Pakistan thrive on hardship and chaos

< 1 minute readPakistan. Is there any sporting team in the world for which the link between sound preparation and performance is less meaningful? Having lost what was arguably the best new ball attack of its time as a result of that spot fixing thing, Pakistan rebuilt their bowling around Saeed Ajmal. Being

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Pakistan’s 2015 World Cup strategy

< 1 minute readSame as ever really. Just sort of hope that everything magically works itself out. Shahid Afridi is a tremendously good one-day bowler, but you’d hope to see a stronger attack alongside him. Seven foot Mohammad Irfan is the novelty, while Junaid Khan is perhaps the class. But it’s the batting

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The ICC flexes its elbow muscles

< 1 minute readWell this is news. Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal has been banned from bowling. Ajmal was tested once before and had his action cleared. But not this time. This time he has been found guilty of the greatest crime in cricket. People will whisper the word whenever he is near and he

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Shahid Afridi is still in form

< 1 minute readEvery batsman suffers the ebb and flow of form. Most will alter their approach when out of form, taking fewer risks in the knowledge that they aren’t middling it. Shahid Afridi never alters his approach and being as his approach amounts to little more than essaying wild, body-convulsing heaves at

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Rolling the Shahid Afridi dice

< 1 minute readIf there is a point to Shahid Afridi – and really, his genius is all about absolute commitment to joyous, unfocused, futile pointlessness – then it is that he should mishit sixes to win matches. That is what happened today. India and Pakistan have much in common, but they also

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So, that Pakistan win, eh?

< 1 minute readOkay, let’s do this. Let’s write a 200-word article in which we somehow find a new way of emphasising how wonderful the third Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was for readers who already know precisely how wonderful it was and who probably followed the match much more closely

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