Thursday, July 10, 2008

Making a Full Circle...

Shoaib Akhtar, who did not get banned for late nights before a match morning, who did not get banned for testing positive for a banned drug, who did not get banned for hitting his team mate with a bat, but got banned for publicly critcizing the PCB, and is now waiting for a ruling from the Lahore High Court on his appeal to overturn the ban, has been...

Included in Pakistan's 30 probables for the Champions Trophy to be held in September.

Mohammad Asif, who did not get banned for testing positive for a banned drug, who remained sidelined due to elbow problems for over 6 months, who played the IPL with less than 100% fitness with his elbow in a brace, who got arrested and then let off after being caught red handed with opium in his wallet at the Dubai airport, who is all set to appear before a PCB 3-man committee for the dubai-drug act, has been...

Included in Pakistan's 30 probables for the Champions Trophy to be held in September.

Good News?

Great News!!!

Pakistan will actually have a REAL bowling attack for once.

Well ofcourse given that these 2 don't break down, hit each other, get caught with drugs in their bladders, or get caught conspiring to bomb the PCB between now and September.

It was the last Champions Trophy, 2 years ago, when Shoaib & Asif flew back to Pakistan because PCB's internal doping test results had shown traces of nandronolone in both the pacers samples.

Since then, both Shoaib & Asif have gone through a very rough period, and neither has featured regularly for Pakistan.

Doubts on their participation in this year's Champions Trophy still remain though.

Shoaib's 18-month ban has been suspended by the Lahore High Court, pending a ruling on his appeal.

While Asif is going to face PCB's 3-man committee who will question his drug smuggling act in Dubai.

However, given that the Chief Selector, Sallu Sahab, has announced that Shoaib and Asif will be included in the 30 probables to be announced tomorrow, I have reason to believe that the courts, committees, PCB, and all authorities concerned are yet again going to let the 2 pacers off scot-free one last time.

Champions Trophy '06 to Champions Trophy '08 - quite a full circle that is, not with smooth edges though. Its been a bumpy ride for them both!

Make your pitch on this post...



Labels: , , , , , ,


10 Pitched:

  1. Gaurav Sethi said...
     

    i'd like to see Misbah capatin the crazies.

  2. Q said...
     

    News filtering in from pakistan is that the lobbying to remove malik has started and there's a lot of pressure on Nasim Ashraf...

  3. Jrod said...
     

    Only in pakistan could these two be named in these circumstances. Thank allah for that.

  4. Q said...
     

    Spot on Jrod. Only in Pakistan.

    I don't think its Allah, he wouldn't want them there.

  5. Viswanathan said...
     

    Is this confirmed?
    What I heard was they were waiting for a go ahead from above.

  6. Q said...
     

    Confirmed Ott..

    The 30 probables will be announced tomorrow and these 2 will be in it.

  7. straight point said...
     

    why not both akhtar and asif have 'recreational' and romantic dinner much like our's bhajji and sree had?

  8. Samir Chopra said...
     

    SP: Too risky. They might fall in love.

  9. Obaid said...
     

    Only in Pakistan... greta piece q.

    If your grapevine sources are to be trusted, then Malik as also going to go as captain. Do you think he will also lose his spot in the squad?

  10. Q said...
     

    Obaid, I doubt Malik will lose his place in the squad or even in the XI but moves to remove him from the captaincy are in full flow in Pakistan. Senior officials, some players from the team, and others are leaving no stone unturned in trying to convince Nasim Ashraf to change his mind.

    And I believe this is why Pakistan did not announce the 30 probables for the Champions Trophy, despite 11th July being the deadline.

    They have now said they will announce the 30 on Monday.

    The reasons given by the PCB are that they have not been able to get approval for inclusion of players outside the centrally contracted ones from some committee and also of Shoaib Akhtar and the fine he has to pay..

    These reasons may be true, but I believe the captaincy issue is still up in the air and there might just be an announcement of the 30 probables without a captain named.

Post a Comment