Cricket news: Pakistan nearly called off tour, Boom Boom Afridi and his show of character
The relations between Pakistan and England have surely headed to the pits, with the string of spot-fixing allegations and the latest allegations levelled in the sister newspaper of the News of the World, ‘The Sun’ who alleged that they had the scoring patterns
of the Pakistan innings before the match was played from the bookies. These accusations were wild and lacking credence and the right course for Pakistan would have been to dismiss them and in fact file a legal notice against the tabloid for defamation charges.
However, Pakistan has handled the entire issue with much immaturity. With the country’s high commissioner to England facing the media instead of what should ideally have been the PCB chairman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128.
However, PCB chairman took comfort under the wings of the commissioner who made a statement on Pakistan’s behalf insisting that the players were ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and rightly so.
Pakistan cricket has suffered greatly over the past few months, in fact over the past few years, and there has been a dearth of idols in the cricket team who could lead the team from the front. However, Afridi’s conduct on and off the field has been exemplary
especially during this tour. Of course one has to swallow the bitter pill and make an exception for his ball tampering antic some time back, however, he has been mature in his statements and has set a good example for the youngsters in his team as well.
Shahid Afridi stated that he could have taken police action against Jonathan Trott for assaulting Wahab Riaz; however, he chose not to do so. Afridi also admitted that his team considered pulling out of the match due to the incident; however it remained
in the best interests of the game that the match continued.
“When Riaz was returning after warming-up Trott called him a ‘match-fixer’ and that he [Riaz] was up to harming Test cricket and hit his face with the pad,” Afridi alleged. “It could have been a police case because it is a crime to hit someone, but we showed
a big heart and did not press for it. There was talk of not going in for the toss because of the incident.”
Rightly so, the decision to go ahead and play in the match proved to be the right one and the raw emotion amongst the players was palpable in their match winning performance with the entire team giving their 100% to win the match. It would have been a great
disfavour to the game and the cricket fans had the team pulled out. There is no substitute for experience, and Shahid Afridi has proven so by leading an incomplete side to two consecutive wins against England, who have been on a hot winning streak.
"But better sense prevailed because we wanted to play the match, and we want this series to end properly. The match referee called both players and Trott apologised for his remarks and the matter ended there, as far as we are concerned,” Afridi further said.
Afridi also mentioned how so many people have started to come forward with the intent of bashing the Pakistan Cricket team on baseless allegations, which goes on to show that there might be a conspiracy to finish Pakistan cricket. He reiterated his commitment
to the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 team by stating that his team will play its role in saving Pakistan cricket from all such conspiracies.
However, Afridi was quick to note that such incidents are part of cricket, and hence they should not be given more attention than they deserve. Some good positive remarks seem to be emanating from the Pakistan side after quite some time.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 possesses the right ingredients for becoming an inspirational captain for the Pakistan side, who are in desperate need of acquiring the services of an experienced prodigy. If Shahid can continue to lead and inspire his team the way he has done
from the start of the ODI series, then Pakistan could be on its way to make an international comeback before the start of the 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent.
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