I'm no fan of PCB, I think that's pretty clear. But, I'm also not a fan of this knee-jerk reaction by former cricketers to slam PCB at every opportunity. It seems to be as entrenched a tradition as any in Pakistan.

Today, I read an article on Cricinfo about former crickters attacking PCB for the defeats in Sri Lanka. Here are some of the comments:

Former captain Aamer Sohail said the decision to experiment with makeshift openers was baffling.

"No one, from the board officials to the team management, seems to have a clear plan in mind," Sohail told AFP. "Some of the decisions make no sense, like two regular openers were sent to Sri Lanka but we used makeshift openers in the series which we have lost now."

...

Another former captain, Zaheer Abbas, said the blame lay with the PCB. "The World Twenty20 win had hid all the weaknesses in the team and the cricket board," he said. "Since this board has taken over we have lost the Champions Trophy (hosting rights), we have been stripped of World Cup 2011 matches and we have failed to handle the team, so this is total mismanagement, which is unacceptable.

"The coach (Intikhab Alam) must go, and the captain (Younis Khan) also lacks the qualities of a good leader."

Former chief selector Abdul Qadir was unhappy with the nature of the defeats. "They should feel ashamed," he said. "Defeats are part and parcel of the game, but shameful defeats are unacceptable."

To Aamir: ok, you have a point. But Pakistan has had an opener problem ever since you and Saeed Anwar left. At least you should know that. They couldn't persist with Butt. And there are some contenders so they have to try them out at some point, and given the dearth of international cricket for Pakistan, there are only so many opportunities they have.

To Zaheer Abbas: Wow. Yes, losing the Champions Trophy and WC 2011 hosting rights was totally PCB's fault. Newsflash - Pakistan has been virtually under siege by terrorists for the last few years. A former PM, the Sri Lankan cricket team, and a major hotel in the capital are among the more well-known targets. But of course, this is all PCB's fault. I mean, if Ijaz Butt could just grab an assault rifle and some army fatigues and take care of the terrorists, we'd have been able to host both tournaments. Simple as that! And as for Intikhab Alam - he's the only Pakistan manager/coach who has won us World Championships, so you may want to rethink that. Re: Younis Khan, ok, you may have a point. But substantiate it - give examples.

To Qadir: Hmmm, are you still kicking yourself in the balls for relinquishing your selection duties a bit too early, so that you are made a laughing stock when Pakistan won the T20 WC??? Sounds to me like that. Has it occurred to you that Pakistan are playing a much superior team, and are just outclassed? And that playing their first Test series in so long may have had something to do with it.

Rashid Latif seemed to be a voice of reason:

Former wicketkeeper Rashid Latif, however, ruled out changes in management and said the fault lay with the players. "Changes are not the solution," Latif said. "I think the team needs to go back to basics and there should be no interference in team planning. The team must play to its own plan."

Here's the simple truth - Pakistan is not a good ODI or Test team at this point. They are ok in T20 and were able to put together some remarkable performances to win the WC. But in the longer forms of the game, they are rusty and the players lack the temperament. This is something that will hopefully change once they play more international cricket; to expect them to immediately perform great in all arenas is unfair.

I think the pool of players is pretty good (even if the final selection/order can be tinkered around with). And Management is doing a decent job by getting Pakistan lots of international cricket after somewhat of an exile. But the lure of T20 and a weak domestic structure is changing cricketers' habits, and that especially impacts Pakistani cricketers who are almost genetically inclined to play T20 style in all forms of the game.

Is there justifiable criticism to be made against the PCB? Yes, always. But is this knee-jerk shouting and screaming by ex-cricketers for heads to roll justified after every single loss, especially this series? I don't think so. If there is criticism, put some reasons out there, and offer some solutions. I'm a huge fan of ex-cricketers like Zaheer and Qadir (and even Aamir to some degree! :), and mean no disrespect to them, but I think that they have all had their chances to make changes in PCB and the cricketing setup, but they enjoy being armchair administrators instead.

Oh, and if you thought the mental image of Ijaz Butt with a gun was too much too handle, well here's something to make that image permanent!

The best part are the descriptions given to the players by the speaker.

The PCB selectors dished out two shockers in one day today.

A shock from the PCB is normal routine really, but two in the same day is a bit much!

The first shock came when they announced the 15 man squad for the series against Australia in the UAE.

Shoaib Akhtar made it to the team!

Shocked?

So was I. Well not really after hearing Abdul Qadir over the last few days, but even then it was shocking.

After his pathetic performance against Sri Lanka, after being dropped for the 3rd ODI against Sri Lanka, after missing the test and a half against Sri Lanka due to a knee injury, after claiming to have floating bones in his knees that require surgery, after being turned down by a doctor for conducting surgery on him, after claiming that the floaters have been removed without surgery, asfter appearing in 2 domestic ODI games and looking half fit, and after going through 3 days of fitness tests, in which Qadir claimed he looked fit, Shoaib Akhtar is back!

For how long though?

1 game? Maybe 2?

Maybe half a game!

The other shocker from the PCB was the inclusion of Imran Nazir, Abdul Razzak, and Rana Naveed ul Hasan in the 30 probables for the 20-20 World Cup.

Yes sir the ICL rebels are back!

With a small footnote however, which says "Inclusion in final team subject to ICC approval ".

Now now!

What sort of approval are they looking at I wonder.

Allowing ICL players to play international cricket?

Or allowing ICL players with cancelled contracts to return to international cricket?

Or making the ICL official?

The PCB has stepped into dangerous territory with this announcement.

The ICC reaction and more so the BCCI reaction are going to be interesting in the coming days.

The last 3 days have been quite busy for David Dwyer and his training team as they have been conducting fitness tests on a number of players at the National Cricket Academy.

Abdul Qadir and the other selectors have also been present at times witnessing these tests.

All the players went through 3 rounds of tests and today all of them have been declared fit.

Including Shoaib Akhtar!

The demon never dies does he!?

The Pakistan squad for the ODIs and 20-20 against Australia in the UAE is due to be announced tomorrow.

All indications point towards the inclusion of Shoaib Akhtar.

Why? Why must he and we go through this over and over again?

Why can't we just shut the door on him?

Or why can't he do it himself?

We all saw what was left of him in the ODIs against Sri Lanka.

Does Shoaib really want to go through that pain all over again?

I can go on but I'll just point towards this to remind everyone why Shoaib Akhtar should not be playing for Pakistan anymore.

Its been a while since Pakistan has played test cricket.

Quite a while.

14 months to be exact.

They played none in 2008 for more reasons than one.

The drought is about to break though as Sri Lanka come back to Pakistan for 2 tests.

A test series involving 2 games has never made sense to me. But in these times, even a series of 1 test match would make sense.

So thank you Sri Lanka.

The selectors yesterday announced a list of 22 probables for the test matches, which will be trimmed to 14 or 15 after a short training camp.

I am not sure what the reaction of the general public is regarding the 22 probables but I was surprisingly pleased.

For once the selectors came up with a list of players, within which I did not have a single objection.

Nor did I think that some deserving player had been left out.

I'm not sure whether I should be pleased with Abdul Qadir, the chief selector, or the newly appointed Pakistan skipper, Younis Khan.

We are well aware that Younis asked for a say in selection, though how involved he was in selecting the 22, I'm not too sure.

Either way, a job well done.

Lets take a look at the list.

Openers: Salman Butt, Khurram Manzoor, Nasir Jamshed.

Salman Butt has been Pakistan's 1st choice opener for some time now and he deserves to be. He has had several successful seasons in both ODIs and Tests.

However, his partner has been the subject of much debate.

The last time Pakistan played test cricket, Yasir Hameed opened with Salman, not with much success though.

Since then Pakistan have tried Nasir Jamshed and Khurram Manzoor in ODIs, both of whom have registered decent performances.

Nasir seemed to have established himself as Salman's partner before an injury gave Khurram a chance who grabbed it with both hands. Though I prefer Nasir at the top as he is more aggressive and had a wider range of strokes than Khurram, but the latter has been in fine touch this first class season.

Khurram is one the leading run scorers this season and he was among the leading batsmen last season as well.

Its good that the selectors are keeping both Nasir and Khurram in mind. In my view, either one will make an able partner for Salman.

Middle Order: Younis Khan, Misbah Ul Haq, Shoaib Malik, Asim Kamal, Faisal Iqbal, Saeed Bin Nasir, Fawad Alam, Bazid Khan

8 batsmen, 4 batting spots, 2 taken.

Thats the story of Pakistan's middle order.

Besides Younis Khan and Misbah, none of the other batsmen can be garanteed a spot in the top 6. Plus with Yousuf out of the picture, its quite a task for the selectors and the captain to fill the gap.

Before Shoaib Malik became captain, he was still trying to cement a place in Pakistan's test team, and not in the middle order but as an opener. Bob Woolmer believed in Malik's ability as a test opener as did Inzamam.

Malik had a successful stint as Pakistan's test opener with several good knocks, however, once he became captain he dumped opening for a place in the already crammed middle order.

Though Malik has been a valuable player in the shorter version of the game, he still has a long way to go to establish himself as a test player.

Faisal Iqbal has been a regular feature in Pakistan's test team and he was long considered as Inzamam's replacement in the middle order. Faisal has a string of good scores in the tests he has played including a match saving 50 in the last test Pakistan played.

However, he has been going through a rough time in domestic games and hasn't played any international cricket since that test match as he is not a regular on the ODI front. Its a good thing the selectors did not forget about him.

Asim Kamal has been on the wrong side of many selectorial blunders. His test record proves that he should have been a permanent fixture for test matches, however why he was dropped despite a string of good scores is beyond me. Recalling Kamal is probably the best decision this selection committee has made.

Fawad Alam has been a regular feature in Pakistan's ODI squad but he hasn't got enough chances to prove himself. For 4 first class seasons now, Fawad has time and again proved his worth as a capable middle order batsman.

Fawad averages more than the likes of Younis, Misbah, and Yousuf in first class cricket and his tour with academy to Kenya and Zimbabwe last season proved his abilities as a reliable middle order bat.

He faces tough competition for a spot in the middle order, however, for me he should be the first one to be pencilled in.

Saeed Bin Nasir and Bazid Khan have been rewarded for being consistent at the domestic level. Both batsmen have more than one successful domestic season behind them and provide able replacements if any of the above are unavailable.

Wicketkeepers: Kamran Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed

Kamran's batting has time and again come to his rescue. I will be the first one to admit that he has played many match saving and match winning knocks for Pakistan in test cricket, hence it has been difficult to drop him despite his troubles behind the stumps.

However, if he is persisted with then the likes of Kaneria and Afridi will leave every match with 2-3 wickets less than they should have had.

Its time for change and Sarfraz Ahmed's recent batting form suggests that he will be upto the task for Pakistan. For his form behind the stumps, there is no comparison - he is leaps and bounds ahead of all keepers in Pakistan.

Spinners: Danish Kaneria, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi

I believe Afridi can be a valuable addition to Pakistan's test team. I have more faith in his wicket taking abilities than Kaneria's, but Kaneria for a long time has been Pakistan's number 1 spinner.

No matter how much I would like to see Afridi play test cricket, I don't see it happening.

Kaneria has been weighed under a lot of expectations. With the premier fast bowlers suffering from a variety of problems, Kaneria has had to bear a huge burden.

He has not exactly let down people, but he hasn't done as well as had been promised by him or of him.

Ajmal remains a potent option for ODIs and a decent back up for the tests.

Fast bowlers: Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Sohail Khan, Abdul Rauf, Mohammad Talha, Yasir Arafat

Pakistan's pace bowling looks weak without Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, however these 6 are the best pace options available to Pakistan.

Its going to be a tough task for Younis Khan in his first assignment as full time captain of Pakistan.

Finding an opening partner for Salman, filling in the gaps in the middle order left open by Inzamam and Yousuf, blooding a new keeper, and choosing your first choice pacers is going to be one hell of a task.

And this only gets you the 11 for the game. Leading them on the field, making plans for the Lankans, and executing them will be quite a job.

I don't have high expectations and I would urge the Pakistan public not to have many either.

Consider this as the start of a new age and be ready to see a new look Pakistan team take the field. Give them time and they may get you the results. If you don't, they may never get enough chances to get you the results.

My Test XI: 1. Salman Butt 2. Khurram Manzoor / Nasir Jamshed 3. Younis Khan 4. Misbah Ul Haq 5. Asim Kamal / Faisal Iqbal 6. Fawad Alam 7. Sarfraz Ahmed 8. Sohail Tanvir 9. Umar Gul 10. Danish Kaneria 11. Sohail Khan

With the recent appointment of Javed Miandad as the Director-General of the PCB and Abdul Qadir as the new Chief Selector, that followed the appointments of Aamir Sohail and Wasim Bari, the PCB is increasingly looking like an ex test team from Pakistan.

Aamir Sohail
Shoaib Mohammad
Ijaz Ahmed
Javed Miandad
Ijaz Butt
Intikhab Alam
Wasim Bari
Abdul Qadir
Saleem Altaf
Aqib Javed
Saleem Jaffar

Two solid openers, 3 good middle order batsmen, a wicket keeper, 2 leg spinners, and 3 pacers - Ijaz Butt has managed the balance of his team perfectly!

I wonder if Ijaz Butt is looking to create a new team for the IPL. Or the ICL maybe?

4-5 more appointments and they could have a full squad of ex players.