So Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal have been left out of the touring party for the UK where Pakistan will first play a couple of ODIs in Scotland and Ireland, and then take part in the final edition of the ICC Champions Trophy.

That is going to be one action packed UK summer for Pakistan's cricketers and all of you better get hold of your Sky Sports deals an make sure you are ready to follow Misbah & company as they take the field in Scotland, Ireland, and England.

Two of my favorite cricketers are out of the team, with at least one of them not deserving the axe at all. But I'll move on and focus on the players that have been picked.

Particularly the three newbies - Umar Amin, Asad Ali, and Ehsan Adil.

Asad Ali
I first spoke about Asad Ali when I wrote the two part piece on "Pakistan's new ODI team". He has an exceptional First class, List A, and Twenty 20 record, an he was the leading wicket taker in the recently concluded President's One Day Cup Competition.

He was one of the 20 bowlers to take part in the 10-day fast bowler's camp under the supervision of Wasim Akram, which must have helped him immensely.

He comes with 8 years of domestic experience under his belt and at 24 is still very young to have a long career for Pakistan.

Asad might end up being the largest beneficiary of Umar Gul's injury and with the supportive conditions in England, he could not have asked for a better opportunity to break into international cricket.

Umar Amin
Umar Amin made his ODI and Test debut in 2010 when he played in the Asia Cup and the following tour of England with no success. He has been long considered to be a talented batsman, but his record is hardly impressive.

With an average of below 40 in first class cricket and below 35 in List A cricket, I seriously do not feel that he is international material. If anything his failure in the Asia Cup and the tests in England in 2010 told the same story.

Yet the selectors have picked him, not only ahead of Umar Akmal, but also ahead of better domestic performers like Sohaib Maqsood, Haris Sohail, Khurram Manzoor, and Azhar Ali.

The only notable performance Umar gave this past season was his glorious 281 in the President's Trophy that helped him to end the competition as the leading run scorer. Yet the all the batsmen mentioned above scored more first class and List A runs than him during the past season.

I have my doubts about Umar Amin, which I hope he can prove wrong; but I really do not see him succeeding in international cricket.

Ehsan Adil
Ehsan Adil is another tall pacer in the mould of Mohammad Asif. We all saw him make his test debut in South Africa, where he picked up Graeme Smith with his third delivery in international cricket.

Adil is one of the leading wicket takers of the past domestic season and along with Asad, Junaid, and Irfan creates a potentially dangerous pace attack for Pakistan.

He was also part of the fast bowler's camp under Wasim Akram and will be a better bowler in England than he was in South Africa.

I can bet that we all will see a lot of Adil and Asad over the next 10 years. For all your cricket bets, use bwin.

The Squad and the XI
Pakistan's Champions Trophy squad looks a bit bowler heavy to me with as many as 7 specialist bowlers - Junaid, Irfan, Asad, Adil, Wahab, Ajmal, Rehman! Taking the keeper, Akmal, and the "allrounder", Malik, out leaves room for only 6 specialist batsmen with 1 of them totally unproven in international cricket.

I don't get how a nation known to have a brittle batting line up picks a squad for a place like England (seaming conditions et al) with only 6 specialist batsmen.

With Younis Khan out of the team, Asad Shafiq will definitely get an extended run and I guess the playing XI will pick itself:

1. Hafeez 2. Farhat 3. Nasir 4. Misbah 5. Asad 6. Malik 7. Kamran 8. Junaid 9. Ajmal 10. Asad 11. Irfan

Or Asad could play at 3 and Umar Amin at 5 with one of Nasir or Farhat sitting out.

In either case without Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi that looks like a very weak batting line up to me with almost no firepower. With Younis gone and Misbah vowing to play more aggressively the batting is lacking an anchor as well.

As always the batting has left a lot to be desired and the bowling is looking like an exciting prospect.

And as always, the selectors have amused us all once again!

He missed a few matches for SNGPL in October-November due to his brother's wedding without notifying the team management that included Misbah, Hafeez, and coach Basit Ali, and that resulted in his exclusion from the domestic team.

That's one story doing the rounds.

He had a clash with the SNGPL management and has since then been in Misbah's bad books.

That is another story doing the rounds.

Doesn't matter, which one is true but once again Pakistan cricket has presented yet another case of mismanagement of talent.

How many talented players is Pakistan going to waste because they don't have good man managers?

I agree that talent and flair is not enough to keep someone in the team, but Umar Akmal is a lot more than that.

For starters, Umar Akmal is the highest ranked Pakistani batsman in the ICC Rankings for ODI Batsmen. Not only that, but besides Misbah, Umar is the only Pakistani batsmen in the Top 20. ICC Rankings don't lie and the biggest factor that adds to your ranking is consistency.

Secondly, Umar Akmal is Pakistan's 3rd highest run scorer in ODIs since January 2011. Only Misbah and Hafeez have scored more runs than him during this period of over two years, but they have also played almost double the number of innings that Umar has.

Not only that, but Umar Akmal is among the top 20 run scorers in ODIs since January 2011.

Who else has performed that well for Pakistan in ODI cricket?

Not only has he done well for Pakistan, Umar has been their most consistent batsman in ICC events including the World Cup and World Twenty20. Given that record, he should have truly been in the Champions Trophy squad.

You can find a lot of sports betting tips and I'm sure most tips would have slated down Umar to be the leading scorer for Pakistan in the Champions Trophy if he was in the squad.

I am upset about Umar's exclusion, but I am even more upset at the way it has been handled.

Coming of two successive fifties in ODIs against Sri Lanka and Australia, Umar Akmal was dropped from the playing XI for the first two ODIs against India. It made no sense to drop a batsman who had scored two fifties in his previous 3 ODI innings.

He was brought back for the final ODI against India and managed to score 25.

He was in the squad for the ODI series against South Africa but did not play even one of the five ODIs.

And now he finds himself out of the squad.

The selectors and management feel that they have smartly phased Umar Akmal out of the international team.

But all they have really done is wasted the immense talent of a player like Umar Akmal, shattered his confidence, mismanaged his career, and taken out the most explosive component of Pakistan's batting line up for a major tournament.

How many more players are you going to waste!?

30 Billion Dollars.

That is the estimated amount according to some people that goes around in bets placed on matches in the IPL.

30 Billion.

And then it makes one wonder why India doesn't legalize betting.

The other day I wrote about how IPL matches create so much excitement. There are a number of nerve wrecking moments in every single IPL match that one can't help but follow with intent.

Ever imagined what it would be like a for someone betting on the game?

With no money riding on the outcome, I am at most times nervous. The heart starts beating faster, at times you bite your nails, at others your legs shiver... it all adds on to the anticipation of how the climax is going to roll.

All this with no money involved and no real affiliation with any team.

Think about what a betting person goes through if this is what a typical fan experiences during an IPL match.

The stress of watching the game LIVE on TV or at the stadium is surely compounded multiple times with following live betting on a website and / or constant phone calls / messages to bookies.

With 70 odd games played each year in the IPL, I reckon that at least 50 of them are crackers decided in the final over.

20 out of those are probably decided off the final delivery of the match.

Half of the results are not what majority of the public anticipated for most part of the match.

With so much volatility, it naturally becomes a large playing ground for bookmakers. And for betters as well.

No other cricket league or cricket tournament provides the same level of volatility.

The ICC World Twenty20 to some extent but that tournament is too short for betting amounts to rise to the level they are at in the IPL.

A Pakistan vs India match definitely generates the same, if not more, level of interest among betters and bookmakers but with the recent frequency of one Pakistan vs India match a year, it doesn't offer the same kind of prospects that the IPL does to the betting community.

Due to the length of the IPL, which runs into 6 weeks, it also provides betters and bookmakers ample opportunity to cover their losses over the course of the tournament.

What more can a better ask for.

If you only bet on results you have a 50% chance of winning money in every match. For the course of the 76 matches in the IPL you have a 50% chance of winning.

You definitely can't win money or lose money in every single match, and high chances are that your winnings and losses balance out over 76 matches.

So what's the point if you end up with a net zero balance?

Its nothing but the thrill!

Bet on a cricket match and see how it changes your viewing experience.


The IPL is doesn't only provide exciting cricket entertainment, high intensity cricket matches, a big party for the cricketers and administrators involved, packed stadiums, and huge pay cheques, but it also provides the ultimate betting haven for those that enjoy betting on sports.

While Afridi was at his peak bowling form during 2010 and 2011, I thought this was inevitable. I was sure that he would be playing till the 2015 World Cup.

Majority of the Pakistani fans are not following the IPL. Most of them feel that the Pakistani players have been hard done by the BCCI and the franchises and hence it is the fans duty to boycott the league altogether.

Some of them genuinely are not interested in cricket that doesn't involve Pakistani players, while some just don't like the crash bang whallop feel of the IPL.

It is not cricket they say. It is one big party.

Some even call it a farce and believe that majority of the matches are fixed.

RP Singh's no ball the other day in RCB's match against CSK brought all those critics forward calling the match and the entire league fixed.



I would really like to know what the odds were for that match before it started, after the Bangalore innings, and near the end of the CSK innings. Betting, including online betting in India, is quite common among cricket fans and it will be really interesting to study betting patterns for this particular match.

But I tell you what. Even though there are no Pakistanis playing the IPL and even though it might be all fixed, I absolutely love the IPL.

What is there not to love?

The matches are exciting, the competition is intense, the adrenaline is pumping all the time, the crowd is into it every single second, there are sixes, fours, wickets, screaming fans, team owners either glowing with confidence of a victory or looking stressed when their team is losing grasp of the match... and so much more.

It is absolute fun!

Where else will you find two Delhi team mates fighting it out for Kolkata and Bangalore getting into a heated argument only to be separated by a common Delhi team mate?

Gambhir and Kohli would have thrown a punch or three at each other if it was not for Rajat Bhatia's interference.

And I would have absolutely loved it.

Eoin Morgan would have enjoyed it too.



Where else will you find the big screen on the ground flash "From Sir with Love" when Ravindra Jadeja sends the ball sailing into the crowds.

The tag of 'Sir' has spread like wildfire during the IPL. Something that was being used to rib Jadeja by the Twitterati and Cricket Bloggers has now become a trend among the cricketers and the commentators.



Alright lets put all fun and games aside and take a bit of a serious look at the IPL.

The Coaches
Stephen Fleming, Darren Lehmann, John Wright, Alan Donald, Steve Rixon, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Tom Moody, Jonty Rhodes, Anil Kumble.

Those are prolific names. They have either been involved with or are involved with the franchises in the IPL. And they take their cricket damn seriously.

The IPL provides them with a platform to enhance their coaching skills, which will come to good use when they take over international teams, and it provides the players the opportunity to learn from the best.

All those men were world class cricketers who have tons of experience to pass on to players.

One just had to see Allan Donald give the Pune Warriors a briefing during the strategic timeout in the game against CSK to understand how passionately involved with the game he was.

Opportunities for New Talent
The presence of Ricky Ponting, Jonthy Rhodes, Anil Kumble, and Sachin Tendulkar in the Mumbai dressing room would be an awe inspiring one for the likes of Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik and all those fringe players in the team.

The amount they can learn by just listening to them is immense.

No other platform will provide young international players like Kevin Cooper, Chris Morris, Steve Smith, Aaron Finch, and Mitchell Marsh the sort of exposure that the IPL does.

The intensely competitive matches can only bring out the best in these players and constantly playing under pressure enhances their capabilities no end.

The same can be said for the young Indian cricketers aspiring to play for their national team. Rayudu, Mayank Agarwal, Rahane, Manprit Juneja, Vinay Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem are just some of the names of talented cricketers that are rubbing shoulders with international stars at the IPL.

Undoubtedly they are learning and giving it their all to impress the right people to stake a claim at international cricket.

Internationals Have to be at their Best
Since the teams can play only 4 foreign players, all the international players, no matter how big, have to be at their best in every single game.

The competition for places in the XI is extremely high, which makes these international cricketers give their best increasing the overall performance levels.

Brendon McCullum, who is arguable one of the most explosive batsmen in T20 cricket is finding it difficult to break into KKR's XI because of the presence of Kallis and Morgan.

CSK can play only 4 of M Hussey, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel, Chris Morris, Ben Laughlin, Dirk Nannes, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ben Hilfenhaus, Akila Danajaya. How do you leave any of them out? Besides a couple, all the rest are sure starters for their international teams!

Have you seen the Catching?
Even if every game is fixed, the catches can't be!

There is no excuse for missing out on the absolutely magical catches that some of the players have pulled off in this IPL.

There have been many with probably Pollard and Ponting standing out.

Ponting more so because it was off the bowling of Harbhajan and watching the two celebrate together was unreal.


The skills on display are just beautiful.

IPL is cricket entertainment at its best.

76 matches are played every season and I reckon at least 50 of them are decided in the final over, out of which 20 or so off the final delivery.

That is excitement to the core.

Even if its fixed, it is one hell of a fix.

It requires special talent to ensure that the match is played out in that manner.

Seriously.

Whoever is scripting / fixing these games is a genius really for bringing out the best in all these cricketers from all around the world.

It definitely keeps me at the edge of my seat.

The best part about the IPL is that you don't really have to support any team, which for an ideal cricket fan makes watching the game even more fun as you can just purely enjoy the cricket!

I had just as much fun watching Jadeja smash 16 off the final over to win a game for CSK, as I did while watching Allan Donald celebrate like a kid when Marsh and Dinda wrecked CSK's chase.

It is just fun cricket.

How can you not watch it?

So what if there are no Pakistanis playing?

So what if it doesn't test you the way test cricket does?

So what if Dhoni has to win every time?

Forget about these minor issues and don't miss the annual cricket fun fair I say.

It is an absolutely magnificent extravaganza!

Ijaz Butt's term as PCB chairman will probably be remembered as the worst phase of cricket in Pakistan ever.

I don't know of any other Chairman, under whom the cricket team, went through so many scandals. Nor do I know any other Chairman who gave out so many absurd statements to the media.

And he didn't stop after his term ended.

Ijaz Butt continues to entertain the media and us with such silly statements. His latest is about the rift between Misbah Ul Haq and Mohammad Hafeez. Ijaz Butt has claimed that the coach Dav Whatmore and Pakistan's T20 skipper Hafeez have formed a nexus and are bullying Misbah.

What nonsense seriously.

Firstly, Misbah has continuously denied reports of a rift between himself and Hafeez. He denied it from South Africa, he denied it when he landed in Pakistan, and he denied it in the joint press conference that he had with Hafeez yesterday.

Secondly, Ijaz Butt, as always makes no sense.

“Both Whatmore and Hafeez support and back each other since the latter was named T20 captain and that has put great pressure on Misbah, affecting his performance”

How has Misbah's performance been affected exactly?

Someone pls tell Butt sahab that Misbah was the leading run scorer in the recently concluded ODI series against South Africa. He not only topped the runs charts, he topped the averages, and also played a match winning knock in the 4th ODI of the series.

“Misbah by winning the title of the best batsman in the Super Eight T20 stage has proved his talent as a fine T20 player and I feel that injustice was done to him when he was replaced by Hafeez as captain. Misbah-ul-Haq should again be made captain of the T20 team in place of Hafeez”

Right then.

Sure Misbah was the best batsman on show in the just concluded Super 8 T20 Cup, but when asked repeatedly by reporters about making a comeback to the T20 side Misbah said that he has no intentions to play T20 cricket for Pakistan at all.

So when he himself does not want to play T20 cricket for Pakistan, who are you Butt sahab to demand that he be made captain of the team.

Someone please also tell Butt sahab the fine bowling talent that was on show during the FB Super 8 T20 against whome Misbah plundered all those runs.

"If a change in T20 captaincy was imperative, all-rounder Shoaib Malik could be a better choice for the post"

Thank the lord that Butt sahab is not the Chairman any more. What has Shoaib Malik really done in recent times to deserve the captaincy of Pakistan's T20 team?

Does Butt sahab not remember the disaster that Pakistan's team was when Malik was made captain?

“They should have assessed Younis’ performance in the ongoing One-day Cup before making a decision against him,” 

And what about all those continuous failures at the international level?

Does failing regularly in ODIs and coming back to domestic cricket and scoring heavily mean that you don't deserve to be dropped?

Has Butt sahab ever thought of the idea that someone might be really good against average bowling in domestic cricket but not good enough for the world stage?

You are a joke Butt sahab.

I reckon he is in need of a communications manager. He needed one when he was heading the PCB and he definitely needs one now. In fact I think he should hire a full fledged communications agency. They will make his life a lot better, ensure that he makes only wise statements in front of the media, and also make sure that he is well versed regarding the topic he is going to talk about. Not only that but they will also enhance his own image.

Do it Butt sahab. Do it!

The plans to visit the UK this summer were made a couple of months ago. It was planned as a leisure trip more than anything else before the realization dawned that the last edition of the Champions Trophy is also being played in the UK this summer.

It was a no brainer then that the trip to the UK had to be timed accordingly.

With Pakistan playing on the 7th, 10th, and 15th the plan was made to be in London from 6th June till 16th June.

Flight arrangements were made, friends in London were notified, and now we just needed Champions Trophy match tickets and visas.

The tickets for Pakistan vs West Indies at the Oval on 7th June and for Pakistan vs South Africa at Edgbaston on 10th June were easily available. However, the initial allocation of tickets for Pakistan vs India were sold out.

Everyone I knew was registered on the ICC ticketing website to receive an email about when the next allotment of tickets will go on sale.

And the wait started.

Two months went by and friends in Pakistan, Dubai, and London kept wondering whether another Pakistan vs India match in the stadium will be possible or not.

The last one I watched at the stadium was the one at the World T20 last year in Colombo, and I don't have many good memories about that match.

I watched the 2011 World Cup semifinal in Manchester sitting among 20 Indians. Not many good memories about that match either.

And now I was waiting for the tickets to go on sale so that I can watch another Pakistan vs India match with those same Manchester friends in the stadium! And other friends too traveling with me from Dubai and Pakistan.

I grew up watching Pakistan vs India at the Sharjah cricket stadium. We rarely used to lose back then, and my childhood memories of Pakistan vs India encounters at the stadiums are cheerful ones.

I want those memories back.

But first, I want those damn tickets!

This past Friday the wait finally ended when the ICC circulated an email that the tickets will go on sale on Monday at 10:30am UK time, i.e. 1:30pm here in Dubai.

Alarms were set for 1:00pm for reminders and I glued myself to my computer screen from the time I woke up and made sure that any meetings or calls were scheduled for 2pm or later.

At 1:00pm my alarm rang. I was already on the ticketing website. I clicked on Pakistan vs India and the message still said that the initial allotment was sold out.

I refreshed the page every 2-3 minutes till it hit 1:30pm. When nothing changed at 1:30 I frantically started refreshing the page.

1:45pm and still nothing.

I sent out stressed out messages to friends saying that there is no second allotment for Pakistan vs India tickets and they all asked me the same question - "how do you know?"

I bloody well sat in front of that website hitting refresh like a crazy person for an hour, that's how I know you fools!

Little did I know that the fool was I. It was Sunday and the tickets were not going to be released till Monday!

Ofcourse Monday. The ICC said Monday.

What was I doing looking for them on Sunday?

Monday came, alarms were set once again, lunch and meetings were rescheduled, and there I was once again sitting in front of the computer screen waiting for 1:30pm.

At 12:40pm I logged on to the ticketing website and it took me to a page that said:

"We are experiencing large traffic volume at the moment so we have placed you in a queue to enter the website. Please wait in queue and you will be redirected to the website momentarily"

I was expecting something like this, but at least a page loaded and it had the decency to tell you that there was a queue.

Yes. A virtual queue.

They might not be physically exhausting than actual queues for tickets outside events, but it was mental torture I swear. Not knowing how many people are in front of you in a queue makes it worse and I figured that out yesterday as I waited for my turn in this Virtual queue.

It was 1:30pm. A bar showed me that I had waited my time and should enter the site any second, but still nothing happened.

Phone calls, messages, emails were all being exchanged and once again we all waited for the website to let us enter.

Then the page refreshed. It refreshed again. And again. And again. And finally the page for buying tickets appeared.

For the first time since I decided to purchase match tickets (it had been 3 months I think), I saw "find tickets" in front of Pakistan vs India instead of the usual "more info".

Yes. Tickets were on sale!

In less than a minute I had bought 5 tickets for Pakistan vs India at Edgbaston on 15th June.

Within the next 3 minutes I spoke to 3 friends who mentioned that they had also managed to buy tickets. Each one of them bought 8, the maximum allowed. The best part is, without knowing, we all managed to buy tickets for the same RES Wyatt Stand!

So now we have 29 tickets for the Pakistan vs India match on 15th June.

And London, here we come!!

It has been two years since I left the UK and I can't wait to get back to the UK summer, cricket, casinos, london bars, restaurants, Manchester, night clubs, and old friends. It is still two months away, but as one my friends said yesterday, "mentally, I am already there".

London, we are coming.