Pakistan cricket selectors have announced a 15-man squad for ICC World Cup Twenty20 2010 which will be played later this year. In this squad, only nine players have been picked who have the experience to play the Twenty20 World Cup 2009. Twenty20 World Cup 2010 will be a tough competition for defending champion Pakistan. They will have to struggle hard to defend their trophy. Pakistan won the trophy in 2009 after defeating Sri Lanka in the final match at Lords. Fans will be watching to see if they can hold the crown for the second time. Pakistan has been placed in Group A along with Bangladesh and Australia. They will start this tournament with the match against Bangladesh on 1st May, 2010. Here is the squad:
Pakistan Squad for T20 World Cup 2010: Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Khalid Latif, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi (Captain), Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Hammad Azam, Kamran Akmal (Wicket Keeper), Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal.
Reserves: Shahzaib Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Raza Hasan, Naveed Yasin, Sarfraz Ahmed (Wicket Keeper).
Among 15 players, there is only one uncapped player in the squad. He is Hammad Azam. Hammad Azam is an all rounder. He impressed the selectors with his performance in U19 world cup in New Zealand where Pakistan lost to Australia in the final match.
I think that fans will be surprised for the exclusion of Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. These two experienced players have not been able to get their place in the squad for their long term ban.
There was confusion about the selection of captain for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup. Selectors announced Pakistan squad without naming a captain. After a long dispute, Shahid Afridi was named captain for Pakistan cricket team. Shahid Afridi was seen leading Pakistan cricket team in the last Twenty20 World Cup when Younis Khan took retirement from the shortest version of cricket.
Pakistan T20 captain Shahid Afridi is not satisfied with the squad. He wanted some changes in the main squad. He also talked with Chief selector Mohsin Khan and Coach Waqar Younis and discussed about the team. May be, from next year, captain’s input will be considered prior to the team’s selection. But it is not possible now. However, if you look at the squad then you can see that Pakistan’s batting line up looks little bit shaky. How can they defend their title with these batsmen?
Ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup, Misbah-ul-Haq, Salman Butt and Mohammad Hafeez have been recalled.
Who will open for Pakistan? It seems that Salman Butt will open along with Mohammad Hafeez. The inclusion of Salman Butt in the squad will be a big challenge for him to prove his skill in the shortest version of this game. I am hopeful about the performance of Mohammad Hafeez in this upcoming Twenty20 World Cup 2010. He has become able to make his place in the squad after showing his excellent performance in the RBS T20 Cup.
The inclusion of two Akmal brothers was perhaps a good decision taken by Pakistan Cricket Board. Both Umar Akmal and Kamran Akmal will tour the Caribbean country with Pakistan cricket team. Umar Akmal is a young promising batsman. He has a lot of potential to be one of the future star players. I think I don’t need to use more words for Kamran Akmal. You already know that he is an effective wicketkeeper-batsman. He will be a big threat for the opposite teams.
Misbah-ul-Haq is one of the most senior players who have been selected for the forthcoming T20 world cup. Misbah-ul-Haq had been left out from all three forms of cricket game last year by the selection committee. The only reason was that he was not consistent in performance. However, he was picked up in Test squad at the request of Mohammad Yousuf but his bad performance dropped him again from the ODI squad.
The inclusion of Abdul Razzaq will be a big boost for Pakistan cricket team. He is consistently performing well. His all rounder performance may lead Pakistan team to win the crown for second time. However, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi went under huge criticism after being found ball tempering. For this incident, he has been punished twice. ICC banned him for two matches while PCB fined him. He was also punished for his poor performance in Australia tour. Despite his punishment, Afridi remains in the running. Yasir Arafat is another all rounder.
Pakistan selectors have included only one wicketkeeper in squad. I think they will select second wicketkeeper for any necessary. If Kamran Akmal is injured then the second wicketkeeper can replace him. Sarfraz Ahmed is a wicket keeper and he is in the reserve team.
In this squad I can see only two experienced fast bowlers- Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif. They both are good and wicket taking bowler. But I hope that selectors will also think about Mohammad Sami. He is also a good fast bowler. Mohammad Sami has been included in the reserved squad. Saeed Ajmal is the only specialist spinner in Pakistan squad. Pakistan cricket team can cover their lack of batting with their strong bowling line up.
Perhaps poor ground fielding is the main problem for Pakistan cricket team. We have seen them to suffer a lot for their weak fielding. What will they do to improve their ground fielding?
At the end, we can say that they are not a very balanced team.
Pakistan and England are going fight for T20 series in Dubai later this month. There is now a lot of pressure on Pakistan cricket team to perform well as they have done very badly in the Australian tour. Shoaib Malik has been named as the captain of the team. I guess that Afridi was the captain of Twetny20 team but he is suspended for two matches for ball tempering in the last T20 match in Australia. Afridi will not be available for the first match but he will come in the second match.
Shoaib Malik is a good batsman but it is perhaps the bad time for him to lead his team. There is a lot of pressure and expectations on him now. Of course, the captain cannot do anything alone. It is a team sports and all the 11 players have to perform.
Pakistan is going to play two Twenty20 matches against England in Dubai international stadium on February 19 and 20, 2010. Thus, it has become Pakistan and England Twenty20 series 2010 and it will perhaps attract a lot of viewers on Television than the attraction on crowd in stadium. The two matches will be live broadcast in TEN SPORTS TV channel in South Asia and from now TEN SPORTS is giving advertisement of the matches. These matches are not that much important for any of the two teams because it is only two matches. However, they have some significance considering the fact that Twenty20 World cup 2010 will take place in April and May in West Indies.
You may wonder that why the matches are taking place in Dubai of UAE. If you are a cricket fan and collect information about world cricket then you should have known that for many months no foreign team has been touring to Pakistan because of security concern. So, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are becoming the second home for Pakistani cricket. In UAE, thousands of people of Pakistani origin work as emigrant workers and they are always happy to be in the stadium on a Friday. Here is the schedule below:
Date
Teams
Time
Venue
19 February 2010 (Friday)
Pakistan vs England- 1st Twenty20 match
GMT 14:00
Local Time 18:00
Indian Time 19:30
Dubai International Cricket Stadium
20th February 2010 (Saturday)
Pakistan vs England- 2nd Twenty20 match
GMT 14:00
Local Time 18:00
Indian Time 19:30
Dubai International Cricket Stadium
The organizers are hopping that many fans will come up for the two matches. The organizers have also tried to decrease the ticket price so that more people come. The price of the ticket is just AED 75 and this price is for the 19 February match. 19 February is going to be Friday and it is the holiday in UEA. So, you can expect a good turn out for the match. For the next match on Saturday, the ticket price has been just AED 50. Well, I think that the ticket price should have been decreased even further for Saturday’s match because in Saturday not many people will turn up for the match.
Pakistan’s recent performance is very bad. They can not play in their home stadiums for many months and this is perhaps one of the main reasons. They have less match practice than other countries. Pakistan just finished a very miserable tour of Australia in which they played three matches and lost all of them. Pakistan also played five ODI matches and lost all of them and they played one T20 match and even lost that one too. In the final Twenty20 match, Shahid Afridi was found guilty for ball tempering and he had been banned for two T20 matches. So, most probably Pakistan will have to play against England in this series against Shahid Afridi. This will surely make the Pakistani team weak. I am not sure if Afridi and Pakistani team has appealed against the ban and would be able to play. Another notable player who cannot play is Mohammad Asif.
Many people in Pakistan are very unhappy because of the way their national team lost against Australia. The Pakistan cricket team could not even secure one draw or one win in the entire tour. Now, Pakistan’s coach and captain have been called in the country to explain the bad performance. However, I don’t think the coach and the captain had anything to do with the bad performance.
The players are not in good shape and what Pakistani government and cricket board need to do is arrange more matches for the team in places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
I really think that Pakistan cricket board and Pakistani government should now focus on the England series in stead of investigating the reasons of humiliating defeat in Australian tour.
On the other hand, England recently went to South Africa for a four-match test series. The two teams also played five ODI matches and two T20 matches. The test series was draw. England won the ODI series by 2-1. The t20 series was also a draw. So, England had a very good tour of South Africa because South Africa at this moment is the number one ranked country in the world.
This series is t20 series and Pakistan is the current world champion in T20 cricket. Just a few months ago, in England Twenty20 world cup cricket took place and Pakistan was the champion. So, Pakistani supporters are now expecting that their team can defeat England easily. On the other hand, English cricket fans are hoping that England can win because Pakistan’s recent performance is very bad in world cricket. So, it is a very good opportunity for England to take advantage of the situation and win the t20 series.
I think that the series is taking place mainly for money rather than playing cricket. First of all it is only just two T20 matches and there is no ODI or Test matches. So, it is a sad matter for cricket fans of both the countries. Pakistan cricket board is under serious financial stress and they will get some decent amount of money from TEN SPORTS who will broadcast the matches live. I think that they will also get some money from the sponsors and that is perhaps why the two matches are taking place.
Shamim Adam has written a nice report in Bloomberg: Pakistan May Sell as Much as $1 Billion of Bonds. The report will give you a general idea of the current condition of Pakistani economy. Pakistan is suffering from many problems. Increasing budget deficit is becoming a major cause of concern because the deficit is around 5% OF GDP. GDP growth is slower compared to its two giant neighbors India and China. Internal security concerns and war on terrorism in tribal areas have also become very expensive for the government. Security concern is also a major obstacle when it comes to attracting foreign investment. So, selling bonds and government assets seems to be the wise thing to do at this moment.
One good part of Pakistani economy is that its foreign exchange reserve is growing and by the end of this year, this reserve may reach to $20 billion. This is a healthy amount and it will perhaps help the country not to get too much dependent on IMF.
Inflation is a big problem for the people and in the current fiscal year, there is no respite from this problem.
Indian government has expressed its willingness to talk with Pakistan in the level of foreign secretaries. Pakistan has welcomed the decision. India closed door to its neighbor after the Mumbai terrorist incident on November 2008. Kashmir is the problem that is not going to go away and I am not that hopeful about any improvement in relationship between two countries. Well, the decision makers in both the countries have to change their attitude.
Just a few days ago, Pakistani players were invited to play in Indian Premier League but no Pakistani player was selected. This caused a national outrage in Pakistan. Indian government leaders stated that they had nothing to do behind this and it was a matter of BCCI.
Thus, I believe that Indian government should think of improving cultural relationship between the two countries instead of going for any official level dialogue. Discussion in the level of foreign secretaries will not bring any benefit if cricket ties remain closed.
On the other hand, Pakistani government would have to take the security concerns of India seriously. Anti-India propaganda is a very popular thing among political parties in the country. Same is true in India too.
If you are interested about Pakistani educational system then you should read as it will give you some food for thought.
According to Griff Witte, illiteracy is a big obstacle in the fight against terrorism in Pakistan. There are hundreds of religious schools called “madrassas” and often we reports that many of the extremists come from this background. However, Mr. Witte also stated that the general public schools are also in no better condition because of two factors.
First of all, there is acute shortage of funds for these schools and often conditions are not ideal for getting and giving lessons. For example, in the report, you can see a picture of a school with the following caption:
“Classes at PehlviHigh School, near Islamabad, are canceled when it rains because the roof leaks badly.”
The second problem is that the ruling establishment of the country is not eager to change the curriculum or philosophy of the public schools. The army, the religious groups and feudal lords are the major share holders of this ‘ruling establishment’ and they don’t want to increase the quantity and quality of public education of the country- this is what came out in the report of Mr. Witte.
Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL), the flagship energy company of Pakistan, is looking forward to sign an agreement with China National Petrochemical Company and SINOPEC to explore new mineral deposits in North Africa, Far East and smaller Arab countries.
The company forwarded a summary of the proposed joint ventures to the Ministry of Petroleum. The summary highlighted that the Chinese companies does not have International exposure and modern expertise. For this reason, they could not expand overseas. OGDCL has highly qualified professionals to carry out and supervise oil and gas exploration activities overseas. The company has all the necessary expertise ranging from preliminary geological surveys to operating oil and gas processing plans but it does have enough resources to sustain risk. The Chinese have adequate reserves for overseas ventures.
OGDCL will swap assets for reserves acquisition with percentage of working interest in international market. It also prepared a list of spots that had not yet been visited by international oil companies. The countries include Uganda, Sudan, Yemen, Morocco and some regions of central Africa.
Well, when I see this kind of report, I sometimes get confused. On the one hand, I feel that it is waste of money. After all, school is the best place for increasing literacy. On the other hand, this project is targeted for women who did not go to school. Anyway, the reality is that female literacy rate in Pakistan is extremely low. So, any effort is a good one.
The five-month programme, initiated by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), targeted 250 females aged 15 to 24 years old in three districts.
Pakistan, with half its population illiterate, is the fourth largest contributor to the world illiterate population. The literacy rate for males is 63 per cent, compared to only 36 per cent for females, making the country with one of the widest gap in this region.
Pakistan fashion week finished today at the city of Karachi. According to a BBC report, it was the first ever fashion week and naturally, judging by the current situation in the country, it was held amid very tight security. I got surprised to see the coverage of the Western media. I am giving some headlines here:
First of all, yes, Pakistan has been troubled with religious extremism a lot in the recent years. However, what the European and US media experts forget is that there is no official rule in Pakistan that a woman must follow Islamic dress code. Secondly, Pakistan had the first female Prime Minister in Muslim World when Benazir Bhutto was elected in 1988 election. If you watch Pakistani movies then you can also understand the actresses can wear revealing dress and that is why, I really cannot understand the euphoria over the fashion week.
In big cities like Karachi, educated girls often come out in the streets wearing western dress. By the way, in case you did not know, Pakistan has even a national women's cricket team.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a very important thing for any third world country. In the last one decade, Pakistan government has been trying very hard indeed to attract foreign investment and got some success. Well, in July-August 2009, FDI decreased 57% compared to the same two months of last year.
Investment in July-August period fell to $351.4 million from $824.7 million a year ago, according to data on the Web site of the Karachi-based State Bank of Pakistan. Overseas investors bought a net $60.8 million of Pakistani stocks in the two months, compared with sales of $178.3 million a year earlier, according to the data.
This is surely bad news for Pakistani economy. Well, I think that two factors are to be mainly blamed. First of all, global economic recession has resulted in less flow of investment from rich western countries. Secondly, the security condition of the country often brings it to the headlines of international media. So, naturally foreign directors are worried about it.
Pakistan is a Muslim country and it is the time of Ramazan or fasting month. People are spend a lot of money for Iftar items and as a result inflation is high at this moment in the country. So, Betel leaf Sellers are suffering a lot in the city of Karachi because most people are not eager to buy Paan or Betel leaf as if they have to spend money on other things. There is a very interesting report about this matter in Daily Times website:
It may be remembered that according to the health department officials and paan (betel leaf) traders in the city the citizens of Karachi consume 12,000 kilogrammes (kgs) betel leaf daily. According to non-governmental organisations there are almost 3,500 cabins in the city where paans of different quality are sold.
However, the traders in Paan Mandi claim that the sale of paan betel leaf has decreased to almost 5,000 kgs during the first 10 days of Ramazan.
Well, the government of Pakistan should take this matter seriously and they should help the paan sellers.
Do you think that Pakistan captain Younis Khan should retire from international cricket, leaving the captaincy to all rounder Shahid Afridi? Well, former Pakistan pacer Sarfaraz Nawaz feels so as he believes that Younis Khan has failed to become a good captain, citing Pakistan’s recent test series defeat to Sri Lanka. Mr. Sarfaraz thinks that the senior players like Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf have nothing to deliver for Pakistan and that is why, they should retire from international cricket in order to make way for the new players.
Well, I do not agree with Sarfaraz Nawaz at all because Pakistan still needs the experienced players like Younis and Yousuf, and I do not think that Younis Khan failed as a captain. Just look at the way he led Pakistan to win the Twenty20 world cup this year. I agree that Younis does not fit to the twenty20 format, but he has retired from the shortest version. Pakistan cricket was struggling before the twenty20 world cup, and there was hardly anybody who could imagine that Pakistan would win world twenty20 title this year before the start of the tournament.
Another thing I would like to share with you is the fact that Younis Khan has a very good relationship with most of the senior players like Shahid Afridi. After winning the man of the match awards for two match-winning performances in the semi final and final of the world twenty20, Afridi revealed that Younis Khan had accept his request to allow him to bat in the top order. Moreover, Yousuf, who earlier said that he had problems with previous captain Shoaib Malik, has also reveled that he is happy to play under Younis Khan. So, it shows that the team is united on and off the field, and this is very important in a team game. If you look at the previous captains of Pakistan team, you can see that many had problems with other senior players. Here, let us mention two great players: Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. So, I think, it would be a big mistake if PCB attempts to replace Younis Khan by Shahid Afridi.
In South Asia, most people have this idea that radio is for poor people and television for well off people and mobile phone is not for poor people. Well, it seems to me that radio stations are making a comeback in Pakistan not with radio sets but with mobile phone handsets. In Pakistan, cricket is very popular and that is why, many people prefer to have handsets with FM radio facility. As a result, when there is a cricket match involving Pakistani national team, many people love to listen to the commentary by their mobile phone sets.
Pakistan is poised to have 100 million subscribers in the next few months.
Just last week, Pakistan became the champion of Twenty20 World Cup 2009. Now, the fans in the country are celebrating and the players are a lot of respect from the fans. Well, they feel that it is time that they get some respect from Indian Premier League in 2010. Because of bad relationship between India and Pakistan, the Pakistani players could not take part in IPL 2009. After becoming world champion, some Pakistani players feel that their salary should be increased significantly and they should get more money.
He pointed out that top players like Kamran Akmal, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul and Misbah-ul Haq had signed contracts for $100,000 or less with the IPL when it was launched in 2008.
"But now the scenario is different. These players should talk to their agents in India and ask them to go for a hike in price from the IPL franchises," he said.
Pakistani players could not take part in the IPL second season which was shifted to South Africa from India due to security reasons.
It should happen because Pakistan has got quality players who are ideal for T20 format. However, I don’t think that the owners of the clubs and BCCI officials would be happy with this. They do not want to increase the expense as some of the clubs are yet to make any significant profit.
Just 2-3 years ago, there was a lot of news about Pakistani economy in the media. However, because of violence and unrest in the SwatValley, the economy has taken a backseat. Instead, we find regular reports of violence and bomb blasts in different parts of the country. Anyway, the good news is that Asian Development Bank is giving $500 million to Pakistan government.
The principal objectives of the programme are (i) to achieve and sustain higher economic growth in the medium-term (ii) Expand its social safety net and make it more targeted to protect the poor and vulnerable from the adverse impact of the recent global developments (iii) Adopt structural reforms to address inefficiencies in the agriculture sector, particularly with respect to wheat markets and food security policies and (iv) Take measures to address the energy crises.
This is good news but the main thing is that this money has to be utilized properly. Because of security problems, the economy is suffering a lot.
It is the same picture in everywhere in South Asia. Pakistan is also suffering from electricity problem. In fact, what I understand is that the impact of power shortage is even more severe for the people than the neighboring countries because, in this region, Pakistan has the warmest climate during summer and perhaps least amount of rainfall. So, for the ordinary people, it is a very bad thing to suffer. The other day, there was a power failure in total scale in the city of Karachi and it brought a lot of suffering for everyone.
Now, Pakistan government is contemplating on the idea of generating a lot of electricity within the next 5-6 years. Well, unless you can invest a lot of money, generating electricity in short time is simply impossible. So, Pakistan government is hoping to attract foreign investment. The government officials should focus on improving the security conditions in the country. Secondly, they should allocate more funds for the power sector.
The match has just finished write now and Pakistan has won it by 7 runs. As a result, they are in the final of Twenty20 World Cup 2009. This is the second time that the country is playing in the final of T20 World Cup. In 2007, they did it in South Africa but lost to India and thus became runners up. This matter broke the heart of millions of fans in the country. This time, they are praying that their team can win the trophy.
Pakistan batted first and scored 149 runs for 4 wickets from their 20 overs. They started well but then lost their way. I have to give a lot of credit to South African bowlers and fielders. At one stage, it seemed to me that Pakistan would score at least 170 runs but in the last 5 overs, South Africa came back very strongly.
On the other hand, South Africa struggled from the first and they never looked very confident of getting the mere 150 runs. Well, the main credit goes to the Pakistani bowlers as they always exerted pressure on the South African batsmen. In the end, South Africa could score 142/5 and was 9 runs short.
The opponent of Pakistan will be decided in the semifinal match of Sri Lanka vs West Indies. I am expecting Sri Lanka to move to the final and then we may watch a South Asian final in T20 World Cup 2009. Here, I like to remind the readers that in 2007, there was an all South Asian final.
For how many years, have you been using a mobile phone? I have been using for quite sometime. I remember that a decade ago, I had no idea about SMS or MMS. I was thinking of the mobile phone sector of Pakistan today. Now, mobile pone penetration is very high in the country and the mobile phone operators cannot see a lot of room for growth. So, they have to try to increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) by providing more and more value added services (VAS).
Right now, the mobile phone operators in Pakistan provide a number of Value added services. You can browse Internet, get latest news updates, horoscope etc. Well, I feel that mobile commerce (m-commerce) should be given more priority in the country. Of course, for it, the operators need a lot of support from the government. What I understand is that in America, you can do a lot of things with your mobile phone. The same thing needs to be done in Pakistan too.
(This entry was first published in February 2009. Because of a technical problem, the entry had to be deleted and I am reposting again now.)
