Zimbabwe's tour of Pakistan - May 2015

[War]

Zimbabwe finally confirm Pakistan tour | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

God I hope nothing crazy happens on this tour. But I can't help feel its unwise for ZIM to go if their government and ICC advises against it.

 

[Santander]

State guest security for Zimbabwe team | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

It seems like the PCB and the government have learned their lesson from the Sri Lanka tour and will actually provide "presidential-level" security this time. Of course, any sort of incident on this tour would condemn Pakistani cricket to an even worse fate than its current one, so it's a necessary investment.

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

Well, Pakistan's squad for the 1st Twenty20 is expected to be announced tomorrow.

Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shehzad & Shoaib Malik will make a return to the national side - Agencies.

 

[CerealKiller]

Well, Pakistan's squad for the 1st Twenty20 is expected to be announced tomorrow.

Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shehzad & Shoaib Malik will make a return to the national side - Agencies.

i think shoaib malik and umar akmal deserve to be back, because they've been in excellent form in the super8 t20 cup but ahmad shahzad should be no way near this team

 

[Santander]

There's this one 19 year old batsman, Nauman Anwar, who is tearing up the Pakistan T20 cup right now. He's only played 5 T20s but he's had innings of 65, 80 and 97 in that time, all at a healthy strike rate. Obviously too early to consider him for the national team for this tour, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a Pakistan shirt soon.

 

[SixerBoy11]

There's this one 19 year old batsman, Nauman Anwar, who is tearing up the Pakistan T20 cup right now. He's only played 5 T20s but he's had innings of 65, 80 and 97 in that time, all at a healthy strike rate. Obviously too early to consider him for the national team for this tour, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a Pakistan shirt soon.

I guess he deserve a chance on Home Ground

 

[SpitfiresKent]

The Zimbabweans have arrived...

 

[Santander]

Funny how all of the players look scared/nervous (or perhaps just tired) while Dav Whatmore looks simply chuffed.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Funny how all of the players look scared/nervous (or perhaps just tired) while Dav Whatmore looks simply chuffed.

I've seen other images on twitter where the players are smiling.

So far so good.

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

There's this one 19 year old batsman, Nauman Anwar, who is tearing up the Pakistan T20 cup right now. He's only played 5 T20s but he's had innings of 65, 80 and 97 in that time, all at a healthy strike rate. Obviously too early to consider him for the national team for this tour, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a Pakistan shirt soon.

He deserved it. So did Umar Akmal.

Pakistani squad for the 2 Twenty20 Internationals.

Squad: Shahid Afridi (capt), Sarfraz Ahmed (vc), Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Mukhtar Ahmed, Nauman Anwar, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Rizwan, Anwar Ali, Hammad Azam, Imad Wasim, Bilawal Bhatti, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Sami

 

[Santander]

Wow, that was fast. He played his first official T20 a week ago and now he's in the squad for the national team. He must be in dreamland right now.

That is a very... interesting squad. Surprised to see Haris Sohail out, as I thought he played quite well on the Bangladesh tour. And Mohammad Sami... I didn't even know that guy was still playing cricket. Even if he was picked on form, surely there's younger players better suited to fill his spot? Sami has occasional flashes of brilliance, but they come with a lot of of mediocrity and occasional calamity in between.

 

[War]

State guest security for Zimbabwe team | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

It seems like the PCB and the government have learned their lesson from the Sri Lanka tour and will actually provide "presidential-level" security this time. Of course, any sort of incident on this tour would condemn Pakistani cricket to an even worse fate than its current one, so it's a necessary investment.

You sure SRI tour didn't have presidential level security?

 

[Santander]

You sure SRI tour didn't have presidential level security?

Have you read anything about the SL bus attack?

This tour, they went all out with security, and I applaud them for that.

 

[War]

Have you read anything about the SL bus attack?

This tour, they went all out with security, and I applaud them for that.

Yes i do, what I'm querying is the suggestion that SL when they toured in 2009 that they didn't have presidential level security. I seem to remember that they did, but the terrorist still were able to infiltrate.

What might be more accurate to say is that they might be taking "Presidential level security" up to another level for this series, when you see pictures like this:

 

[Santander]

If you read the reports and watch the videos of the incident, you will see that the SL team didn't even have security worthy of protecting a class president, let alone an actual president. The policemen escorting the convoy barely even shot back at the attackers and they didn't kill or arrest a single attacker on the scene. Videos show the gunmen calmly walking around the traffic circle in broad daylight openly carrying their guns and shooting at the buses. The streets were totally empty, too, implying that either the policemen who didn't die either fled the scene or just hid somewhere. It took about 5 minutes from the start of the attack for backup to finally arrive, by which time the gunmen were long gone. For me, presidential-level security means a response in seconds, not minutes.