I started watching Pakistan play in the mid-1970s. They had the best wicketkeeper I've ever seen them have - Wasim Bari - but he was a number 10 batsman, just like England's Bob Taylor, who replaced the banned Alan Knott in 1978 and was a better keeper but a much worse batsman.
The thing is, even in the 1970s a team couldn't afford a skilled glovesman who couldn't bat. Pakistan's results entered an upward trajectory when Salim Yousuf replaced Wasim Bari.
Like Kamran Akmal, Yousuf was a terrible keeper who was a brave lower-middle order batsman. Suddenly 250-7 could become 320 all out instead of 265 all out.
Moin Khan was a slightly more refined version of Yousuf. Dodgy keeper, but he could bat.
Then came his near-contemporary Rashid Latif. He was a much better keeper, and while he was less skilled with the bat than Moin he performed better in tough situations because he was fearless.
When they exited the scene they were replaced by Kamran Akmal. He was another lousy glovesman like Yousuf and Moin, but was gutsy and highly capable with the bat, but handicapped by an inability to learn.
It's been downhill since then. His brother Adnan represented a step back towards Wasim Bari. A superior keeper, but to be quite honest he is a number 9 Test batsman, comparable in output to Vernon Philander or Peter Siddle or Graeme Swann.
Sarfraz Ahmed is a giant leap even further towards Wasim Bari and the days of the wicketkeeper batting at number 10. His bloated first-class average cannot disguise the fact that Tanvir Ahmed and Saeed Ajmal are both more reliable Test batters than he is.
The influence of Iqbal Qasim and Mohsin Khan is clear for all to see. Both played alongside Wasim Bari, and neither seems to have noticed that Pakistan's tail has been starting at number 7 since Kamran Akmal's final decline.
It's time for a brave individual like Aamir Sohail to be restored to head the selectors and to clear out the dead wood. Kamran and Adnan Akmal and Sarfraz Ahmed are incapable of averaging 35+ like a modern Test keeper has to. (And yesterday, with Morkel injured and Steyn and Philander over-bowled before the second new ball, a decent keeper-batsman would have won Pakistan the 2nd Test at Cape Town.)
In the last three weeks I've been watching South Africa's current and future keeper closely. AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock are both mediocre glovesmen but genuine middle-order or top-order batsmen who are there to ensure that 155-5 doesn't become 169 all out. And de Villiers is becoming a better keeper with Test exposure while the selectors have clearly told de Kock that he must improve his keeping in the First Class circuit for a year or two before joining the Test side.
Why can't Pakistan do the same thing? Identify an Under-19 wicketkeeper-batsman and fast-track him so that he plays ODIs and regular domestic First Class cricket and is groomed to be the next wicketkeeper for the Test team in 12-18 months? Of course any Under-19 will be as clumsy as Kamran Akmal. But at that age he can learn, he can develop.
For Kamran, Adnan and Sarfraz it's far too late for them to develop.
The thing is, even in the 1970s a team couldn't afford a skilled glovesman who couldn't bat. Pakistan's results entered an upward trajectory when Salim Yousuf replaced Wasim Bari.
Like Kamran Akmal, Yousuf was a terrible keeper who was a brave lower-middle order batsman. Suddenly 250-7 could become 320 all out instead of 265 all out.
Moin Khan was a slightly more refined version of Yousuf. Dodgy keeper, but he could bat.
Then came his near-contemporary Rashid Latif. He was a much better keeper, and while he was less skilled with the bat than Moin he performed better in tough situations because he was fearless.
When they exited the scene they were replaced by Kamran Akmal. He was another lousy glovesman like Yousuf and Moin, but was gutsy and highly capable with the bat, but handicapped by an inability to learn.
It's been downhill since then. His brother Adnan represented a step back towards Wasim Bari. A superior keeper, but to be quite honest he is a number 9 Test batsman, comparable in output to Vernon Philander or Peter Siddle or Graeme Swann.
Sarfraz Ahmed is a giant leap even further towards Wasim Bari and the days of the wicketkeeper batting at number 10. His bloated first-class average cannot disguise the fact that Tanvir Ahmed and Saeed Ajmal are both more reliable Test batters than he is.
The influence of Iqbal Qasim and Mohsin Khan is clear for all to see. Both played alongside Wasim Bari, and neither seems to have noticed that Pakistan's tail has been starting at number 7 since Kamran Akmal's final decline.
It's time for a brave individual like Aamir Sohail to be restored to head the selectors and to clear out the dead wood. Kamran and Adnan Akmal and Sarfraz Ahmed are incapable of averaging 35+ like a modern Test keeper has to. (And yesterday, with Morkel injured and Steyn and Philander over-bowled before the second new ball, a decent keeper-batsman would have won Pakistan the 2nd Test at Cape Town.)
In the last three weeks I've been watching South Africa's current and future keeper closely. AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock are both mediocre glovesmen but genuine middle-order or top-order batsmen who are there to ensure that 155-5 doesn't become 169 all out. And de Villiers is becoming a better keeper with Test exposure while the selectors have clearly told de Kock that he must improve his keeping in the First Class circuit for a year or two before joining the Test side.
Why can't Pakistan do the same thing? Identify an Under-19 wicketkeeper-batsman and fast-track him so that he plays ODIs and regular domestic First Class cricket and is groomed to be the next wicketkeeper for the Test team in 12-18 months? Of course any Under-19 will be as clumsy as Kamran Akmal. But at that age he can learn, he can develop.
For Kamran, Adnan and Sarfraz it's far too late for them to develop.
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. I read it in one Dawn blog, published in 2010 when :kami was one of the first to be reinstated in the team following bans on several players, despite :kami being one obvious cause of our downfall in Ausie tour
araz has failed and needs to be replaced. One option currently we can exercise is to hand gloves to 
. He kept wickets in the two-day practise match against Cape Kids X1 (following nose injury to 
