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Can't bat, can't field - Pakistan, just accept that verdict

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Pakistan's fumbling fielders let the side down again


Shoaib Malik was shaking his hands in pain having failed to take a difficult, though manageable, catch at point. Imran Farhat was trying to invent a new form of asana yoga by trying to get his head between his legs after he dropped a dolly from Jonathan Trott. Umar Gul, at mid off, was surprised by Kevin Pietersen's charge against Saeed Ajmal, and could only deflect the lofted drive he should have pouched. Debutant Zulqarnain Haider rightly followed Pietersen's inside edge and dived full-stretch to his left, but the ball hit his wrist. When Ajmal surprised Pietersen with a quicker ball, the intended cut flew past a clueless Umar Akmal, standing too wide at slip. Can't bat, can't field - Pakistan, just accept that verdict.

Let's stick to the fielding for now. A basic tenet to succeed at any job is to enjoy it. Look at the example of the two Mohammads - Asif and Amir. You can sense, feel and celebrate the joy with this pair of Pakistan quicks as they unravel the art of fast bowling in front of your eyes without the sleight of hand. When they smile, you understand exactly how they are working out the batsman.

Even in the nets the pair is rehearsing the murder of their opponent. Every ball has a meaning, a sweet-something tipped with poison, an improvement over the previous effort. And even if it always does not work out the way they intended, their minds are always busy scripting the obituary of the batsman. There is a genuine enthusiasm to excel.

If only the Pakistan players could adopt the duo's zeal and apply it to the fielding. At each and every training session whenever Waqar Younis, Pakistan's coach, has screamed "let's go fielding boys" the players have responded like a kid who has been ordered to do homework on a holiday. At times a peeved Waqar has had to force players to go for the fielding drills, usually imparted by his two deputies - Ijaz Ahmed and Aaqib Javed.

"Oye, Azhar, kya kal pahunche ga fielding karne (Azhar, will you reach tomorrow for the fielding practice!?)," Waqar shouted at Azhar Ali on Thursday afternoon when the player was busy doing nothing after his batting session. It is not to single out one player, but most of the Pakistanis have failed to show the same enthusiasm to fielding as they have shown lining up to bat or bowl.

Probably the mistake lies in the method of the coaches. If there is a method in the first place that is: just lining up players and hitting some hard catches as if you are on a conveyor belt cannot exactly be called the right way forward. It is an archaic method.

The best fielders have always maintained that fielding cannot be taught. It needs to come from within. Awareness, anticipation, agility are the three As missing form Pakistan's fielding cabinet. If you watch Ijaz hitting catches towards the close-in fielders - slips, gully and point - one thing that stands out is the discomfort a fielder has about where he is standing. Constantly the player is seen shuffling around, trying to measure the distance from his partner by stretching his arm and still he is never sure.

This weakness revealed itself recently at Trent Bridge last week when both Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, and the slips were reluctant to stand up a few yards against the quick bowlers despite having grasped the nature of the pitch was slow and dry. Some catches were dropped, some were missed altogether. Bowlers were left furiously kicking dust.

It was an encore in Birmingham and Pakistan's comedy of errors will continue for the rest of the tour if they fail to act now. The visitors cannot keep ignoring the fielding issue with a shrug and say it has always existed. Thankfully Salman Butt, their captain was in no mood to find excuses. "It is something hard to contend with," he summed his fury in short.

On the day when Pakistan's fielders were biting lips, nails and sweaters as the cold Birmingham breeze persisted, England showed the anticipation and skills to turn the advantage in their favour. "The fielding has been sublime as well, which always helps," said Stuart Broad, who took four wickets. "We've got slip catchers who are practising no end to improve themselves, because they know how important it is,"

Broad, tellingly, had no sympathy for the opposition - not even his fellow fast bowler Asif, with whom he used to play at Leicester. Pakistan's problems, he said, had nothing to do with the side being down on its luck, and were instead due to a lack of willingness to put in the necessary hard work. "As an England player, I don't mind," he said. "As a bowler you are always going to have human error, with catches put down, but that's okay, as long as you know the boys are practising as hard as they possibly can.

"I think confidence is built from practice, to be honest," he added. "Our lads have been practising hard, getting in close, and we've got some world-class fielders in there - Colly, for instance, would get into any slip cordon in the world. It's really nice as a bowler knowing that your slippers are practising day in day out to take that one chance. You're not just practising for that day's play, you're practising for the final Ashes Test, to take that one-hander that wins you the game. It's all about those key moments in series and games that, with the more practice you put in, you can try and claim."

All summer Pakistan's fielders have been trying to hold on to their catches as kids try to hold on to snow flakes - in vain. It is time they grew up.

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

Feeds: Nagraj Gollapudi
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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I for one am really sad to see Pakistan cricket this way. It will be a tremendous loss to cricket if Pakistan fail to pick themselves up from the depths that they have reached.
 
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Yes its sad to see Pakistan this way even if i enjoy them loosing :D but have to say the current England team is one of the best in the world and they are performing well in both bowling and batting too..
 
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Yes its sad to see Pakistan this way even if i enjoy them loosing :D but have to say the current England team is one of the best in the world and they are performing well in both bowling and batting too..

Seiko, though England has performed well, the real test will come in away from home conditions. Lets see if they can prevent the Aussies taking away the Ashes in Australia. And England dont have an enviable record against India in India.
 
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The secret hands of king makers are active again to make sure Butt will not be a successful captain.
 
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Pakistan is About to lose its ICC test playing status. Good Luck Pakistan. I can't see any fighting spirt in pak Team after Afridi, though they manged a narrow victory against Aussie.

Solution: Bring back younis khan for test captaincey. And leave afridi for ODI & T20.
When a player drop a catch fine him 10,000 /catch.
 
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well i don't blame PAKISTAN TEAM ANYMORE!! THIS WAS DONE SYSTEMATICALLY THEY DIDN'T LET US HAVE TEST CRICKET FOR A YEAR! NOW THEY MAKE US PLAY ON NEUTRAL VENUES!

what can you expect?these bloody basta*ds will destroy pakistan cricket forever!
 
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Conspiracy theories are creeping their way into cricket too? People need to come up with creating new solutions rather than excuses.
 
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Conspiracy theories are creeping their way into cricket too? People need to come up with creating new solutions rather than excuses.

not conspiracy its a fact! lack of practice and lack of test cricket will destroy our cricket simple! india srilanka play each other regularly every year give out practice to their bowlers and batsmen! BUT pakistan doesn't enjoy that luxury of playing regular cricket!

as for solution make people come play cricket in pakistan! losing out on right to host WORLD CUP is the worse thing PCB did! also remove "PARCHI SYSTEM" in pakistan cricket!!! shoaib malik is playing only because of political connections!!
 
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What else do we expect .... when we have littrally "MOHALA 11" representing Pakistan.
 
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Cricket is just a sport and sports include ups and downs.
I remember India drowning down to No.7th in rankings not long ago.
So Pakistan is also going through the same period and will revive soon.
But yes one worry,2010 WC is around the corner.
Good luck to them!
 
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Nobody to blame but ourselves. The team's inconsistency over the past 5 years should be an eye opener for folks that like many other things broken in Pakistan, Pakistan Cricket too is in shambles, all the way from the management down to the players.

Incompetence, favouritism, cronyism and opportunism reins supreme and the result is this unending cycle of inconsistent performance.
 
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Nobody to blame but ourselves. The team's inconsistency over the past 5 years should be an eye opener for folks that like many other things broken in Pakistan, Pakistan Cricket too is in shambles, all the way from the management down to the players.

Incompetence, favouritism, cronyism and opportunism reins supreme and the result is this unending cycle of inconsistent performance.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I see an overwhelming similarity between Pak political society and the cricket establishment. Feudal set up, getting things done via links, intense rivalries and lack of unity are factors common to both. India too has such things, but I'd say things have improved over the last 15-20 years.
 
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Nobody to blame but ourselves. The team's inconsistency over the past 5 years should be an eye opener for folks that like many other things broken in Pakistan, Pakistan Cricket too is in shambles, all the way from the management down to the players.

Incompetence, favouritism, cronyism and opportunism reins supreme and the result is this unending cycle of inconsistent performance.

Actually these things have always existed and still the sheer talent (and experience) saw Pakistan through earlier.

Now it may have got a bit worse but I think the real reason is the lack of experience in the team and any really world class talent. It won't be so for long for sure.
 
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Yeah Pakistan cricket has really gone down the drain. Personally I think we should stop focusing on cricket so much and focus on other sports like soccer, field hockey ( our national sport), tennis, etc rather then wasting time on cricket
 
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Yeah Pakistan cricket has really gone down the drain. Personally I think we should stop focusing on cricket so much and focus on other sports like soccer, field hockey ( our national sport), tennis, etc rather then wasting time on cricket

ppl want to watch cricket,how would u neglect them.
 
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