Apna Pakistan

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October 28, 2007

Duncan Fletcher’s autobiography is expected to throw up more details on Andrew Flintoff’s drinking problems © Getty Images

Andrew Flintoff’s drinking problem during the World Cup has been written about in detail, with Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, saying that Flintoff “let him down” during the tournament. Now, further details about Flintoff’s penchant for alcohol is expected to be revealed in Fletcher’s new autobiography, Behind the Shades, which is likely to claim that a practice session on the tour to Australia earlier in the year had to be cancelled due to Flintoff’s problem.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the autobiography will provide details on a net session which was supposed to have been held on February 1, 2007, a day before England’s penultimate round-robin match of the triangular CB Series. The practice was eventually cancelled as Flintoff had been drinking.

Ironically, England creamed Australia by 92 runs the next day, breaking a run of nine successive defeats through the Ashes Tests and the one-day series that followed. Flintoff’s contribution wasn’t much - he scored 3 and took 1 for 47 off eight overs - but England were saved by a maiden one-day century by Ed Joyce, while Liam Plunkett and Sajid Mahmood bowled fine spells with the new ball. That win sparked off a spectacular run, with England qualifying for the final and then beating Australia twice more to lift the trophy.

According to the daily, Fletcher’s book is expected to detail the discussions that were held within the team management on February 1. There was the option of going public with the incident, but the management eventually decided not to take ay action. The decision seemed to have paid off when England won the CB Series, but in the World Cup the problem resurfaced in a major way, with Flintoff being one of six players fined after drinking in a nightclub after losing to New Zealand and 48 hours before playing Canada. But attention focussed on Flintoff who fell off a pedalo in the early hours of the morning. He was later stripped of his vice captaincy.

The autobiography is also expected to reveal that Flintoff stayed in the Australian dressing room till midnight after England had been beaten in a demoralising second Test in Adelaide. England made 551 for 6 in their first innings, but were bundled out for 129 in the second and ultimately lost by six wickets.

October 28, 2007

The fifth ODI against South Africa is likely to be Shoaib’s first since September 2006 © AFP

Two-all with the decider to play: from a five-match series you can’t ask for much more. But that scoreline also suggests more excitement and greater parity perhaps than has been witnessed in Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan. No doubt it’s been an engaging series but one without a definitive, crackling, edge-of-the-seat, I-was-there contest. One chance remains and if Shoaib Akhtar returns, the Gaddafi Stadium might just get it.

First to South Africa, however, and if Makhaya Ntini is any indicator of the mood in the camp, then they are both jolly and confident. Pakistan’s training began with an eclectic background score, courtesy Ntini, of loud chants, songs and general chatter, none of which anyone really understood.

Perhaps the prospect of taking home two trophies has spurred Ntini on. No doubt it has his captain, Graeme Smith. “The feeling in the team is very good right now. We’ve had a successful tour where we’ve played good cricket barring two matches. If someone had said to me before coming over that we would go back with two trophies, I would’ve said it’s a lot of hard work but we’ve done that and are confident for tomorrow.”

The assertion is difficult to disprove. In the ODIs at least, they have done it without a contribution from Jacques Kallis. The one spinner they have played - Johan Botha - is the one they shouldn’t have: Botha’s first wickets of the series in Multan were lower-order, death-over heaves and who knows what Paul Harris might have done.

“We’ve come a long way in learning how to play cricket on the subcontinent,” said Smith. “Our batting unit has performed well on slow, turning wickets. Our bowlers’ plans have been better than in the past. We’ve become a lot more battle-hardened as a team certainly in these conditions.”

The wicket, Smith was not shy in pointing out, looks under-prepared. Spin and seam both will benefit. South Africa countered Pakistan’s spin by using Shaun Pollock as a pinch-hitter in Multan and it might be the way again tomorrow.

“The wicket is a little under-prepared and it’s going to spin,” said Smith. “The seamers might also play a role. We’re well-prepared and we have certain plans. We’ll discuss the pinch-hitter role and see what selection they play as well.”

The feel-good factor, this talk of pitches, could go to pot tomorrow of course. If Shoaib plays, teams and pitches matter little. You wouldn’t guess it but Shoaib hasn’t played an ODI since September 2006. A 13-match ban finally out of the way, he will start tomorrow.

About time too, for as committed as Pakistan’s bowling has been through the series, it has lacked a zip, a proper threat, an element of unknown. With Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif both likely to be rested, Smith cheekily - but correctly - said that pressure would be on Shoaib, not South Africa. “He’s the one making a comeback. We’ve prepared for him because we knew he would be available. He’s short on cricket and whether they risk him in such an important game will be the key.”

Shoaib Malik knows it is a risk worth taking, as he knows this is as good a chance as ever to win a first-ever ODI series against South Africa. “It’s a great opportunity to win a series against them for the first time. We will use Shoaib as our main bowler in the hope of bringing the best out of him,” said Malik.

“If fit, he is an asset. But we will need a team effort to win the last match and if we win we will go on the tour of India with more confidence.”

Naturally, half the mind is on India already. No opener or opening pair has announced itself and Pakistan will fiddle again. Neither Shahid Afridi or Yasir Hameed, providers of the best start thus far (42) are expected to open: a truly Pakistani solution to a truly Pakistani problem. Kamran Akmal comes back up the order and Imran Nazir is likely to play again, Malik admitting they were experimenting with options before India.

The good news is that Younis Khan has a score behind him and Mohammad Yousuf is in good form. If they can stop running each other out, then allied to the form of Malik himself, Pakistan’s middle order is healthy. An innings from Misbah-ul-Haq would top it off nicely, though not as much as a fearsome Shoaib spell and a Pakistan victory.

Pakistan (probable): 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Imran Nazir, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Shoaib Malik (capt), 6 Misbah-ul-Haq, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Abdur Rehman, 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 Rao Iftikhar Anjum.

South Africa (probable): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 JP Duminy, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Shaun Pollock, 8 Albie Morkel, 9 Andre Nel, 10 Johan Botha, 11 Makhaya Ntini.

Osman Samiuddin

A pattern has begun to emerge in this engaging joust. Wickets look as if they’ll leak runs except they don’t. South Africa, setting or chasing targets, start well only to get bogged down in the face of Pakistan’ twin spin stranglers and in that middle period, the game is effectively decided. Pakistan have reduced it to this simple equation and if it comes off tomorrow, then considerable hope will have been salvaged from a series, and era, that stuttered at the start.

There are other themes floating around this pattern of course, which may or may not have a role to play; Shahid Afridi will have a role, in success or failure; South Africa’s middle order, including Jacques Kallis, can’t surely misfire in another match; Pakistan’s fielding, on which so much hinges, has been clownish one day, supreme the next and who knows what tomorrow; a lonesome Johan Botha’s failure to take a wicket or indeed exert any real pressure.

Mickey Arthur believes there is no great mystery why his side are trailing. Forget pitches, forget security distractions: “No excuses, Pakistan have played better than we have over the last two games.”

Granted security concerns mightn’t have been a distraction - though people have been quick to note that their losses have come after the Karachi bombings - but surely the pitches have played their part? Why shouldn’t they, asked Arthur? Home advantage is there to be utilised.

“It’s the same when we are home and we play on bouncy pitches because that plays into our hands. Pakistan are playing with slow pitches which have turn so they’ve used home conditions. We have to come up with a plan to counter it.”

Central to any counter-attack must be Jacques Kallis who has scored 400 runs less than he did in the Test series: 21 from three innings. Barring a battling 42 in the last match, Justin Kemp has also struggled. “Our middle order has struggled in those middle overs but hats off to Pakistan. They’ve bowled really well. We’ll come up with a plan to tackle. Jacques is a fantastic player and we are backing him to come out and score tomorrow.”

Kemp, as the murmurs go, may not be as lucky in which case JP Duminy may sneak in. If it happens, then the two sides will be playing without their vice-captains - Kemp and Salman Butt, who has not featured in the series so far.

Record-loving fans will be pleased to know that Shoaib Malik’s press conference was perhaps the shortest in the history of such things. But that is to be taken as a positive sign for it suggests that all questions are being asked of South Africa currently, literally and figuratively.

Mohammad Asif is still unlikely to play, though with Umar Gul and Iftikhar Anjum so confident, now is perhaps the only time Pakistan can afford to not worry so much about it. In fact, Abdur Rehman’s little groin niggle is probably, in the current context, a bigger concern. He has played his role admirably during the middle overs in this series and Malik will hope he overcomes an early morning fitness test, more so as the only other replacements in the squad are discarded openers. While he’s at it, Malik might also hope that Younis Khan adds runs to the considerable sum of his presence on the field; he hasn’t struggled like Kallis, but has only 54 runs to show.

But really, the ball is in South Africa’s court. Andre Nel will play tomorrow and Charl Langeveldt could make way. Do South Africa wish they had another spinning option, given the way the series has panned out? “Two spinners is debatable,” insisted Arthur.

“Pitches in Pakistan before have been good, with bounce and a little bit of pace. After the first match Pakistan were under pressure, they realised their strengths were in spin. They’ve prepared wickets according to that. Whether those wickets are good in the long-run is debatable but we have to counter it.”

They must do it tomorrow if they are to maintain their record of never having lost a bilateral ODI series against Pakistan. “We’re hugely focused to pull it back,” said Arthur. “We’ve set our team big goals on this trip and we’ve ticked the box in terms of the Tests. We want to go home with the ODI series as well so we’re really focused. It’s a final for us, a do-or-die game.”

Pakistan (probable): Yasir Hameed, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik (capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdur Rehman, Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Umar Gul

South Africa (probable): Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher (wk), Shaun Pollock, Albie Morkel, Johan Botha, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini