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A day before Pakistan’s T20 game vs. South Africa, the team is supposed to meet in their captain’s bed room, instead there is plenty of confusion
Afridi (on the phone to Manager): Nobody’s in my room!
Manager: Where are you?
Afridi: I’m in my room
Manager: But you said nobody’s…
Afridi: I’m not a nobody! What I’m saying, is like this, that the nobody has come to turn up in my room
Cut to Misbah on the phone
Misbah (to Manager): Why is everybody in my room?
Manager: Aren’t you the captain?
Misbah: yes but…
Manager: then what’s the problem…
Misbah: I’m not the T20 captain…
Manager: Then who is? Salman…no…who is?
Misbah: I think Afridi but I’m not sure
Manager: Younis is on the phone from Pakistan…hold on…
By now the poor Manager is juggling with three phones
Younis Khan (to Manager): I want an explanation NOW…what are these players doing in my house
On another line
Afridi (to Manager): Oye? Where are you? I HATE WAITING! I will RESIGN from T20 cricket if you keep me waiting…
Just then Zulqarnain Haider walks into Afridi’s room
Afridi: What are you doing here? Weren’t you injured? Where is Kamran?
Elsewhere Shoiab Akhtar walks into Misbah’s room
Shoiab Akhtar: Congrats buddy on captaincy and all that mate…you had it coming…I’ll play under you man...mate... dude...buddy…
Misbah: But I’m not the captain
Shoiab Akhtar: Bastards…I never believe what they write in the tabloids anyways…so who’s the skipper buddy? Me? Hahahaha that be cool
Afridi bustles into the room, furious
Afridi: We have to forget what happened during the tour of England!
Shoaib Akhtar: Hey mate, I wasn't there - what happened?
Which is when, Shahid Bhai sits Shoiab Akhtar down, and gives him a blow by blow account of what happened in England..
Misbah (aside, sardonic): Everybody knows, Shoiab Akhtar only reads the news when he's in it...everybody except Shahid Bhai
The Night Before: In the Pak Camp
Who is responsible?
Suddenly they seem to be playing as a unit, you see a Sohail Tanveer and Umar Gul bowling in tandem complementing each other. With a greenhorn in Saeed Ajmal testing the WI batsmen with his doosras and Rao Iftikhar finding a good rhythm, the
Even the wicket keeping atrocities of Kamran Akmal seem not be bothering the Pakistanis. Before Rahul Dravid crosses Mark Waugh’s 181 catches in test cricket, I am sure Kamran would cross 250 in all forms of cricket. Well the 250 are catches again, but the dropped ones. But he seems to be more than making-up for his wicket keeping when he comes out to bat, we saw a blinder of an innings followed by a very responsible one from him.
Looking at the way the Pakistani team is playing now, I thought its time we found who is responsible for this? Who is responsible for their suddenly playing well?
Is it because of the shake-up in their board?
Is it because Geoff Lawson was sacked?
Is it because Shoaib Malik is still the captain of the team?
Is it because of Intikab Alam coming in as coach / manager?
Is it because Misbha has not played that Dougie Marillier shot for a while now?
Is it because of Shoaib Aktar being in the team but not in the 11?
Is it because of Mr Zardari, the new patron of the board?
Is it because Salim Malik has been cleared in the match fixing case?
Is it because Imran Khan is not getting enough column centimeters in the Pakistani press?
Is it because Javed Miandad has been keeping quite for a while?
Is this because Younis Khan has forgotten his captaincy dreams?
Is it because Gen Musharraf, the one time patron of PCB concentrates on his golf these days?
What is the reason?
This Q needs A (rather A’s)
What do you think?
* A couple of months is a deliberate mathematical blunder, as part of your A’s you can also try since when !!
