There is a world of a difference between Sami from 2001 to 2004-05 and the one that followed after wards.
Not denying this. But equally true that there is a world of difference between Sami of 2005 and Sami of 2010 (his last Test). From today's vantage point suffice to say that the decline was steady along a downward trajectory from the debut series onwards barring a couple of minor upward blips.
All the commentators and experts were very impressed by him, his pace and the potential he showed. In the 2001 NZ and the 2002 SA series the commentators were raving about him as being the find of the series even though he didn't pick up too many wickets but showed potential.
Commentators can be as impressed with speed as they like. Everybody was obsessed with Speed in 2000 as it seems the year speed guns were invented and for every Sami there was a Nanti Hayward or a shaun tait. The crucial thing is Wickets! if you cant take wickets what good is pace? Shohaib is a great example. When he was fast he was effective, but when he developed a slower ball, he was lethal (2005 onwards) There was an article written by Osman Samiuddin about Sami "great balls of fire" showing that he was as fast as he ever was from about 2001 onwards. I think it was written after a sharjah match with Srilanka.
But then Sami graduated from a 140-145 km/hr bowler to a 145-155 km/hr bowler and that is when his downfall really started in Cricketing terms.
No his downfall was preordained coz he lacked the intelligence to pick up wickets in any other manner than beating for pace. You cant keep beating international batsmen for pace as any little width and a nick will go for 4. They all count.
He started focusing too much on speed and that excess 10 km/hr. If you watch his videos from 2001-2002 you see a guy who swings the new ball both ways and reverse swings the new ball, bowls with an upright seam and is troubling the batsmen, and looking threatening.
This is complete nonesense. Did you actually read what you wrote? for reverse swing the seam has to be horizontal but fingers completely behind seam. As for conventional seam, My 14 year old son can keep a seam upright as its one of the basics of bowling (though bowling with a wobbly seam and landing on a length is something special) Sami may have swung the ball, but i think you are referring to New Zealand debut. Swing is often about atmospheric conditions and moisture in the ground and air. So given how rubbish Sami has been since, we can say that New Zealand debut was a fluke in Auckland which is why he couldn't replicate it in Chritchurch in the following match or even in South Africa in the series in 2002. Swing is nothing without intelligence and control and often is due to flukes with atmospheric conditions. Just think about that Indian bowler Mohanty from 1995 India-pak sahara series..where is he now? Total fluke just like sami. Junaid in Delhi in 2012 is another example...atmospheric conditions. Did Junaid get conventional swing again. (reverse yes, conventional hardly)
I was personally very impressed by him and even though he was a short guy who didn't get a lot of bounce and didn't bowl a lot of bouncers, his swing and his speed which was (140-145 km/hr) was making him a deadly prospect.
The whole world was impressed by him, more for potential than actual results. Of those clips, how many were in a winning cause? As for variations, (other than pace he had none) He didn't have a slower ball and he didn't have a decent pin point yorker and he was very wayward which is criminal in international matches which is why Tait and Hayward didn't last long. Its only in Pakistan that somebody such as Sami would be persisted with for so long. Coz we are often rather immaturely obsessed with the dazzle of speed and the spectacular instead of appreciating the slow and steady.
However he then started to compete with Shoaib Akhtar in terms of speed and with the extra speed, he lost his swing with the new ball and his line and length suffered immensely and too many beatings at the hand of the opposition batsmen, long periods of success without wickets, criticism in the media took toll on his confidence and his entire demeanour changed.
He wasnt competing with Shohaib, the pakistan establishment were thick and unprofessional. Its only when Bob Woolmer arrived and tried to knock some sense into them to focus on line and length as well as pace that they realised the importance of control. Thats why Rao iftakhar, rana and nazir and Razzaq were so well regarded. Remember in the year 2000 onwards pitches all around the world were slowing down so you couldn't just blast opposition out anymore like waqar could in 1992. Even he learnt that the hard way in the 2001 natwest series. However Sami just got found out that the places where he was expected to perform i.e England in 2001, he was injured. Therefore apart from Australia in 2004 there were no other green tops to fluke wickets between 2001-2004. Thats why we think he was so good when he was nothing after a couple of early matches.
Personally i suspect the deterioration of his wrist position, release, upright seam might even have been a case of Zits which is what even Steven Finn suffered from and literally went back to the drawing board to correct but sadly i doubt whether the experts and coaches in Pakistan were even qualified to figure out what the issue with him was.
With respect I dont think you are a coach. Neither am I. But people more knowledgeable than us have worked with this guy and one thing is clear. He cant learn. He cant read batsmen, he cant read match situations, he cant read atmospheric conditions to see how much swing he is generating and take off some swing when need be. (look at the highlights of the 2012 srilanka series...he is almost swinging it too much. Any fool knows that Dambulla under lights is lethal so all you need to do is hit a line and length and the pitch will do the rest which is why Kulasekara and even Vaas were so effective at a fraction of Sami's speed. Both him and Tanvir swung the ball well outside off straight down the leg side time and time again. After that he deserved to be jettisoned from international cricket forever.
Personally speaking i consider him to be the biggest tragedy of Pakistan Cricket for someone who showed the talent, gifts and tools so early in his career as to how he fell completely into mediocrity.[
Lets be clear, with all the lefties currently in the squad there is room in the current line up for a right handed wicket taker so he might still be back. But he isn't the biggest tragedy. I would list Shabbir Ahmed, Mohammed Zahid and Saqlain as the biggest tragedies in how they were completely dropped like hot rocks by the pcb at the time when they needed the most help. Sami has had everybody from Waqar, Wasim to Imran..heck im sure even Kofi Anan would have stepped in if asked but alas Sami remains Sami.
He is beyond help. But I would still love to see him in Pakistan colours again as there is always a little immature side of us fans that yearns for a dazzling performance.
True story.
) So true that it hurts. Maulana Inzi was actually more concerned about his performances than all this tableeghi Jamaat stuff I guess until 2003 and early 2004, went the other way after as did Sami's career.
