At Adelaide, the Test is in a far different position than what Cricket Australia or any other Australian Cricketer thought of. The scorecard reads : India 244 (Kohli 74, Starc 4-53) and 9 for 1 lead Australia 191 (Paine 73*, Ashwin 4-55, Umesh 3-40) by 62 runs. In the day-night Test first day saw 7 wickets fall and in the 2nd 15 tumbled. It was an object lesson for Indian selectors too, who had sidelined Ravichandran Ashwin, who rightfully deserves places as numero uno spinner of their attack.
Away from Indian Cricket, this
post is on a retirement. The first price
of popularity is that one is hounded quite often of ‘retirement’……… the great
genius writer Sujatha in his heydays was confronted in a student’s forum with
the Q : Sir, when will you stop writing
? Pat came the reply – ‘in the night ~ when I feel too sleepy’………… ~ one need
not be guided by the Q and can have one’s own way !! The Genius Little
Master SAchin Tendulkar was haunted with
the Q of his retirement .. .. and so many critics were speaking of the
retirement of the mercurial Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Pak Cricket was rocked – or was
it that some of their important figures knew it well before ? - On 1 November 2011, two of their pace bowlers
were convicted at Southwark Crown Court,
along with another premier leftarm pacer who had previously pleaded guilty, of
conspiracy to cheat at gambling and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments. The man was sentenced to 6 months in Feltham
Young Offenders Institution, whilst the two others were sentenced to 30 months and 12 months in
prison respectively. The pace bowler was
later transferred to Portland Young Offenders Institute in Dorset, from which
he was released on 1 February 2012, having served half of his six-month
sentence.
Just like West Indies, in
Pakistan too, fast bowlers come out of nowhere.
Sometimes they get recognised even before they play their league, if
some of the power that be spots the ‘speed gift’ – one recent example was the fast-tracking of Mohammad Hasnain to the top echelons of cricket. He was
a club cricketer at 12, a Pakistan Under-19 player at 17, a Pakistan Super
League pacer at 18 and a World Cupper at 19. The big break into the squad of 15
for England was on the back of the much-publicised 151 kph thunderbolt he
bowled for Quetta Gladiators in the PSL.
Pakistan, historically, has a weakness for speed demons. They make them
jump the queue, put them on a pedestal. They even vote them into the Prime
Minister’s office.
When India toured Pak in 1978
after decades, it was Sarfraz Nawaz and Imran Khan. Then at Delhi, Sikander Bakht who had been included in the team in place of Ehteshamuddin
jumped to fame. Other than legends like
Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar
– there were many others too, but they faded sooner. Remember a Paki left armer debuting against
India in 1983. Azeem Hafeez went on to
play 18 tests though he had a big challenge, he had two fingers missing on his
right (non-bowling) hand.
Now comes the news that Pakistan
fast bowler Mohammad Amir has announced his retirement from International cricket, as confirmed by
the PCB. Amir represented Pakistan in 36 Tests, 61 ODIs and 50 T20Is, and
recently played in the inaugural Lanka Premier League for runners-up Galle
Gladiators.
"Pakistan Cricket Board
chief executive Wasim Khan spoke with Mohammad Amir this afternoon following
reports that the fast bowler had announced his retirement from international
cricket. The 28-year-old confirmed to the PCB chief executive that he has no
desires or intensions of playing international cricket and as such, he should
not be considered for future international matches," a PCB statement said.
"This is a personal decision of Mohammad Amir, which the PCB respects, and
as such, will not make any further comment on this matter at this stage."
The statement serves as
another reminder of the extent to which relations between Amir and the current
team management have broken down. It came off the back of an interview he gave
to Samaa TV earlier on Thursday, in which Amir claimed he had been
"mentally tortured" by the team management, taunted frequently and
was being deliberately sidelined by them.
"I am leaving cricket for now because I'm being mentally tortured.
I don't think I can bear such torture. I've borne lots of torture from 2010 to
2015, for which I served my time. I've been tortured by being told the PCB
invested a lot in me. I'll just say two people invested in me a lot: [former
PCB chairman] Najam Sethi and [former Pakistan captain] Shahid Afridi. Discontent had been simmering for a while
before finally coming to a head on Thursday. Amir, who retired from Test
cricket last year, had found himself excluded from the PCB's list of central
contracts earlier this year, and omitted from Pakistan's 35-man squad to New
Zealand last month.
Upon that squad announcement,
Amir said on Twitter "only Misbah" could explain why he hadn't been
included, before criticising bowling coach Waqar Younis for talking about his
workload. That, coupled by Amir's frequent praise of former Pakistan head coach
Mickey Arthur, at one point saying he would "love to play under Arthur for
any side in the world", offered insight into how he viewed his relations
with the current coaching staff. That he singled Sethi out for praise in his
statement is unlikely to have played too well in front of his successor Ehsan
Mani or CEO Wasim Khan, further condemning Amir to international exclusion.
The 28-year old is still
widely sought after in T20 leagues around the world, which his complete
international retirement should allow more time for. Bursting onto the international scene in 2009,
he played a pivotal part in the 2009 T20 World Cup final against Sri Lanka,
dismissing Player of the Tournament Tillakaratne Dilshan in the first over as
Pakistan clinched the title. He would go on to take five wickets in the Boxing
Day Test later that year, and continued to torment Australia in England in
2010, taking seven wickets at Leeds as Australia were skittled out for a first
innings 88, and Pakistan won their first Test against that opposition in 15
years. Five wickets at Lord's against England were next before the spot-fixing
scandal erupted.
Following his comeback, he
was never quite at that scintillating best, though glimpses of that outrageous
talent were obvious from time to time. The spell with the new ball in the 2017
Champions Trophy final may be his most famous, as he removed Rohit Sharma,
Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan to set up a romping 180-run win.
The controversies and
politics of Pakistan are too deeply mired and cannot be understood perhaps by
outsiders.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
18.12.2020
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