December 02, 2007	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 21, 1428

LAHORE, Dec 1: It appears that the premature and rather hasty decision of extending Shoaib Malik’s tenure as skipper by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) early this month was made to safeguard his position beyond the current tour of India.

Though the PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf was criticised for hurrying the key decision, he still supported Malik’s extension while choosing to ignore the probable scenario that could emerge after the challenging Indian tour.

Malik’s captaincy did not come under fire despite Pakistan’s loss against the South Africans at home in Tests and One-day series to South Africa, prior to the India tour. But after getting the extension, things have changed rapidly and, according to reports filtering in from India, the senior players are not exactly comfortable

with Malik’s ability to lead the side.

“The players are looking for individual performances rather than as a team and Malik has not been able to bring out the best out of his players,” a number of ex-players opined.

Legendary Imran Khan also joined the critics, ending a long silence on cricketing affairs.

“Though Malik was the better choice after Younis Khan had refused the captaincy, he lacks the ability of leading from the front to justify his appointment. Malik’s own performance is on the decline, putting extra pressure on him from the senior players,” wrote the former skipper in a column published in India.Though against South Africa, Malik’s performance with the bat was not exemplary, yet was satisfactory, as he was the third top scorer from Pakistan with 124 runs in two Tests after Younis Khan (265) and Kamran Akmal (174).

In the five ODIs too, Malik plundered an impressive 184 runs. But since Malik’s place in the team is that of an all-rounder, his mysterious refrainment from bowling his off-spinners has also raised quite a few eyebrows.

In India, Malik did not bowl a single ball and with the bat he is at the bottom of the top-order. In the five match ODI series, which Pakistan lost 3-2, Malik’s contribution was only 159 with a highest score of 89 in the last game.

Yousuf (283), Salman Butt (272), Younis (231) and Misbah-ul-Haq (176) emerge much better performers compared to their captain.

Malik’s poor judgement of the pitches and his glaringly odd decisions of batting or fielding has also come under scrutiny many a times during the South Africa and India series.

Surprisingly, Malik after losing the ODI series to India, repeated the same excuse that he offered after going down against South Africa in September. “Though we lost the series, we learnt a lot from it,” was what he repeatedly said when asked about the defeats.

For Malik’s kind information, one would like to point out that the international matches are definitely not a learning platform. In fact, they are all about delivering.

It is being strongly felt in the cricketing circles that Malik should review the entire situation quickly to find a solution to all such mistakes that he has made during this short stint at the top.

First of all, Malik needs to have a very close liaison with the senior players and the coach and needs to consult them regularly on the field to improve his performance as skipper.

Secondly, he is in dire need of enhancing his individual performance as a player — both with the willow and leather — in order to earn his teammates’ respect and to silence the critics. That will also help him to bring the best out of all the players and will help him to confront the players for failures during crunch times.

Also, the senior players should offer whole-hearted support to Malik otherwise they don’t have any right to convey their grievances to the PCB chairman at any other forum in Pakistan cricket.