My photos of the Pakistan Vs Leicester warm-up match - watch out 56K-ers!

I took tonnes of pictures, they've all been developed now, and 90-95% of them are absolutely terrible, for 2 reasons - I was carrying around disposable cameras (couldn't get the digital one), and my photo-taking skill is zero.

I've emailed what I consider to be the best of them (which isn't saying much!) to Saj, but it's really the story behind them that i want to convey in this thread.

looking forward to the pics and story anxiously.

cool ..will look out for them

btw what do u mean 56 k-ers?

I think he meant those that have dail-up internet.

Can't wait for the pics DM.

it's nothing much guys, dont look forward to it, just several (terrible!) pics

HAf, by 56kers i meant those with a 56k connection - opening this page might take ages for them

aha..wil they be posted in this thread?

yep

when,when,when, when????????????

One of my first sights of uncle Bob in the flesh





MoYo in the background, but note the guy in the bottom right. This was the man who was the most vocal supporter in the ground and came up with some of the hilarious chants that Amoeba mentioned in Saj's Pak V Leic thread eg "Piri Piri Pakistan", "Chicken breast Pakistan", "Piri piri Inzimam", "Murgh murgh Inzimam" etc. I got to know him pretty well (bought him 2 drinks!), I think his name is Ataullah. He told me he got a reduced rate for being a member because of his 'disability' which, seriously speaking, I couldn't quite decipher whether it was mental or physical. He's actually a decent guy. I couldn't understand his Urdu chanting (though i understand piri piri means 'hot'), but the thing that cracked me up was that he kept chanting someone's name followed by "lege-e-e-end", funniest being a spell where he kept saying "Rosenbeerg, lege-e-e-end" when he appeared (he isn't a first team player). And i was wondering what all this 'chicken breast pakistan' and 'piri piri Inzimam' etc was - having not been to a match before, I just assumed it was normal!

He's apparently a regular (Saj might thus know him) and everyone who walked past us seemed to know him (all the Leicester players and staff). We were in the member's enclosure here - I managed (eventually) to get there after a West Indian regular (cannot remember his name) gave me use of his pass.

A front on shot of the man above and Younis Khan, coming out to bat




As soon as I got into the member's enclosure I started my work on the balcony - Rana looks at me, probably in bemusement (and I don't blame him) this was only the start....

nice pics so far.

any pics of the legend himself (and no i'm not talking about Freedy)?

nice pics ..piri piri pakistan that guy sounds a genius

As soon as any of the Pak team made a (rare) appearance on the balcony, out came the camera...

Now I'm pretty certain that the Pak players were cottoning on to the fact that I was intent on taking photos every time they appeared, remember I'm only uploading a fraction.

When Afridi appeared, I was incredibly excited, almost beyond belief, and in a very covert manner because I didn't want anyone to suspect my internal maniacal hysteria and elation at seeing the man himself in the flesh!

But my armour was wearing down and my obsession with the players and Afridi was gradually emerging (which i imagine might have seemed strange coming from a 24 year old man, who didn't look Pakistani). Put it this way, while most were watching the match I had my back to it and was looking up intently at the balcony. I kept asking for Afridi to make an appearance:


Does Waqar take notice?





"there's a lunatic who keeps asking for you" (?)

I then started to demand Afridi get his pads on, to which the players reacted!

Terrific pics.

Met Afridi in person, man is AMAZINGLY HUGE, and very humble and polite! Got him to sign two autographs, one for me and my sis.

On my sisters autograph, he actually wrote "I like you"

Sis was only about 6 at that time, so she was a lot more free with Afridi because she didn't really know who he was. Played around with him a little.

Still can't get over that extra comment my sis got, and I didn't.

2 blurry shots of Afridi and Butt running with a football after the cricket match:






in this one i remember saying something disappointingly generic as he jogged past, like "great performance with the ball"

Great stuff MShohail, not only was he big but he was surprisingly well-groomed for a male!

A shot of the team playing a football match after the cricket.

Woolmer was referee and they played the match on the pitch with chairs as posts. Some general impressions on their footballing ability: They're all pretty average at football. Asif is very tall can make massive strides. Butt has some skill. Rana looks dangerous - you wouldn't want to get into a 50-50 with him! Sami was fast on his feet.


Afridi was naturally aggressive and was fouling a lot! I kept egging him on to belt it every time he had the ball, but he was usually closed down very quickly!


They also played a game of keep-up with headers only - Rana's nut is some weapon - it skewed off his head for miles! They were actually pretty decent at it!

It was great that they played the match at the end, gave us all a chance to see a lot of the players up close - eg:

I took quite a lot of photos of the match, but they're absolutely terrible - the disposable cameras couldn't handle the motion

Great pics DM, Thanks !!

the footy ones with the Beast are awesome !!

Here's Razzaq:



Both he and Butt were good in signing autographs - not only in taking time to sign autographs, but their cordial manner as well:







Danish was good as well - he came out and was signing quite a few but had a look on his face like he was clearing sewage:

Kamran





Faisal:

Younis K:





Butt:






Malik:






Asif:






Rana and Sami

Here we go:


Look at the left - whose miserably malicious hand is that? Who's emerging? Who's clearly intimidating the steward on the right?








Violence:







The path to war:

Afridi hits a SIX!





the crowd celebrates!

The behemoth returns from battle

Afridi came to field the ball right under my nose after someone hit a boundary. Look at the 2nd pic, you can see the sheer frame that produces such a detonation of the ball

2 of Afridi and Gul:

Great pics again DM! i love the way u builded up the Beast's entrance!

Violence, path to war

Great Pics, Loved Them DM!

Great job!

at the captions!!

good job DM. and buy a digital camera!!

great work DM

the captions made them even more enjoyable

Great pics.

Beast!

Ha, took an age for this page to load up but it was worth it

Great pics DM, thanks for sharing!!!

The picture where afridi was out n looking a bit bedazzled, was he watching the events that occured in the bar????????

Sensational pics, loved em all

beastly pics... thanks for sharing DM...

excellent pics

I don't think he did Sheer, I remember the fight breaking out after he went back into the pavilion.

FAO Saj - did you get the pics I sent by email?

wicked pics and DM you are a legend mate ! keep up the good work.

great pics and some imaginative captions..lol, great work DM!

thanks for the pics DM you made me happy, and the quality of your pics are quite good from what you said!!! (ps. love the pic of malik too lol )

one i forgot to add - I caught Tim Abraham of Sky Sports! - What you don't see in the report on Sky is that he's wearing shorts and his calves were a sight to behold!