ICC World Cup Cricket Final 2011

One thing that is really exciting about the game of cricket is nerves! And that's wot we saw at display in the finals of world cup cricket 2011 played between two asian teams India and Sri Lanka. As a Pakistani I don't like to see India winning much often but credit is due to be given to team India for their tremendous performance in teh finals against Sri Lanka who put in a decent effort but unfortunately couldn't pull off the victory. India's win would have definitely been unlikely if not impossible without Dhoni's brilliant 94. He batted superbly. Lets analyze how well he played. First, he changed his batting order and taht was really a bold decision. He brought himself into the middle in palce of Yuvraj sending a clear intent to opposition that he was ambitious about the big game. He then built an oustanding partnership with Ghambir to bring India close to finishing the game. He was aggressive, didn't fear murali bawlingn to him. He took charge and responsiblity and led India from front. He stood there till the end and won the game for India with huge six over the head of the bowler to finish the game in style! It would be unfair not to mention the contributions from Gambir and Kohli who too played their roles responsibly and helpd India win comfertably against a side whose bawling attack was decent but not just good enough. India may well have won the game with a team effort but Sri Lanka's too showed some good individual performances. Take for example Mahela's 103. He was excellent. batted intelligently but unfortunate for him dat proved to be a useless innings at the end of the day. Over all, we had a good final. At leat better than what we saw in 2007 and 2003 or even 1999

Biggest game in the history of Cricket!

The 1st semi final of ICC world cup cricket 2011 will be played between Pakistan and India at Mohali on 30th March 2011-In three days from now. Almost everybody thinks this is the biggest game in the history of cricket as two rivals battle against each other for the superamcy. For both India and Pakistan, perhaps the world cup trophy is not as important as the victory in semi final. The game will definitely test the nerves of each player. The ultimate pressur game for which the true cricketing fans have been waiting for decades. The team which wins the semi final will be so tested that It looks to me as if the team which qualifies through to the finals after winning the semi final will definitely win the world cup (lets don't go about what are the odds) but it appears to me as if one of these two teams is desitned to lift the world cup 2011. Let it be Pakistan! and why not? it has got all the talent a good team needs to win sucha huge pressure game. We have spinners like, Boom Boom Afridi, Syed Ajmal and Hafeez who will play crucial role in restricting india in case they bat first. Don't forget Umar gul who has the potential to destroy the strongest of batting lines up at the top.g India on the other hand has a batting powerhouse neverthless their bowling is week and they will have this added pressure of home crowd becaus they can't afford to loose against Pakistan in sucha a important game and that too at their home ground. Pakistan can exploit this and use the pressure on India to their advantage. Toss again will be very important. The pitch is likely to be a batting-heaven which means the hosts are doing every possible thing to keep the odds of winning on their side. In simple words, this is going to be a high pressure, high nerve nail biting semi final and whichever teams keeps calm and kool under such circumstances will definitely win the game and Afridi and his men should know this! I believe they do. good luck Pakistan

Hypocrisy!

It’s 12:18 mid night and I woke up from my bed because one simple question is bothering me a lot. I put it up for you to answer. What do you call a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives? Obviously sucha person is called HYPOCRITE! It doesn’t really matter if it’s a one person but what if a whole nation turns out to act like a hypocrite? We Pakistanis are in a similar situation these days. Everybody seems to be agitated about Raymond Davis being acquitted from charges of murder. All of us are extremely angry about him being not brought to justice but nobody seems to believe that the family members of victims actually took money for granting Diyat (an exchange of acquittal from a murder for money) to Davis. All of us are reasonably and rather damn sure that a plot was set in which Raymond Davis had to be freed by court in an act where family members of victims would be pressurized to sign the Diyat and he will abscond to US in a chartered Plane without anybody knowing.

While I have all the respect for emotions of people concerned, one thing that really bothers me is that why do we have dual standards for a same crime? Few months ago, Some idiot monk killed Salman Taseer and there was a huge majority of people applauding the heinous act. Both Raymond Davis and Qadri committed the same shocking crime but the nation’s response for the same crime was different. There was a huge uproar in demand for justice in Raymond Davis’s case but in n Qadri’s case the opposite happened. A reasonable majority of people believed that Qadri had made them proud hence showered him with rose petals apparently approving of his dreadful murder.
There is no denying that fact all of those who seemingly express their anger and loathing for Government-which freed Raymond David- but kept quiet in Taseer case or worst yet supported his murder are the ones who are neither sincere to themselves nor the country because they are real hypocrites! They are the people who used Davis’s case as a pretext. It was not because they had wanted to see a culprit being brought to justice rather it was the hatred for Americans that triggered such a wave of anger and agitation.

It’s time we should behave like a civilized nation and believe in respect for humanity. A murder shall be treated as a murderer irrespective of wherever he belonged to. If Raymond Davis deserved a death punishment so did Qadri because they both committed the same crime.

Don't play for crowd, play for your country!

As I sit down to write on the India-SA match that just concluded; my feelings are immense. That is not to say I am happy because india lost to SA instead it's the great game of cricket. It's truely been one of the best cricketing matches I have ever seen. I think South African outplayed Indian in both batting and bowling. The fielding of both sides remain ordinary though. Neverthless the team contribution by SA was what it led them to victory. If you ask me really, Stayen, Peterson and Botha were key players who helped SA won the match. The wicket of Nagpur is really a heaven for batsmen. It's flat and the ball comes nicely on bat especially when you are batting first. The average score on this ground is mostly close to 300. India was going well untill they lost the momentum and their last 9 wickets fell for just 29 runs in 9 overs. That's when Stayen had destroyed batting powerhouse of India. His performance was excellent and definitely key in SA's victory.

Comments of captain Dhoni were interesting in post match presentation where he said you should bat for the country and not for the crowd because crowd will always want to see a six or boundary on every ball? Why would he pass sucha remark? I think 290+ is always defendable. Perhaps he didn't have much confidence over his bowlers taht's why he felt India were short of 50 something runs? His decision to bawl Nehra in the final over was a real risk. Perhaps he underestimated peterson who finished 14 runs with 2 balls still to be spared. while I also believe Herbajan should have been given the final over neverthless Nehra wasn't a bad choice either. Most of captains wouldn't take chances in playing a spinner in sucha crucial over no matter how experienced he was.

Oh yeah the myth that whenever Tendulkar performs, India ends up being on the looser's side seems to be a reality. Sachin scored a centry against Englad that result was tie. He scored 111 today and it didn't help India win the game either. That proves that it's just not enough to have a little master in your side. You need match winners in the end who could earn you victory! Hats off to SA that they won against India (supposedly wc favorites) in India against tremendous crowed who cheered when they conceded boundaries and sixes and didn't applaud when they were on the fire. SA had all the odds agains them but they still remained calm and composed which resulted in a victory for them that is definitely massive as Graeme Smith himself said. Cheers to SA :)

Shehzad Bhatti's Murder

I didn't know my new post would be another tragic incident similar to the one I last wrote about. In less than two months we see another government official being gunned down in the day light. This time the federal minister for affairs of minorities was the victim to have met an unfortunate fate. I was at work preparing a note when i heard my collegues discuss a federal minister was shot dead just when he was coming out after visiting his mother. Later on television I saw the police chief blaming the deceased that the minister has "instructed" police to provide him security only when he was in office and not when he was visiting his families. Perhaps this was a cheap tactic used by inefficient policeman to counter the media frenzy which he exepcted the police would be exposed to after the 2nd high level murder in less than 2 months.

Why the state failed to provide security to its own federal minister and worst yet the governor of largest province within state? are the militant gaining roots in the country? what to speak of the efficiency of our so called intelligence agencies and corrupt policemen whose prime responsibility is to protect citizens?

Much like Salman taseer, shehzad had also been vocal about misuse of the blesphemy laws prevailing in Pakistan which are being badly exploited by relegious monks leading to victimizations of many innocent people under the cover of this man-mad controvercial law. It's enough now and the state needs to wake up and take measures to stop more murders from happening.

I do hope and pray that I get to write on something that comes as a good news for Pakistan in days to come.

27 Bullets is what you get for a free speech!

The governor of the biggest province of Pakistan was gunned down yesterday by a person who was appointed to protect him. He died instantly as 27 bullets pierced through his body. That's the price one has to pay for freedom of speech in this country.

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Don McMillan: Life After Death by PowerPoint

Don Mcmillan tells very effectively how to design your presentation slides so that audience doesn't get bored. It's funny yet it's worth watching.

Don't push us too much. Understand what the ground reality is Mr. President!

I am not dat much of a politics-lover (perhaps no one is among readers of this blog.) The fact however remains that our lobby in US has never been diplomatic and daring. Most of the ambassors appointed never had guts to speak their hearts out to US politicians even when they seemingly were pushing authorities in Pakistan. Nevertheless, the remarks made by Pakistani ambassador Hussain Haqqani are couregeous. I am quoting his statement made by him in presence of Americans, congressmen, Pakistani-American. so much so these people were invited by Haqqani at his residence to tell them clrearly what he meant!
"one fifth of Pakistan, an area of the size of Italy, an area of the size of the entire east cost of the united states all the way from Maine to Florida, was inundated...two large rivers have basically merged into one another... ten years of rainfall occured in a space of seven days in Khyber pakhutunkhwa province. "
"When 20 million people are in trouble, the first priority is saving lives, making sure that there are no waterborne diseases, no epidemics and making sure that immunisation of children remains on track... and the people are enabled to return to their farms and homes"

It's a very strong statement this gentleman has made. And I really like it. A more positive sign is that Chief Policy Adviser to SA to the US's senate Foreign Relation Committee, Jonnah Blank has supported Haqqani's remarks. Hats off to both the gentleman for showing guts :)

The entire article appearing in Dawn here