Azlan Khan
T20I Debutant
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2010
- Runs
- 7,220
One of Pakistan's most dedicated Cricket fan from Scotland, we welcome you none other than TalhaSyed in this month's Member Interview!
PakPassion.net: Tell us about yourself?
TalhaSyed: My name is Talha – 22 years old and based in Scotland. I’m in my final year of university, and InshAllah going to be graduating in the next couple of months. I love cricket, music (all kinds from all over the world), WWE, cooking/eating….ok fine just eating, hanging out with friends, movies, cinemas – pretty much the usual (halal!) university life stuff
PakPassion.net: How did you come to know about PakPassion?
TalhaSyed: Well that is going way back! I’ve been with PakPassion since August 2006 so that’s almost coming up to 8 years now!
I am trying to think of how a 14 year old me would have managed to stumble upon PakPassion – and from what I can recall it must have simply been my love for cricket. I always have – and still do – LOVE discussing cricket with fans and have always enjoyed watching cricket videos. I am fairly certain I saw a PakPassion video on YouTube which brought me over for the first time – but I can’t say that with 100% certainty. However, ever since I got here I simply loved the opportunity to be able to discuss cricket with such a large and vast fan base from all over the world.
PakPassion.net: Who do you see as Pakistan's next T20 and ODI Captain?
TalhaSyed: I would be pretty surprised if Misbah does not lead Pakistan into the 2015 World Cup and Afridi doesn’t take over from Hafeez in the T20 format. As far as Misbah leading Pakistan into the 2015 World Cup – I definitely think that is the right & only logical decision. However, Afridi taking over as T20 skipper is a tricky one.
In an ideal world I would like the T20 skipper to be a youngster who we can groom and eventually take on to become ODI and Test captain. However, if such long term planning was possible in Pakistani cricket – who knows what we would have been able to achieve by now! Also, the fact and the bottom line is that there is no youngster – apart from MAYBE Umar Akmal – who has a guaranteed place in the starting XI so I am not sure how you can make any of the younger players captain.
For the time being, I guess Afridi will end up becoming T20 captain, however, as soon as you feel the likes of Umar Akmal or Sohaib Maqsood are ready to be a regular in the starting XI, they should be handed the responsibility of captaincy & ideally be groomed by the likes of Hafeez & Afridi in the team. It’s a similar approach to what SL have taken – with having a young captain who has the likes of Sanga & Jaya around him to help him out.
PakPassion.net: What got you started into video making? How long have you been making videos for?
TalhaSyed: I’ve been making cricket videos since I was around 13/14 so that’s around 8-9 years now MashAllah. I always loved watching montages and videos online in my free time so I thought “why not try it myself?” I remember whilst growing up I watched the series of montages on YouTube called “Cricket Meri Jaan” and I absolutely LOVED them! As a Pakistani cricket fan the passion they enlightened in me was matched by nothing else. I already mentioned that I love music and cricket – so to see the two merged together in one was absolutely perfect for me.
There was one montage in particular that I remember I use to have saved on my PC and I use to watch AAAALLLLL the time when I was younger which was this one:
I saw it a 100 times and just never got bored of it. I love cricket, I love Jal and Shoaib Akhtar is one of my favourite cricketers of all time – so as far as I was concerned this video was the greatest thing to be invented since the wheel!
It was videos like this, and Cricket Meri Jaan which I watched while growing up which got me into video making.
PakPassion.net: What is your current occupation? How do you balance work and editing cricket videos?
TalhaSyed: I’m a student about to InshaAllah finish my Masters in Electrical Engineering with Renewable Energy. As far as time management is concerned – most of my montages are made within one night. I do not like leaving stuff unfinished – not just montages but anything in life. So I only make montages when I know that I have a good 4-6 hours where I can sit down and make the montage. Meanwhile, in between the montages whenever I watch a video I like on PakPassion, YouTube, Facebook or anywhere else – I download it and save it for later. As a result I have close to 100GB worth of cricket videos and footage.
PakPassion.net: How and when did you develop the craze of Cricket?
TalhaSyed: I was born and spent a lot of my younger days growing up in Pakistan – so I guess the question would be “how can I NOT be able to develop a craze for cricket?!” Living in Pakistan in the 90s with likes of Wasim, Waqar, Inzi & Saqlain playing cricket – everyone was cricket crazy!
I ‘watched’ the final of the 1992 as a baby in a crib with my cousins in London and burst out crying because I got scared when they all shouted after Imran Khan took the final catch of the competition. As far as I am concerned – that was my first celebration of a Pakistani victory and after that there was no looking back! After that I played street cricket all the time growing up in Pakistan and my passion for cricket developed further thanks to growing up with my cousins who lived in Karachi.
PakPassion.net: Do you play Cricket yourself? If yes, as what?
TalhaSyed: I use to play cricket a lot more in my High School days. I was fortunate enough to play for the Under 16 Central Scotland cricket team. I based my game on Shahid Afridi – like a lot of fanatic young Pakistanis do! As a result I was mainly a leg spin bowler and used as a pinch hitter with the bat. Unfortunately, I couldn’t match Afridi when it came to skill; however, I could when it came to consistency!
PakPassion.net: We all know your favorite cricketer, but just to satisfy everyone - Whose your favorite?
TalhaSyed: The one and only - Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi. I would never say that he is by any means the best player to play the game or the best all-rounder or bowler for that matter, but as far as I am concerned - he is the most exciting cricketer to play the game. The amount of passion and fire power that he brings to any team which he is part of is unmatched by any. Whether you are in the team, one of the oppositions, a fan in the crowd or a fan sitting at home – you know that Afridi has the X factor and has the ability to turn any game on its head with bat, ball or in the field in a matter of minutes.
Along with Afridi, my other to favourite cricketers of all time have been Inzamam-ul-Haq and Shaoib Akhtar. With Inzi – as a Pakistani fan he just demands our respect. I watched Inzi whilst growing up and he was the rock in the team that was desperately needed – and still is today. Meanwhile, Akhtar had that passion and X factor like Afridi.
Outside the Pakistani team – whilst growing up I was a massive Shaun Pollock fan for some unexplainable reason. Currently my favourite non-Pakistani players have to be Chris Gayle & Virat Kohli.
PakPassion.net: Which is the greatest cricket match you have ever seen?
TalhaSyed: This is a tough on! I guess the 2009 T20 World Cup Semi Final and Final were both pretty damn epic. I am way too young to remember the ’92 final, so the 2009 T20 win for me was absolutely fantastic & for me personally it was specially amazing to see Afridi take responsibility and guide the team home. The World Cup win was made so much sweeter and was needed so badly specially after what had happened earlier that year in Lahore.
The Sharjah Test match at the start of this year was amazing as well. To chase over 300 in 2 sessions was incredible and that was a much needed victory for the side. The 2005 and 2012 Test series against England were phenomenal viewing for all Pakistani fans as well.
I am going to go out on a bit of a limb here and if I had to pick one match as my favourite cricket match to watch at all time – Pakistan Under 19 VS India Under 19 in the 2006 Under 19 World Cup Final. We were defending champions and got bowled out for 110 and were dead and buried. That was until Anwar Ali & Jamshed Ahmed came out all guns blazing and reduced India to 9/6 after 3.2 overs. Akhtar Ayub then came on and cleaned up the tail as Pakistan retained the trophy. It was a dramatic match and was desperately needed specially since on that very same day the Pakistani seniors lost the 5th and final ODI their Indian counterparts in Karachi and lost the series 4-1!
PakPassion.net: Your favorite batsman of all time?
TalhaSyed: Inzi – for so many years he was the rock in the Pakistani batting line up. His ability to stay calm and handle pressure so easily was amazing to watch. He could bat through the innings and with the tail which was absolutely invaluable to the team. His late cuts and pulls more then made up for his ability to run between the wickets.
PakPassion.net: Your favorite bowler of all time?
TalhaSyed: This is a much harder. I bowl spin and growing up I learned and loved to bowl spin by watching Saqlain Mushtaq & Mushtaq Ahmed. Later on Afridi and now Ajmal have now also joined the picture. As far as fast bowling is concerned - it’s hard to look past Akhtars pace and Waqars in-swinging yorkers.
However, if I have to pick one bowler it would have to be the King of Swing – Wasim Akram. His ability to generate such pace from a 15 yard run up and move the ball both ways whilst mixing it up iss unmatched by any other bowler.
PakPassion.net: Your favorite captain of all time?
TalhaSyed: I would have to go for Inzi again for this one. Some will argue that he was a defensive captain – however, in my mind his calmness was exactly what the Pakistani team needs. He was a rock that was not rattled by anything and was able to absorb pressure. He demanded respect from his players, and due to that the team seemed willing to play as one. I feel Misbah now has a similar captaincy style to Inzi, however, not quite as good as Inzi.
In this category I also have to mention Dhoni. In my opinion a lot of the Indian fans don’t appreciate how great a captain Dhoni is and have started taking him for granted over the last couple of years.
PakPassion.net: Are you still a die-hard fan of Cricket as you were before?
TalhaSyed: Yup – if not more so now than ever. Once I left Pakistan and moved to the UK – as many British Pakistanis – cricket has always been my link to back home and I always love it. Pakistan always draws massive crowds in the UK and the reason for that is that a lot of Pakistani fans here are die hard cricket fans since it links us back to our Pakistani roots. I feel that I am probably in the same category.
PakPassion.net: You have made plenty of cricket montages, your favorite of them all?
TalhaSyed: I have two which I love personally:
The History of Cricket
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<div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153012103050221" data-width="466"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153012103050221">Post</a> by <a href="http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/member.php?u=3474">Talha Syed</a>.</div></div>
Pakistan VS England 2012 – HD Extended Montage
<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xwz0y7" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwz0y7_pakistan-vs-england-in-uae-2012-1080p-hd-extended-montage_sport" target="_blank">Pakistan VS England in UAE 2012 - 1080p HD...</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/TalhaSyed" target="_blank">TalhaSyed</a></i>
I love making long montages since you can get so much more into them – however, they take so so so much linger!! I like these 2 because I feel the first one would appeal to any cricket fan regardless of what country you are for – and that is what I love about sports. Sports are like a common language which people from across the globe speak and brings the whole world together.
Meanwhile I feel the second video – as a Pakistani fans – allows us to relive some of Pakistani crickets finest hours.
PakPassion.net: What goes into your mind when you're selecting a particular theme or song for a montage?
TalhaSyed: In my opinion the song is the most important thing of the montage. If the song works – the montage will work – if the song doesn’t work the montage will fall apart.
There are some songs which lend themselves perfectly to certain players or certain scenarios. I love to listen to the lyrics of songs – sometimes this pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. I remember after Pakistan's tour of India in 2012/13 I made a montage for a review of the tour with Ellie Goulding’s song – “Anything Can Happen”. In my head that was the perfect song for Indo-Pak cricket since we all know that in these encounters anything can happen! However, in general the montage was not very well received!
On the other hand – 2 songs which suit cricketers perfectly (at least in my head!) are:
Mohammad Amir – “Forever Young”: As far as Pakistani fans are concerned he will always be that 17 year old kid who had so much to promise and we may never know what he could have achieved. Therefore he will stay forever young for us
Shahid Afridi – “My Way Or The Highway”: Anyone who knows anything about Afridi can see how this song fits his character as well as his game
At the end of the day – finding the right song is probably the hardest part of making a montage. You need to find something which has a mix of ups and downs and at the same time allows you to exaggerate the audio from the cricket clips. Ideally – I would love to use a lot more of the crowd and the commentary in the montages – however, when videos get uploaded online the first thing that happens is that the audio gets compressed to reduce the file size, so it makes it very difficult to find cricket clips which have a good quality audio. In that scenario it isn’t possible to use the crowd and the commentary and instead the song needs to be able to portray the mood of the cricket clip and what is going on.
PakPassion.net: If you had a chance to play for the Scotland Cricket Team, would you?
TalhaSyed: Yes – definitely! In fact at one stage when I was playing for Under 16 Central Scotland that was one of my ambitions and goals to one day be Scotland’s premier leg spin bowler! However, Engineering School + my brown genes had other ideas…
PakPassion.net: What format would you choose to watch? Test, ODI or T20?
TalhaSyed: I just love cricket – regardless of the format. I just enjoy the battle between bat and ball and don’t mind if it’s Test, T20 or an ODI. Just this year we have seen an historic Test match between Pakistan & Sri Lanka in Sharjah, a memorable ODI between Pakistan & India in Dhaka and a number of hard fought T20’s in the World Cup such as the match between Pakistan & Australia. As long as a good quality and competitive cricket is being played – I am more than happy to watch.
PakPassion.net: How disappointed were you when Pakistan were knocked out from the World T20 2014 by West Indies?
TalhaSyed: Naturally – as any Pakistani fan it was extremely disappointing for me. The worst part was that I felt we should have won the game against West Indies, however, the part that annoyed me the most was how lost and confused our bowlers looked when Sammy and Bravo took the attack to them. It was extremely sad to see how rattled the team were after that onslaught by Sammy and Bravo and really showed how frail the teams mind set is at the moment.
On the flip side it was not too bad since if we were going to get knocked out by any team I would want it to be the West Indies and to be completely honest – the best 4 teams in the competition made it to the Semi Finals.
PakPassion.net: Most memorable cricketing moment?
TalhaSyed: For me personally, the most memorable cricketing moment/event has to be when I got to meet the Pakistani cricket team in Edinburgh last year thanks to Cricket Scotland and PakPassion. I got to meet the team before they went off for the Champions Trophy and it was an unforgettable experience for me. Since I was the only media in the ground, the team were very friendly and approachable which made the experience my most memorable cricketing experience.
A full account of that day can be found here:
http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/showthread.php?t=177911
PakPassion.net: How do you see Pakistan's chances in the World Cup which is being held in Australia and New Zealand early next year?
TalhaSyed: Trying to predict how Pakistan will perform in the next game is a massive gamble – never mind in an even that will take place in a years’ time! On the whole I would like to think that the team will do all-right, however, our batsmen really really need to step their game up on those fast Australian pitches. I am also not too sure about our bowling attack after the T20 World Cup, however, I hope the likes of Gul, Ajmal & afridi come through for the big event InshAllah.
What am I talking about – Pakistan has next years World Cup in the bag InshAllah!!! #PakistaniHope
PakPassion.net: Misbah-ul-Haq or Shahid Afridi as captain?
TalhaSyed: Misbah-ul-Haq. He is a more stable and calm choice. However, I feel it is important to have Afridi in the team and used as a senior player in the team. Misbah should be the captain of the team what but the likes of Afridi and Younus (in Tests specially) say should be taken into serious consideration and they should be given the respect they deserve and have earned over the years.
PakPassion.net: Few words for cricket fans?
TalhaSyed: Back the team – simple as that.
It is very easy to come up with conspiracies and stories every time there is a dip in the teams performance – it is much harder to stick by them. There is drama in every sporting team but our fans and media just love to exaggerate issues so much that even the smallest of problems become difficult to teal with. I have expressed my views on Pakistani fans further in the article which I wrote last year called “The Undiagnosed Cancer of Pakistani Cricket – The Fans” and can be found here:
http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/showthread.php?t=191045
PakPassion.net: Final one - if you were the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket board, what changes would you imply?
TalhaSyed: Ideally I would try and convince Imran Khan to take over my job – however, he seems pretty occupied with bigger and much more important tasks these days.
There is so much that needs work as far as Pakistani cricket is concerned – here are 2 factors which I think can make the biggest difference:
Domestic cricket – our domestic structure needs a serious shake up and we should take a look at English domestic cricket and look to structure our domestic cricket in a similar way
Coaching – not only for the national team but we need to send trained coaches to different part of the countries to look for and train talent. The best talent in Pakistan is currently playing street cricket. We need to go on the streets and try to find and groom those hidden gems
Obviously – all this is much easier said than done..
PakPassion.net: Tell us about yourself?
TalhaSyed: My name is Talha – 22 years old and based in Scotland. I’m in my final year of university, and InshAllah going to be graduating in the next couple of months. I love cricket, music (all kinds from all over the world), WWE, cooking/eating….ok fine just eating, hanging out with friends, movies, cinemas – pretty much the usual (halal!) university life stuff
PakPassion.net: How did you come to know about PakPassion?
TalhaSyed: Well that is going way back! I’ve been with PakPassion since August 2006 so that’s almost coming up to 8 years now!
I am trying to think of how a 14 year old me would have managed to stumble upon PakPassion – and from what I can recall it must have simply been my love for cricket. I always have – and still do – LOVE discussing cricket with fans and have always enjoyed watching cricket videos. I am fairly certain I saw a PakPassion video on YouTube which brought me over for the first time – but I can’t say that with 100% certainty. However, ever since I got here I simply loved the opportunity to be able to discuss cricket with such a large and vast fan base from all over the world.
PakPassion.net: Who do you see as Pakistan's next T20 and ODI Captain?
TalhaSyed: I would be pretty surprised if Misbah does not lead Pakistan into the 2015 World Cup and Afridi doesn’t take over from Hafeez in the T20 format. As far as Misbah leading Pakistan into the 2015 World Cup – I definitely think that is the right & only logical decision. However, Afridi taking over as T20 skipper is a tricky one.
In an ideal world I would like the T20 skipper to be a youngster who we can groom and eventually take on to become ODI and Test captain. However, if such long term planning was possible in Pakistani cricket – who knows what we would have been able to achieve by now! Also, the fact and the bottom line is that there is no youngster – apart from MAYBE Umar Akmal – who has a guaranteed place in the starting XI so I am not sure how you can make any of the younger players captain.
For the time being, I guess Afridi will end up becoming T20 captain, however, as soon as you feel the likes of Umar Akmal or Sohaib Maqsood are ready to be a regular in the starting XI, they should be handed the responsibility of captaincy & ideally be groomed by the likes of Hafeez & Afridi in the team. It’s a similar approach to what SL have taken – with having a young captain who has the likes of Sanga & Jaya around him to help him out.
PakPassion.net: What got you started into video making? How long have you been making videos for?
TalhaSyed: I’ve been making cricket videos since I was around 13/14 so that’s around 8-9 years now MashAllah. I always loved watching montages and videos online in my free time so I thought “why not try it myself?” I remember whilst growing up I watched the series of montages on YouTube called “Cricket Meri Jaan” and I absolutely LOVED them! As a Pakistani cricket fan the passion they enlightened in me was matched by nothing else. I already mentioned that I love music and cricket – so to see the two merged together in one was absolutely perfect for me.
There was one montage in particular that I remember I use to have saved on my PC and I use to watch AAAALLLLL the time when I was younger which was this one:
[utube]k7_d9WnzzXg[/utube]
I saw it a 100 times and just never got bored of it. I love cricket, I love Jal and Shoaib Akhtar is one of my favourite cricketers of all time – so as far as I was concerned this video was the greatest thing to be invented since the wheel!
It was videos like this, and Cricket Meri Jaan which I watched while growing up which got me into video making.
PakPassion.net: What is your current occupation? How do you balance work and editing cricket videos?
TalhaSyed: I’m a student about to InshaAllah finish my Masters in Electrical Engineering with Renewable Energy. As far as time management is concerned – most of my montages are made within one night. I do not like leaving stuff unfinished – not just montages but anything in life. So I only make montages when I know that I have a good 4-6 hours where I can sit down and make the montage. Meanwhile, in between the montages whenever I watch a video I like on PakPassion, YouTube, Facebook or anywhere else – I download it and save it for later. As a result I have close to 100GB worth of cricket videos and footage.
PakPassion.net: How and when did you develop the craze of Cricket?
TalhaSyed: I was born and spent a lot of my younger days growing up in Pakistan – so I guess the question would be “how can I NOT be able to develop a craze for cricket?!” Living in Pakistan in the 90s with likes of Wasim, Waqar, Inzi & Saqlain playing cricket – everyone was cricket crazy!
I ‘watched’ the final of the 1992 as a baby in a crib with my cousins in London and burst out crying because I got scared when they all shouted after Imran Khan took the final catch of the competition. As far as I am concerned – that was my first celebration of a Pakistani victory and after that there was no looking back! After that I played street cricket all the time growing up in Pakistan and my passion for cricket developed further thanks to growing up with my cousins who lived in Karachi.
PakPassion.net: Do you play Cricket yourself? If yes, as what?
TalhaSyed: I use to play cricket a lot more in my High School days. I was fortunate enough to play for the Under 16 Central Scotland cricket team. I based my game on Shahid Afridi – like a lot of fanatic young Pakistanis do! As a result I was mainly a leg spin bowler and used as a pinch hitter with the bat. Unfortunately, I couldn’t match Afridi when it came to skill; however, I could when it came to consistency!
PakPassion.net: We all know your favorite cricketer, but just to satisfy everyone - Whose your favorite?
TalhaSyed: The one and only - Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi. I would never say that he is by any means the best player to play the game or the best all-rounder or bowler for that matter, but as far as I am concerned - he is the most exciting cricketer to play the game. The amount of passion and fire power that he brings to any team which he is part of is unmatched by any. Whether you are in the team, one of the oppositions, a fan in the crowd or a fan sitting at home – you know that Afridi has the X factor and has the ability to turn any game on its head with bat, ball or in the field in a matter of minutes.
Along with Afridi, my other to favourite cricketers of all time have been Inzamam-ul-Haq and Shaoib Akhtar. With Inzi – as a Pakistani fan he just demands our respect. I watched Inzi whilst growing up and he was the rock in the team that was desperately needed – and still is today. Meanwhile, Akhtar had that passion and X factor like Afridi.
Outside the Pakistani team – whilst growing up I was a massive Shaun Pollock fan for some unexplainable reason. Currently my favourite non-Pakistani players have to be Chris Gayle & Virat Kohli.
PakPassion.net: Which is the greatest cricket match you have ever seen?
TalhaSyed: This is a tough on! I guess the 2009 T20 World Cup Semi Final and Final were both pretty damn epic. I am way too young to remember the ’92 final, so the 2009 T20 win for me was absolutely fantastic & for me personally it was specially amazing to see Afridi take responsibility and guide the team home. The World Cup win was made so much sweeter and was needed so badly specially after what had happened earlier that year in Lahore.
The Sharjah Test match at the start of this year was amazing as well. To chase over 300 in 2 sessions was incredible and that was a much needed victory for the side. The 2005 and 2012 Test series against England were phenomenal viewing for all Pakistani fans as well.
I am going to go out on a bit of a limb here and if I had to pick one match as my favourite cricket match to watch at all time – Pakistan Under 19 VS India Under 19 in the 2006 Under 19 World Cup Final. We were defending champions and got bowled out for 110 and were dead and buried. That was until Anwar Ali & Jamshed Ahmed came out all guns blazing and reduced India to 9/6 after 3.2 overs. Akhtar Ayub then came on and cleaned up the tail as Pakistan retained the trophy. It was a dramatic match and was desperately needed specially since on that very same day the Pakistani seniors lost the 5th and final ODI their Indian counterparts in Karachi and lost the series 4-1!
PakPassion.net: Your favorite batsman of all time?
TalhaSyed: Inzi – for so many years he was the rock in the Pakistani batting line up. His ability to stay calm and handle pressure so easily was amazing to watch. He could bat through the innings and with the tail which was absolutely invaluable to the team. His late cuts and pulls more then made up for his ability to run between the wickets.
PakPassion.net: Your favorite bowler of all time?
TalhaSyed: This is a much harder. I bowl spin and growing up I learned and loved to bowl spin by watching Saqlain Mushtaq & Mushtaq Ahmed. Later on Afridi and now Ajmal have now also joined the picture. As far as fast bowling is concerned - it’s hard to look past Akhtars pace and Waqars in-swinging yorkers.
However, if I have to pick one bowler it would have to be the King of Swing – Wasim Akram. His ability to generate such pace from a 15 yard run up and move the ball both ways whilst mixing it up iss unmatched by any other bowler.
PakPassion.net: Your favorite captain of all time?
TalhaSyed: I would have to go for Inzi again for this one. Some will argue that he was a defensive captain – however, in my mind his calmness was exactly what the Pakistani team needs. He was a rock that was not rattled by anything and was able to absorb pressure. He demanded respect from his players, and due to that the team seemed willing to play as one. I feel Misbah now has a similar captaincy style to Inzi, however, not quite as good as Inzi.
In this category I also have to mention Dhoni. In my opinion a lot of the Indian fans don’t appreciate how great a captain Dhoni is and have started taking him for granted over the last couple of years.
PakPassion.net: Are you still a die-hard fan of Cricket as you were before?
TalhaSyed: Yup – if not more so now than ever. Once I left Pakistan and moved to the UK – as many British Pakistanis – cricket has always been my link to back home and I always love it. Pakistan always draws massive crowds in the UK and the reason for that is that a lot of Pakistani fans here are die hard cricket fans since it links us back to our Pakistani roots. I feel that I am probably in the same category.
PakPassion.net: You have made plenty of cricket montages, your favorite of them all?
TalhaSyed: I have two which I love personally:
The History of Cricket
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<div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153012103050221" data-width="466"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153012103050221">Post</a> by <a href="http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/member.php?u=3474">Talha Syed</a>.</div></div>
Pakistan VS England 2012 – HD Extended Montage
<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xwz0y7" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwz0y7_pakistan-vs-england-in-uae-2012-1080p-hd-extended-montage_sport" target="_blank">Pakistan VS England in UAE 2012 - 1080p HD...</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/TalhaSyed" target="_blank">TalhaSyed</a></i>
I love making long montages since you can get so much more into them – however, they take so so so much linger!! I like these 2 because I feel the first one would appeal to any cricket fan regardless of what country you are for – and that is what I love about sports. Sports are like a common language which people from across the globe speak and brings the whole world together.
Meanwhile I feel the second video – as a Pakistani fans – allows us to relive some of Pakistani crickets finest hours.
PakPassion.net: What goes into your mind when you're selecting a particular theme or song for a montage?
TalhaSyed: In my opinion the song is the most important thing of the montage. If the song works – the montage will work – if the song doesn’t work the montage will fall apart.
There are some songs which lend themselves perfectly to certain players or certain scenarios. I love to listen to the lyrics of songs – sometimes this pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. I remember after Pakistan's tour of India in 2012/13 I made a montage for a review of the tour with Ellie Goulding’s song – “Anything Can Happen”. In my head that was the perfect song for Indo-Pak cricket since we all know that in these encounters anything can happen! However, in general the montage was not very well received!
On the other hand – 2 songs which suit cricketers perfectly (at least in my head!) are:
Mohammad Amir – “Forever Young”: As far as Pakistani fans are concerned he will always be that 17 year old kid who had so much to promise and we may never know what he could have achieved. Therefore he will stay forever young for us
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Shahid Afridi – “My Way Or The Highway”: Anyone who knows anything about Afridi can see how this song fits his character as well as his game
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At the end of the day – finding the right song is probably the hardest part of making a montage. You need to find something which has a mix of ups and downs and at the same time allows you to exaggerate the audio from the cricket clips. Ideally – I would love to use a lot more of the crowd and the commentary in the montages – however, when videos get uploaded online the first thing that happens is that the audio gets compressed to reduce the file size, so it makes it very difficult to find cricket clips which have a good quality audio. In that scenario it isn’t possible to use the crowd and the commentary and instead the song needs to be able to portray the mood of the cricket clip and what is going on.
PakPassion.net: If you had a chance to play for the Scotland Cricket Team, would you?
TalhaSyed: Yes – definitely! In fact at one stage when I was playing for Under 16 Central Scotland that was one of my ambitions and goals to one day be Scotland’s premier leg spin bowler! However, Engineering School + my brown genes had other ideas…
PakPassion.net: What format would you choose to watch? Test, ODI or T20?
TalhaSyed: I just love cricket – regardless of the format. I just enjoy the battle between bat and ball and don’t mind if it’s Test, T20 or an ODI. Just this year we have seen an historic Test match between Pakistan & Sri Lanka in Sharjah, a memorable ODI between Pakistan & India in Dhaka and a number of hard fought T20’s in the World Cup such as the match between Pakistan & Australia. As long as a good quality and competitive cricket is being played – I am more than happy to watch.
PakPassion.net: How disappointed were you when Pakistan were knocked out from the World T20 2014 by West Indies?
TalhaSyed: Naturally – as any Pakistani fan it was extremely disappointing for me. The worst part was that I felt we should have won the game against West Indies, however, the part that annoyed me the most was how lost and confused our bowlers looked when Sammy and Bravo took the attack to them. It was extremely sad to see how rattled the team were after that onslaught by Sammy and Bravo and really showed how frail the teams mind set is at the moment.
On the flip side it was not too bad since if we were going to get knocked out by any team I would want it to be the West Indies and to be completely honest – the best 4 teams in the competition made it to the Semi Finals.
PakPassion.net: Most memorable cricketing moment?
TalhaSyed: For me personally, the most memorable cricketing moment/event has to be when I got to meet the Pakistani cricket team in Edinburgh last year thanks to Cricket Scotland and PakPassion. I got to meet the team before they went off for the Champions Trophy and it was an unforgettable experience for me. Since I was the only media in the ground, the team were very friendly and approachable which made the experience my most memorable cricketing experience.
A full account of that day can be found here:
http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/showthread.php?t=177911
PakPassion.net: How do you see Pakistan's chances in the World Cup which is being held in Australia and New Zealand early next year?
TalhaSyed: Trying to predict how Pakistan will perform in the next game is a massive gamble – never mind in an even that will take place in a years’ time! On the whole I would like to think that the team will do all-right, however, our batsmen really really need to step their game up on those fast Australian pitches. I am also not too sure about our bowling attack after the T20 World Cup, however, I hope the likes of Gul, Ajmal & afridi come through for the big event InshAllah.
What am I talking about – Pakistan has next years World Cup in the bag InshAllah!!! #PakistaniHope
PakPassion.net: Misbah-ul-Haq or Shahid Afridi as captain?
TalhaSyed: Misbah-ul-Haq. He is a more stable and calm choice. However, I feel it is important to have Afridi in the team and used as a senior player in the team. Misbah should be the captain of the team what but the likes of Afridi and Younus (in Tests specially) say should be taken into serious consideration and they should be given the respect they deserve and have earned over the years.
PakPassion.net: Few words for cricket fans?
TalhaSyed: Back the team – simple as that.
It is very easy to come up with conspiracies and stories every time there is a dip in the teams performance – it is much harder to stick by them. There is drama in every sporting team but our fans and media just love to exaggerate issues so much that even the smallest of problems become difficult to teal with. I have expressed my views on Pakistani fans further in the article which I wrote last year called “The Undiagnosed Cancer of Pakistani Cricket – The Fans” and can be found here:
http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/showthread.php?t=191045
PakPassion.net: Final one - if you were the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket board, what changes would you imply?
TalhaSyed: Ideally I would try and convince Imran Khan to take over my job – however, he seems pretty occupied with bigger and much more important tasks these days.
There is so much that needs work as far as Pakistani cricket is concerned – here are 2 factors which I think can make the biggest difference:
Domestic cricket – our domestic structure needs a serious shake up and we should take a look at English domestic cricket and look to structure our domestic cricket in a similar way
Coaching – not only for the national team but we need to send trained coaches to different part of the countries to look for and train talent. The best talent in Pakistan is currently playing street cricket. We need to go on the streets and try to find and groom those hidden gems
Obviously – all this is much easier said than done..
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