Grassless pitch may surprise WI coach (dawn news)

KARACHI, Nov 25: Barely hours after Bennett King, the West Indies coach, appreciated the ‘grassy’ outlook of the National Stadium pitch where the third and final Test starts on Monday, the 22-year-old strip was completely shorn of grass on Saturday evening.

The instructions from the home camp were loud and clear; ‘play for a draw to keep the 1-0 advantage intact.’ This defensive approach, however, could easily backfire as it nearly did in the second Test at Multan where Pakistan survived some anxious moments on the final day before Mohammad Yousuf steered them to safety with a marathon 191.

Keeping in view the Karachi climate which helps faster bowlers to swing the ball appreciably, the selectors opted for Mohammad Sami instead of left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman when they announced the 15-man Pakistan squad soon after the Multan Test concluded.

But it remains to be seen what sort of combination the Pakistan team management opts for in the third Test. One thing that is certain now is that Inzamam-ul-Haq wants to play safe here for specific reasons. Firstly, he is keen on winning this series to put behind the England tour nightmares and secondly, he is anxious to end a lean period with the bat at a time when his future as captain is being repeatedly questioned.

This negative mindset on the skipper’s part was also evident in Multan. On the eve of the second Test the pitch wore a grassy look and was seen as a sporting track by the critics. On the day of the match, however, the grass was completely gone and it looked as placid as ever.

Pakistan may have its reasons for not favouring a lively track at the National Stadium. The bans on strike bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have definitely altered the hosts’ game-plan despite heartening performance from Umar Gul and Shahid Nazir who have so far shared the new ball in this series.

Brian Lara’s outstanding form (scores of 61, 122 and 216) and his domination of Danish Kaneria in Multan is another reason for the home side to play totally safe.

But this policy clearly suggests Pakistan’s lack of planning. With the demanding tour of South Africa just round the corner, the batsmen need to play on sporting pitches at home and not featherbeds which will harm their chances of succeeding against Graeme Smith’s men.

Pakistans best way of taking 20 wickets to win this test is to provide a decent wicket for Gul and Nazir to bowl on. Another flat deck will just help west indies bowlers. Pakistan dont have to win the test thou as article points out, but is it any wonder our players cant adapt to swinging/seaming conditions?

Imran Khan is not going to like this "defensive approach"

Why should we throw away this series to get practice for the S.A series.

how we going to throw series away? W.I arent exactly great players of swing bowling themselves.

If they are not willing to get better on sporting pitches, they might as well send the B team to SA. Let the big guys rest up for the world cup.

Gah damnit and just when I was hoping it would be another pitch something along the lines of the india pakistan test 2006

so who cares if he likes it or not .

I hate these pathetic moves by the PCB

I don't beleive this article. Or maybe I am hoping it ain't true.

I guess we'll find out tommorow. Hoping for a result in this match.

At times like this i really wish Imran was the coach or part of the management or something so he could give his input to the team.

If this article turns out to be true it would be yet another defensive approach to a test.



Put an end to the nightmare tour of England only for a new nightmare to begin (i.e SA)

No one might care but he is not wrong when he says Pakistan must have an aggressive approach and mentality when it comes to cricket.

By shaving the grass off (if indeed it is true) Pakistan are sending out the signals that they feel they cannot win if the pitch assists the bowlers in any way, shape or form. In fact they may not even be aiming for a win, for them it seems they will be satisfied with a draw just to win the series overall.

Yes 1-0 does sound better than 1-1 but I personally would rather a sporting wicket was prepared to give both batsmen and bowlers a chance of doing well and taking the fight to the opposition, batting and bowlingwise.

even if they r, it is pathetic to go for a draw by preparing a dead wicket.

thats the sad part, no one cares coz no one is as aggressive and positive as he was.

In his time Imran was a excellent ,aggresive and a telented player and also a sucessful captain, and the key word here is "WAS" and what he says now is nothing but to get his name in the papers ,Imran is an ex -cricketer and a current politician ,and we all know what politicians are made of.

if this is true it is very very sad indeed !!

does the fact that he is a politican mean that he has lost all cricketing sense and has no brains anymore. come on man, dont disagree with him just for the sake of disagreement.

I really wont lose sleep if the match ends in a dull ,boring high scoring, tame draw. For one the near perfect record at national stadium will hold, second owning a resurgent windian outfit to a series win is enough to keep the little man within me happy. So if all this has to be a consequence of a stripped bare, less sporting pitch, then so be it. Not many nations squander the advantage, why should we be any different

this may have from the seminar PCB held with the ex-players. Perhaps the only point they agreed on other then the endorsement for tikkas for dinner

I don't understand why would you be worried about losing on a pitch which has been a fortress ground for you. And that too against the windies.

I think this story is just a little exagerated.

Though I am huge fan of Inzy, but hence forth I would not have him in my list of legends of cricket. He knows very little about test cricket and he is too defensive. Legends dont play defensive cricket.

Well there have been a few play and misses. And Hafeez has gone to a ball that moved a bit.

Fair enough this pitch may not have much bounce, but it seems to have some movement. Lets not jump to conclusions just yet.

so you know more about test cricket than Inzi? think with a cooler head. what happened last time karachi had a grass top? need i remind you? did we need a repeat of that? for either side...thats not test cricket.

now think about what happened when that grass went away? we still managed not only to bat well but get 20 wickets.

now think about what happens when a dry surface is played on for 3 days. who does it support on day 4 and 5? kaneria?

now go and actually look at the game itself. notice how collymore and taylor were regularly beating the outside edge. not only is there seam on this pitch but swing as well. this is no flat lahore pitch by any means.

this is not a defensive decision. its a smart, tactical decision to play to our strength. just the way we did against england. unfortunately ppl with little cricketing acumen can only see the game one way...grass, green bounce good, brown, flat crack badd.

Dont understand the fuss - this is just another TYPE of pitch ! It has its own challenges and if you note, Pak arent exactly scoring at 4 RPO !

Its a slow pitch and it presents its own challenges.

All teams in the world need to play on different type of surfaces - this is the beauty of cricket.

Please do play on slow wickets but dont cry when Pakistan becomes india and cannot win a test even against Zimbabwe when it tours as the batting fails and bowlers turn in to gentle medium pacers

I understand what you are saying Imy - all I am saying is that this pitch has its own challenge.

We need good paced wickets but to introduce one in the last test match as an afterthought and not as part of a comprehensive strategy, would be silly IMO.

True but we cant loose the series, I just dont like the scared defeatist attitutude of this team or management all sport Psychologist tell us to think positive and not negative, I dont think this team is properly advised

very narrow way of thinking imo.

Agreed. The way it works unfortunately is that captains/selectors know they will be judged on how many series they won/lost rather than how good the cricket was.

A 1-0 win over W.I may be a wn if it happens but some pathetic defensive cricket has been played all series!

you obviously dont know too much about cricket. didnt we play enough "attacking" cricket in CT with our vice kuptaan. wasny your appetite for "fire" and "passion" and "aggression" satisfied there? just relax okay. if you want to see aggression so badly go watch an arnold movie. i'll enjoy my series win.

yup, this has been the most boring approach from a pak side in a while, and a 1-0 win is not good enough for me. i would have been more satisfied if we had been more aggressive, and were looking for a 3-0 whitewash of the windies.

i think u deserve a job in the PCB. it is full of defensive minded poeple rite now, and u would be a good addition. u mite even land the job of pne of the pitch curators. by the way, think before u post coz ur post has no relation to Amjid's post and u dont give any reasons for backing pakistan's strategy

This pitch has no challenge for the batsmen who have played on these pitches for years. The fact that they still failed on them is shameful.

Just because there is no comprehensive plan yet to make good sporting tracks in the domestic game in Pakistan doesn't mean that all intl matches shd be played on flat tracks as well. That would mean we are justifying the defensive mindset and not giving ourselves chance to improve our batting skills at some level.

Its not just the pitch issue, its the whole attitude pakistan has played this series with. Its almost as if they are scared of W.I. for god sake this team is ranked 8th in world and is roadkill away from the carribean, anyone would think we were playing clive lloyds 1970s team!