Kamran Abbasi
Batting has changed, and Pakistan have not kept pace
In limited-overs cricket, they are a side woefully behind the pack, and it has to do with the way their batsmen come up through the system
Kamran Abbasi
09-Sep-2016
Let's talk about batting. Pakistan's batting. It's been talked about before - many times - but when your batsmen help you to No. 1 in Test cricket and drive you to the bottom in other formats, it needs to be discussed again. Not just discussed, it needs to be understood and addressed because the disparity is too great.
First, we need to understand what modern batting is. And for this we might turn to Graham Thorpe, the ECB's lead batting coach. Before the first Pakistan Test this summer, I hosted an event with him at Histon Cricket Club near Cambridge. He talked about his career, and he spoke mostly about batting.
When he spoke about batting method, he didn't speak about his batting method, which was gritty and pragmatic. He spoke about modern batting and future batting and what is required. He spoke about 360-degree run-scoring and fast hands. He spoke about generating momentum into a shot.
Full postMisbah's band of pragmatic dreamers
Pakistan's rise to become the No. 1 Test team is a story of triumph in the face of adversity unlike that of any other side
Kamran Abbasi
22-Aug-2016
Anybody who spent this last fortnight watching the Olympics might not realise that sport is played in Pakistan. The sum total of Pakistan's Olympic achievement since 1947 is ten medals. Eight in hockey, including three golds, one each in wrestling and boxing. Pakistan haven't won a medal for 24 years. Worse, Pakistan is the most populous nation to fail to win a medal in Rio. This isn't the performance of a country that values sport. Still, there is sport outside the Olympics.
Hockey is Pakistan's national sport. A World Cup was Pakistan's idea, and the trophy for it was made by the Pakistan army. Scheduled for Pakistan in 1971, the first hockey World Cup was moved to Spain, a neutral venue, because of a regional conflict that led to the creation of Bangladesh. Despite the upheaval, Pakistan won. They won it three times more up to 1994, a record of four wins that is yet to be matched by any other hockey nation. After 1994, with the popularity of artificial surfaces and modern fitness techniques, Pakistan are winless, and now struggle to compete. Pakistani sport, though, is more than hockey.
Squash is the sport Pakistan have been most successful in. Between 1982 and 1997, first Jahangir Khan and then Jansher Khan won every British Open, the premier tournament in the world game. Pakistanis in squash, the toughest of racket games, looked invincible. Since 1997, five years after Pakistan's last Olympic medal in any sport, Pakistan's superiority in squash is no more. Like the Olympics and hockey, squash has nothing to showcase since the 1990s. Despite all this, Pakistanis love sport.
Full postLord's 2016: a second revolution in Pakistan cricket
All four of Pakistan's victories at Lord's have been special. The latest one was extra sweet because it came after a 20-year wait
Kamran Abbasi
19-Jul-2016
Lord's, 1982. Pakistan's target to win the Test is a simple 76. Pakistan don't do simple. They do complex and unfathomable. It's the final session of the Test and rain clouds rush towards St John's Wood. Pakistan last won a Test in England 28 years earlier - Fazal Mahmood's match at The Oval. This win can shape history, be a catalyst for Imran Khan's new age. A win at Lord's, to follow humiliation in 1978 - and if there is one thing Imran can't stomach, it's humiliation. His every cell has pride stamped on it. This win will be a manifesto for pride-branded cricket. Yet the rain clouds are gathering and only 15 overs remain.
Pakistan's opener Mudassar Nazar holds the record for the slowest Test hundred. He doesn't appear, left in the pavilion to be satisfied with his surprise six wickets in the second innings. Imran places history in the hands of Mohsin Khan, to follow his dashing double-hundred in the first innings, and Javed Miandad. The rain clouds are in a rush, but Miandad and Mohsin are more urgent, scampering singles and thrashing boundaries. Pakistan win by ten wickets. Javed kisses the turf and runs for the pavilion. We are in the time of pitch invasions, and where better to sprint in triumph than at Lord's? Imran smiles for his statement victory.
England are back at full strength at Headingley to narrowly take the series. But nothing takes the edge off that first win at Lord's. Nothing. Lord's is the home of cricket and the ground to make history for England's opponents. Pakistan will never look back.
Full postThe PSL spells good news for Pakistan cricket's future
The tournament had its flaws but it has great potential to boost the country's game in many ways
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2016
When Kevin Pietersen tweets in Urdu, upset at losing a cricket match, seeking forgiveness from his team's fans, and promising to return even better next year, you know the Pakistan Super League has not only arrived but that it has made an instant impact.
When Wasim Akram and Dean Jones bounce for joy for that little known team called Islamabad United, and Viv Richards cuts a forlorn figure as a Quetta Gladiator, swallowing his pride at the rare experience of losing a final, you know that the PSL has not only arrived but that it has made a deeper emotional connection than mere T20 flimflam can.
Yes, we know, the PSL isn't perfect. But perfection has never been a requirement for success. It was enough that the Pakistan Cricket Board, defying its hard-earned reputation for amateurism, staged a professional competition to capture the zeitgeist. It was enough that the PSL was exhilarating, better than many other T20 franchises, with games of a high standard and abundant passion. We came, we saw, we fell in love.
Full postPakistan cricket's renaissance moment
The Pakistan Super League, apart from giving the country's domestic game a shot in the arm, is making a nation feel good about itself again
Kamran Abbasi
14-Feb-2016
A full house in Sharjah thrills in anticipation for a game of domestic cricket. Yes, domestic cricket. Pakistan fans at home and abroad watch on television, YouTube, and any internet feed available. There is a fevered buzz on social media. Ramiz Raja talks about "amping it up". Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen and Shahid Afridi are on the menu. There are sixes. There are wickets. Importantly, there are smiles. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the unexpected wonder of the Pakistan Super League.
There are detractors unwilling to embrace this modern world that they've heard about, but in the surreal bubble of the PSL, Ravi Bopara is king, Umar Akmal plays a match-winning innings, and Mohammad Sami bowls straight.
There is more. Viv Richards mentors Ahmed Shehzad. Wasim Akram is the team director of Islamabad United.
Full postWill India play cricket, not politics?
They can be a transformative force in the sport, and honouring the commitment to play Pakistan will show they take that role seriously
Kamran Abbasi
09-Dec-2015
India's foreign minister has landed in Pakistan. What might this mean for regional peace and prosperity? More pertinently, what might this mean for cricket? When Narendra Modi talked at Nawaz Sharif for a few seconds during the Paris climate conference, we all knew there was only time to discuss cricket and the Future Tours Programme.
Perhaps an icy bilateral relationship is thawing as global temperatures rise? The foreign minister arriving in Pakistan is less significant than India's cricket team arriving in Pakistan, but it is notable. An aroma of diplomacy fills the air. Let's not elevate it to the grandness of cricket diplomacy just yet, but in times of trouble it's good to talk.
It's also good to remember that cricket and politics are closely wedded, much more regular bedfellows than cricket and diplomacy. So, no sanctimony please, no unrealistic holiness on the separation of cricket and politics. Since the dawn of sentient man, the day of the first ever Test match between England and Australia, cricket is politics and politics is cricket.
Full postSoulful, pragmatic, patient Pakistan
Five years ago, no one would have given them a hope in hell of getting to No. 2 in the Test rankings, as they have done
Kamran Abbasi
10-Nov-2015
Two thousand and six. That's when Pakistan were last ranked second in Test cricket. Back then, in the English summer, under the calm command of Bob Woolmer and Inzamam-ul Haq, Pakistan cricket was powered by skill and a degree of missionary zeal - blessed, you might say, by Bob and God.
But the bank of blessings emptied soon after Pakistan got to England that year. Next, a forfeited Test, Woolmer's death, terrorist attacks, and spot-fixing. An unprecedented four-year spell of curses. Four years with little blessing. By 2010, Pakistan cricket was more dead than alive. It would do well to exist.
In 2015, Pakistan cricket does not merely exist. They are No. 2 in the Test rankings. Perhaps the greatest second place in the history of sport?
Full postMake Pakistan's home Tests day-night affairs
Instead of having their exiled team play in empty, echoing stadiums, the PCB must look to innovate in the UAE
Kamran Abbasi
19-Oct-2015
Bad light, in part, robbed England of a win in Abu Dhabi. Bad light and slow scoring, for which they will kick themselves; bad light and slow over rates, a curse of all nations.
When England began their second innings, a thrilling finish seemed destined to end in defeat for the hosts. Pakistan did just enough, relying on the iron laws of nature above the soft disciplines of their batting. All this drama played out in a near-empty stadium echoing with catcalls and solitary chants.
England were the better side here, on a track that was dead for too long. Misbah-ul-Haq was rightly displeased with it. He wanted a turner, to catch England's novices cold. Pitches in the UAE belie appearances and tend to be result-oriented. Draws are uncommon. Hence the surprise at how long this one took to offer inspiration to bowlers. Any groundsman can get it wrong, and to Pakistan's discomfort, England are now perfectly warmed up for the remaining Tests.
Full postThe magic is gone from Saeed Ajmal
With his remodelled action he's unlikely to scale the heights he did before
Kamran Abbasi
12-Sep-2015
Saeed Ajmal has promised he will return to international cricket. He believes in his ability to regain his form and a place in the Pakistan team, particularly in limited-overs cricket, where he was peerless. Sadly, the facts don't stack up. A bowler who once regularly ran amok now struggles to take a wicket a game. His economy rate is no longer special. Magic and mystery have abandoned his spinning fingers.
Few Pakistan players have felt the love of supporters as Ajmal has. There is his infectious smile; that flash of defiance, especially when applying his rudimentary ability as a batsman; the lack of athleticism, which creates an instant bond with his public. Above all and beyond price is his bravery. In key moments, when the charge is on and a target to be protected, a captain will turn to Ajmal for rescue. And Ajmal will save the day. Not with a flat spell fired in at a batsman's legs, but with deliciously flighted deliveries, full on off stump, against the world's best hitters. That is daring. Such bowling takes guts. Such audacity demands affection.
It also demands great skill, and Ajmal was, till recently, master of his art, top of the world rankings, the bowler who embraced the inventions of Saqlain Mushtaq and moulded them into his personal version of mystery spin. The world loved him for it, or at least appreciated it for the large part. It was hard to imagine a competitive Pakistan team without Ajmal. Some of the mystique was helped by his late entry into international cricket, from 30-year-old debutant to world beater in doosra-quick time.
Full postIn praise of Zed
The elegant former Pakistan great is a good fit for the role of ICC president
Kamran Abbasi
13-Aug-2015
Contrary to what Quentin Tarantino might tell you, Zed isn't dead. Indeed, I'm convinced of the existence of a generation of Gloucestershire and Pakistan fans whose first thought on seeing Bruce Willis stagger into a redneck pawn shop isn't about the Gimp's cellar or the samurai sword murder that's about to unfold. Their minds wander to a bespectacled, bookish-looking batsman unleashing cover drive after wristy cover drive, on his way to one of his inevitable stylish centuries that helped him reach the landmark of a hundred first-class hundreds. Zed, you see, in the mind of a certain breed of cricket fan, isn't a sexually perverted hillbilly motorbike cop but Zaheer Abbas, perfectly respectable former Pakistan batsman and the newly appointed president of the ICC.
When the Gang of Three staged their coup in international cricket, some deals needed to be done. One of the inducements accepted by Pakistan to approve the new governance arrangements was a spin at the ICC presidency. At the time nobody expected that role to go to Zed but the return of Shaharyar Khan as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board makes Zed's appointment more understandable. The two have history - a rather notable history, in fact.
I met Zed properly in 2006. The Pakistan team was training hard in the nets at Radlett Cricket Club in Hertfordshire. In the pavilion, Zed was making tea. He was manager for Pakistan's tour of England. The team was run and controlled by Inzamam-ul Haq, then at the height of his powers. Bob Woolmer was the coach, doing his best to penetrate the Pakistani psyche and the stranglehold of Inzamam on the players that Woolmer was trying to develop.
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