Shoaib: Pakistan need more speedsters

[Muddaser]

'Pakistan need more speedsters'
31/01/2005 20:00 - (SA)


Islamabad - Pakistan fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar said on Monday he wants his country to produce more cricketers like him so they can win matches against the best teams in the world.

"We have to find genuine fast bowlers because you can't win Test matches with bowlers who have speeds of 120km/h to 130km/h," Akhtar said.

"Teams like Australia have the top seven batsmen in the world and you can only make them struggle with genuine fast bowlers."

Akhtar, who bowls at speeds of around 160km/h, was forced to return home midway through the triangular one-day international series in Australia, which also featured West Indies, after suffering a hamstring injury.

"I had problems with my hamstring before we left for Australia and it just aggravated by the time the limited-overs series started," said Akhtar, who is known here as the Rawalpindi Express.

Although Akhtar took 11 wickets in the first two Test matches against world champions Australia, Pakistan still suffered a 3-0 rout in the Test series.

"Frankly speaking, you can't expect Shoaib Akhtar to perform all the time. Someone else has to support me from the other end," Akhtar said.

"Unfortunately (Mohammed) Sami got injured and it was difficult to contain a strong Australian batting lineup from one end," he added. "I took injections before the third Test started, but the injury got worse and worse."

Akhtar said that the International Cricket Council should cut some of the one-day internationals to prevent fast bowlers being injured.

"If you analyse other Test playing nations, England's (Steve) Harmison, (Andrew) Flintoff, India's Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, New Zealand's Shane Bond, Daryl Tuffey, they all have injury problems," Akhtar explained. "That's just because of playing excessive cricket."

Akhtar said Australia's domination of world cricket is due to the fact that they have three front-line fast bowlers: Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillispie and Michael Kasprowicz.

"Look, fast bowlers bowl in pairs, if McGrath takes wickets from one end, Gillispie and Kasprowicz put pressure from the other end or if McGrath cuts down the scoring opportunities, the other two take wickets," he said.

Akhtar hoped that he would recover in time for the three-Test series against India, starting on March 4.

"It's a tough tour, I don't think they (Indians) will make fast pitches, but I hope to do well for my country," he said. "We have to perform as a team and all the 11 players have to contribute. Only Shoaib Akhtar is not enough to win matches in India."

[Muddaser]

About time we give Irshad a chance

[Waqar's inswinging yorker]

likes of irshaad,bari,akbar,masood etc need to play a little more with the pak A team i feel

Best bowlers bowl in pairs...blah...blah...No support...every bowler gets injured...blah...blah...blah....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Heard it all before - sounds like when he criticised Wasim & Waqar. Time he did his talking on the pitch not from 4,000 miles away.

At first I thought that this was an article by MIG :-D . The man is beyond parody now as he does such a good job himself. The funiest line, which I'm sure even MIG would have been proud of was:-

"Pakistan fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar said on Monday he wants his country to produce more cricketers like him so they can win matches against the best teams in the world. "

That's just too funny! :-D |-H

[Waqar's inswinging yorker]

spot on ameoba

[Civil]

Be careful Shabbi if Pakistan produces speedsters you'll be out of a job.

Also Why is he referring to himself in the third person?

i.e.
"Frankly speaking, you can't expect Shoaib Akhtar to perform all the time. Someone else has to support me from the other end," Akhtar said.

and

he said. "We have to perform as a team and all the 11 players have to contribute. Only Shoaib Akhtar is not enough to win matches in India."

[Jahangir Khan]

Shoaib made some good points but we need to realise that it's not all about pace all the time.

In Tests it is important to have pace as a weapon so 2 or 3 bowlers who bowl at over 90 and can swing it will be very dangerous but in ODI's line and length is more important.

People like McGrath, Pollock, Tuffey and Zoysa have proven this.

I think we should only play people like Irshad in Tests to begin with as this will allow them to be more attacking.

West Indies have done this well with Best and Edwards.

In the long term, using the express pacemen sparingly will keep them fitter and fresher for Test Cricket.

In terms of pace I think Brett Lee is faster than Shoaib now. He is a much better athlete and a team man. Shoaib needs to cut out the booze and lose some weight. He gets tired after 3 to 4 overs. Thats not good enough.

He should do the talking with the ball cos there have been many times when he has hyped himself up b4 a big game and then performed badly.

personally we need bowlers that think not clowns like him

[Mercenary]

if we get some speedsters first one out will be kotha himself

[DM]

I'm glad Akhtar agrees with us on this. I would like to see a pace attack of

Akhtar
Sami
Irshad
Shabbir

in the tests.

[Tariq Jamshed]

Speed is highly over rated. At what pace McGrath bowls at. Pace is important for sure but not as much as some would think.

In this Pak WI series, Collymore was the pick of bowlers

[adi 101]

its just sad people dont leave shoaib akhtar alone he cant win you matches all the time just like in australia. Then when he says he is fit to play in the windies series he is dropped for "fitness reasons" its a joke

[Aurangzeb]

ahahahaa i know...why is he referring to himself in the third person? he thinks he's ceasar or something? bowling in the 160's? sounds like he breaks the 100mph everytime he's out there or something...and no, we don't need to produce more bowlers like him...with his pace, yes...but like him...no...

[DM]

Speed is highly over rated. At what pace McGrath bowls at. Pace is important for sure but not as much as some would think.

In this Pak WI series, Collymore was the pick of bowlers
No, I think the opposite is true. I strongly believe that speed is underrated. Collymore and McGrath are rare exceptions. If you don't have speed then you need pinpoint accuracy AND movement like the above 2 (also Pollock) to be successful. These type of 128kph bowlers who have that level of mechanical accuracy are extremely rare. Rarer than express pacemen. If you have raw pace, you don't need that level of accuracy to be successful eg Akhtar, Zahid, Waqar, Holding, Jeff Thomson, Lee, Donald (when he was young and fast), Dilhara Fernando, Fidel Edwards, Steve Harmison, Mfuneko Ngam, Shane Bond, etc etc

Speed kills. If you can bowl at 150kph, I want to see you in the national team. I can't think of one 150kph bowler who failed miserably, or wasn't persisted with, regardless of his accuracy. Of course the holy grail is the marriage of speed and the pinpoint accuracy, but it's not a pre-requirement - it'll come later (as with Akhtar's increased accuracy over the years).

[DM]

Also, 128kph bowlers need the help of a green wicket and overcast conditions to play well. Try putting Pollock, McGrath and Collymore on a track in the subcontinent and see how great they are.

Whereas the pacers still break through teams eg Akhtar producing figures like 6-11 in a test on a Pakistani wicket - Pure Pace.

[DM]

And remember that McGrath and Pollock play half their matches on helpful tracks (their home wickets)

We aren't going to have that, emphasising even more the need for us to have express pacers.

[DM]

and having re-read it, apologies for my horrific use of 'marriage', i don't normally subject people to literary massacre

[Farhad]

and no, we don't need to produce more bowlers like him...with his pace, yes...but like him...no...

Of course we don't. What the use of a bowler who happens to be in the Top 5 according to world ratings. Useless. We need someone with his speed but not like him...so we need another Sami then, right? :L?

[Tariq Jamshed]

We need someone with the attitude of Sami and the skills of Shoaib

[pakistani pride]

"Frankly speaking, you can't expect Shoaib Akhtar to perform all the time. Someone else has to support me from the other end," Akhtar said.

comments like this are SICK . . . . .

[Aurangzeb]

We need someone with the attitude of Sami and the skills of Shoaib

exactly!!!

[Usman]

What Shoaib said is exactally why he doesn't get picked, he is clearly trying to point out that he is team Pakistan all on his own, he is saying to succeed in India we need another him and we all saw what happened in India, we did brilliantly without him, there was no bad influence and no fitness problems. The first excuse that comes to his head when his fitness or performane is questioned is "I don't have support from the other" end or "too many odi's". And he lies so blatently I was ashamed to read an article on cricinfo where Akhtar was questioned on his fitness and he said "look at MaGarth and Gillispie they also did not play all the series, they too missed matches" and cricinfo followed it on by saying "the truth was that they both played the entire series". He says all other fast bowlers struggle with Injury, again he lies, there are many international bowlers who are so commited they do there all to prevent injury, Shoaib seems to think he can sit back and relax because he is an automatic selection and who cares if he gets injured, he is still an automatic selection, well he needs to realise that he is very wrong and needs to cut down hugely on the ego of his!

[Kamranz]

Just to remind every1 this statement was said

'Pakistan need more speedsters'
31/01/2005 20:00 - (SA)

[Sage]

:))2 What a complete ass!

Akhtar never disappoints with his interviews.

[Master-P]

There are seriously alot of idiots in here, what he says makes sense, to beat teams like australia, england and india in test matches we need star bowlers and sorry but face it the only star bowler we have is akhter. You cant have one bowler bowling well from one end then a crap bowler like sami bowling crap at the other end taking pressure of the batting team. And what he said about good bowling teams bowling in tandem is right thats why pakistan have been so good in the past becuase we've had parnterships like wasim and younis. Alot people are just hating on the guy looking for any petty excuse to attack him what kind of supporters are you? you should be supporting him not attacking him i dont understand why the rest of the world appreciates him but pakistan fans cant. We don't deserve him.

[Usman]

Master-P I don't question the fact that his speed is rare and having someone like that is a real plus and that I appreciate but to think you are the team is really something else, no matter how good you are you are, you are not bigger than the team. Look at the Aussies, they have Lee waiting in the wings even though he is by far their fastest because pace isn't everything and they wanted him to work on his fittness and he came back eager as ever. Is that too much to ask from Mr 24-7 broken jet?

[Somali Pirate]

I'm glad Akhtar agrees with us on this. I would like to see a pace attack of

Akhtar
Sami
Irshad
Shabbir

in the tests.
pace is not everything.Just ask sami.These days pace has become a luxury.

[Usman]

Oh yeah Master-P and as far as calling me an idiot, I don't think im the idiot because as you said to beat teams like India we need "star bowlers" well we did actually beat India without the so called "star bowler" In my book a star bowler is somone like Kaneria who will give it his all and bowl as many overs as is needed of him and not break down after 2.

[Master-P]

Oh yeah Master-P and as far as calling me an idiot, I don't think im the idiot because as you said to beat teams like India we need "star bowlers" well we did actually beat India without the so called "star bowler" In my book a star bowler is somone like Kaneria who will give it his all and bowl as many overs as is needed of him and not break down after 2.

Ok congratulations a draw against india feels like a win to u but it don't really feel like a win to me, there used to be days when pakistan used to actially win test matchs but if u are happy for pakistan to draw test matches against india and count them as wins then feel free to do so.

[Master-P]

Master-P I don't question the fact that his speed is rare and having someone like that is a real plus and that I appreciate but to think you are the team is really something else, no matter how good you are you are, you are not bigger than the team. Look at the Aussies, they have Lee waiting in the wings even though he is by far their fastest because pace isn't everything and they wanted him to work on his fittness and he came back eager as ever. Is that too much to ask from Mr 24-7 broken jet?

Now first off all everyone is slagging him off but what he has said in this article does not have any relevence to what you have just said, fair enough its your opinion but the guy is saying the team needs more class bowlers which is true, becuase we cant always rely on him to win us matchs becuase when we dont win he gets all the blame.
Secondly australia can afford to leave lee out becuase they have bowlers like gillespie mgrath, warne and kaspa to win them matches now look at pakistans backup bowling danish kaneria who cant bowl to left handers, abdur razzaq who is unpredictable, sami well hes name is just enough, rana aint test material and shabbir well lets just say he aint gnr be bowling for too long if he carries on throwing the way he does. Pakistans test bowling is ashambles we rely on people like shahid afridi to win us matchs. So what shoaib is saying makes sense.

[Farhad]

Master-P I don't question the fact that his speed is rare and having someone like that is a real plus and that I appreciate but to think you are the team is really something else, no matter how good you are you are, you are not bigger than the team. Look at the Aussies, they have Lee waiting in the wings even though he is by far their fastest because pace isn't everything and they wanted him to work on his fittness and he came back eager as ever. Is that too much to ask from Mr 24-7 broken jet?

Everyone knows the team is bigger than any player. And it's not just Shoaib we are talking about, same goes for every member of the team. Attitude-rant has been shown to be hollow and hypocritical as the recent reports from the camp proved yet again. If you want to haul up Shoaib for that, then you should also lay into Inzamam, Razzak, Afridi etc.

There is no relevance talking about Lee as the Aussie is a worthless bowler in Tests. Shoaib has much better control and accuracy.

Talking about his level of fitness, that's an accusation from other side that indeed fitness is just an excuse to keep him out. Inzamam himself corroborated that in an interview.

Anyway you look at it, the "24/7 broken down jet" happens to be the only world-class bowler in our ranks. Kaneria is getting wickets but is far frombeing labeled one as he goes for too many runs.

[Master-P]

Master-P I don't question the fact that his speed is rare and having someone like that is a real plus and that I appreciate but to think you are the team is really something else, no matter how good you are you are, you are not bigger than the team. Look at the Aussies, they have Lee waiting in the wings even though he is by far their fastest because pace isn't everything and they wanted him to work on his fittness and he came back eager as ever. Is that too much to ask from Mr 24-7 broken jet?

Everyone knows the team is bigger than any player. And it's not just Shoaib we are talking about, same goes for every member of the team. Attitude-rant has been shown to be hollow and hypocritical as the recent reports from the camp proved yet again. If you want to haul up Shoaib for that, then you should also lay into Inzamam, Razzak, Afridi etc.

There is no relevance talking about Lee as the Aussie is a worthless bowler in Tests. Shoaib has much better control and accuracy.

Talking about his level of fitness, that's an accusation from other side that indeed fitness is just an excuse to keep him out. Inzamam himself corroborated that in an interview.

Anyway you look at it, the "24/7 broken down jet" happens to be the only world-class bowler in our ranks. Kaneria is getting wickets but is far frombeing labeled one as he goes for too many runs.

:D> :D>

[Somali Pirate]

The only world class pace bowler we got is shoiab.Shame because there were days when we had a battery of good swing,seam and accurate pace bowlers.

[Usman]

We went their as underdogs, we managed to square the series when everyone thought we would badly loose, that in a sense is a win. Yes there used to be days when Pakistan used to win but that was in the past when we had a lot of the worlds greatest players but now we don't and if you consider India, they have a lot of the gretest batsmen in the world at present and yet we still managed to beat them in one test match, draw another and loose one. Relating this back to the disscusion, I personally don't feel Shoaib Akthar would have been a real diffrence to the team because he is prone to injury.

[Shayan_Sohail]

Where in the article does shoaib say he is the team. What he is saying is that people expect him to be the team. he took two fifers in aus but no people wanted more and fact is he had really poor backup.

It is funny that some people say shoaib thinks he is the team but when the team does bad the same people blame one man Shoaib Akhtar.

[Usman]

Yeah I do agree Farhad, I would never say it was right for other players (Afridi,Younis,Razzaq) to act the way they did and they too need to make sure they keep their attitude in check. You cannot say that fitness is just an excuse to keep him out becuase although that was probably a reason he was left out of the Windies tour, fitness was the main reason he was left out in the India which is one of the most important series we play so I still say he needs to work on that aspect of his game.

[Master-P]

We went their as underdogs, we managed to square the series when everyone thought we would badly loose, that in a sense is a win. Yes there used to be days when Pakistan used to win but that was in the past when we had a lot of the worlds greatest players but now we don't and if you consider India, they have a lot of the gretest batsmen in the world at present and yet we still managed to beat them in one test match, draw another and loose one. Relating this back to the disscusion, I personally don't feel Shoaib Akthar would have been a real diffrence to the team because he is prone to injury.

Did we go to the west indies as underdogs? didnt you realise pakistan still couldn't win a test series again! Simple akhter is needed in the team for pakistan to actially win a series.

[Aurangzeb]

a fit akhtar is definitely needed...a pregnant akhtar belongs in the maternal ward...

[Farhad]

Behave yourself, Aurangzeb. If you can't stay civil, stay out.

MIG

Take note of this guy please. BTW he reminds me of that banned squealing person. ;-)

[zushy_786]

Behave yourself, Aurangzeb. If you can't stay civil, stay out.

MIG

Take note of this guy please. BTW he reminds me of that banned squealing person. ;-)

Farhad, you never know it could be atys in a disguise :D

[Haq]

Speed is over rated and McGrath is a perfect example of that.

[jonny]

i agree

[DM]

Speed is over rated and McGrath is a perfect example of that.
No, I think the opposite is true. I strongly believe that speed is underrated. Collymore and McGrath are rare exceptions. If you don't have speed then you need pinpoint accuracy AND movement like the above 2 (also Pollock) to be successful. These type of 128kph bowlers who have that level of mechanical accuracy are extremely rare. Rarer than express pacemen. If you have raw pace, you don't need that level of accuracy to be successful eg Akhtar, Zahid, Waqar, Holding, Jeff Thomson, Lee, Donald (when he was young and fast), Dilhara Fernando, Fidel Edwards, Steve Harmison, Mfuneko Ngam, Shane Bond, etc etc

Speed kills. If you can bowl at 150kph, I want to see you in the national team. I can't think of one 150kph bowler who failed miserably, or wasn't persisted with, regardless of his accuracy. Of course the holy grail is the marriage of speed and the pinpoint accuracy, but it's not a pre-requirement - it'll come later (as with Akhtar's increased accuracy over the years).

Also, 128kph bowlers need the help of a green wicket and overcast conditions to play well. Try putting Pollock, McGrath and Collymore on a track in the subcontinent and see how great they are.

Whereas the pacers still break through teams eg Akhtar producing figures like 6-11 in a test on a Pakistani wicket - Pure Pace.

And remember that McGrath and Pollock play half their matches on helpful tracks (their home wickets)

We aren't going to have that, emphasising even more the need for us to have express pacers.

[zaf1986]

Try putting Pollock, McGrath and Collymore on a track in the subcontinent and see how great they are.
McGrath bowled quite well in India as did Pollock. The point is speed is good, McGrath still bowls in the mid 80s even if Pollock is a bit slower, but the point is they can both bowl for the whole day, and take wickets. Pollock took 8 wickets in Sydney on a perfect batting track in the blazing heat (back in 2000 I think), and McGrath troubled ALL the Indian batsmen in the recent tour.

The problem with Shoaib is he can be great, ripping through lineups one day, and get hammered at over 6 runs an over the next. What most of us from Shoaib is CONSISTENCY, and stamina. If he can bring himself to bowl even 20 overs a day rather than breaking down after 5 - (Harmison regularly bowls around 25 overs a day and he is just as quick as Shoaib) - and take wickets consistently rather than taking 10 wickets in one match, and then having figures of 0-150 the next.

[Monsee]

Did we go to the west indies as underdogs? didnt you realise pakistan still couldn't win a test series again! Simple akhter is needed in the team for pakistan to actially win a series.



You conveniently forgot to mention that almost 70% of our batting was missing in the first test...we lost due to the first innings batting collapse

If Shoaib was gonna bowl his usual 5 overs for the day...do you honestly think "He would have gotten all the WI wickets or even half of them"

He needs to get his fitness on track and come back with the spirit that "I wanna prove all my critics/doubters wrong"...will please no one more than moi

[Somali Pirate]

Speed is useless if you can't bowl accurately.Look at sami who averages near 50.And he is still playing for pakistan.The point when you use the new ball if you bowl fast say 90+ you won't swing or seam the ball because u don't give the chance to roll your fingers off the seam and also make the seam upright.There fore with a scrambled seam you do not swing it or seam it.So bowling at say 85-88 mph you can be successful because u have the chance to bowl swing and seam.

But when the ball gets old and reverses then bowling fast as possible helps because the faster you ball the more it swings.