Pakistan: Unpredictable as ever

Call it cliched, call it mundane, but my assessment of Pakistan is what most others would say: Unpredictable. On their day, they can beat the best in the world, and on other days, lose to the worst.

Their World Cup squad gives plenty of scope to do that and it is no surprise that some suspect (fitness or otherwise) players make it through!

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Australia look wobbly

The Australians announced their team today and it’s pretty much as expected.

Rating these guys on a scale of 1 to 10 for ODI record (A), current form (B) and experience in World Cups (C), we shall find out how strong they really are.

Let’s go:

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Cricket World Cup Coverage

We are one month away from the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. As more and more teams get announced, yours truly will put his $0.02 worth on the selections. And also make predictions about what the chances of the particular team are.

We’ll follow no particular order and will take the teams as they are announced. So we start with dear Australia, the defending champions.

Let the games begin!

Cut hair, or else…

I remember my father using this line on me when I was younger. He would like my hair to be neat and in general, presentable. No problem. But I got older, went through a few hairstyles and even sported a ponytail for a year or so. He did not expel me from the family, though! The “or else” would normally mean a delayed or reduced allowance… but no more, really.

Unfortunately, Douglas Hondo‘s father does not run Zimbabwe or the Zimbabwean Cricket Association. So he was asked to comply. It wasn’t only him, though. There were three others who were asked to do the same, and one of them went ahead (anonymously) and accused the country of “gross human rights abuse“.

“I had to comply with ZC because they say it is a new dress code,” one unnamed player told the newspaper. “There was nothing I could do because refusing meant I would be out on the final squad to the World Cup. If you ask me, this is gross human rights abuse but I need to look after my family. Cricket is my job and I cannot risk my job for dreadlocks.”

Anyways, returning to the story, Hondo is not contactable, as reported by Cricinfo and has apparently skipped the country and is in the UK. He may even be planning to quit cricket for good. And all this for some dreadlocks. He wasn’t their best player, but with 9 Tests and 56 ODIs to his credit, was one of the most experienced ones. Should he really quit, it would be a loss for an already below-par Zimbabwe team that now loses to Bangladesh also regularly!

What a waste. And I do agree that this is human rights abuse.