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The key was fearless,
& if i may add to that, Batsman dependence on his instincts. If you watch batsmen of 70s and good part of 80s, they had really good hand eye co-ordination and went on to play with gut instinct. This is evident by the way they hooked and pulled fast bowlers and used feet against spinners.
These days with heavy bats and good protection batsman almost play like following a script of fixed pattern.
I also believe that is one reason why when a genuinely fast bowler who can either swing or keep a tight line (Likes of Shane Bond, Steyn, Brett Lee, Aamir, Johnson et al), can actually trouble batsmen simply by intimidation. Batsmen today maybe better athletes but technically they are a pale shadow of golden era of 70s and 80s batting school. It is like a cricketing equivalent of today's students, who find it difficult to move without internet.
 
BIG NEWS ! ! ! BCB HAS SECURED DEAL WORTH ABOUT $8MILLION USD JERSEY SPONSOR WITH CURRENT SPONSOR ROBI COMPANY FOR NEXT 26MONTHS BEATING 4 OTHER CONTENDERS. MEANING BCB WILL GET ABOUT $3.69MILLION USD PER YEAR. THIS PLACES BD 3RD OR 4TH POSITION (DON'T KNOW ABOUT ECB'S LATEST JERSEY SPONSOR DEAL) IN TERMS OF MONETARY VALUE OF JERSEY SPONSORSHIP.
:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:
@WAJsal @anant_s

@RiazHaq here :D
 
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BIG NEWS ! ! ! BCB HAS SECURED DEAL WORTH ABOUT $8MILLION USD JERSEY SPONSOR WITH CURRENT SPONSOR ROBI COMPANY FOR NEXT 26MONTHS BEATING 4 OTHER CONTENDERS. MEANING BCB WILL GET ABOUT $3.69MILLION USD PER YEAR. THIS PLACES BD 3RD OR 4TH POSITION (DON'T KNOW ABOUT ECB'S LATEST JERSEY SPONSOR DEAL) IN TERMS OF MONETARY VALUE OF JERSEY SPONSORSHIP.
:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:
@WAJsal @anant_s

@RiazHaq here :D
Cricket Board would surely be ecstatic!
 
Today in 1996 a cricket match between Pakistan and New Zealand at Rawalpindi, was delayed for 20 minutes because PCB official forgot to bring balls to the stadium.
 
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Pakistan pioneers hail reverse swing as 'art' not 'cheating'


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KARACHI: Pakistan's masters of reverse-swinging a cricket ball have unanimously defended it as an "art" which can be achieved without the tampering that ended in shameful bans for three Australian players.

Steve Smith had to step down as Australia captain and David Warner as vice captain after they orchestrated ball-tampering through batsman Cameron Bancroft in the Cape Town Test against South Africa last week.

Bancroft was found to have used a piece of sandpaper in an attempt to alter the condition of the ball while on the field to create swing for Australia´s bowlers and deceive the South African batsmen.

Cricket Australia came down hard, handing a one-year ban each to Smith and Warner and nine months to Bancroft for sullying the country´s sporting image.

In Pakistan, an internet meme swept social media appearing to show legendary pacemen Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis smiling over the incident -- with a caption that accused the Australians of being "amateurs" in their efforts to create reverse swing.

Former Pakistan fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz --- widely regarded as a pioneer of reverse swing -- refused to accept the implication that the skill requires ball-tampering.

"This is ridiculous to say reverse swing is cheating," Sarfraz told AFP. "You can achieve reverse swing without tampering with the ball.

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Former Pakistan fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz --- widely regarded as a pioneer of reverse swing -- refused to accept the implication that the skill requires ball-tampering.

"There is a conventional swing which is done with the new ball and then there is reverse swing which is achieved with an old ball and it has been proved in laboratories that reverse swing is a scientific phenomenon."

Sarfraz took 177 wickets in 55 Tests, including an amazing nine for 86 against Australia at Melbourne in 1979 that included a spell of seven wickets for a mere one run in 33 balls.

'It was and will remain an art'

"When I passed the art to Imran Khan he developed it and then taught Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, and in those times everyone called it cheating but when the Englishmen started to reverse swing it became an art," said Sarfraz.

"It was and will remain an art, but resorting to tampering is cheating and that was what Australians did to beat South Africa and were deservedly punished.

"Conventional swing is simple -- if the seam is angled toward the slip fielders it will swing away from the right-handed batsman, and if the seam is angled towards the leg side it will swing into the batsman," explained Sarfraz. "Reverse swing is totally opposite."

Sarfraz passed the art to Imran, who achieved more success than his master but also confessed to ball-tampering by using a bottle top to roughen one side of the ball.

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Imran passed the torch to Wasim and Waqar -- regarded as one of international cricket´s most destructive new-ball pairings

Asked in a 1994 television interview whether he would have got 362 Test wickets had he not tampered with the ball, Imran replied: "Yes, it´s a misconception that whoever scratches the ball can get wickets.

"The whole Sussex team knew I could reverse swing and I would swing at one end while other bowlers could not swing it," said Imran, who played for the English county.

'Sultan of Swing'

Imran passed the torch to Wasim and Waqar -- regarded as one of international cricket´s most destructive new-ball pairings.

The two ripped through England´s batsmen on Pakistan´s 1992 tour, but were also alleged by British media to have tampered with the ball. Wasim excelled for English county Lancashire for a decade while Waqar starred for Glamorgan and Surrey.

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Wasim and Waqar ripped through England´s batsmen on Pakistan´s 1992 tour.

"Those allegations were hurtful," recalled Waqar. "Of course, reverse swing can be achieved without cheating. Nowadays most of the bowlers do that and get wickets and help their teams win."

While Wasim -- nicknamed the "Sultan of Swing" -- was never caught tampering, Waqar was slapped with a one-match suspension and fined 50 percent of his match fee in a tri-series in Sri Lanka in 2000.

Waqar suggested only one brand of cricket ball should be used in international cricket, saying it would lead to a fairer contest.

"Why do we use different brand of balls in different countries?" Waqar asked. "In my opinion the Duke ball is the best and the SG comes close to it. They are the best balls for swing so in order to have uniformity and better swing these balls should be used everywhere.

"This will help bowlers and this will also produce better batsmen. We should solve the problem and not indulge in the blame game."
 
Babar Azam and a case for adoring simplicity

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Against the West Indies he displayed precisely what makes him so good. PHOTO: AFP

KARACHI: Babar Azam is 23. This is a fact that bears repeating and reminding. Such is the head on those slender shoulders that it isn’t difficult to forget that.

The 23-year-old has a ridiculous ODI and T20I record. He averages 51.11 in ODIs, having already scored 1,789 runs in 50-over cricket for the Men in Green. For context, that is more than skipper Sarfraz Ahmed’s career tally. His 97* knockout against West Indies in the second T20I took his T20I average to over 50 as well; 53.15 to be exact.

Such numbers are not only obscene but also almost unheard of. They are out of the reach of every batsman in the world whose name isn’t Virat Kohli. In other words, for anyone who isn’t an absolute freak of a nature.

Nobody else averages 50 in both limited-overs formats. Not the other big three — Steven Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson. Not the old guard — Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and MS Dhoni. Only Kohli and Babar.

Against the West Indies he displayed precisely what makes him so good. The grace and the elegance. The dismissive nature of his drives. The utter control in every shot. The riskfree manner of run-getting. The uncanny ability to make it all look so so easy.

Yet it also showed precisely why he is so criminally underrated in Pakistan. On Monday night, Babar had a strike-rate of over 167, yet played almost none of the shots that really get the average Pakistani heart racing. There was no wild swing at the ball, no skiers, and almost no balls sailing straight over the bowler’s head. Even the six he hit was a lesson in technique; eyes on the ball, body still, onto the pitch of the ball, doesn’t try to hit it too hard, perfect follow through. Coaches in England wouldn’t have seen anything more beautiful since they laid their eyes on their first born.

Yet you can hit the most stylish shots in the world as many times as you want but in Pakistan you aren’t considered sexy unless you can send an industraial hoick sailing into the night sky. For proof, talk to Messrs Muhammad Yousuf and Shahid Afridi.

But there are other reasons behind why Babar isn’t the darling of this strange strange nation. Babar is the kind of player we respect, the kind whose hand we would like to collectively shake after a match-winning performance, rather than the kind of player we adore, the kind who we would run up to before embracing them in a bear hug.

He isn’t in your face, he doesn’t wear chains around his neck, he doesn’t dye his hair or cut it in strange ways, he isn’t all guns and glory. He isn’t Shadab Khan, he isn’t Muhammad Amir, he isn’t Umar Akmal — three of the nations most recent darlings.

Hell, even his shots are almost apologetic. Just a simple front foot push, as economical as they come. He isnt macho and bravado, he is sense and sensibility. He is the sweet boy you would want your daughter to marry, not the cool kid on the block. He doesn’t scream and shout, he merely smiles shyly.

Perhaps this lack of adoration is down to Babar too; self-effacing and down-to-earth as he is.

“I simply try to give my 100 per cent wherever I play,” he said during an interview with Daily Express’s Saleem Khaliq. “I’ve worked very hard to get here. I believe the harder I work, the better the results will be.”

This is a player determined to make good of his ridiculous talent. Perhaps he has learned from the mistakes of his two cousins — Kamran and Umar Akmal — who have both been bigger superstars than Babar at the peak of their powers but have never come anywhere near close to Babar’s on-field exploits.

Comparing Babar with Umar seems almost like rubbing the poor Akmal’s nose in it — akin to beating a dead horse — but it makes for interesting reading into why Umar, rather than Babar, was the one the country was quicker to love.

In ODIs, Babar has scored 31.7% of his runs in fours and 5.7% of his runs in sixes. Umar’s tally is 34.1% for fours and 9.9% for sixes. In T20Is, the dichotomy between the two increases further. Babar has 38.5% in fours and 7.8% in sixes. Umar has 28.9% in fours but a whopping 19.5% in sixes.

Conventional wisdom would say the man hitting more boundaries would be the one scoring at a higher rate. Yet there is very little to choose from. Umar’s 85.94 in ODIs just about betters Babar’s 84.26 but the younger cousin boasts a strike-rate of 127.49 as compared to Umar’s 122.9. What Babar lacks in boundary hitting, he makes up for in canny maneouvering of the field and good running between the wickets. Of course Babar absolutely dwarves Umar in terms of average; he absolutely dwarves every Pakistani cricketer in terms of average.

The Lahore-born Babar is on course to becoming the greatest batsman Pakistan has ever produced. He is going about it in the best of manners; quietly and without controversy, breaking records along the way. It would be a pity though, if he doesn’t win over our collective hearts in the process too.

It is high time that we embrace Babar in the warmest of bear hugs rather than giving him yet another handshake.
 

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