Because
most Test players the world over don't play domestic cricket!
Domestic cricket is essential for two types of people:
(i) young up-and-coming players, who need to prove their mettle, develop their game and get selected; and
(ii) players who never-were good enough to make the leap to the next level.
For all others, its just a nice-to-have or an additional source of some minor income, or a hobby.
Yousuf obviously doesn't fit either of those categories above, so why does he need to waste his time against pop-gun attacks when he should be out there playing for Pakistan?
Its a travesty that jokers like Shoaib Mirza and Imran Farhat get selected ahead of Yousuf. In ODIs, its a travesty that YK plays ahead of him.
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If any proof of Yousuf's class and ability was needed (and none was), we had more than ample proof this summer. When people like Shoaib Mirza were gallivanting all over the planet like
lafangas, Yousuf was proving himself yet again at
Warwickshire, in the leading domestic cricket competition of the world - not some Mickey Mouse Cup in Pakistan.
Are we seriously suggesting that cricket in the
County Championship Division One, the
world's premier first-class competition that has been around for over 120 years, is of a lower standard than the meaningless, pointless and trivial drivel served up on the Pakistani domestic scene?
Doesn't scoring a flawless hundred on a minefield of a track, on a pitch so difficult for batting it was deemed 'unsuitable for cricket' constitute proving oneself? [
Link and
Scorecard]
Yousuf, defying a treacherous pitch quite unsuited for this level of cricket, gave a masterful demonstration of batting to record the 30th century of his first-class career. So fine an innings was this that Ashley Giles, hardly one prone to hyperbole, described it as "the best I've seen in difficult conditions." It was, in Giles' words "proper class."
Warwickshire may come to be very grateful for Yousuf's contribution. Not only did he make these runs in adversity, but they may have saved the club from a penalty far greater than a difficult match situation.
This game is taking place on a poor pitch. Form the second ball of the day, when Varun Chopra was struck a painful blow on the thumb, balls reared and scuttled in treacherous fashion and batsmen sustained numerous blows on the hands and body. [...]
But Yousuf somehow managed to tame it. He took some blows and, once or twice, he was almost decapitated by deliveries that grew on him like a menacing wave, but generally he subjugated the opposition and the conditions in a quite brilliant way.
How? Well, he watched the ball hawkishly, played as late and as straight as was possible and, by remaining admirably compact, was able to drop his hands or duck his head at the last moment. While other batsmen were drawn into strokes, Yousuf spurned commitment in a manner that would have done Mick Jagger proud. [...]
In-between times, Yousuf played some majestic strokes. His driving has always been sublime, of course, but this innings was also laced with some powerful pulls, some deft flicks off the legs and a lofted straight six off the ineffective Shaaiq Choudhry.
Not bad at all for a has-been, is it?
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Even if Yousuf is well and truly past it... better a '
has-been' than a '
never-were and a never-will-be'. And even if he is well and truly past it, to disparage not just his ability and achievements but his person through these ad hominem attacks* and this pitiful bile is rather pathetic.
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I'm all for building for the future and looking to high-potential younger, fitter and sensible players who can hopefully serve Pakistan cricket with distinction for the next 10 years, guys like Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq. But this process of replacement needs to be done
properly and
sensibly, not through the ham-fisted, haphazard and U-turn prone methodology favoured by the dim-witted and short-sighted Neanderthals running the PCB.
Umar Akmal is our best batting prospect since Yousuf himself started 15 years ago - yet every time he goes out there to bat, we place all the burden, all the responsibility and later on, all the blame on him! Indian batting prodigies such as Kohli, Sharma and even Raina have had the likes of SRT, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Gambhir and Dhoni to learn from, and to play with, in various forms - hence, the youngsters have developed because all the burden of saving and/or winning the match is not on them.
On the other hand, for us - in ODIs and T20s, our batting strategy is simple:
its Umar Akmal or bust. Most of the rest are very limited batsmen indeed. If he fails, as a youngster is bound to, more often than not, given all the pressure - we don't blame the other idiots, but instead tell him off for daring to score 90 odd at run-a-ball! And in Tests, we have actually dropped our best batsmen!
Only in Pakistan!
Instead, we should have blooded Umar with proper, quality, senior players - and should still do so. Umar's batting when he played with Yousuf in the side, and especially with Yousuf at the other end, was at a different level - the same would be the case for other, lesser talents such as Azhar and Asad.
These kids need a quality senior bat, to take pressure, to take responsibility, and to actually score some bloody runs and not just waste balls: YK, Mirza or Farhat are not it. And Misbah, for all his many qualities, is not it either.
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Having said all that....
Even allowing for the PCB's routine ineptitude and misguided cussedness, reasonable people could quite legitimately disagree on whether Yousuf's class and undoubted skill still merits a place in the side, or if, in the interests of looking to the future and building a team that will challenge five years hence, we should bid him farewell with our heartfelt gratitude and best wishes for his future.
In fact, I personally am not wholly persuaded by the former view; Yousuf's role in mentoring and coaching younger players would undoubtedly be a big plus if he's recalled, but there could well be downsides to it too.
However, call me old-fashioned, but I don't see why building for the future should involve destroying all that has been built by former greats, or negating their achievements in the manner done by
some* here.
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* [such as the likes of 'Desi_Joker' are wont to do - and a more apt username for a poster is hard to imagine!]
Shehryar Dada 
) 
