No, no, we’re not dead yet, we’re not even going into seasonal hibernation (though Australia winning yet another World Cup without much of a problem may be one reason to do so), but we’re merely trying to cope up with hectic college life. Blogging and college together aren’t easy, and you’ll be aware I whine about this a lot, but we’re hoping by doing so, we’ll some how learn how to cope. 

Regardless of that, Pakistan’s series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi is just around the corner, and since I haven’t blogged for a fair amount of time, there is lots to catch up on. I’ll go through as much as I can, so stand by for lots of blogging tomorrow…but only after I come back from college.

And before I dash for some sleep, one last bit of advice. If you, for whatever reason, like reading this blog and are frustrated to find it not updated every time you visit, please subscribe to the RSS feed, you'll know when I've updated then, and will not need to visit unless there has been an update (though of course if you do want to do that, there's nothing stopping you from doing that). That's about it, tata for now.

PS: The move to an all-black background has admittedly failed miserably. We'll also be switching back to pink-cum-black with stars and everything else that made Sundries look cute tomorrow. Tomorrow in other words is going to be re-incarnation day. We'll be really back.

(Openers): Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, Khurram Manzoor, Taufeeq Umar, Babar Naeem, Khalid Latif.

(Middle Order): Mohammad Yousuf, Faisal Iqbal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asim Kamal, Hasan Raza, Naved Latif, Yasir Hameed, Riffatullah Mohammad, Shahid Yousuf , Adnan Raza.

(All Rounders): Shoaib Malik (Captain), Abdul Razzaq , Shahid Afridi, Mohamamd Hafeez, Fawad Alam.

(Fast Bowlers): Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Shabbir Ahmad, Abdul Rauf, Mohammad Irshad, Najaf Shah, Shahid Nazir, Mohammad Khalil.

(Spinners): Abdul Rahman, Tahir Khan, Atif Maqbool, Mansoor Amjad.

(Wicketkeepers): Kamran Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmad, Zulqarnain HaiderI

I thought it would be useful to reproduce the full list here. These players will meet up on the 28th of April at the Gadaffi and there will be a 'camp' here until May 5 before a final squad of 15 is announced by May 6. Four players which were -at some stage at least- part of the World Cup squad have been dropped or are missing from this squad. I guess most of you will have already picked who they are, but for the more dimwitted like my self, the four are:

Shoaib Akhtar (who reportedly needs yet more time to recover from yet another so-called 'injury'), Younis Khan (who is unavailable) and Rana Naved and Danish Kaneria, who, we can only presume, did not fit the new selection committee criteria (“The players were selected based on their previous performance and they are the unanimous choice of selection committee headed by Salahuddin”, said a spokesman of PCB on Sunday).

Quite a few interesting names in there though. Baring one or two, I've heard of most of them at some point in time, many of those in very recent times, but the squad as a whole is still too large to be commented on. The final 15 will be even more interesting. I'll postpone the intro on some of the young guns in the list until May 6 then. Right now I'll go and try and catch some sleep. Nighty night.. See you all later.

I'm surprised at the lack of reaction at this. Younis Khan has made him self "unavailable" for the Abu Dhabi series against Sri Lanka because he's busying playing for Yorkshire! I suppose people haven't said much about this because he had already hinted just after the World Cup when he turned down the captaincy that he was considering retirement for one-day cricket altogether.

And I suppose, that had everyone mentally prepared in advance. But alas, its not quite like that with me. In fact, not only am I not mentally prepared, but I also can't help feel a bit peeved about this. Its not that I have a definite issue with him wanting to retire. He can do that if he wants to.

Really, if he feels that doing so would be the best option for him in terms of prolonging his overall professional career, then who am I, or indeed any one, to tell him otherwise. It is his career, after all, he's in the best position to judge. I'd respect whatever decision he makes. But I do have an issue with players having to pick and chose when to represent Pakistan and when not to. No, sir, this is not acceptable to me.

Either you retire from one-day cricket full time, or make your self available all the time. The selection policy and current and future planning can't revolve around the availability or otherwise of one or two players. If Younis isn't serious about representing Pakistan in limited overs cricket again, well good for him then We'll look elsewhere and give Fawad Alam or Asim Kamal or some one else from this gigantic 39 man probables squad a prolonged run in the side. There's no shortage of talent.

But if he's serious, then spare of us such call-centre like announcements (''the number you have dialed the player you have contacted/selected is not available at the moment, please try again later'). I've had enough of those with my phone already. 

This murder inquiry just keeps getting uglier and uglier. In a recent development, the South African cricket commentator Neil Manthorp has told The Daily Mirror that Gill Woolmer and Bob's two sons have been informed by the police privately that the toxicology report though still inconclusive indicates Woolmer may have been poisoned by a natural toxin - such a snake venom. Despite the numerous and oft repeated theories of possible motives for the killer, I still can't imagine how anyone could be to kill some one like Bob for something as harmless as the game of cricket, let alone by means as horrific and appalling as some of the recent speculation in the media suggests. Poisoning by snake venom for God's sake? I can't describe how disturbing that idea is. Just the thought of it is making me quite sick.

College, college, college - I'm going to gone insane just any one of these days. World Cup semifinals tomorrow and I don't even a fair idea of what sort of playing XIs New Zealand and Sri Lanka will come out with tomorrow! THAT'S how draining presentations are. I had one on pharmacology today, and thankfully its behind me now, but lots of boring assignments remain pending for this week still - blogging will suffer I'm afraid. Will try and do lots of short posts though. Detail comment on weekends/later/whenever I get time....stand by.

I was about to go to bed when I recalled that I still haven't come around to do that Bob Woolmer murder inquiry round up post, I talked of doing LAST Monday, shame on being for being so lazy. I'm still far too lazy to recap everything that happened since I last blogged about the issue, but here's a quick round up to hopefully get things rolling again.

Dawn reported yesterday that The Jamaica Coroner's office had sent an official communication to the Pakistan Cricket Board requesting them to send Inzamam, Younis and Mushtaq to the West Indies before the inquest into Bob Woolmer's death begun on April 23.

The PCB however, is yet to confirm having received any such letters. I know there was a report in between some where that talked of Scotland Yard experts coming over to Pakistan to re-question some of the players and carry out more investigations, but a move to back WI for the players? That's a new one, certainly.

Reports coming out from West Indies meanwhile speak of some sort of "'significant development' possibly delaying the inquest, and I'm not sure if the first report about the players being called back would have any sort of link with this, but either way, the speed of this whole inquiry business certainly leaves a lot to be desired.

Call me spoiled by watching too many murder-inquiry shows on TV, but between all the personnel shifting from one continent to another (in addition to experts from Scotland Yard and Pakistan, a DNA forensic expert has been called in from Interpol) you'd have hoped they would have at least managed to obtain the results of that toxicology report.

Whenever is that coming? Its been a month since the death happened, how longer could it take? From the start, you'll have noticed that I've tried not to be too judgemental of the police on this, but I'm really starting to wonder a few things now.

I'm a bit late on this (college and the heat, as always, the reasons) but I expect you'll already have heard about the news of Shoaib Malik being appointed Pakistan captain.

The official yada, yada formalities were completed at a press conference at the Gadaffi on Thursday, in which we were told that the appointment has been made till December of this year.
Dawn has this photo of him in their report, dressed in his Pakistan blazer and tie, looking all prim and proper.

Its always interesting to picture-read. What does the smile tell you? What does it translate as?

Happiness? Definitely (he did, of course, talk about how he felt "honored" and "thrilled" to get the job) but the smile, I can't help but feel, is as much a reflection of happiness as it is of self-belief.

"I'm confident all the players will support and co-operate with me",  he told reporters in response to questions about how his team mates may respond.

As Osman Samiuddin notes too, that question of how his team mates will respond to his appointment, is going to be one of the keys to how well he can do this job.

Comparisons with Graeme Smith have been pretty widespread in discussions about Malik's appointment, and contrary to most of the horses for courses comparisons which are a frequent feature of arm chair cricket discussions, this particular one has some weight to it.

Smith, like Malik, was given over the reigns after his side had just crashed out of the World Cup. Like Malik, Smith too, had in the team he was given to lead, other players which may have been contenders and/or aspirants for the job. And crucially, both of the them, when given the captaincy, had yet to fully arrive at the international stage as players in their individual capacity.

It would be inaccurate to say they hadn't establish their places in the side. Smith may not have been part of the initial World Cup squad SA picked four years ago (he only made it after Rhodes was sidelined due to a finger injury), but his test place was never in doubt, having scored a mammoth hundred against Pakistan earlier that season.

Malik too, similarly, has though, only just become a non-performing regular in the test side, has a one-day record that in last two to three years is as consistent as any player in the Pakistan side. But there is a difference here that should be noted.

I'm not saying that both Smith and Malik hadn't become regulars in the team where they were appointment skipper; both of them, in some capacity had, but well and truly arriving on the international stage is another thing entirely.

Later in the same year, when Smith led SA on their tour to England, and scored back-to-back double hundreds in the test series, that's when he fully arrived. Smith's own batting heroics have been far less consistent since then, but that big start first up had taken care of any rebellions senior team mates aspiring for the his job might have staged against his appointment.

Not to say there were any in the South African team at the time, but just making a point. That's what Malik needs to do too. The sooner he is able to deliver an innings like that, the sooner he is able to fully arrive, the easier will it become for his team mates to see why he is the best man of the job at the time, and the more readily will they, in turn, begin to function affectively under his leadership.

Of course it is not going to be simply about performing well with the bat for Malik; man-management and diplomacy will be crucial skills for Malik to have, but if the runs keep coming, they'll certainly make the man-management part of the job thing easier.

Just ask Inzi. No one dared question his leadership when his form was rampant. Its not like his deficiencies as a leader had magically disappeared in such times, but they were less easily remembered. Few knew the Inzi who had allowed sides to claw back from hopeless positions by not being ruthless enough all the time, when the runs of his bat and Pakistan's victories (luckily for us despite his tactical blunders) were the bigger realities.

Fast forward to present times, those tactical blunders are still the same as before, but with the cushion of his own form and the team's success rate not there to fall back on, few people can now see any good that ever come out of his leadership.

Nothing, in other words, succeeds like success. Malik's tactical nous and presence of mind, fortunately for him, are his natural areas of strength, so the only thing he needs is to do, for the moment at least, is get runs. A lots of them. The rest, can pretty much, take its due course. Still, I don't suppose it will be easy, the pressure, for one would be immense, but I wish him luck all the same.

Heck, if Kamran Abbasi can see the light at the end of the tunnel here, I just can't stay behind. Lets make this an official prayer than, shall we? All raise your hands and say, 'oh god, please, make this a start of better things ahead'. Amen. Now I shall hover off to bed.

Good riddance was what I was inclined to say when I first read the headline "Evaluation committee completes inquiry". But I have to admit, even though the inquiry (which interviewed nearly 40 players, officials, and retired PCB functionaries during a two-week period) and its subsequent recommendations may not come to much use in the practical sense, but at least they've made some correct observations. I was pleased to read that one of the committee members, Ijaz Butt, had been quoted by AFP as describing PJ Mir's statement about the team's religious activities "stupid". The fact that many players them selves, including Mohammad Yousuf and Kamran Akmal, rubbished the allegations may have something to do with that. Or may be they committee was more competent then I was willing to give them credit for (their evaluation report, Cricinfo adds, also terms suggestions that the Ireland-Pakistan game was fixed "baseless").

Sussex, who are defending champs this year, could feature as many as three Pakistani players this season. There's Mushtaq Ahmed of course, and Rana Naved, but I had almost completely forgotten that Saqlain Mushtaq had transferred from Surrey to Hove too.

Been ages since these guys played together on the international scene. Saqlain didn't play in Sussex's opening game this week, where Rana and Mushy alone, have done enough to take Sussex on the brink of their first win, but as Mushy says in this interview to The Argus (quoted in by Dawn) Saqlain returning to cricket (he's been in and out a lot in the recent past with a wonky knee, amongst other things) is a great sign, for him personally, and for county and cricket lovers in general everywhere.

Do read that interview, Mushy also speaks of his struggle to come to terms with Woolmer's death and how returning to the field to play may be the only way left for him now to escape it all; its touching read.

And also just for the record, Mushtaq's match figures are 10-219 in 62.4 overs, Rana Naved took 5-170 in the match, and another Pakistani, all rounder Yasser Arafat, playing in the same match, though for the opposition Kent, is also doing quite respectably with 73 runs (33 in the first innings, 40 in the second) and 2-104 (in 28.4 overs so far) which given Sussex piled up 510 in their first innings isn't all that bad.

Elsewhere, in another division one match between Yorkshire and Surrey, more Pakistanis were on show. Azhar Mahmood took 3-73 as Yorkshire put on 594-9 declared, Younis Khan only making 4 of these runs. In reply Surrey got bowled out for 334, Azhar getting 32 batting from the No.8 spot. Younis had another failure with the bat during the 2nd innings, this time scoring just four. Nevertheless his team are in a fantastic position with Surrey already 47-1 by close of play on the 3rd day chasing 517 runs for victory.

Down the 2nd division, Danish Kaneria took 5-152 for Essex as Derbyshire too piled on a 500+ score in their first innings. The match it self is interestingly poised though. Essex replied well through Ronnie Irrani who got an 80 odd but their lower order fell away and they eventually they got bowled out for 407, giving Derbyshire a first innings lead of 144 which by the end of the third day they had already expanded to 284 runs

For a complete round up of from Day 3 all the County Championship matches today, click here.

Image originally uploaded by Markdrasutis

Image originally uploaded by Dirkhorchers

There is some really compelling about the raw, untamed passion of the North West of Pakistan, be it in cricket or any other spectra of life. A lot of the times it makes you stop and watch. When I was casually surfing cricket photos at Flickr this evening, this unique shot of a local cricket match taken by Flickr user Mary Loosemore on the way back to Peshawar via the Khyber pass had the same affect one me. Notice the concrete pitch and small boundaries in the centre and the jagged, rocky terrain in the background, you can be sure non of these fielders would have been too willing to show off their diving skills. Captures that North Western essence nicely, no?

Ladies and gentleman, please brace your self to get familiar with the names, identities, idiosyncrasies, weird theologies and even weired preferences of a brand new, and this time, fully paid, selection committee. The much awaited announcement of who would comprise and lead the new selection panel following the resignation of Bari and co. after the World Cup was made a few hours ago by the PCB.

Salahuddin Mulla Ahmed (more famously Sallu Bhai) who is a veteran selector that has previously been on the committee no less then 13 times both as a member and as the chairman, will lead the three member panel again. The other members of the committee are Shafqat Rana, who is also a previous member on three occasions, and the former Test left-arm fast bowler Saleem Jaffar, who is the only debutant in the panel. Jaffar is currently the coach of the Sindh team in the Pentangular Cup 2007, and he's told Cricinfo he'll try to put his local knowledge of domestic cricket into use. What's more interesting to me then the actual committee however, is this so-called "new" selection policy. I quote from Cricinfo:

For any home series, the selection committee will choose the final playing XI after consultation with the captain. For away tours, the committee will select the squad after consultation with the captain, while the final playing XI will be decided by a tour selection committee which includes the manager, coach, captain and vice-captain.

That indeed is interesting. This means that for a home series, if the captain and selection committee differ over the final playing XI, the selection committee will have the final say. Make what you will of this, but I for one, have always felt that once a squad of 15 has been selected, it should be the prerogative of the captain primarily, and then coach secondarily, to chose a playing XI.

I know you will point towards the allegations that Inzi had misused his powers in this capacity (Wasim Akram reportedly referring to him as a 'dictator') but I see little point in giving the captain, some one who has the job of handling all of the team's resources once it is out in the field of play, a team that he is not happy with.

Who is to say he might not marginalise the resources he was not happy with but still given? Who would suffer as a whole then? The team, of course. Of course this doesn't mean you give a free reign to the captain to do whatever he wants; the key in the power distribution over this issue is a good working relationship and accurate communication to and fro between the selectors and team think-tank, but selecting the final XI, for some reason, some how, I've always felt, should be the exclusive domain of the skipper.

As for the members of this panel, though you cannot deny the cricketing know-how of some one like Salahuddin, who has been around for ages, but I'd personally have liked it more to see some fresh names and new faces we haven't seen before. I'm willing to give these guys the benefit of the doubt as they start another stint though, but the jury certainly remains out on them for the meanwhile. All the Fawad Alams, Zulqarnain Haiders, Salman Butts, Mansoor Amjads, Abdur Rehmans out there - get ready all the same. Show time, I suppose, might be nearing.

So its going to be New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka and South Africa for the semi-finals. You could have predicted that at the start of the tournament fairly easily I suppose, so no major surprises there. And you can't complain with that either, these four sides have been pretty much the most consistent four we've seen through out the tournament and they deserve to be there more then anyone else.

Yesterday's crucial clash between England and the Proteas, which decided the final member of the semi-final bound group, was another of the many utterly one-sided matches in this World Cup. England were bowled out for a sub-200 score batting first and then SA chased the runs down in a real hurry with the loss of just one wicket, Smith getting an unbeaten 80 odd.

Though I watched very little of the match, I do gather that Andrew Hall bowled spectacularly well on what was a pretty decent surface to bat on, certainly going by the South African batting card and how quickly Smith scored, it can't have been all that difficult to bat on.

Andrew McGlashan in the Cricinfo bulletin has been pretty severe on England saying they "didn't bother to show up" and criticism from ex-players and the media has also been coming thick and fast, with Beefy amongst others, suggesting it was time for Fletcher and Vaughan to go.

Finally, some one has realised. I have never understood the English obsession with Vaughan, he's supposedly a real captaincy genius, but I think this is more of a myth as far as a one-day cricket is concerned.

Tim de Lisle did an article on this a couple of days ago and even though he admitted how poor Vaughan's one-day record was (80 odd matches for an average of less then 25, no 100s and a strike rate in the mid 60s), he still some how believed England weren't wrong to pick him ("he is worth a place, just, as a puppeteer alone").

Well then, there you go. If you insist on picking people who are worth there place just as a "puppeteer" then you can't expect to go much beyond England have in this tournament. Enjoy the flight back home. And for the English fans, my sympathies, but don't be too disappointed, at least this will rid you of Vaughan from your one-day side for good, and that can't be all that bad, now can it be?

[Via Ahmer Azhar's blog]

Seems like a month after our exit from the World Cup, we're still no closer to realising who we might want to give job of the skipper to. After Younis Khan ruled him self out, Yousuf was out saying he has no qualms in taking the role if he's offered it, but Osman Samiuddin's report on this issue is fairly concerning. He's quoted a couple of senior players being highly skeptical of the idea of a younger player taking over.

One player reportedly told Cricinfo, "The names mentioned are all players who aren't really sure of their places in the side" (which is true), "To burden them with leadership isn't a good move," (which isn't necessarily true or untrue, but merely depends on what your opinion on this is). But another player, who was also not named, was much more frank in his observations, "This is Pakistan, not a club or department team" he said.

"Whoever is chosen should be a regular, proven performer," he continued, pointing out that "some of the younger candidates mentioned haven't even performed well recently", asking eventually, "How can they be expected to lead a team in which their own position is not certain?"

My, my, things certainly aren't going to be that rosy in the dressing room if and when that younger player in question does get the job. You can guess who these 'senior' players Osman has quoted could be, the first sounds like Abdul Razzak for my money, where as the second has a definite Pathan ring of Shahid Afridi to it.

And I suppose if I'm right about that, you can understand why these players would have reservations too. Both Razzaq and Afridi have been in and around the Pakistan team for almost a good decade now, and it would be natural if they had captaincy ambitions them self.

And of course, they'd be not all that pleased seeing names like Shoaib Malik and even Salman Butt being widely mentioned ahead of them now that the job has opened up, and they're in some position to being considered. May be their egos came in the way of their better judgement there, but either way, Pakistan have a problem to solve now.

This scenario certainly makes picking a young player like Malik extremely risky, if the said players don't really agree with a younger player coming into the fray of captaincy now when there's only casual chit chat about the possibility of it happening, as Osman has pointed, future dissent against the skipper, and worse things (internal team lobbying, uneasy dressing room atmosphere, etc) could be a serious problem in the future.

Of course all of this could automatically be solved if Younis was to reconsider his decision, and I guess that is what the PCB would be hoping for. Naseem Ashraf has been quoted by Dawn as saying he's "unaware" of Younis's recent withdrawal and has hence refused to comment on the matter, but how long will the PCB live in this denial?

Wasim Bari and Waseem Akram have meanwhile both said separately that they would also recommend a younger player to lead Pakistan now, with Akram also criticising Inzi for becoming a "dictator" during his time in charge, something Javed Miandad also spoke against (but in a different vein) not that long ago, calling for a curb in player power.

Amongst all this talk, the joke of the performance evaluation committee interviews (links here are to reports about various officials and players' quotes) has kept going on. All of Waseem Bari, Iqbal Qasim (another selector), Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal, Mushtaq Ahmed, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria, Younis Khan, Inzamam, Naseem Ashraf, PJ Mir, Talat Ali and even former test cricketers Intikhab Alam, Shafqat Rana and the former Secretary of PCB Col (retd) Rafi Nasim have gone ahead and completed some utterly useless formalities by recording their statements over the course of the last week or so.
 
I call them useless formalities because the committee it self is a useless one. Baffles me how any three member committee can carry out an 'investigation' into the 'causes' of any sports team's performance (this isn't murder for God sakes, you can't 'investigate' performances) but especially when the committee comprises names like Ijaz Butt, Salahuddin Ahmad and believe it or not, Saleem Altaf him self!

Even if we ignore the skepticism surrounding their ability to judge and analyse the result of a one-day cricket tournament when neither members of this team have played any one-day cricket between them, it is hard not to see the insult to injury Altaf's presence adds to the scenario!

Altaf, in his position as Director Cricket Operations of the PCB, has been directly involved with the PCB, and is therefore equally responsible as any other PCB official for the mess we are in, but yet he can be both the jury as well as the accused! The irony, the irony...

PS: I shall do up a round of the Woolmer murder inquiry updates later in the night, after the Bangladesh-Ireland match is over, so stay tuned I guess.