Against a post by [MENTION=56866]Bullet Drive[/MENTION], I raised an issue that PAK might not be able to repeat the results of UAE at home ground & [MENTION=139108]Sachin136[/MENTION] asked for rational. What I see is that the thread is hidden to me, which I understand why. No hard feelings, but I think I need to honor Sachin136, at least one should be able to explain his post.
I 'll love to discuss on this in proper spirit & I don't mind if anyone can convince the readers with proper logic .............. I am writing this as a response to Sachin136, so it's a bit conversational post. I start with his question - why I think that PAK home advantage is that relevant for PAK
__________________________________________________________________________________
Sure, I don't put words without being convinced myself.
What is home advantage? - To me, it helps a team in Cricket - for that matter any sport, in 4 aspects (Britain won 29 Golds in London 2012, at least 20 more than usual, 1991 Cuba pushed USA 2nd in Medal table in Pan Am Games & the US Olympic Association did send their best possible athletes as it was in Cuba - spectators cheering for you, you are on the same track, pool, floor, ring that you had been training for last couple of years does matter). Let’s see those 4 aspects
1. This one is void now - home Umpiring; need not to explain
2. When you play at home, normally you get a good support from the spectators. In a stadium, if even 10,000 people cheers for you, in tight games, that matters. Now, PAK's home Tests often don't produce paid spectators (excluding the free Club & PCB riders, security people & media) to match the runs scored in the Test. Not much advantage over UAE playing at home in that respect – Gaddafi or NCS is not Eden, once where 70,000+ paid fans came to watch IND knocking <20 runs required to win a famous Test against ENG on 5th morning.
3. Now comes a serious one – the physiological aspects. Cricket is a game of tradition, heritage & culture, where the game is structured to be played at regional basis in domestics. This creates an unique Home Ground culture - which we see in Club football as well. In Cricket, every country plays FC matches on regional basis & they have a home ground. Not necessarily it always matters, but you 'll notice every greats of the game had great moments at their home ground - Lillee at WACA, Grineedege-Hayinds, Marshall, Sobers at Bridgetown, Viv at Antigua, Zaheer, Waquar at Oval
, Gavasker, Tendulker at Mumbai, Kapil at Delhi, Waugh twins at SCG, Warne at MCG........ at highest level it shouldn't matter, BUT still it has a psychological impact - you feel homely with the same ground, dressing room, ground staff.... Cricket is a great mind game & confidence has a big role, even few confident individuals in a team game does raise the moral through positive vibe, not necessarily they all need to perform on the day.
Now, PAK plays their domestic in a bit special hybrid way - what it matters for 3 Sindhis, 5 Punjabis, 2 Pathans & 1 Pashtun representing Habib Bank against National Bank with similar mix of players at a ground at Rawalpindi where a handful of people, few dogs & crows cheering for Younis Khan & they 'll do the same for Nasir Jamshed later......... Once Imran played for NSW & they won a tight Shield decider at MCG - as he wrote in his book, Victorian players were in tears & 60K spectators on last day cried with them.
PAK players are mere pawns of a mercenary system – Aamir is a Pindi boy, today he 'll play for NBL in FC crcket at Karachi, next day he 'll represent Omar Associates in a Pertons qualifier at Lahore – which is 2 tiers below top FC level; then a T20 match at Faisalabad for Ajmal Academy, in between Ramadan cup T20 for DHO Karachi at UBL ground ...... a FB T20 couple of weeks later for Rams & finally, few exhibition matches in UAE & club matches in UK. Islamabad, Multan...... Gaddafi or NCS is just an another stadium - just like Sharja or Dubai - no emotional attachment, not heart bit missing like what Tendulkar used to miss every-time he entered at the Wankhade. You are an Indian – should I explain what it goes between players when Mumbai takes on Delhi or Punjab or Baroda in a Ranji Final – cascade that into Kohli taking on Styen at the Kotla or Wonderers.
4. Here comes the technical part - why home ground. Because, the wickets & environment helps the local players. Players that are groomed in similar conditions/wickets gets some added miles to start with. As I said, cricket is a game of tradition - now days there are too many teams, games, stakes…. so old traditions are dying. BUT, you 'll be surprised to see that ENG, AUS & SAF has the best record at Edbeston, Brisbane or Port Elizabeth....... history tells that, traditionally the summer stars with the Edbeston Test, the Gabba Test or the PE Test. New country, new wicket, different condition, before settling down often the visiting teams are 1-0 down. For AUS - they used to put the 2nd Test at WACA - it's like hot water to boiling oil..... On contrary, ENG's record is worst at Oval, the season closer - couple of months in UK, you get the measure of the environment & start to compete at per. In old days, if you check, you 'll see countless time IND won the 1st Test on rank turners & then rest 4/5 matches ended in boring draws - it's just about getting the opponent off guard. If you carefully notice – the BD-ZIM 1st Test at Dhaka was over in 3 days – you make sure that the 1st Test ends in a direct result; most likely you ‘ll win it; if not - still there are 2, 3 or 4 Tests to make a come-back. SAF in 1996 at Durban actually showed IND the vulgar side of that strategy……..
NOW, for that home advantage strategy, you need a bit of coordination between your team, your back room & your support staff - in short, you need to know the strength of your team & weakness of visitors as well as the conditions & wickets. PCB's ground-men don't know what their teams' strength is & how to get benefit out of that. I can write whole night, but 'll close with few examples for people who can relate -
That wonderful team of 90s lost 2 Test Series against SRL of 90s 2-1 (once after leading 1-0) at home, lost a series against ZIM & SAF & managed to snatch a 0-1 Series loss against a pathetic Pom side, which should have lost 3-0, with PAK batting at best 4 times. Because, the wicket that PCB groundsmen produced was EXACTLY NOT the track a side with Inzi, Saeed, Sohail, MoYo, Izaj or Malik (Salim) in their batting line up should play on (I am not bothering to name the 5 bowlers) - these were outstanding stroke makers, positive batsmen who loved the ball on to bat with a bit of bounce. PCB grounds-men put them on dead slow & low wickets where the hay was made by grafters - the Thorpes, the Mark Taylors, The Tilekratnes, the Flowers, the Kristens AND PAK's stroke makers were hunted by boring metronomes - Ashle Gyles, Muralidharan, Colin Miller, Pat Symcox, Shawn Pollocks, even Nail Johnson ...... Those days, PAK bowlers were unique for their variation, guile, pace - so PCB put them on wickets where touring batsmen were beaten all ends up by a Saqui doosra, or Mushi googli, or a Waqui drifter or a Was swerver & then the wicket allowed them to rest, take a cup of tea & then block to survive - even if you edge, it 'll not carry to slips. Come to 2000s - absolutely same, moreover now the bowlers are gone, those who could beat batsmen in pace through air or in flight.
I 'll finish with 2 classic examples of how dumb & idiot you can be, for not understanding what you are saying or trying to do -
Every Tom, Dick & Harry knows that IND is the worst travelers – almost certainly they ‘ll start the 3rd Test 2-0 down & that weakness was exposed by even ZIM in 90s – I think, 3 times they were 1-0 up after 1st Test at Harare, played on a green top with a bit of spongy bounce. 2005-06 IND came to PAK & in JAN - Lahore Test, some gentleman (won't name, I know who) said that PAK 'll dominate with pace in winter Lahore wicket - then the show started & PAK put 678/5 @ 4.5/over, later IND 413/1 @ 5/over. So the same gentleman came with explanation that due to heavy winter grounds-men couldn't prepare the wicket & it became flat batting paradise in 4C temperature. Next Test at Faisalabad - after 2 weeks of sunshine, again it produced 1600+ runs for 25 wickets. So, when PAK went to 3rd Test with Inzi out for injury, Sohaib half fit & Asif making a come-back, while Indians are well into the Series now with 3 weeks in PAK & 4 matches played. KAkmal saved that day at Karachi, but every bit of chance was that IND could have ended the tour 0-1 winners, when they should have lost at least 2-0.
2nd one was PAK’s last home Test Series – another Gentleman holding high chair in PCB for bowling quality leg-spin (Guess who….) said that Lanka’s ‘ll be welcomed by “Fast & Bouncy” tracks – 4.5 innings were possible in that Series – 644/6d, 765/5d, 180/5…… 656 & 115/0 were scores ………. & that gentleman after 1st Test said that quality of batting was the reason ……..
Had there been just a couple of hours more rain, PAK could have ended the SRL Series 1-1 & still would have remained at 6th - so don’t take much of that top 2 – bottom 2 comments – teams from 3 to 6 are too close. I categorically said that PAK ‘ll win 2-1 in SRL as the Lankans ‘ll put “result wickets” & PAK is just not clinical enough to win 3 in a row, hence 2-1. But the bottom line is, PAK administration is just not competent enough to take home advantage.
Why I say that results would have been different - because PAK is not good at holding game. On those PCB specials that they call wicket, PAK could have dominated most matches, but the wickets ‘ll not allow to run through a side & it doesn't break either for the spinners to dominate in last 2 days – you can dominate, but batsmen ‘ll get away with dead bat – result RR of 2.0 & 4 wickets for 200 in a Day. AND also the match duration – PCB ‘ll schedule Test matches in DEC/JAN in Northern Cities for a 10 AM-5PM schedule, excepting 15 overs/hr – Match ‘ll start after 10:30 for fog, then whenever visiting side is in a bit of trouble, bowlers ‘ll take 6 minutes to finish an over, or batters ‘ll change gloves alternate overs – umpires ‘ll offer light at 4PM & you ‘ll end up with 60 overs a day & PAK ‘ll end up drawing the home Test – check PAK-SRL/ZIM/ENG/NZ past Series – Series where you expect PAK to clean sweep at home. On those wickets, professional teams like ENG, SAF or AUS ‘ll either get away with draws or in between once or twice ‘ll get PAK batsmen facing 400+ with 3 days to survive…………….. check the 0-1 by ENG or SAF against that great side of 90s….
Posters in recent times are angry with me - but, I repeat - PCB is the most incompetent, dumbest & idiot cricket administration in world - just not good enough to take home advantage. Management is a science - people picked on their playing skills to run an operation 'll end up doing what we see at PCB. It’s not that only MBAs & Engineers ‘ll make things perfect - it’s great to have cricket background, but education is must. 124 Tests doesn’t make you a great functional director, but you don’t need to play 124 Tests to run a Cricket operation strategically………… you ‘ll say what’s different - BCB is run by Rakibul, Naimur, Farook, Gazi Ashraf Lipu, Basher, Aminul……. in key functional roles – but apart from a bit of cricket skills & experience – all these guys has a Masters from Dhaka University & many of them actually worked for BAT, Unilever, Reckit or Aventis/Novartis in professional capacity for few years………
It’s not only now – from history, PAK’s performance against ENG, AUS or WI is actually better away (may not be in direct win – loss, I said performance) & barring the few years under Khan, it had been always the same pattern – PAK ‘ll dominate home Test & visitors ‘ll get away with a draw, sometimes stealing an win. How many actually knows that PAK’s best performance against IND in ODI is not in UAE, rather in IND it-self, because those free scoring good wickets favors the brand of cricket PAK players cherish to play both with bat & ball – check the head to heads in IND.
Dubai grounds-man is an Indian & this gentleman (Mohan Singh) was the curator of the same Mohali track that produced over 550 runs in 2 ODIs a week apart, but in between on same track SAF pacers bundled PAK for 87, to knock them out of 2008 CT …… that was dirty play by BCCI, I agree; but you need to have the competence to play dirty………….
Home condition is a huge advantage, but you need to have the competence to make that actionable or it might back fire. I hope, it makes sense to you…………….
I 'll love to discuss on this in proper spirit & I don't mind if anyone can convince the readers with proper logic .............. I am writing this as a response to Sachin136, so it's a bit conversational post. I start with his question - why I think that PAK home advantage is that relevant for PAK
__________________________________________________________________________________
Sure, I don't put words without being convinced myself.
What is home advantage? - To me, it helps a team in Cricket - for that matter any sport, in 4 aspects (Britain won 29 Golds in London 2012, at least 20 more than usual, 1991 Cuba pushed USA 2nd in Medal table in Pan Am Games & the US Olympic Association did send their best possible athletes as it was in Cuba - spectators cheering for you, you are on the same track, pool, floor, ring that you had been training for last couple of years does matter). Let’s see those 4 aspects
1. This one is void now - home Umpiring; need not to explain
2. When you play at home, normally you get a good support from the spectators. In a stadium, if even 10,000 people cheers for you, in tight games, that matters. Now, PAK's home Tests often don't produce paid spectators (excluding the free Club & PCB riders, security people & media) to match the runs scored in the Test. Not much advantage over UAE playing at home in that respect – Gaddafi or NCS is not Eden, once where 70,000+ paid fans came to watch IND knocking <20 runs required to win a famous Test against ENG on 5th morning.
3. Now comes a serious one – the physiological aspects. Cricket is a game of tradition, heritage & culture, where the game is structured to be played at regional basis in domestics. This creates an unique Home Ground culture - which we see in Club football as well. In Cricket, every country plays FC matches on regional basis & they have a home ground. Not necessarily it always matters, but you 'll notice every greats of the game had great moments at their home ground - Lillee at WACA, Grineedege-Hayinds, Marshall, Sobers at Bridgetown, Viv at Antigua, Zaheer, Waquar at Oval
, Gavasker, Tendulker at Mumbai, Kapil at Delhi, Waugh twins at SCG, Warne at MCG........ at highest level it shouldn't matter, BUT still it has a psychological impact - you feel homely with the same ground, dressing room, ground staff.... Cricket is a great mind game & confidence has a big role, even few confident individuals in a team game does raise the moral through positive vibe, not necessarily they all need to perform on the day. Now, PAK plays their domestic in a bit special hybrid way - what it matters for 3 Sindhis, 5 Punjabis, 2 Pathans & 1 Pashtun representing Habib Bank against National Bank with similar mix of players at a ground at Rawalpindi where a handful of people, few dogs & crows cheering for Younis Khan & they 'll do the same for Nasir Jamshed later......... Once Imran played for NSW & they won a tight Shield decider at MCG - as he wrote in his book, Victorian players were in tears & 60K spectators on last day cried with them.
PAK players are mere pawns of a mercenary system – Aamir is a Pindi boy, today he 'll play for NBL in FC crcket at Karachi, next day he 'll represent Omar Associates in a Pertons qualifier at Lahore – which is 2 tiers below top FC level; then a T20 match at Faisalabad for Ajmal Academy, in between Ramadan cup T20 for DHO Karachi at UBL ground ...... a FB T20 couple of weeks later for Rams & finally, few exhibition matches in UAE & club matches in UK. Islamabad, Multan...... Gaddafi or NCS is just an another stadium - just like Sharja or Dubai - no emotional attachment, not heart bit missing like what Tendulkar used to miss every-time he entered at the Wankhade. You are an Indian – should I explain what it goes between players when Mumbai takes on Delhi or Punjab or Baroda in a Ranji Final – cascade that into Kohli taking on Styen at the Kotla or Wonderers.
4. Here comes the technical part - why home ground. Because, the wickets & environment helps the local players. Players that are groomed in similar conditions/wickets gets some added miles to start with. As I said, cricket is a game of tradition - now days there are too many teams, games, stakes…. so old traditions are dying. BUT, you 'll be surprised to see that ENG, AUS & SAF has the best record at Edbeston, Brisbane or Port Elizabeth....... history tells that, traditionally the summer stars with the Edbeston Test, the Gabba Test or the PE Test. New country, new wicket, different condition, before settling down often the visiting teams are 1-0 down. For AUS - they used to put the 2nd Test at WACA - it's like hot water to boiling oil..... On contrary, ENG's record is worst at Oval, the season closer - couple of months in UK, you get the measure of the environment & start to compete at per. In old days, if you check, you 'll see countless time IND won the 1st Test on rank turners & then rest 4/5 matches ended in boring draws - it's just about getting the opponent off guard. If you carefully notice – the BD-ZIM 1st Test at Dhaka was over in 3 days – you make sure that the 1st Test ends in a direct result; most likely you ‘ll win it; if not - still there are 2, 3 or 4 Tests to make a come-back. SAF in 1996 at Durban actually showed IND the vulgar side of that strategy……..
NOW, for that home advantage strategy, you need a bit of coordination between your team, your back room & your support staff - in short, you need to know the strength of your team & weakness of visitors as well as the conditions & wickets. PCB's ground-men don't know what their teams' strength is & how to get benefit out of that. I can write whole night, but 'll close with few examples for people who can relate -
That wonderful team of 90s lost 2 Test Series against SRL of 90s 2-1 (once after leading 1-0) at home, lost a series against ZIM & SAF & managed to snatch a 0-1 Series loss against a pathetic Pom side, which should have lost 3-0, with PAK batting at best 4 times. Because, the wicket that PCB groundsmen produced was EXACTLY NOT the track a side with Inzi, Saeed, Sohail, MoYo, Izaj or Malik (Salim) in their batting line up should play on (I am not bothering to name the 5 bowlers) - these were outstanding stroke makers, positive batsmen who loved the ball on to bat with a bit of bounce. PCB grounds-men put them on dead slow & low wickets where the hay was made by grafters - the Thorpes, the Mark Taylors, The Tilekratnes, the Flowers, the Kristens AND PAK's stroke makers were hunted by boring metronomes - Ashle Gyles, Muralidharan, Colin Miller, Pat Symcox, Shawn Pollocks, even Nail Johnson ...... Those days, PAK bowlers were unique for their variation, guile, pace - so PCB put them on wickets where touring batsmen were beaten all ends up by a Saqui doosra, or Mushi googli, or a Waqui drifter or a Was swerver & then the wicket allowed them to rest, take a cup of tea & then block to survive - even if you edge, it 'll not carry to slips. Come to 2000s - absolutely same, moreover now the bowlers are gone, those who could beat batsmen in pace through air or in flight.
I 'll finish with 2 classic examples of how dumb & idiot you can be, for not understanding what you are saying or trying to do -
Every Tom, Dick & Harry knows that IND is the worst travelers – almost certainly they ‘ll start the 3rd Test 2-0 down & that weakness was exposed by even ZIM in 90s – I think, 3 times they were 1-0 up after 1st Test at Harare, played on a green top with a bit of spongy bounce. 2005-06 IND came to PAK & in JAN - Lahore Test, some gentleman (won't name, I know who) said that PAK 'll dominate with pace in winter Lahore wicket - then the show started & PAK put 678/5 @ 4.5/over, later IND 413/1 @ 5/over. So the same gentleman came with explanation that due to heavy winter grounds-men couldn't prepare the wicket & it became flat batting paradise in 4C temperature. Next Test at Faisalabad - after 2 weeks of sunshine, again it produced 1600+ runs for 25 wickets. So, when PAK went to 3rd Test with Inzi out for injury, Sohaib half fit & Asif making a come-back, while Indians are well into the Series now with 3 weeks in PAK & 4 matches played. KAkmal saved that day at Karachi, but every bit of chance was that IND could have ended the tour 0-1 winners, when they should have lost at least 2-0.
2nd one was PAK’s last home Test Series – another Gentleman holding high chair in PCB for bowling quality leg-spin (Guess who….) said that Lanka’s ‘ll be welcomed by “Fast & Bouncy” tracks – 4.5 innings were possible in that Series – 644/6d, 765/5d, 180/5…… 656 & 115/0 were scores ………. & that gentleman after 1st Test said that quality of batting was the reason ……..
Had there been just a couple of hours more rain, PAK could have ended the SRL Series 1-1 & still would have remained at 6th - so don’t take much of that top 2 – bottom 2 comments – teams from 3 to 6 are too close. I categorically said that PAK ‘ll win 2-1 in SRL as the Lankans ‘ll put “result wickets” & PAK is just not clinical enough to win 3 in a row, hence 2-1. But the bottom line is, PAK administration is just not competent enough to take home advantage.
Why I say that results would have been different - because PAK is not good at holding game. On those PCB specials that they call wicket, PAK could have dominated most matches, but the wickets ‘ll not allow to run through a side & it doesn't break either for the spinners to dominate in last 2 days – you can dominate, but batsmen ‘ll get away with dead bat – result RR of 2.0 & 4 wickets for 200 in a Day. AND also the match duration – PCB ‘ll schedule Test matches in DEC/JAN in Northern Cities for a 10 AM-5PM schedule, excepting 15 overs/hr – Match ‘ll start after 10:30 for fog, then whenever visiting side is in a bit of trouble, bowlers ‘ll take 6 minutes to finish an over, or batters ‘ll change gloves alternate overs – umpires ‘ll offer light at 4PM & you ‘ll end up with 60 overs a day & PAK ‘ll end up drawing the home Test – check PAK-SRL/ZIM/ENG/NZ past Series – Series where you expect PAK to clean sweep at home. On those wickets, professional teams like ENG, SAF or AUS ‘ll either get away with draws or in between once or twice ‘ll get PAK batsmen facing 400+ with 3 days to survive…………….. check the 0-1 by ENG or SAF against that great side of 90s….
Posters in recent times are angry with me - but, I repeat - PCB is the most incompetent, dumbest & idiot cricket administration in world - just not good enough to take home advantage. Management is a science - people picked on their playing skills to run an operation 'll end up doing what we see at PCB. It’s not that only MBAs & Engineers ‘ll make things perfect - it’s great to have cricket background, but education is must. 124 Tests doesn’t make you a great functional director, but you don’t need to play 124 Tests to run a Cricket operation strategically………… you ‘ll say what’s different - BCB is run by Rakibul, Naimur, Farook, Gazi Ashraf Lipu, Basher, Aminul……. in key functional roles – but apart from a bit of cricket skills & experience – all these guys has a Masters from Dhaka University & many of them actually worked for BAT, Unilever, Reckit or Aventis/Novartis in professional capacity for few years………
It’s not only now – from history, PAK’s performance against ENG, AUS or WI is actually better away (may not be in direct win – loss, I said performance) & barring the few years under Khan, it had been always the same pattern – PAK ‘ll dominate home Test & visitors ‘ll get away with a draw, sometimes stealing an win. How many actually knows that PAK’s best performance against IND in ODI is not in UAE, rather in IND it-self, because those free scoring good wickets favors the brand of cricket PAK players cherish to play both with bat & ball – check the head to heads in IND.
Dubai grounds-man is an Indian & this gentleman (Mohan Singh) was the curator of the same Mohali track that produced over 550 runs in 2 ODIs a week apart, but in between on same track SAF pacers bundled PAK for 87, to knock them out of 2008 CT …… that was dirty play by BCCI, I agree; but you need to have the competence to play dirty………….
Home condition is a huge advantage, but you need to have the competence to make that actionable or it might back fire. I hope, it makes sense to you…………….
)
