February 01, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 12, 1428

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CAPE TOWN, Jan 31: Pakistan has squandered yet another opportunity of winning a Test series in South Africa, thus, like India, leaving their long cherished dream unfulfilled. In fact, it never seemed like a brilliant idea to me to play back-to-back Test series prior to such an important event as the forthcoming World Cup in the West Indies.

A home Test series against the West Indies was good enough and the tour of South Africa could have comprised five one-day games or at the most seven, for an ideal preparation to go for the big event.

Only one side match on the tour was never the ideal start for a really challenging Test series. The funny side of it was that the opening game against Rest of South Africa at Kimberley was turned into a farce by both sides, each allowing more than eleven players to participate after the second day's play. Surely, this is going to be scrapped as a first-class match when records are compiled.

Injury to Umar Gul during that match came as a big blow and that really upset the whole plan if there was any. And prior to the match, Shoaib Malik too had to pull out with an ankle injury and it certainly appeared that both players were carrying their injuries before they were picked for the tour.

The doctor who examined them – Gul and Malik - told me that they will not be playing for the next four weeks and yet the walking wounded continued to be on tour till after the second Test victory of Pakistan by five wickets. Then, too, only Gul was sent home but Shoaib Malik for some mind-boggling reason still continues to be the part of the team. A fitter person is thus deprived and could have been a better option.

To cap it all, Shoaib Akhtar - a man declared unfit and not selected for the tour - was recalled after the first Test which certainly was not a very sensible move and it eventually turned out to be a huge blunder. And though he bowled superbly in the first innings of the second Test which we won by five wickets, he became a resident of the dressing room for the rest of the match leaving the donkey work to his other teammates. Poor Mohammad Asif and Danish Kaneria, one would certainly feel for them as they laboured through the tour and did well under the circumstances.

Shoaib Akhtar's usual tantrums resulted in a nasty and an embarrassing argument with coach Bob Woolmer in the dressing room which sadly was watched on television all over the world. The manager fined him for the act and now it remains to be seen whether he is going to be disciplined by the cricket board. Previous boards were guilty of not doing that for which we have had enough of humiliation already.

A fitter Shoaib is an asset but that is rare as we know. A Pakistan defeat in the series by margin of 2-1 could have been the other way round had Pakistan outfit was a fitter one and right men were played — horses for courses, I mean.

One would fail to understand what the talented Asim Kamal was doing on the tour. His past performance speaks for itself and yet he was left in the dungeon despite poor displays by Hafeez, Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed. That, I feel, was unfair.

Another key factor in series loss was Kamran Akmal's keeping which was no less than embarrassing. He can’t even be termed a stopper, let alone a Test wicket-keeper for the manner in which he performed. He is such a fine cricketer but has not worked hard enough to keep his place in the side. He will have to improve on his present performance with the gloves or else he will be shown the door.

The defeat in the first Test was absolutely abysmal. Our batsmen looked like plucking peaches from the tree rather than staying at the wicket to concentrate and apply themselves to build on a respectable total. No wonder they were branded as the happy-hookers.

Having levelled the series at Port Elizabeth, Pakistan failed to strike back because of lack of fire-power and, in the end, felt restricted by lack of support in decisive moments. When Kaneria and Asif ran out of steam, the game just slipped away on the third day at Newlands. In comparison Ntini had Pollock, Kallis, Steyn and Harris to back him up and that was, of course, the difference.

The pitches in South Africa were not quality stuff and only one century - by Ashwell Prince - was scored from either side. The poor wickets contributed a lot to the low-scoring series and poor attendance throughout.

Used to playing on slow, low-bounce wickets in Pakistan, the tourists’ batting seldom came to terms with lift and bounce of the South African wickets which caused Pakistan batting debacles in all the three Tests.

Only Inzamam-ul-Haq, the captain, offered some kind of respectability to score 92 runs in the second Test. Mohammad Yousuf, who missed the first Test for family reasons, scored a breezy 83 in the final Test but he never really looked like holding the fort after his prolific form in the last two Test series in England and in Pakistan.

Even Younis Khan was below his best except for that match-winning knock at Port Elizabeth. As for top order, all three in Mohammad Hafeez, Imran farhat and Yasir Hamid simply failed to deliver, compounding Pakistan woes with the bat and giving little for their bowlers to defend.

There were only a few high points on the tour for Inzamam-ul-Haq’s men, none higher than Mohammad Asif’s brilliant bowling. To finish with 19 wickets in the series is an achievement in itself but his uncountable spells where he came tantalizingly close to dismissing the batsmen did not go unnoticed by the critics.

Spinner Danish Kaneria, who had a tally of 15 wickets, also bowled superbly and nearly won the final Test for Pakistan. It was absurd of the selectors back home to announce the one-day squad on the third day of the third Test, the omission clearly dampening Kaneria’s spirits on the crucial morning.

Such ill-planned moves have cost us many-a-time before but the cricket boards in Asia fail to learn from the mistakes.

For South Africa, Makhaya Ntini reached a much-deserved landmark of 300 wickets in Tests to become the third in South Africa after Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock and 21st bowler in the world. He is, indeed, at the peak of his career and will be a threat to all oppositions in the World Cup.

Ashwell Prince, having matured as a batsmen over the years, looked the part with in his fine century at Centurion. But the man who clearly stands out for Proteas is the ever-reliable Jacques Kallis, declare Man of the Series for his 272 runs and ten wickets in three Tests including a match-winning 51 in the final Test. He was definitely the pick of the South African players.

The South Africans will be touring Pakistan next October and we will have a good chance of avenging the recent defeat then. But that will not ‘equate’ things in the real sense of the word.

Grassier, bouncier tracks, a positive approach and some good coaching can do the trick for Pakistan on overseas tours but only if people running the show are prepared for the change.