Back to Main Page                                                                       Archives

Tickets for Indo-Pak cricket series online: http://pcbtickets.cricket.org, http://pcb.cricket.org, www.cricinfo.com.

Opening dilemma for Team India

          Rawalpindi: Team India is grappling with the problem of who would open the batting in the third and final Test starting here on Tuesday. The team's think-tank, consisting of coach John Wright, skipper Sourav Ganguly, his deputy Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, would sit down to sort out the dilemma. The tight spot has resulted from excellent performances of left- handed batsman Yuvraj Singh in the first two Tests against Pakistan where he played as a substitute for injured Ganguly who is now back into the team. "It is a good problem to have, an interesting problem. We all know that Yuvraj is very talented, his efforts have been outstanding, scoring a 59 and a century in the two Tests. But at the same time we know the importance of having a specialist opener," Wright said. "(Virender) Sehwag was also a middle order batsman, but has been successful as an opener. So we have to decide who will do the job. It will be a right hander or a left hander," he added.

          Asked whether it will be prudent to change the combination of Sehwag and Chopra, who have been quite successful, Wright said, "The option of continuing with the same pair is also there. That should be considered, as they have done well as a pair." Wright also said that there would be toss-up between Ajit Agarkar and Ashish Nehra for the third paceman's slot as Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji had done a good job in the series. "The discussion will be between Nehra and Agarkar. We may even contemplate going in with two spinners," he said. On whether the Indians will be under more pressure going into the series-decider, he said "not really. Of course there will some pressure because the score is 1-1. But maybe it will help us in a way as the players know they have to play good cricket right through the match to be able to win it. "The key is to play well on all the five days. The batting had let us down in Lahore and I think we were about 100 runs short. At the same time, Pakistan batted well. There are little things that turn the game, I think the run out of Dravid was one such thing," he said. Asked whether the injuries to some of the key Pakistani pace bowlers would be an advantage for the Indians, he said, it was not prudent to read too much as the new bowlers could also be dangerous.

Pak, Indian teams arrive for Rawalpindi Test (Go To Top)

          Islamabad: The Pakistan and Indian cricket teams have arrived here to play the third and series-deciding Test match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium from April 13 to 17. The teams arrived at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and were driven straight to their hotel amid tight security. They are likely to undergo a training session today. The Indian players will train in the morning while the Pakistanis will visit the stadium in the evening. On Monday, they will reverse the timings. With both teams tied one all, many think that the Rawalpindi Test is poised for an exciting finish.

Pak's rookie pacers will be handful for India: Miandad (Go To Top)

         Islamabad: Pakistan's back-up string of rookie pacers - Rao Iftikhar, Rana Naveed, Abdul Rauf and Fazle Akber will prove to be handful for India's much touted batting machine should they turn out for Pakistan in the third and final Test that begins on Tuesday, warned coach Javed Miandad. "They are all young, hardworking and talented. We will have to see who we play. But our game plan has been to pick that bowler who has the ability to keep bringing the ball into the Indian batsmen from just short of a good length. Their batsmen have problems to the incoming ball," a shrewd Miandad was quoted by the News as saying. Scoffing at suggestions that Pakistan now had a psychological advantage over India following its nine-wicket win at Lahore, Miandad said: "No, there is no psychological advantage with us just because we beat them in the last Test. Both teams are evenly matched and the one that capitalizes on its opportunities and has one or two good sessions will win the match."

          He also dismissed speculations that the Pakistan camp was keen on drawing the third Test. "We have asked for a lively track on which both teams have equal chance of doing well. Our edge is that we have a good line up of pace bowlers who can turn the tide our way," he said. "All this talk about psychological advantage means nothing. The pressure is always there on you to perform out in the middle. Every match is a new challenge. That team and player is successful who put the last match behind them and plan for the moment," Miandad added. Rao Iftikhar, Rana Naveed, Abdul Rauf and Fazle Akber have joined the Pakistan team, replacing Abdul Razzaq, Shabbir Ahmed, Umar Gul and Moin Khan. Asked about the reason for the spate of injuries in the Pakistan camp, Miandad said he would not blame the team trainer or doctor for this. "I have been telling the boys that they also have to follow their own individual training regime even on off-days and off-season. It is the players who have to take care of their bodies themselves."

Miandad hosts reception for Vengsarkar, Tendulkar (Go To Top)

          Islamabad: India's batters may be spending some of their time on the field picking the brains of Pakistan coach Javed Miandad, but that did not stop the latter from hosting a dinner for Sachin Tendulkar and his very close friend and former Indian captain Dilip Vengsarkar on Friday. According to the News, Miandad and his wife Tahira played gracious hosts to Vengsarkar, Tendulkar, Sehwag and other Indian players at their residence in true Pakistani hospitality style. "We discussed a lot of things. Cricket obviously was the main topic. But there were a lot of discussions on other things also and they enjoyed themselves. We enjoyed playing hosts and serving them some delicious Pakistani cuisine," Miandad told the paper. Miandad said he was particularly impressed by Tendulkar's humility, in spite of his iconic status. "He has matured a lot now and his sense of humor has also improved a lot. He is more relaxed and we enjoyed the evening with him." Besides Tendulkar and Sehwag, Ashish Nehra and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel were also present.

Azhar, myself were made scapegoats: Malik (Go To Top)

          Rawalpindi: Former Pakistan skipper Saleem Malik believes that he and former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin were made scapegoats in the match-fixing allegations that destroyed their respective cricketing careers, and to a large extent their lives as well. "Ata-ur Rehman's ban is off; Herschelle Gibbs and Shane Warne are still playing, but I am stuck. Other Pakistani players whose names appeared in the investigations were fined and let off. Only I was punished. I guess they wanted a scapegoat and who better than me. In India, the Board thought Azharuddin would be the ideal person to ban because he was nearing the end of his career, and here in Pakistan I was coming towards the end of my career. So, Azhar and I were made the scapegoats," he laments.

          Leading the life of a recluse now, Malik keeps changing his mobile number on a regular basis, and is quite paranoid about meeting people, particularly those who wish to probe him about the match-fixing episode. "Please don't cook up any story about my presence here for match- fixing purposes prior to the third Test. I was preparing to runaway from here so that I do not bump into any player," he told the News jokingly. Getting serious about the issue of his appeal to the Supreme Court to lift the life ban imposed by the Justice Malik Qayyum committee, Malik says, "What can I say. The court is not willing to give any date for a hearing. To be honest I have given up all hope that I would ever be cleared of this allegation." Malik filed an appeal with the Supreme Court in Lahore after failing to get the ban overturned at the civil, district and high court levels.

          "I have tried hard to remove this stigma from my name but now even I have lost fight. I have to concentrate on my business and on my family also. I can't keep on running after this appeal thing all the time. As it is what damage had to be done has been done to me and my family. I have suffered a lot." Malik is only one of three Pakistani players to have played 100 Tests along with Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram and till today he believes that there are some players in this team who didn't want him to come back into the fold. He is also annoyed with the role of the media and says Justice Qayyum and the Board were pressurized by the media to take action against him. "The media war against me was hard to understand because I have never misbehaved or treated any cricket journalist badly."

          Malik also said he could never understand why Rashid Latif had specifically targeted him for the match-fixing allegations. "Rashid knows the truth and one day he will himself bring it out." "I know one thing, whatever their motives they succeeded because the match-fixing allegations completely destroyed me and I could not perform in the middle after that at all. In the middle of the 1999 World Cup I had to attend court hearings. It was humiliation of the worst kind. I was harassed, shot, slapped, slaughtered in public by my Board, the ICC and also the media. Malik, who was clearly uneasy standing in the hotel lobby with people moving around him and trying to recognize him, denied that he had ever thought about migrating to some other country after being banned for life. "Where will I go from here? This is my country and this is the only place where they are people who still believe I am innocent and support me."

Rawalpindi Test will be Golden jubilee of Indo-Pak Test (Go To Top)

          Karachi: Come April 13, arch rivals Pakistan and India will be playing their 50th Test against each other at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Prior to this Golden jubilee Test, Pakistan and India have met 49 times in almost 52-year-old cricketing ties, dating back to October 1952. Pakistan has won 10 to India's 6 Tests on the subcontinent. But a staggering 33 matches, in other words 67.35 per cent, have been drawn, reports the Dawn. In the inaugural series in 1952-53, won by India, after three decisive encounters, the remaining two were drawn as were the first-ever Test series on Pakistan soil in 1954-55 and the entire 1960-61 rubber in India. It should be remembered that the Tests in the first two series - 1952-53 and 1954-55 - were played over a duration of four days. When these two sides finally met again after a gap of over 17 years in Pakistan, the opening Test ended in a draw. The second procession of drawn Tests took place from the fifth Test of the 1982-83 rubber in Pakistan to the fourth Test of the 1986-87 series in India.

          Pakistan and India did not face each other in a Test match for another nine years after the Indians toured here in 1989-80. Of the 49 Tests - including this week's Lahore Test - eleven Indian cities have played host to 27 Tests against Pakistan, while nine cities in Pakistan have so far staged 22 Tests against India. Lahore has the honour of staging the most number of Tests between Pakistan and India. The second Test of the 2003-04 series was the seventh, but the sixth at the Gaddafi Stadium since the third Test of the 1954-55 rubber was played at the Bagh-i-Jinnah Ground. The city-wise distribution of the remaining 42 India-Pakistan Tests is: Chennai, Kolkata and Karachi five each; Delhi and Faisalabad four each; Mumbai and Bangalore three each, Kanpur two. A Test each was played at Lucknow, Nagpur, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Ahmedabad, Dhaka, Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Hyderabad (Sindh), Sialkot and Multan. On Tuesday, Rawalpindi will become the 21st city and the 10th in Pakistan to host an India-Pakistan Test.