There must be something about Shane Warne that Sohail Tanvir always brings out the best for him.

That could happen if an approach by New South Wales is materialized.

At least they have walked into the match with the right team.

Fawad Alam and Sohail Tanvir are in, while Ahmed Shehzad and Yasir Arafat are out.

This is what we wanted.

Actually not really. We wanted Fawad to replace Salman, but as long as he's in.

Akmal will open, Fawad will come into the middle order, and Tanvir will probably take the new ball.

Sound familiar?

I said it here in a 9-point strategic plan.

I wasn't the only one; many others wanted the same team and finally the team management has thunk like us.

Hope its not too late for them!

In the match of the day, the Lahore Lions beat the Faisalabad Wolves, to qualify for the semi finals of the RBS 20-20 Cup.

Abdul Razzak continued his fine form in the competition and reminded the Pakistan selectors of what they have been missing for a long time.

After his whirlwind century yesterday, Razzak made the ball talk today with a haul of 4-13, which helped restrict the Wolves to a low chaseable total.

Ahmed Shehzad (23 off 13) finally showed that he can bat at a better strike rate than 100, while this time it was Salman Butt's turn to get out for a 2nd ball duck.

Kamran Akmal (12* off 4) finally got a hit in the middle and all he needed was 4 deliveries to hit a 6 and a 4 to bring up the 5-wkt win for the Lions.

He continued his form behind the stumps with another 2 dismissals; he may finally make it into the Pakistan team as only a keeper!

Misbah continues to be absent from the Wolves' ranks. Where is he? He has disappeared after the Pakistan camp in the mountains. He even missed the 2 warm up matches that Pakistan played before this RBS Cup.

The Lahore Eagles who boast of no big names sprung a surprise on the favorites, the Karachi Dolphins, who look more like a Pakistan international team, beating them by 11 runs and qualifying for the semis.

Fawad Alam never fails to score or impress and was at his best today as well with an aggressive knock of 51 off 36 deliveries with a six and five boundaries.

If this isn't enough for Younis Khan then I don't know what Alam needs to do to get into a Pakistan playing XI.

Sohail Tanvir (2-18 off 4) picked up wickets again today, however what was a good sign was him being economical. Its good for Pakistan that he is getting into some form before the ICC World Twenty20.

Mohammad Aamer (3-20), the 17 year old left armer who is touted as the next big bowling thing for Pakistan and has been picked in the World Twenty20 squad, hit some form too, albeit after 2 very expensive games.

In the final match of the night, Imran Nazir once again lit up the Gaddafi with a belligerent 29 ball 60 with 9 fours and 2 sixes.

How Pakistan are going to miss him in the 20-20 world cup. He needs to be recalled back into the national team soon.

Shoaib Malik, the Stallions' skipper, was in great touch as well while knocking an unbeaten 62 off only 37 deliveries. His knock included a six and 6 boundaries.

These are good positive signs for Pakistan with most of their World Twenty20 squad members getting good hits out in the middle in 20-20 cricket. The bowlers have also done well.

The semi finals are tomorrow with Razzak's Lahore Lions taking on the Islamabad Leopards; and Malik's Sialkot Stallions clashing with the Lahore Eagles.

Still can't believe the Dolphins did not make it.

I hear that the Pakistan world twenty20 squad members will not be appearing in the semi finals.
They have been given a 2 day rest before they fly to England to play a couple of warm up 20-20 matches against South Africa (1st June) and India (3rd June), before starting their World Twenty20 campaign against hosts England on 7th June.

The day started with the news of why Shoaib Akhtar did not lead the Islamabad Leopards last night, and ended with the first century of the RBS 20-20 Cup.

Apparently the PCB contacted the Islamabad Cricket Association and told them that if they included Shoaib, he would be in violation of his central contract by not following the advice of PCB's medical experts.

That ends the genital warts saga, or maybe not so. Shoaib still has to speak and he will soon I think.

The 1st century of the RBS 20-20 Cup came from the bat of ICL rebel Abdul Razzak, who smashed the Quetta Bears for 8 sixes and 8 boundaries in a belligerent knock of 109 off only 51 deliveries.

Razzak raced to his 100 off only 48 balls; what was even more remarkable was that his 2nd 50 came off only 15 deliveries.

In hindsight, maybe the PCB should have fought harder for the inclusion of the ICL players in the World Twenty20 squad.

Salman Butt (31 off 20) continued his run of thirties; atleast he was more attacking than yesterday, but his opening partner Ahmed Shehzad failed to open his account.

With every innings I wonder why Nasir Jamshed is not in Pakistan's squad for the 20-20 world cup. For the 2nd day in a row he out shone Butt and Ahmed, with a knock of 58.

Razzak and Nasir ensured a huge total for the Lahore Lions, which was too big for the Bears who ended up losing by 74 runs.

The Lions are looking extremely strong - particularly the batting. Kamran Akmal has not had a hit yet in 2 matches, but he has been brilliant behind the stumps - 5 dismissals in 2 days and no drops - good going Kami!

The Karachi Dolphins, my favorites for the tournament, kicked off their campaign today with a big win over the Abottabad Rhinos.

For some reason Shahid Afridi is not leading the Dolhpins; Khalid Latif is. Found that quite strange considering that Afridi has led them to a couple of finals over the last few years.

Nevertheless, Afridi (34 off 20) was in fine form with the bat, but surprisingly he didn't pick up any wickets.

Fawad Alam as always showed once again why he is so highly rated on the domestic circuit -his 70 runs came off a mere 36 deliveries and inclued 11 boundaries; he even picked up 2 wickets with his left armers.

Pakistan need to make sure they get him in the XI once the World Twenty20 starts.

Alam was involved in a 100 run partnership with the Dolphin's opener and captain, Khalid Latif who smashed a 50 ball 81. His innings included 5 sixes and 7 fours and was another reminder to the PCB selectors about their wrong choice of openers for the 20-20 world cup.

Shahzaib Hasan though, who has been picked as the reserve opener, finally showed us why Younis Khan rates him so highly with an aggressive knock of 56 while opening the innings for the Karachi Zebras.

He has to do a bit more though to show me that he is a better bet than Nasir or Khalid.

Younis Khan (38 off 28) had another good day with the bat, however he led the Panthers to their 2nd loss in as many days. His and Pakistan's strike bowler Umar Gul though had another lacklustre day - he has now gone 2 matches without a wicket.

Misbah continues to be absent from the Faisalabad Wolves' ranks, and his stand-in Mohammad Hafeez continues to shine. He followed up his 74 and 3-5 yesterday with a 56 ball 79 and 3-14 against the Rawal Pindi Rams today.

Hafeez unfortunately will remain a domestic star; he has been unable to translate similar success in previous seasons at the international level.

Sohail Tanvir finally hit some form picking up 3 wickets today, but his effort was not enough to avoid a 2nd loss for the Rams.

After 2 days, the Wolves, Stallions, Dolphins, and the Leopards are leading their groups, with the latter 3 looking set for the Semi Finals.

The Lions look like the strongest team but they face a tough challenge against the Wolves tomorrow, the winner of which will win the race to the semi finals.

Rewind back a year and the Nasim Ashraf led PCB had announced the fresh list of contracted Pakistan cricketers.

Mohammad Asif had been upgraded to a Category A contract putting him among the top notch of cricketers in Pakistan, while Shoaib Akhtar had been relegated to mere retainership, a new category that was formed purely for players who did not appear in enough international games de to lack of fitness or discipline or selectorial blunders.

That had resulted in an outburst from Shoaib Akhtar, who criticized the PCB, refused to sign the retainer contract, and went on to bad mouth Nasim Ashraf & Co.

Shoaib was eventually banned, fined, and dumped, while Asif, the new blue eyed boy of the administration went on to smuggle some drugs and test positive for a banned substance for the second time in as many years.

A year and an administration change later Shoaib Akhtar has landed a Category A central contract from the PCB, while Asif is no where to be heard of.

Life comes a full circle they say.

For Shoaib and Asif it has not only come a full circle but they have exchanged the circles in the meantime as well.

The Ijaz Butt led PCB announced this years list of contracted players this afternoon and as always they dished out quite a few surprises.

Besides Shoaib, Danish Kaneria, who had also been relegated to retainer status last year, has also landed a Category A contract.

How absurd is that.

Kaneria did not play a single international match during 2008.

If Pakistan doesn't play any tests this year, like 2008, Kaneria will not play any internationals in 2009 either.

And he would have ended the year pocketing Rs 3 million (US $150,000) without playing a single game.

Same for Shoaib who as history tells us may play only a handful of matches.

I'd like to smoke what Intikhab Alam, Yawar Saeed, and Abdul Qadir have been smoking.

The men who decided on the contracts.

As expected Mohammad Yousuf is no where in the list either.

I believe this was the ideal time for the PCB to take steps in bringing the ICL players back into the fold given the situation with India at this point in time.

With none of the players expected to appear in the ICL or the IPL, this was PCB's chance to make sure that its players stayed loyal to them.

Yousuf along with the likes of Razzak and Imran Nazir could have been roped in.

Obviously the PCB thinks otherwise.

There are yet more surprises in the list of contracted players.

Faisal Iqbal, Yasir Hameed, and Mohammad Hafeez have been handed Category B contracts.

Niether of them is even close to playing an international match for Pakistan yet they are placed in a category above the likes of Nasir Jamshed, Fawad Alam, Saeed Ajmal, and Rao Iftikhar, who have not only are regular members of the side but have also put in some match winning performances during last year.

Whats more, Sohail Tanvir is placed in Category B. The country's best 20-20 bowler and arguable the best ODI one as well and he is among another 3 cricketers who don't stand a chance to play for Pakistan.

Get me those smokes. Seriously.

PCB has definitely pleased some players for reasons best known to them. But at the same time they have also snubbed quite a few by placing them in the wrong categories.

The men behind it claim that the criteria was different than last year and seniority was given more importance than performance amongst other things.

Whatever it was, some common sense should have prevailed.

There is no reason why a Faisal Iqbal should make Rs 2.1 million a year when there are the likes of Azhar Ali, Nasir Jamshed, Khurram Manzoor, Khalid Latif, and Naumanullah making much less than that.

Azhar Ali has atleast managed to land a Category C contract, as has the talented Umar Amin.

This is the first time that uncapped players have been considered.

They both deserved it.

Azhar Ali, a 23 year old batsman from Lahore had a tremendous last year and first caught the eye when he led the scoring charts during the ABN Amro One Day tournament in early 2008.

He is also among the leading scorers of this season in both the first class and List A competitions.

Azhar averages over 50 in both forms of the game and is a great find for Pakistan. He should make his debut this year and is in my opinion the ideal replacement for Mohammad Yousuf in the test side.

Umar Amin is only 19 and created waves at the under-19 level last season with a couple of centuries in youth tests against England and Bangladesh.

This Rawal Pindi boy is only in his second domestic season and has already given smashing performances with the bat in both first class matches as well as List A games.

He is averaging over 50 in 13 List A games and is only behind Shoaib Malik in terms of runs this season.

Umar has a tremendous future ahead of him and this contract should give him the much needed confidence from the powers that be.

Well sometimes the PCB can make some sense after all.

They also showed some sense in retaining Shoaib Malik as the captain of the team for an indefinite period.

Malik's term had expired at the end of 2008 and there was no reason to replace him and rightly so, the PCB didn't.

Its a new year and the PCB has taken a fresh start. It has made some mistakes but then it has put some things right as well.

Malik's in charge and the men have been identified. Hopefully the international series will take place as well Pakistan will play some cricket.

One can only hope for a good international season for Pakistan.

I have a feeling, it will be just that.

Due to the New Year holidays I missed the progress of Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir down under in the ongoing Twenty20 Big Bash.

But now, I am back, and am pleased to find that Gul has been in fiery form for Western Australia.

Last week he managed a 4 wicket haul in his first game for WA, and last night he managed 3-21 against Tasmania.

What's more, Gul even hit the winning runs of the only ball he faced in the game - a 4 of the penultimate delivery of the match leading WA to 2nd place in the points table.

Gul even held 3 catches in the match - wonder where he was fielding.

He didn't have that good a game in his 2nd match against New South Wales, where he went for 41 runs in his 4 overs.

On the other hand, Sohail Tanvir hasn't tasted the same success with South Australia losing to defending champions Victoria.

Victoria haven't lost many 20-20 games in Australia over the last 3-4 years. They have also won the competition 3 times on the trot prior to this one.

When South Australia managed 183, they may have smelled a chance with the best 20-20 bowler in the world in their ranks.

But Victoria showed why they are the best 20-20 side in Australia, if not the world.

Hodge, the leading 20-20 run scorer in the world and White, the captain with the most 20-20 wins creamed the SA bowling.

And they have an opener named Blizzard!

AC Blizzard !!!

What an amazing name you have there Aiden.

And apt for 20-20 cricket too.

Its only appropriate that a man with the name 'Blizzard' has a 20-20 strike rate of 177.95!

I forgot I was writing about Gul. Yep he's been fiery with the ball.

But AC Blizzard. Watch out for the future - the papers can have a field day with headlines.

The Twenty20 Big Bash, Australia's domestic 20-20 competition got underway a few days back.

Now normally I would not be covering an Australian domestic competition and would be relying on Jrod to hear about how Victoria is fairing, what David Hussey is doing, how Bryce McGain is shaping up, and the other happenings down under.

But this season has been quite different in Australia.

Different for us atleast.

As many as 3 Pakistani internationals have turned out for Australian states in their domestic competitions this season.

First Younis Khan played a few One-dayers and first class games for South Australia.

And now Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir are playing for Western Australia and South Australia respectively in the Twenty20 Big Bash.

Both the Pakistanis went up against each other 2 days ago as WA took on SA.

Umar Gul even snared up Tanvir's wicket. First ball!

Gul made an impressive debut for his Australian state team picking up 4-15 in 3.2 overs.

His effort though could not help WA to victory who lost by the D/L method.

Tanvir picked up only 1 wicket nd had a forgetful debut with the bat.

I'll be following these 2 down under.

Elsewhere David Hussey continued business as usual smashing a 47 ball unbeaten 100. He even picked up 2 wickets.

Well he's not the future PM for nothing.

Misbah Ul Haq played his first match in the ongoing Pentangular One Day Cup and scored a run a ball 63 to guide the Bears to a good total of 275, but Umar Amin and Afaq Rahim led chase with brilliant unbeaten centuries leading the Leopards to an easy 7 wicket victory with over 4 overs to spare.

Kamran Hussain, who had led the Bears to a thrilling 1 wicket win over the Dolphins with an unbeaten 45, smashed 56 off only 34 balls to push the Bears total to 275.

Shoaib Akhtar, captaining the Leopards, and Sohail Tanvir were both in great form with the ball picking up 7 wickets between them.

The Leopards chase was made easy through an unbeaten 251 run partnership for the 4th wicket between U19 opener Umar Amin and Islamabad opener Afaq Raheem, both batting in the middle order for this match.

Brief Scores:

Baluchistan Bears 275 all out in 49.3 overs (Fahad Iqbal 68, Misbah 63, Shoaib Akhtar 4-57, Sohauil Tanvir 3-5) lost to Federal Areas Leopards 276-3 in 45.2 overs (Umar Amin 125*, Afaq Rahim 129*).

By this time last year, Pakistan had played the South Africans at home and toured India, but the start of the 2008-09 cricket season has been very different with no home series held and only a 20-20 tournament and an ODI series played at offshore venues.

The lack of international cricket at home has allowed the board to slightly modify their domestic cricket season.

It could have been done in a better way but whats panned out this season has been very different from the previous seasons in Pakistan and is definitely a step in the right direction.

The season kicked off with the RBS 20-20 Competition, which was battled by 13 regional teams, and won by the Sialkot Stallions for the 3rd time in a row.

That was followed by the RBS Pentangular Cup, the 4-day competition that involved the 5 regions of Pakistan, and was won by NWFP - their first domestic title ever.

These tournaments are now followed by the RBS Pentangular One-Day Cup.

The same 5 regions that were involved in the first class Pentangular Cup are competing in the One-Day version of the tournament that is being held for the first time in Pakistan.

Previously the one-day competitions have involved the 13 regional teams, but having one comprising of the 5 regions makes it more competitive.

The teams taking part are:

Punjab Stallions captained by Shoaib Malik.
Sindh Dolphins captained by Shahid Afridi.
Baluchistan Bears captained by Misbah Ul Haq.
Federal Areas Leopards captained by Shoaib Akhtar.
NWFP Panthers captained by Umar Gul.

The tournament kicked off last night with the Stallions marching to a 98 run victory over the Leopards.

Batting first, the Stallions put up a score of 305-8 in their 50 overs. Shoaib Malik top scored with 86 off 60 deliveries after the openers Salman Butt (39) and Azhar Ali (75) had put on 91 in quick time.

Nasir Jamshed, returning to cricket after a lay-off due to malaria looked in fine form scoring a quick fire 40.

Sohail Tanvir was the pick of the bowlers for the Leopards picking up 4 wickets, while skipper Shoaib Akhtar picked up 2 wickets.

In response to that Stallions' tall order, the Leopards' batsmen folded for 207 in 43 overs.

U-19 pacer Mohammad Talha started the slide picking up 2 wickets in his opening spell, while the spinners Malik, Abdur Rehman, and Mansoor Amjad shared 7 wickets between them routing the Leopards by 98 runs.

Shoaib Malik was declared man of the match for his allround effort of 86 and 2-51.

Pakistan have beaten the West Indies 3-0 in the just concluded ODI series in Abu Dhabi.

What does this victory mean for Pakistan?

Everyone seems to be asking that question.

Rameez asked Shoaib Malik; Ian Bishop asked Waqar Younis; Jemima asked Imran Khan; Aqib Javed asked Intikhab Alam; Rameez asked Younis Khan; Zardari asked Ijaz Butt; Dawood Ibrahim asked his bookies; Afridi asked Shoaib Akhtar; Faisal Iqbal asked Javed Miandad; and Tom, Dick, Harry, Larry, Laurel and Hardy asked me.

It means exactly what the 5-0 wins over Zimbabwe and Bangladesh earlier in the year meant.

Or so the ICC ODI Rankings would indicate.

Oh and what's this - Pakistan is ranked 4th on the table? How did they manage that?

They haven't been playing good cricket lately so how in the world are they among the top 4 ODI teams?

Isn't that what just went through your mind after looking at the rankings?

Over at BCC! fellow bored member Raja Baradwaj initiated a discussion around Pakistan cricket - it is a discussion carried out over three different posts and must be read in entirety including its comments to be understood completely.

He first asked who was responsible for a turnaround in Pakistan's fortunes, he then showed us some stats to back his statements, and then followed that up with some more stats.

After all that, Raja B's conclusion was that Pakistan has not played good cricket in the last 1 year.

I beg to differ as you would have seen in my comments on the above 3 posts.

Now what follows here, is not a response to any of those posts, but it can be read in context of the discussion that started on BCC! a few days ago.

What I initially wanted to do was analyze the performances of the Pakistan players in the 3 ODIs against the West Indies.

But then I stretched that back a bit to assess how these players have performed since Shoaib Malik took over as captain, i.e. since after the ODI World Cup in 2007.

That would serve three purposes:

1. Indicate whether the players have played good cricket or bad, hence implying whether the team has played good cricket or bad.

2. Highlight how Shoaib Malik has performed as a captain.

3. Assess whether the key players have performed better under Malik or not.

In order to keep it in perspective, I am not going to count the matches Pakistan played against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Hong Kong during this time. This leaves us with 21 ODIs that Pakistan has played against India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies over the last year and a half since Shoaib Malik took charge. Pakistan won 11 of those matches.

Thats better than a 50% success rate, which in my opinion is hardly bad cricket. Its inconsistent yes but then that Pakistan has been since I set foot on this planet.

On to the players then - the key players that form the core of Pakistan.

Lets start with the skipper.

Shoaib Malik - In 33 ODIs as captain, Malik is averaging 43.88. Thats well above his career average of 35.61. In the 21 ODIs mentioned above, Malik has played 20 and scored 790 runs at an average of 46.47.

Thats definitely not bad cricket and those who think that he has not performed as captain need to think again, for he has surely improved as a batsman since he took charge.

Those 790 runs include several match winning knocks, including an unbeaten century against India in a losing cause.

Misbah Ul Haq - He walked into the team during the 20-20 world cup last year and didn't have much of a record before that so there's not much to compare to.

However, an average of 43.71 during this period is hardly bad.

In the above mentioned ODIs, Misbah averages 46.00 in 18 matches. Moreover, his last 5 ODIs against India, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies have produced scores of 79*, 52, 7, 70*, and 76.

He has been a consistent performer and has definitely played good cricket. The accusation of not finishing matches hovers over his head, but then he's been in the team for only a year. Give him time, 18 ODIs is nothing to judge a player over. Inzamam gained his reputation over 300 ODIs.

Younis Khan - Following Inzamam's departure, Younis became the senior most batsman in the Pakistan team. Though the other half of the Yo-Yos is more senior in terms of age, Younis is the more senior in terms of years played for Pakistan.

With Inzamam gone, Younis had to step up and step up big time, especially in ODIs. And now with Yousuf also gone, the pressure on Younis doubled.

Despite this, Younis performed. And boy did he perform!

17 ODIs, 953 runs at an average of 59.56. Those runs include 4 match winning centuries.

Compare that to a career average of 34.49 and it tells you the difference in Younis Khan's performance under Malik and before him.

He can safely be called Pakistan's most dependable batsman these days.

Salman Butt - During this time, he has made one opening slot his own. Despite a quiet series against the West Indies, out of the 21 ODIs mentioned above, he played 16 scoring 602 runs at an average of 40.13.

He has been a consistent performer for Pakistan and in him they have found atleast one half of an opening pair they have been looking for, for almost a decade now.

7 centuries in 60 ODIs - that's almost the same conversion rate that Saeed Anwar had at the start of his career.

Shahid Afridi - There have been a number of reports indicating his difference with Malik and his captaincy aspirations.

Despite this, Afridi has been a champion on the field, supporting Malik and egging the players on. Malik, on more than one occassion, has pointed out how good Afridi is on the field.

19 ODIs, 19 wickets, 321 runs, 9 catches - you really can't ask more from a bowling allrounder. He has been Pakistan's best bowler during this time.

Those who may argue that he has failed with the bat, I will only point to the 73* against Sri Lanka, 47 against South Africa, 29* against India, and 28 against the West Indies - all match winning knocks in the last 18 months. 4 match winning knocks in 19 ODIs - what more are you looking for?

Kamran Akmal - 17 ODIs, 350 runs at an average of 26.92. That is not much different from his career average. He has been criminal in the past behind the stumps, but in front of them, Pakistan probably does not have a better choice.

In the recent series against the West Indies, he was probably the difference between a 3-0 Pakistan win and a 3-0 West Indies win.

In the 1st ODI he smashd 17 runs of the final over the take Pakistan to victory, in the 2nd he played a valuable knock of 45 that took Pakistan to a respectable total, and in the 3rd his 20 odd proved the difference between a chaseable score of 250 and the 270 odd that Pakistan got.

The Pace Attack

The fast bowlers have been a problem for Pakistan for almost 3 years now. Or have they?

Due to various reasons Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, and Umar Gul have been in and out of the team during this time. This problem for Pakistan is so grave that not even once have they managed to field all three in the same XI. Not once.

In the absence of Shoaib and Asif, Gul has risen to lead the pace attack and he has done that outstandingly. Along with him, the likes of Sohail Tanvir and Rao Iftikhar have emerged and have carried Pakistan's pace attack with aplomb.

Umar Gul - 17 ODIs, 31 wickets at an average of 25.70 including 3 or more wickets in a match as many as 7 times with at least one against each of the Lankans, Indians, Safrikaans, and the Windies.

Sohail Tanvir - 16 ODIs, 27 wickets at an average of 28.40 including a 4 wicket haul against India and a 5 wicket haul against Sri Lanka.

Rao Iftikhar - 17 ODIs, 30 wickets at an average of 28.36 including 3 wickets or more on 6 occassions, and atleast 1 each against the 4 opponents.

Now with all the above highlighting good individual performances over the last 18 months and in most cases improved performances as compared to the period before Malik took charge, I really do not see how anyone can claim that Pakistan has played bad cricket or that the team is going through a decline.

So then why the complains and voices against a "mediocre" Pakistan?

I can agree to the fact that the team does not have the same flair and aggression that it did in the 90s, or that the team does not play the attacking cricket it has always been famous for, but I cannot agree to the fact that the team has not played good cricket over the last year and a half.

A number of factors have resulted in tarnishing the image of Pakistan, both the country and the cricket team, however, despite all that the Pakistan cricketers have turned up to play cricket, and good cricket they have played.

To achieve those results for a team that has gone through what the Pakistan players have gone through (read death of a coach in the middle of a tournament, read doped players, read player bans, read cancelled tours, read disturbed nation, read lack of support for captain, read trouble at the board level, read ICL defections) is quite an achievement in my opinion.

Any team that was less strong mentally, would have crumbled. Pakistan didn't.

They beat all the teams they played against. Lost to them as well but they were never thrashed comprehensively as far as series results are concerned.

There was a small achievement in reaching the 20-20 World Cup final as well during this period, in addition to beating India in the final of a triangular tournament in Dhaka.

As Jrod mentioned "you can only beat the bowlers you face", I would just take it a bit forward and say "you can only beat the players you face".

The lack or rather nonexistence of matches against Australia, England, and New Zealand during this time is beyond the team's control.

They have played against the other 4 major oppositions and done well. Their past record against England and New Zealand is quite brilliant, while against Australia they haven't been worse than the other teams around.

Then why the questions I ask?

The 3-0 win over the West Indies means absolutely nothing for Pakistan.

Those who expected any other result probably forgot that the West Indies were the weakest of the 8 international teams, and they definitely underestimated Pakistan.

The first thing we noticed when we walked into the ground yesterday were the long boundaries. The ropes had been pushed back quite a bit - about 10 feet from where they were on Wednesday.

That compounded to the match being a low scoring one.

A number of strokes by Younis, Misbah, Chanderpaul, and Sarwan would have been fours if the boundaries were where they were on Wednesday.

232 seemed like a low score when Pakistan's innings ended, but under lights when the ball swings a lot at the Abu Dhabi stadium, coupled with the longer boundaries it was never going to be easy for the West Indies.

Having said that, I did not expect Pakistan's attack to be able to defend it so well.

Chanderpaul did get a 100 but he never looked in control. He played out too many dot balls in the first part of his innings and every time he tried to up the tempo, he lost a partner.

Many times he just could not connect.

At the end the Pakistan bowlers were too good for the West Indies.

Or so I thought.

At a discussion during the late night dinner after the match, a couple of guys pointed out at how Chanderpaul lost the match for the West Indies.

Their arguement was that Chanderpaul did not even try to increase the scoring rate and just kept going at mediocre pace falling behind on the run rate throughout.

My point, along with some other guys, was that Chanderpaul could not do much because of the quality of Pakistan's bowling.

The arguement continued for a good half an hour with no conclusion.

Those blaming Chanderpaul maintained that Pakistan's bowling was not all that and Chanderpaul just messed it up, especially since he was given 2 lives.

I differed on that opinion.

I thought that Tanvir and Gul were brilliant in the beginning. Rao followed up the good work, while the spinners, Afridi and Ajmal, kept a very tight line and didn't allow him the freedom to score.

On top, Gul was outstanding at the end.

So which school of thought do you belong to?

Chanderpaul messed up or the Pakistan bowlers didn't allow him to do any better?

Or are you with the outrageous view, which is also suggested be someone, that Chanderpaul pulled of a Saleem Malik.

Made an easy run chase look difficult, top scored, stayed their till the end, ran out a couple of partners on the way, looked good in a failed chase.

Saleem Malik had mastered that art, Chanders though, I doubt.

I believe Shahid Afridi made Saleem Jaffar's job easier after he stroked a 36 ball 59 in an effort to chase the target that Federal Areas set for Sindh on the final day of their Pentangular Cup match.

Federal Areas declared their 2nd innings on 411-3, setting Sindh an unlikely 367 to get in 50 overs.

Sindh's innings started off well with Khalid Latif and Khurram Manzoor giving them a fiery start but 2 quick wicket pegged them back.

Afridi, the Sindh captain, found the perfect time to come back into some form as he shared a 116 run partnership for the 4th wicket with Khalid as the two tried to up the tempo.

However, once Afridi left after smashing 6 boundaries and 2 sixes, the target seemed out of reach and Sindh ended the day on 247-4.

Jaffar would have been pleased with Afridi's performance as well as that of the other players on his Watch Monitor.

He should be thinking on these lines:

Umar Gul [21(15), 6-39 & 1-32]: He seems fit enough. We need to put him on a training program with the proper diets and excercises. Mental Note: take a leaf out of Shane Watson's book.

Sohail Tanvir [45(74), 5-100 & 1-23]: Why did I put him on a watch again? He has no fitness issues. His form has always been good. He needs to be disciplined thought. Mental note: Keep away from Shoaib Akhtar and Shane Warne.

Shoaib Akhtar [18(26), 2-43 & 1-51]: He seems fit but he got hit around by 20 year olds. He is past his prime. We should not burden ourselves with him anymore. Mental Note: No future.

Shahid Afridi [17(21) & 59(36), 1-55 & 0-96]: I should tell him that I was wrong asking for him to improve his batting form. He should continue concentrating on his bowling. Mental Note: Improve batting but not at the expense of bowling.

Faisal Iqbal [32(75) & 19(47)]: I wonder when he'll achieve his potential. Mental Note: Watching him only for Javed bhai.

This is what I think he should be thinking but he very well could be thinking that Gul and Tanvir need to improve their form and fitness because they are always under par in international matches and that Shoaib is their biggest fast bowling hope and that Afridi should have won that match instead of throwing his wicket away for 59 and that Faisal is Pakistan's middle order future!!

Think again Jaffar sahab!

Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir, both of whom are being "closely montitored" by Saleem Jaffar and his selection committee, had good days out on the field on the 3rd day of the RBS Pentangular Cup.

While Tanvir helped Federal Areas restrict Sindh's lead to 40 odd runs with a 5 wicket haul, Gul demolished Baluchistan with a haul of 6-39 leading NWFP to a crushing innings victory.

Gul is captaining the side in Younis Khan's absence, who is helping out South Australia down under, and has been put on a fitness watch by Saleem Jaffar.

This effort of his should remove any doubts Jaffar had.

Tanvir's 5-100 is also promising as he was up against a powerful Sindh batting line up.

Shoaib Akhtar, who took 4 spells to complete 9 overs the other day, bowled another 4 overs yesterday and picked up another wicket.

I wonder if Jaffar thinks that his stamina is improving.

Afridi, captaining the defending champions Sindh, is on a form watch, and I doubt his effort of 17 in the first innings would have done Jaffar proud.

But then why is Afridi's batting form being assessed again?

Stay tuned for updates on Jaffar's monitor during the Pentangular Cup.

Shoaib Akhtar emerged in 1998 under Wasim Akram and he was considered as Pakistan's future of bowling once Wasim and Waqar hung up their boots.

Once the 2 Ws left in 2003, Shoaib Akhtar's career went down the drain and into the gutters of Pakistan.

Mohammad Asif emerged a couple of years ago and a Shoaib-Asif-Gul trio seemed like a dream pace attack for Pakistan but even his career has joined Shoaib's in the gutters even before it could take off properly.

Then about a year ago there emerged an unorthodox left arm pacer - Sohail Tanvir.

He joined Pakistan in the World T20 as Shoaib's replacement on Wasim Akram's recommendation.

Sohail impressed one and all in his first few outings with his windmill roller coaster action bemusing all batsmen.

No one expected him to have the same success at the test level but against India he produced the goods troubling the likes of Dravid, Laxman, Sachin, and Ganguly in his debut test series.

Sohail continued to impress in all forms of the game and soon became Pakistan's spearhead in the absence of Shoaib and Asif.

Along came the Indian Premier League and under Shane Warne, Sohail Tanvir produced outstanding bowling displays and ended the tournament with more wickets than anyone else and the best bowler award. Sohail's dominance made opposing teams look as lost as someone who just lost his life's savings.

Sohail's rise to Pakistan's no.1 pacer was rapid and impressive.

He was considered a good talent and in terms of character he was very different to the Wasims, Waqars, Shoaibs, and Asifs lacking the flamboyancy and appearing modest in his approach.

Good signs were being seen as finally Pakistan had a fast bowler who was less prone to injuries one that would also stay clear of controversies.

However, today, this news appeared. Read this as well.

Why am I not surprised?

How can Pakistan create a star and not make the stardom get to his head?

No matter what the case or issue here. Whether its late night drinking or gambling or partying or anything else, it needs to be corrected now.

If the PCB or the team management takes a soft approach now, they will regret it forever as they have done with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.

I pray for Pakistan's sake that Sohail Tanvir does not go down the same gutter that Shoaib & Asif lie in currently.

For that to be ensured though, the PCB needs to take action. The team management needs to take action. And Sohail Tanvir needs to respond and realise!

Shane Watson was the man of the series in the 1st season of the Indian Premier League. Emerging Media paid $125,000 for his services.

Shaun Marsh won the Orange Cap for being the leading run scorer. Priety Zinta and her partners paid $30,000 for his services.

Sohail Tanvir won the Purple Cap for being the leading wicket taker. Emerging Media paid $100,000 for his services.

The combined investment in these 3 stars - $255,000 - is a half of what Anil Kumble was paid, a third of what Jacques Kallis was paid, and less than a fourth of what each one of the icons earned.

Watson, Marsh, and Tanvir will be the most sought after players when the trading floor opens next year.

While no one would want the likes of Jacques Kallis.

Franchises will bid big amounts for the 3 top performers.

While RCB will look to sell Kallis for as low as possible.

So what will Emerging Media and Priety Zinta do when they are faced with attractive offers for trading their star players?

And what will RCB do when no one is willing to buy Kallis?

If EM and Priety decide to keep Watson, Marsh, and Tanvir and not trade them (which should be the case given their performances) then will they give the 3 a pay hike?

They don't have to since all 3 are bound by 3-year contracts, but their performances demand a pay hike. Especially if other franchises are willing to dish out huge amounts for them.

What about a non performer like Kallis? RCB wouldn't want him, but then no one else would either. He will probably be benched but due to the 3-year contract he will have to be paid $900,000 whether RCB play him or not.

Major Dilemma that is.

What will the IPL franchise traders do? What will the franchise owners do?

Its still 9 months or so till the IPL trading floor opens, but what will go down already looks intriguing.

I wanted to do a "Return on Investment" type analysis on the IPL players on completion of the league but Cricinfo has already done that. They have played the Numbers Game and listed their Most Valuable Players based on their prices. They have done the same for the least valuable players.

No point in repeating the excercise.

Instead I decided to build an IPL XI with the best performers of the league.

Building a team is alway a tough excercise. The 8 franchises went through it about 3 months ago - some worked, some didn't.

So how do I pick a Best XI from the top performers?

Do I just look at the stats and pick the top 6 batsmen, the top wicket keeper, and top 4 bowlers?

Or do I look for the best player for each position?

Rajasthan Royals proved that the latter option is the best method.

If I went ahead and picked the top 6 batsmen, I'll end up with 5 openers - so definitely not the ideal selection.

Plus I have to ensure that I include only 4 non-Indians in the XI.

And I also need 1 U19 player in the side.

This is going to be tougher than I thought. But I've decided to go the Royals' way of selecting the best players for each position.

The 4 non-Indians

This was the easiest way to start I thought. Picking the top 4 foreign performers, fitting them into their positions, and then building the team around them.

This ended up being a no brainer with the leading batsman, leading bowler, and leading allrounder easily walking into any IPL XI.

Shaun Marsh comes in as an opener, Sohail Tanvir as the opening bowler, and Shane Watson, the man of the tournament, at number 4.

The 4th choice was also an easy one.

How can one ignore Shane Warne. He captained the Royals to the championship, he was the 2nd highest wicket taker, he was the best captain on the show, and he even won 2 matches with the bat.

Shane Warne comes in as the captain of the team. There could be no one else really.

Now I need to pick an opening partner for Marsh, a middle order to bat around Watson, a couple of allrounders, a wicket keeper, and 2 bowling options. All Indian.

The Openers
Gautam Gambhir wore the orange cap for majority of the time and lost it to Marsh only near the closing stages of the IPL. The next best Indian opener was Gambhir's partner Sehwag, but Gambhir showed far more consistency. He is the ideal choice to partner Marsh at the top.

Can't argue against having the top 2 run scorers at the top of the order now.

The Openers: Marsh & Gambhir.

The Middle Order

Shane Watson has fitted into the number 4 slot so I need to select a number 3 and a number 5 to bat around him.

I thought about Sehwag at 3 but then I remembered I had to pick the best one for the position.

Suresh Raina has done well for the Super Kings, while Rohit Sharma's reputation was strongly enhanced following his performance for the Chargers. Shikhar Dawan was another top performer at the number 3 slot.

I go for Raina for his level headed batting in the final stages of the tournament - the boy showed he can bat under pressure.

Not many did better than Yusuf Pathan at number 5. The Man of the Final was a unanimous choice for this slot. (Well as unanimous as it can be with only me doing the selection).

The Middle Order (numbers 3, 4, and 5): Raina, Watson & Y. Pathan.

The Allrounders
Numbers 6 and 7 are tricky ones.

Do I pick a wicketkeeper and a bowling allrounder, or do I pick 2 allrounders? Do I strengthen the batting with a batting allrounder or do I pick a pure batsman considering Watson provides the pure allrounder option?

I decided that I need a wicketkeeper here along with an allounder. Not a bowling allrounder though.

The top Indian wicketkeeper in terms of runs was MS Dhoni. In terms of dismissals though he was well behind Takawale, Saha, Rawat, and Karthik.

But who picks wicketkeepers purely for there keeping skills these days?

I go for Dhoni. He brings what the cricket experts like to call the X-Factor to the team.

The allrounders spot is a difficult one. There aren't many Indian allrounders who did well. There aren't many Indian allrounders, period.

I couldn't think of even 1 name so I decided to select my favorite U19 player from the tournament - Ravindra Jadeja.

The boy is a livewire in the field, he played a couple of match winning knocks, and is an able left arm spinner, even though he wasn't used as much by Warne. He was one of the stars of India's succesful U19 World Cup, and will be a more than handy man to have at number 7.

The Keeper and Allrounder (Numbers 6 and 7): MS Dhoni & Jadeja.

The Bowlers
Shane Warne and Sohail Tanvir are already there, so I need to fit in 2 more bowlers.

It wasn't Warne who took the Rajasthan Royals through.

It wasn't Sohail Tanvir either.

It wasn't Shane Watson, nor was it Yusuf Pathan.

It was Miriam of Cricket with Balls who saw it through ball-by-ball, covering every single run, boundary, and six, and at the end ensuring that the Royals get that final run of the final delivery of the Indian Premier League.

What a final!

What an effort Miriam - Well Done!

The team that deserved to win the tournament won.

I am abit overwhelmed by the match and Miriam's coverage of the final (Chennai Super King's innings, Rajasthan Royals innings), so a more in depth post will come by tomorrow.

For now I leave you with 2 thoughts:

1) Sohail Tanvir did what he couldn't in the 20-20 World Cup Final.

2) Did MS Dhoni miss Joginder Sharma?

Geoff Lawson today dismissed the rumours of a rift with the PCB selectors and said that he would be back in Pakistan soon.

All well and good that is but what was he thinking when he said this:

“Our players are doing well in IPL matches and I have been monitoring their form.”

Was he talking about the Australians? Because the Pakistanis bar Sohail Tanvir and Umar Gul haven't done well at all.

I wonder which IPL Lawson has been watching.

So Dear Mr. Coach of our favorite team in the world, please take a look at the following:

Shoaib Malik, Pakistan Captain. 52 runs in 5 innings at 13.00. He sat out half the Daredevils' games because he wasn't considered good enough.

Misbah Ul Haq, Pakistan Vice Captain. 117 runs in 8 innings at 16.71. He sat out 6 matches because RCB was delusional.

Mohammad Asif, Pakistan's premier strike bowler. 7 wickets in 7 matches at 37.71. He was dropped for a few games and then stayed out due to injury.

Shahid Afridi, Pakistan's star allrounder. 81 uns in 9 innings at 10.12. 9 wickets in 10 matches at 25.00. He too was dropped for a few games.

Salman Butt, Pakistan's solution to opening problems, 193 runs in 7 innings at 27.57.

Alright so Salman Butt played a few good knocks and Afridi was good with the ball but at large the Pakistanis have probably been the least desirable foreign players in the IPL.

I agree with arguements such as they didn't get enough opporunities or that they weren't used properly, but to say what Lawson said is just plain wrong.

The players don't need to worry though as Cheif Selector, Mr. Sallu, has said that IPL performances will count for Zilch when selecting the squad for the upcoming tri-series.