Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Younis Pathan takes over Pakistan Cricket

Abra Ka Dabra is what Pakistan's new captain, Younis Khan, wants his players to say to overcome the problems that the country's cricket team has been facing.

And I was always told not to believe in magic!

After a record breaking defeat, hastily arranged meetings between the Chairman and Malik, the selectors, other board members, and Younis, it was announced that Malik had stepped down and Younis was the new captain.

What went on behind those closed doors, no one knows, but I am intrigued to find out what it was that Ijaz Butt offered to Younis that made him accept a job he had declined twice before.

I tried to dig but I don't have the answer.

I do have some quotes though from the Chairman and the new captain, which I will try and read into.

"We haven't sacked Malik. In fact, I met Malik and told him about the situation, as the whole nation felt disappointed over the team's poor performance and a lot of people wanted a change. That is why I requested Malik to step down and he gracefully accepted" said Butt.

That essentially means that Pakistan were humiliated, no one wanted Malik as captain anymore, so we asked him to get lost. He had no choice but to listen to us.

"He (Younus) must have some reasons for not taking the captaincy before" said Butt.

I know why he didn't take the captaincy before, so I made sure I gave him what he asked for.

"I didn't need to think twice this time in accepting the post" Younis told Cricinfo.

Butt gave me everything I asked for so I accepted. There was no way I could have turned that offer down.

"It is and it isn't a tough challenge in a sense. Captaincy is always tough, but I've already been captain before and I don't think you can be in a tougher situation than the 2006 Champions Trophy, when we lost Shoaib and Asif a day before the tournament."

Captaincy is easy and it is hard. Really I don't know what it is. I have done it before so I know what it is but honestly I don't really know. Before I kept thinking about what if Shoaib and Asif were here, now I know they are not here. So it will be easy to not think.

"I will try and fix things that aren't right at the moment"

I will kick all those players who don't listen to me out of the team.

"But the boys will all have to get together and wave their magic wands. I can't just wave it by myself"

The boys will have to learn magic tricks and learn how to say 'abra ka dabra' in sync, otherwise the magic will not work. If I do it alone, it will not work. Afridi, Gul, Salman, Sohail, Misbah, they all will have to do it together. Only then will we create magic.

"I'm at the age now where I don't have a huge amount of time, but still some time"

You don't know my real age as we all fake it in Pakistan so you don't really know if I have a lot of time or not.

"Fitness permitting I can still play another three-four years, but it's not the same as if you're younger and can really plan long-term"

If everyone keeps following my orders, there's no reason why I can't remain captain for the next 3-4 years. Either way I am approaching 40 so I can't really plan long term.

"There is enough time to make a mark though. Difficult decisions will have to be made and you have to be brave to be captain"

As I said, no one really knows I'm close to 40. Everyone thinks I'm 31 so I have enough time. Malik liked some players and kept them in the team. I don't like any of them so I will drop all of them even if they are your favorites.

"But I have nothing to lose and I'm naturally aggressive so that will come through in my captaincy"

I am natural born pathan and you will see that in my captaincy. I will fight against anyone who does not listen to me and I will not lose because I am a pathan.

As of going to press, news had come in that Younis Khan's top most demand was to have a pathan dominated team. With 4 pathans already in the XI (Younis, Afridi, Gul, and Sohail Khan), it is believed that Yasir Hameed and Mohammad Rizwan will also be roped in.

On the bright side, it was also brought to our notice that Younis Khan is the first pathan to be appointed captain of Pakistan since Imran Khan.

Make your pitch on this post...



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14 Pitched:

  1. Leela said...
     

    LOl :-)
    Younis sure is funny!

  2. Gaurav Sethi said...
     

    Q, how long do you give him?

  3. Anonymous said...
     

    Lets see him self destruct now ! Jokes aside i feel it was the right (and the only) choice. He will have success initially because of the support of the board but lets see how long will he be able to sustain it .....btw Q any idea who will be the vice captain ? Afridi or Butt ?

  4. Anonymous said...
     

    PCB should have done this much before. And its good time to drop Akmal and Afridi permanently from the team, for the sake of change. Sarfaraz and Fawad are way better than these fella.

  5. Anonymous said...
     

    Wery Vell ritten post Q, wanted this analysis and i got it :)

    thanks..

  6. karachikhatmal said...
     

    Q,

    i'm not sure about the tone of this post, but like a lot of other people it seemed to be slagging MYK. which i don't quite get, because purely in terms of ability he should have been captain ages ago.

    more importantly, journalists have regularly said that afridi and malik had pushed the split of the team along ethnic lines/their own uthaos, while younis had generally remained aloof of such politics. so i'm not sure where you got this news of his demand for a pathan dominated team.

    and finally, i know we're all bitter, but MYK always has a laugh and a big heart. Surely we can welcome that.

    maybe you just meant all this in jest, and i am being too touchy.

    i love the players waving their own magic wands. such an inappropriate statement. hahaha

  7. SledgeHammer said...
     

    Yes, the loss against Sri Lanka was shameful. But did it really require wholesale changes like removing the skipper?

    Sri Lanka lost to Bangladesh recently, and has performed pretty poorly in the recent past. Their captain is out of sorts. But I don't see insanity in the Sri Lanka cricket board.

    And now, amidst the debacle, Miandad quits.

    Pak cricket has seriously become a joke. It doesn't matter who's at the helm of PCB, or who's in charge of the team, Pak cricket has almost always been (and may always be) a circus.

  8. Jrod said...
     

    Hello dear blogging friend.

    Cricket with balls has now moved, true story.

    We are now at cricketwithballs.com.
    , so if you could update our address in your blogroll that would be great.

    Ofcourse if you already had us down as .com, never mind.

    Cheers.

  9. Q said...
     

    Leela - Younis is Pathan, hence naturally funny ;-)

  10. Q said...
     

    NC, not sure how long but I can safely say that he'll leave before he is asked to...

  11. Q said...
     

    AMK, Im not sure abt only.. wat abt Misbah? he was the VC and he had done a decent job standing in for Malik.. as for support from the board, even Malik had that..

    I think Misbah will remain the VC..

  12. Q said...
     

    CW, when? They couldn't drop Malik cos Pak kept winning all the series and the last time they wanted Younis to be captain, he had ditched Pakistan to go play elsewhere... so the PCB couldnt have done this earlier..

  13. Q said...
     

    Thanks Sam.

  14. Q said...
     

    Karachi Khatmal, I was just being cynical... I could support removing Malik but supportinh Younis as captain, Im sorry, even if he may be the best choice and even if he would do great job, his appointment disgusts me. And it disgusts me because he is the same man who ditched Pakistan when Pakistan needed him the most - i.e. after the 2007 World Cup.

    He is Pakistan's best batsmen, he is the best man to lead them as well, but it will take a LOT for him to do for me to change my opinion about the kind of man he is. True he alwas has a smile and play with the heart but where was he when Pakistan got thrown out of a WC? Where was he when Pakistan needed a captain? where was he when an Inzi-less Pakistan needed him in the middle?

    No where. He went to England saying he needed a break from Pakistan cricket.

    To fall back on a guy who did that, sorry not my cup of tea.

    I would have gone the Misbah or Afridi way...

    And i love ur take on the waving of the magic wands ;-)

    P.s.: the end comment on pathans was a joke..

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