In just over two weeks, Pakistan will take the field to take on the world's number 1 test team. The last time that happened, Pakistan finished off the series with a whitewash - a 3-0 victory over England.

One can't really expect the same against South Africa in South Africa, a country where Pakistan has never won a test series.

Moreover, the current South African test team is probably the best test team they have ever had in their history of test cricket.

Smith, Amla, Kallis, De Villiers, Du Plessis, Alviro Petersen represent the strongest test batting line up internationally. Five of them are among the Top 20 ranked batsmen in tests, while the one who is not is only 4 test matches old and already has 2 centuries and 2 fifties in his 6 test innings.

Steyn, Morkel, Philander represent the best pace attack in the world currently, and arguably one of the best ever test pace attacks to play the game.

Steyn and Philander are the Top 2 ranked bowlers in tests, while Morne Morkel is at number 8.

That's a team with every single player in great form. No surprises then that they are the world's number 1 test team.

To say that this tour to South Africa is going to be a big test for Pakistan is a gross understatement.

It will be tough. It might even be a disaster. Pakistan could be whitewashed. Watching New Zealand fold in front of the South Africans, there can't be much hope for Pakistan's batsmen.

But there should be some in my opinion.

In Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah Ul Haq, and Asad Shafiq, Pakistan have a very stable batting line up. Add the ever improving Nasir Jamshed and the emerging Haris Sohail to the mix and Pakistan have a good problem on their hands in deciding their top 6.

Pakistan's test record in the past 2.5 years, during which they have lost only 2 tests, is second to none. The rise of batsmen like Azhar, Hafeez, and Asad, coupled with the experience of Younis and Misbah, has been a key reason behind the team's success.

The biggest contributor to this success though is Saeed Ajmal, the world's best spinner across all formats. He has single handedly lead Pakistan's bowling attack over the past couple of years and destroyed all teams that have come in his way.

England's demolition last year was largely due to their inability to read Saeed Ajmal, and his partner in crime, Abdur Rehman.

While South African conditions may not offer much assistance to spinners, Ajmal and Rehman are the sort of bowlers who don't require much help from the pitches. Their variety and guile are enough to trouble the best of batsmen across all types of surfaces.

Moreover, Pakistan finally have a potent pace attack. Once again it feels like a proper Pakistan team with attacking fast bowlers who can trouble opposing batsmen. They are worth every penny that you pay for to watch them; a sure treat on the eyes. I've heard fans talking about wanting to sell iPhones to go watch them bowl.

In Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Umar Gul, and the untested Ehsan Adil, Pakistan has its most dangerous pace attack since the 2010 summer when Aamer and Asif were running through the Australian and English batting line ups.

Adil is only 19, but going by his U19 and domestic performance during the past year, he has the potential take wickets in heaps in South Africa.

Pakistan's batsmen might find it difficult facing Steyn, Morkel, and Philander in their back yard, but I can assure you that Smith & Company will not find it easy to cope with Junaid, Irfan, and Ajmal.

I truly believe that it will be a well fought series. Tough to think of a Pakistan series win, but I am quite sure that they will compete well and give South Africa a hard time.

Pakistan is currently ranked number 4 in tests. The last time they played against the world's number 3, number 2, and number 1 teams the results were 1-1, 3-0, and 0-0 respectively.

The last time Pakistan played South Africa in a test series was in 2010 in the UAE, right after the England summer when the spot fixing scandal had destroyed the team's morale.

It was Misbah's first test series in charge of the team and Pakistan managed to hold South Africa for a draw in both tests.

The President's Trophy continued this week with some exciting games and good work outs for Pakistan's national team cricketers. With no international cricket being played, this season's President's Trophy has been set alight with the presence of all the national stars.

Habib Bank's First Loss

Habib Bank fell from the number 1 spot for the first time this season as PIA ended their winning streak this week. PIA's victory came on the back of a big performance from Shoaib Malik who followed up his first innings 56 with an unbeaten 94 in the second innings to help PIA chase 176 and win the game by 6 wickets.

Aizaz Cheema continued his good form with the ball picking up 7 wickets in the match including the wicket of Younis Khan in both innings. A rare twin failure by Younis Khan meant that Habib Bank could manage only 200 and 147 in their two innings.

Habib Bank's rare failure allowed Sui Gas to take the lead in the table and they now sit at number 1 with a 3 point lead over HBL.

Sui Gas at the Top of the Table

Sui Gas crushed ZTBL by 186 runs as Pakistan skipper Misbah Ul Haq, Azhar Ali, Taufeeq Umar all returned to form at the same time. The three had had an atrocious run this season so far, but in this week's game against ZTBL, which included Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Khalil, and Abdul Razzaq, the Pakistan trio put on their best show.

Misbah's 110 in the first innings allowed Sui Gas to put up a fighting total of 250 after they were reeling at 63-3. And then Azhar Ali's second innings unbeaten 129, during which he was involved in a 153 run partnership with Taufeeq Umar who scored 80, enabled Sui Gas to set ZTBL a daunting target of 408.

Abdul Razzaq's good form with the ball also continued as he picked up 6 wickets in the first innings that helped restrict Sui Gas to 250; but the effort was not enough to avoid a crushing defeat. Nor was Haaris Sohail's well made century in the second innings. Haaris, who should be in the national selectors' thoughts for future tours, remained unbeaten 117 as ZTBL were bowled out for 221.

Samiullah Khan Niazi, who had been on the fringes of Pakistan's national team for some time picked up 10 wickets for Sui Gas, with his first innings 6 resulting in ZTBL collapsing for a first innings 99.

National Bank Finally Win

National Bank of Pakistan, who have a star studded batting line up with Nasir Jamshed, Sami Aslam, Fawad Alam, Kamran Akmal, and Hammad Azam finally won their first game of the President's Trophy as they won a closely fought encounter against Port Qasim by 2 wickets.

NBP were able to fight off a super performance from Tanvir Ahmed whose 12 wickets for Port Qasim were not enough to avoid a close defeat after they had set NBP a target of 211. Fawad Alam had a rare failure in both innings in a game that was dominated by the bowlers.

Imran Khan, the 25 year old medium fast bowler from Peshawar picked up 6 wickets to restrict Port Qasim to 150 in the first innings. His effort was bettered by Tanvir Ahmed who picked up 7 wickets and restricted NBP to only 117. Then it was the turn of Silakot's Umaid Asif who picked up 5 wickets and bowled Port Wasim out for 177 in their 2nd innings. Tanvir's 5 wicket haul was not enough to restrict NBP who scraped home by 2 wickets to finally notch up a win.

In other games this week KRL and State Bank played out a draw, while Wapda crushed UBL by an innings.

The President's Trophy continues next week.

I'm not sure how many of you remember the Lombard Challenge from 1996, but those of you who do will remember it as the U-15 cricket world cup that was held in England during the summer of 96. Called the Lombard Challenge U-15 Cup, the competition was contested by 10 teams including all the 9 test playing nations at the time and Canada.

I was in Pakistan for my summer holidays at the time when the tournament was being played and I remember watching all the games Live on Star Sports. It was quite interesting to watch the potential future Pakistan stars competing at a global stage. What made it even more exciting was that the Pakistan team was quite dominant and from what I recall, it won most, if not all, of its matches.

The final of the tournament was played between Pakistan and India, which gave the entire tournament a totally different edge.

I wonder why It has never been held again.

But that is not what I wonder the most about. I really wonder what went wrong during the summer of 96 that none of the players from Pakistan's Lombard Challenge squad that represented Pakistan in international cricket managed to become a permanent feature in the team.

There were 7 players in Pakistan's Lombard Challenge squad that made it to the top level - Faisal Iqbal, Bazid Khan, Shoaib Malik, Hasan Raza, Taufeeq Umar, Yasir Arafat, and Kamran Akmal.

Something must have happened during that summer of 96 that none of these players have lived up to their "potential".

The international careers of Bazid Khan and Hasan Raza seem over. Although with the way the recent selections happened, one can't rule out a comeback for anyone! One can argue that neither of them were given a decent stint with the international team to establish themselves - Bazid played only 1 test and 5 ODIs, while Hasan played 7 tests and 16 ODIs.

Bazid's last ODI innings was a half century against Bangladesh in 2008, so it does seem unfortunate that he wasn't selected again.

Hasan was dropped from the test team in 2002 after scoring fifties in both innings in a test against Australia, only to make a comeback in the series against England in 2005, which wasn't too successful for him. His international appearances are dispersed over a long period and he was never really allowed to settle into the team. Maybe if he was given a proper run he could have translated his domestic success to international cricket as well.

Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal had long stints with the international team with both of them being regulars for almost a decade. At present though, one of them is barely hanging on to a place in one format, while the other is completely out of favor.

Shoaib Malik captained Pakistan in all three formats of the game before he was removed following major dressing room politics. He got involved in spats with senior players, never came across as a confident leader, and was regularly accused of being a puppet of then PCB Chairman, Nasim Ashraf. Malik did make it as a successful limited overs batsman and won many ODIs and T20s for Pakistan, but today he is not even a shadow of what he used to be. He was never considered a test player, and now finds himself out of the ODI side as well. He is still part of the Pakistan T20 squad, yet it might be his last few days unless he produces something magical.

Kamran was the preferred wicket keeper for best part of the last 10 years in all forms of the game, however for the last year or so he has been on the sidelines with the PCB trying out various new players behind the stumps. Being constantly embroiled in spot fixing allegations and bad form behind the stumps seem to have ended Kamran's career a lot earlier than he would have liked.

Taufeeq Umar had a very promising start to his test career and forged a strong opening partnership with Imran Farhat during their early days in international cricket. Even though he was averaging above 40 in tests, a string of low scores led to his ouster from the team in 2005. He made a comeback at the end of 2010 against South Africa and since then has been a permanent feature in the test team.

For how long though?

Afaq Raheem, a prolific domestic opener, has just been selected in the test squad, and there have been increasing calls for Azhar Ali to open in place of Taufeeq to fit in another middle order batsman. So it might not be long before Taufeeq finds himself on the sidelines like the rest of his 1996 compatriots.

Faisal Iqbal and Yasir Arafat have just made comebacks to the test and T20 squads respectively.

Faisal, like the rest of his team mates from 1996, had a very promising start to his international career. Always considered a test specialist, he showed his potential with half centuries in his debut series. His real worth came to light in an innings of 80 odd against Australia against an attack that comprised of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. The way he took the attack to Warne demonstrated what a great batsman he could have become, before poor scores resulted in his axing.

He made a comeback to the team in 2006 in the series against India after a very successful domestic season and proved the selectors right scoring a century in his first game back in the test in Karachi. He remained a permanent feature in the test team till 2010, before being dropped again after some low scores. Now, two years later, he is back in favor and has made yet another comeback after a successful domestic season.

Why Yasir Arafat is back in the team is beyond my understanding. He has constantly failed for Pakistan and has never been able to translate his domestic or county cricket success to international cricket.

There must be something about that summer of 96 that all the players who made it from that Lombard Challenge squad to representing Pakistan at the international level have still not been able to cement their places in the team. Barring Yasir Arafat, all of them made reasonably sound starts to their international careers, faltered and got sacked at certain points of their career, and made several comebacks. While some of them may have played their last international cricket match, some are still on their comeback trail.

With all of them around the age of 30, some of them have unfortunately faced premature ends to their international careers; while those that are part of the team are still not considered established international cricketers.

Over at Cricinfo I just read a list of XI cricket bad boys according to Martin Williamson. He had one earlier in January as well.

Basically, Martin Williamson has put together 22 bad boys of cricket including teams and individuals who have been up to no good such as Botham and cannabis, Gibbs and match fixing, packer's rebels, Warne and drugs, other match fixers, and a whole lot more.

Even though Martin Williamson has covered a lot, I think he has missed out on some more interesting bad boys of cricket from Pakistan. I cover them here.

(Note: some of these may have been reported, while some are from first hand information available to the author).

The Carribean Rum
Starring: Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Mustaq Ahmed, Aqib Javed
On the eve of the first test match between Pakistan and the West Indies during Pakistan's tour of 1993, Pakistan's bowling attack was held up by the Grenada police at a beach. They were caught with rum, marijuana, and 2 suspicious looking females. The police held them on charges of marijuana possession and the 4 spent a night in jail as the first test was pushed ahead by a day. The incident was widely reported and the Pakistani press initiated a religious attack on them. Wasim and Waqar were the captain and vice captain of the team.

Son of a Pitch
Starring: Aamir Sohail
Back in the late 80s the Pakistan U19 or the Pakistan A team was on a tour of Zimbabwe. The XI for the next morning had been announced by the captain after a practice session and Aamir Sohail was not in it. When the teams turned up at the ground for the match they found that the pitch had been dug up and play was not possible. It was later found out that Aamir Sohail had paid the ground a visit the night before and dug it up because he was not in the playing XI.

Canadian Potatoes
Starring: Inzamam Ul Haq
By now a famous incident that took place in Toronto during one of the Sahara Cup tournaments between Pakistan and India. There was a spectator in the crowd with a mega phone chanting "aloo, aloo, aloo" (potato, potato, potato) at Inzamam every time the ball came to him. At a later stage during the match, Inzamam who had been fielding in the covers moved to 3rd man close to where the spectator was. As the over ended the 12th man - Mohammad Hussain, Pakistan's former offspinner walked around the boundary line with a bat. He handed the bat to Inzi who jumped into the crowd and threatened to beat up the man with the mega phone. He took a few swipes but missed as the security held him at the right moment. For once I would say, thank God Inzi did not connect - if he had he would have been serving time for murder. Instead he got suspended for a few matches.

Love in the Air
Starring: Shahid Afridi
The Pakistan team was flying back from Sri Lanka after a tour in the late 90s. In the flight, Shahid Afridi decided that he was in love with this girl sitting across the aisle. He walked up to her and declared his undying love only to see the girl's brother walk up and punch Afridi in the face. The Pakistani players held Afridi just in time otherwise the protective brother would have had his face disfigured. Recently in a TV interview Afridi was questioned about the incident and his reply was: "Today I am a father of 2, but back in the day I used to fall in love with every beautiful girl". Its funnier when he said it in urdu: "aaj to 2 bachon ka baap hu lekin jawaani ke dino me jo khubsoorat chehra dekhta tha, usse pyar ho jata tha".

Rocked at the Sun Fort
Starring: Hasan Raza, Atique Uz Zaman
The setting was the Sun Fort hotel in Lahore, the occasion was Pakistan team's camp at the Gaddafi stadium, the purpose was training for Pakistan's tour of England in 2001, and the incident was getting caught with call girls. Javed Miandad, the Pakistan coach at the time, caught Hasan Raza and Atique Uz Zaman with call girls in their hotel rooms. The 3 players were suspended for a certain period of time. The newspapers were full of religous attacks yet again. It was later reported that a hotel staff member had told Javed Miandad that some girls were visiting the players' rooms.

High on the Highway
Starring: Hasan Raza, Taufeeq Umar, Misbah ul Haq, Zulqarnain Haider
Drunk driving and carrying alcohol without a license is a grave offense in the UAE. Cars and licenses are confiscated and the guilty are put behind bars. The law here is quite strict.

The Eurasia Cup in 2006 was played in Abu Dhabi and involved the A sides from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and the international teams of UAE, Netherlands, and Ireland. Pakistan A defeated the lankans in their last group game and had a day off before the final against India A - availing the day off the 4 Paki players left for Dubai from Abu Dhabi around mid night. They were on their way back at 6am when the police hauled their car over for speeding. The driver was a local Pakistani friend of the players who was reeking of alcohol. On checking the boot of the car, the Dubai police found cans of beer and took the 4 players and the driver to jail. The players were only released on the insistence of the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council and other top officials but not before 8pm on the eve of the final of the tournament.

Hasan Raza scored a match winning unbeaten 106 and shared a 4th wicket partnership of 174 with Misbah who scored 73 to lead Pakistan A to a 6 wicket win in the final the next morning. Taufeeq Umar gave them a solid start with a run a ball 40.

Casino Royale
Starring: Ijaz Ahmed
The 1999 World Cup final was to start at around 10am London time. The players woke up at around 7am to see Ijaz Ahmed walking into the hotel. When questioned he admitted that he was out all night gambling at some casino. Strangely enough he played the final and was let off scot free.

Match Fixers
Starring: Pakistan
There were too many players involved in this to list them down here and its a chapter that I hope remains closed in Pakistan despite Shoaib Akhtar coming out with disturbing facts. I know it was prevalent throughout the 90s and early 2000s, I hope to believe that after the 2003WC no player was involved in it, but I also know that its difficult to rid this menace off Pakistan when boys at the mere age of 16-17 are offered tens of thousands of Rs. back home to perform poorly for their clubs, departments, and regional teams.

Unfortunately, Pakistan will always have the image of "only bad boys play cricket" and their players will keep getting involved in controversies around the world. At the same time we are fortunate enough to have such intriguing characters playing cricket in Pakistan that we will continue to be entertained by them on and off the field.

None of them though reaches the heights of the bad boy image that Shoaib Akhtar has been able to create for himself. Or for that matter Shane Warne. who do you reckon is the bigger one? Warne or Shoaib? Or does Sir Ian Botham go above them?

- Former Pakistan Captain Inzamam Ul Haq who led the Lahore Badshahs in the ICL Edelweiss 20s Challenge and is leading the ICL Pakistanis in the ICL 20s World Series.

Moin Khan, who is coaching the teams captained by Inzamam, is also the ICL agent for Pakistan. He gets a neat commission from the ICL for every Pakistani player he signs on and has been instrumental in getting together an international looking Pakistan side for the league.

The presence of big names like Inzamam have led a number of Pakistani cricketers to jump ship. Ignorance on part of the PCB is another factor leading players like Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umar, Mohammad Sami joining the ICL bandwagon.

You can't blame the cricketers - for apart from being ignored for national duty, they earn more from the ICL than from playing domestic cricket and maybe even earn more than their IPL counterparts.

The PCB here failed on several accounts.

Where does all this leave Pakistan cricket?

Not in very good shape unfortunately.

The domestic competitions this year, despite having the first choice internationals, lacked subtance due to 18 of the countries' top cricketers playing in the ICL.

If another dozen or 2 dozen cricketers join the ICL it would leave the domestic structure in tatters with only 2nd and 3rd grade cricketers participating in it. Or rather only those whom the ICL are not interested in.

So what should the PCB do about this?

Its quite simple honestly.

Let the cricketers earn their livelihood by playing in the ICL and allow them to play domestic cricket in Pakistan. Its not that these cricketers don't want to play for their regional teams or departments - they do, the PCB has banned them.

Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar have a case filed with the High Court to overturn the bans. Abdul Razzak has filed one as well.

The sooner the PCB realises that the ban is unfair, and its only going to hurt them, the better.

But then if the bans are overturned the PCB will come into the bad books of the BCCI. They can't afford to do that.

Someone then needs to knock some sense into the BCCI. Who can do that? The ICC? CA?

All the national cricket boards need to come together and stand up to the BCCI. They need to let the BCCI know that they are at a loss since they are not getting a share of IPL revenues and at the same time they are losing cricketers to the ICL because of their support to the BCCI.

I hope that sanity prevails and the boards don't go for a cut in IPL revenues as opposed to having their domestic cricketers back.