, two men central to running a professional sports team, this is something between one person and basically everyone else (including Shehrayar Khan, the chairman of the board, Inzamam, the captain, and the fans, which basically sums up just about everyone that matters).
The re-opening of the whole fitness debate though is as irritating as it is interesting to follow. Akhtar's played in 5 "One-day Internationals" for non-Pakistan sides (3 Afro-Asian games and a couple of Super Series game if I’m not mistaken) since being injured in January in Hobart, during the first game of the VB Series (2004/05) playing for Pakistan. He obviously couldn't have played these matches if he wasn't 'fit' to a certain level. Apparently what the coach, captain and selectors have to determine now is weather he's 'fit enough' to last 5 days of ‘real’ test cricket and be prepared to bowl 15-20 overs at the same intensity each day. Is he? I don’t know. Can be, can not be. One can’t be confident.
Then there is the aspect of his mental fitness that they have to judge, which is what John Elliot has complained about (these English county chairmen, is it just me, or don't they complain a bit too often?). It is a question of determining if he's mentally fit enough to allow his super huge ego to fit in within a team, that in his absence has drawn two test series away from home on what are conventionally perceived as being very tough tours (WI & India) singularly on the basis of collective team effort. I ask my self again, is he? The answer this time is little less uncertain but by no means clear-cut. Those who have sympathy for Akhtar (yes, there are such beings) will probably argue for him to be given the “benefit of doubt” as they call it.
On top of all that I'm not quite sure if 2 four day games will be quite enough to settle on a result on all calls. Clearly there are lots of IFs involved. Eventually it is a question of deciding if Shoaib will be an asset or a liability. And I’m not sure, it is possible though, that Woolmer, Inzamam, Bari (chairman of selectors) & Shehrayar might have already made their minds up, and all this pre-series speculation is merely just a means to keep the media busy, conceivably so that they can privately (and not forced to publicly) ponder (and get deeply worried) over far more serious issues within Pakistan Cricket (like for instance, finding a an suitable opening pair), a ‘Machiavellian Approach’ one could call it.
in india too, we are now obsessed with SG. It is almost like a soap opera - every move he makes is closely scrutinized and thoroughly analyzed by so called experts.
yes - pardon for me getting too carried away - shoaib is of course not captain(tho i think he wants to be), but now neither is SG (tho he is not ready to accept it)
Post a Comment