There is a certain generation of Pakistani cricket fans — provisionally, we can say those born between 1975 and 1985 — that have grown up with a very particular worldview when it comes to cricketing miracles. In short, they believe that they are not miracles at all, mainly because they happened too often, and in ways that were too predictable, to be truly providential.

These predictable, orderly miracles usually go something like this: Pakistan hem and haw for three or four days, dropping catches, playing stupid shots, bowling wides, getting wickets off no-balls, and so on. The opposition, usually a good but not great team such as early 90s New Zealand or mid 1990s England, have done the hard work, and are poised to finish off a game with one or two sessions of good, solid play. And then they get blown away.

I choose that metaphor very carefully. Watching Wasim and Waqar and Saqlain and Mushie and Shoaib in their heyday was a little like watching Omar Little in his element — it was fun, but it was also very violent. There was something comically brutal about the way they went about their business. Collapses against that Pakistan team were gory murder scenes: the stumps splayed, batsmen hopping, fielders rendered unnecessary.

Yesterday was something very different. It was a choke, a suffocation. Pakistan essentially shut England in an airtight room, closed the windows and doors, threw the keys away, and waited. I’ve never really seen anything like it.

Forget the 10 wickets for a second. Just think about the drip-drip-drip of those first fourteen overs — where we got zero wickets but conceded only 18 runs. Those fourteen overs set the stage for everything that came after. It was marked by brilliant bowling and even more brilliant captaincy. Misbah’s field placings were so intelligent — he simultaneously had attacking fielders, single-saving fielders, and boundary-saving fielders. You had to look twice to make sure we hadn’t cheated by sneaking on three extra guys on the ground. One common refrain from the commentators was that England were going nowhere. But that’s because Misbah left them nowhere to go. This was Stephen Fleming and Mark Taylor level captaincy, maybe better.

And once one fell, you just got the feeling — apologies for channeling Ravi Shastri — that one would lead to two and more. England’s rejigging of the batting order meant that once Cook got out, their next four wickets were the cheapest ones until you got to the end: Strauss, Bell, Pietersen, and Morgan are all either out of form, not particularly good against spin, or not particularly good in general.It gave us the opening we needed.

I didn’t think 145 would be enough though, certainly at the beginning of the innings. It’s such a low total that you just need one half partnership, say 50 or 60, and the game’s over. One wayward spell, one dropped catch, one silly decision, and it was done. But somehow, some way, England never managed it.

But talking about what happened is less important than talking about what it meant. There’s been enough written about our trials and tribulations over the last few years, both on and off the cricket field, so I won’t rehash all of that right now. Instead, I want to make a slightly different but related point.

When people use cliches like “cricket means a lot to Pakistan and Pakistanis” they obscure as much as they reveal. We know that cricket matters but how does cricket matter? It’s very difficult to explain to outsiders. The way I think about is this: very few of us actually know international cricketers personally, but we all act like we do. I know that sounds strange, but hear me out.

The point is that by consuming so much information about cricketers, their exploits, and their stories through magazine profiles, Cricinfo Statsguru, fan forums, rumors, Youtube videos of them dancing, and everything else available publicly (and some things that are not), Pakistanis feel like they have a pretty good sense of who their cricketing representatives are. We start forming a picture of their personalities and their background, and start pigeonholing them into our own social fabric. For example, when I see a bunch of londas on motorbikes on Seaview, I think “there goes Shoaib Akhtar!” When I hear stories about some sifarshi getting ahead in his company, I think “Ah, an Imran Farhat then.” And so on.

So yesterday, when I saw the entire team jumping in each other’s arms and hugging each other and grinning their impish grins, it made me so, so happy.

No words necessary. Photo: AP

It was such a powerful experience. I could see what it meant to them because I had internalized the pain they felt over the last couple of years. Their struggles had become our struggles because, for better or worse, that’s how Pakistanis live.

It really was an experience I’ll never forget. Combined with the delirium that comes from being awake at an absurd hour, I got really emotional. I got into bed at 7:30 a.m., but not before shaking the W awake, and telling her that we won a game we had no business competing in (she was not amused or appreciative, but whatever, I needed to tell her for my sake if not hers).

I was clearly not alone. Facebook and Twitter, as they are wont to do at times such as these, blew up. Evidently all the main channels back home led their bulletins with the match. I am sure we have played better cricket in my lifetime, but this may be, alongside Melbourne in 1992 and Lords in 2009, our most meaningful win in a long, long time.

I think it’s important that we just cherish this win, revel in it, and remember it. I hope we don’t start thinking of this as a jumping off point for something grander, because, let’s be honest, that’s not how things work around here. Things are just as likely to go horribly pear-shaped from here as anything else: maybe a power struggle ensues when Whatmore takes over; maybe Mohsin Khan doesn’t go quietly into the sunset; maybe a couple of senior players get jealous of all the Misbah adulation in the media; maybe we go to Australia, South Africa or England and discover the truth that other than Younis and Azhar, none of our batters are good enough for those pitches. It’s better to not worry about the future, enjoy the present, and thank those who gave it to us: #TeamMisbah.

The Origin of the Beatles Haircut:

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

New York Press Conference 1964

Reporter: Where you your haircuts come from?

George Harrison: Our scalps.

In their early years as a fledgling rock and roll band in the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, The Beatles each sported typical slicked-back, greased-up Tony Curtis/Elvis Presley type D.A. haircuts. In an early explanation as to the origin of the Beatles haircut, George was quoted as saying that he came out of the swimming baths one day, his hair had fallen down over his forehead, and he just left it that way.

The true derivation of the world famous coiffure is a bit more complex. In August of 1960, the newly-0named “Beatles” consisted of five members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, bassist Stu Sutcliffe, and a newly-hired drummer named Pete Best. The band was hired to play as series of gigs in August of 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. It was there that they met two people who were to have a profound effect on their future careers as icon and trendsetters: Astrid Kirchherr and Jürgen Vollmer.

Kirchherr was a very original and creative photographer. One night she saw The Beatles play at a local club in Hamburg called the Top Ten Club (she was talked into going by her boyfriend Klaus Voorman and fellow artist and friend Jürgen Vollmer). Astrid, Klaus, and Jürgen struck up an immediate and close friendship with the five young, talented, and slightly homesick young rock and rollers. Also, Astrid and bassist Stu Sutcliffe almost immediately fell in love.

Using Jean Cocteau’s 1950 film Orpheus as her main inspiration, one day Astrid gave her beloved Stu a new haircut (it was also a style she had seen on many German boys at her college). She washed the grease out of his scalp and combed the locks straight down, over his forehead. Astrid recalled that she originally used the long combed-over cut on her boyfriend Klaus Voorman, to cover up his bog, floppy ears.

(Image credit: Astrid Kirchherr)

Although the exact dates are nebulous, it is indisputable that Stu was the first Beatle to sport the Beatle haircut on stage. When Stu came onstage to perform that night, John and Paul laughed hysterically and ridiculed poor Stu. Stu was soon to leave the band in early 1961 (he died tragically in April of 1962 of a brain hemorrhage at the early age of 21).

George was actually the first of the later famous Beatles to wear the Beatle cut. Astrid recalled (after Stu), “then George came along and asked me to cut his hair that way.” She added that “John and Paul couldn’t decide whether to have the different haircut.” When George came on stage with his hair combed forward in front of an audience at the Top Ten Club “the rockers gave him funny looks” and he combed it back the next day. This was in the early months of 1961.

George Harrison, before and after.

In October of ’61, John and Paul decided to take a spur of the moment vacation to Paris (one of john’s aunts had given him the princely sun of £500 for his 21st birthday). In Paris, they encountered their old friend Jürgen and asked him to give their hair the combed over treatment. According to Paul, “He (Jürgen) had his hair mod style. We said, ‘Would you do our hair like yours? We’re on holiday, what the hell, we’re buying capes and pantaloons, throwing caution to the wind.’ He said ‘No, boys, I like you as rockers. You look great.’ But we begged him enough. So he said alright. We sat down in his hotel and we just got it. The Beatle cut.”

The new Beatle cut was not without its early drawbacks.  Their road manager Neil Aspenall recalled, “The boys were an easy target for troublemakers who attended those early dates. Gangs would often make it a point of shouting insults at them. It was their childish way of looking for a fight or getting back at the Beatles because their girls thought so much of them.”

In August of 1962, drummer Ringo Starr was asked to join the band. Drummer Pete Best never joined John, Paul, and George in combing his hair in their new over-the-forehead look. His hair was too curly. When later asked why he never combed his hair into a Beatle cut, he replied, “They never asked me.” This bit of non-conformity, while not the entire reason, was probably one of the contributing factors when when the Beatles decided to give poor Pete the sack after two years of loyal drumming with them.

At the time, Ringo not only had a greasy swept-back haircut, he also sported a stylish beard. Ringo recalled John’s phone call to him, asking him to join the Beatles. “You can keep your sidies (sideburns), but lose the beard,” he was instructed. Early publicity photos, as well as Ringo’s picture on the Beatles’ first album Please Please Me, show Ringo clean-shaven, but still with a slightly swept-back coiffure.

By late 1962, the Beatle haircut was firmly established as an easily-recognizable part of the Beatles joint persona. In the early months of 1963, the band had already gotten used to being referred to as “the four moptops” by the British press. In September of 1963, The Beatles record “She Loves You” was played on Dick Clark’s popular dance show American Bandstand. According to Newsweek, when kids saw a photo of four long-haired kids, they just laughed. The record received a mediocre 73 rating in the “Rate A Record” segment of the show.

When they first came to America in February of 1964, TIME magazine referred to their hair as “mushroom haircuts.” Besides the obvious Beatles wigs, the Fab Four cottage industry also spawned Beatle hairbrushes, Beatle combs, and Beatle hairspray. Their then-controversial haircuts became fodder at every Beatle press conference.

John stated that he hadn’t visited an actual barber in years; George cut his hair when they were on tour and his wife Cynthia cut it when he was home. Ringo’s girlfriend Maureen Cox, a hairdresser by trade, cut his hair (the two married in February of 1965).

On the Beatles tour of Australia in mid-1964, two girls named Grace Ferrigno and Val Bahrens got to cut John, Paul, and Ringo’s hair in Melbourne (George was out at the time on a “scenic mountain drive.”) Later, the girls tried to sell the precious sheared locks of hair outside Festival Hall. They ended up making no sales. No one believed the hair was real.

Interestingly, when asked in an early interview about what his future goals were, Ringo stated, quite sincerely, that his dream was to own a string of hair salons. Although he led an incredibly successful life with huge accomplishments, this was one goal Ringo was never to achieve.

Before beginning this let’s first watch a few clips from The Shawshank Redemption :

Yes it is hope that keeps you going when the chips are down, when the going gets tough and when things can’t get any worse. Hope that things would turn out the way you want them to. Hope that nothing will go wrong this time. Hope that sanity would return to the proceedings one day.

Sixteen months ago when Pakistan Cricket team left England, they were a tumultuous pack of poorly advised individuals. Still recovering from the cricketing exile and a dud tour of Australia amalgamated with vexatious media talks of deliberate under-performance and team disintegration, they lost their test captain, their bowling leader and their most outstanding pace prodigy to allegations of corruption and match-fixing. A couple of Ijaz Butt media rants (and apologies) and some ‘Zulqarnanin Haider moments’ later Pakistan Cricket found itself pushed further into the self-created hole of cricketing isolation and abasement. And such was the asperity of this hooligan-like show of Pakistan Cricket that by the time ICC met in October 2010, there were loud shouts from left right and centre that giving this once great cricket team ‘a break’ from International sport is the only way out of this ever-growing rowdiness.

And then again when all seemed lost, HOPE intervened. The same hope that won us the world cup in 1992. The same hope that helped us win test matches from disastrous scorelines of 26/6 at Kolkatta in 1999 and 39/6 at Karachi in 2006. The same hope that made match winners out of Javed Miandad at Sharjah in 1986 and Sarfraz Nawaz at Melbourne in 1979. The same hope that made us the t20 world champions in 2009. Hope that keeps you believing that everything would be like it used to be. Hope that one day Pakistan cricket team would rise from the cricketing ashes and once again show the world what they’re capable of. Hope that they would be a force again in cricket.

And guess what! this time hope didn’t let us down. The believers won and the pessimists lost. Pakistan cricket has come a long long way since then. In a space of one year we have unearthed world’s best off spinner, world’s best limited overs leg spinner, world’s best off-spinning all rounder, the most productive test opening pair, world’s best death bowler who keeps getting better, arguably the most effective left-arm spinner in cricket right now and last but not the least – the team spirit and unity that the Pakistani dressing room of the 90s could only dream of. That’s what makes the Pakistan Cricket team of today as successful as it is.

Misbah – watchful as always!!

And away from the lime light there’s one man who’s calmly sitting back and watching the proceedings unfold. One man who’s responsible for this refreshing unpredictable predictability of Pakistan Cricket. Misbah often gets criticized by the conventional Pakistan cricket fans (including me) for taking the ‘Pakistani flair and fearlessness’ out of Pakistani cricket. His methodical approach may be too defensive at times and too frustrating for the fans but he doesn’t get enough credit for what he brings to the team: the calmness and tranquillity that was unheard of since the times of a certain Inzamam-ul-Haq. And yes while his decision of not going for achievable fourth innings targets in Wellington and Abu Dhabi or his test strike-rate of 40 runs per 100 deliveries are questionable, you can take nothing away from him for leading Pakistan cricket out of the traumatic state and enabling them to rise above the shambles as a mentally stronger and spiritually united team. Not loosing a series since taking over and the best win/loss ration in the history of Pakistan cricket (even better than Imran Khan) don’t do Misbah any harm either. Pakistan Cricket needed a sane couple of years after the ignominious course of events of the last English summer and in Misbah’s regime we have got just that.

And in the end let’s again live through this mercurial fairy tale of Pakistan Cricket.

December 2009 - February 2010 :

Pakistan hit the rock bottom after getting thrashed 9-0 Down Under.

It all started in Australia. After winning the t20 world cup in early 2009, Pakistan had two moderately successful tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand. With leadership crisis fast emerging and deteriorating team spirit under the media radar, an Australian tour was the last thing Pakistan needed. The outcome was even worse than feared. Pakistan suffered white washes in test, ODI and t20 series and were thrashed 9-0. In the aftermath of this cricket disaster, several key members of the squad were accused of causing infighting and were handed over healthy bans.

August 29 2010 :

In the middle of a potential series deciding Lord’s test, three Pakistani cricketers were accused of spot fixing and were later banned from all sorts of cricket.

The tainted trio !

Marred by spot-fixing allegations off-the-field and an array of defeats on the field, Pakistan sneaked out two consecutive wins at The Oval and Lord’s to square the series 2-2.

Umar Gul’s devastating spell of 6-42 still lives in the memory !

October 31 2010 :
For me that’s where it all started!! An under-confident Pakistan team takes on the second ranked South Africans and after conceding a t20 whitewash and tasting defeat in the first ODI, they’re struggling at 217/6 chasing 286 with only Abdur Razzaq and a couple of tailenders left. Watch this to know what happened afterwards.

Such a confidence booster was this annihilation of arguably the world’s best ODI side that a broken and inexperienced Pakistan team went on to draw the following test series 0-0 after narrowly conceding the ODI series 3-2. This series was the beginning of the redemption!

December 2010 – January 2011 :

New Zealand has always been a happy destination for Pakistan Cricket. Having not lost a test series there for the last decade and a half, a tour to New Zealand seemed to be the perfect recipe for Pakistan to get back to winning ways and they grabbed the opportunity with both hands by convincingly winning the test and ODI series.

after the series victory!

The demons of the disastrous Australian tour put to rest !

April – August 2011 :
The winning mentality was further strengthened after successful tours of West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe. Pakistan by now had not lost a test series for almost a year.

November 2011 :
Then came the biggest test for Misbah since he had taken over : a strong Sri Lankan side in familiar conditions. Pakistan however were upto the task as they registered series victories in tests, ODIs and t20. The Sri Lankan team could manage victory in only one out of 10 tour fixtures. This performance was a stunning reply to all those labelling Pakistan as minnow bullys.

A jubilant Pakistan team with the trophy

December 2011 :
A brittle Bangladeshi side was thrashed by Pakistan 2-0 in tests, 3-0 in ODIs and 1-0 in t20.

Another trophy for the Men in Green !

January 2012 :
And as I write Pakistan have already taken a 1-0 lead in the 3-match test series against world number one ranked England thanks to Saeed Ajmal’s devastating 10 wicket haul. England were bundled out for under 200 in both innings and were beaten within 3 days by a hefty margin of 10 wickets. Irrespective of the series result, this performance has elevated Pakistan’s status as one of the best test teams in the world right now. A series win would still be fantastic though!!

Umar Gul broke the back of English batting by dismissing top 4 English batsmen in their second innings. This, after Ajmal’s breath-taking 7-55 destroyed England in the first innings.

Pakistan cricket team haven’t lost a single test series since the English tour 2010. They’ve played 13 test matches since August 2010, winning 7, drawing 5 and losing only 1 with a win percentage of 53.8%. Also in 42 ODIs played, Pakistan have won 33 and lost only 9 with a win percentage of 78.57%. 

Etihad Airways’ First Class Chefs Take Flight

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, now employs qualified First Class Chefs officially onboard flights to London, Sydney, Melbourne and Paris, and will they will also be progressively introduced across all other first class destinations during 2012.

The airline has hired nearly 110 chefs since announcing in May it would introduce fully-qualified and classically-trained international chefs dedicated to food service excellence in its Diamond First Class cabins. First Class Chefs will also contribute to menu development for both lounges and flights.

Anyone in SEO knows the part social media plays on increasing traffic. This development has sparked changes in 2012 that will require more use of social media in SEO strategies. With the increase in monitoring social media interactions and the ease of seeing the following a site has, Google and other search engines will be adding social media in their analytics next year. So how will this affect websites and blogs?

Social Media will be required:

In the past you could utilize social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Those days will soon be over. Social networks will be used to increase and decrease page rank within Google. This means if you are still holding out on creating a Facebook page or Twitter account, or haven’t really done anything with the one you have, you may want to revisit it and get some following.

Small Blogs and Sites:

In some circles, the smaller mom and pop blogs and sites are growing in popularity. In the following year the new analytics will get these low budgeted high quality sites more exposure. No matter the size of the SEO budget or knowledge in marketing, these small blogs will be able to increase page rank simply by networking socially. Even though social media will play a large part in page rank and SEO, it is still advised to add it to an already solid SEO strategy rather than depend on it alone.

Interactions will help more:

Merely having followers and fans is not enough. Another SEO change will be the interactions between the site and its social media contacts. This is simply a way for search engines to determine the true amount of value a site has. Engaging your followers in conversation, debates, and commenting will increase the credibility more than it does currently.

Do Check: Social Media Marketing: The First Step in Starting Your SMM Campaign

Social Media Management will be Key:

Between Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn, it can get overwhelming. When the new set of analytics comes out for page rank, there won’t be room for too many errors. How you manage your social media will play a big part in how well you do. You will want to create a routine, schedule, reminder, or set of rules for you to follow in order to assure all the sites are updated and running like clockwork.

Experimenting may help:

After you have completed the building of the social media section of your SEO plan, you will need to determine what is working and what isn’t. Just like the content on your site, what you post will determine your following. Track and measure your efforts on your social media sites and see what works and what fails. Optimizing your pages will assure you get and keep the following that Google is looking for.

New Tools for Social Media:

2011 was a huge year for social media and 2012 won’t be any different. With new procedures and requirements come new tools to help make it easier. Expect to see a lot of tools designed for monitoring, posting, and assisting you in your social media SEO. Don’t shy away from these tools. Do your research, get reviews and see which tool will help you in the long run.

Do Check: Learn about Twitter Rage

Social media is a large part of the internet today. More people spend time reading their friends Facebook status than they do reading the news. In SEO this is going to lead to success for your site or blog. Embrace the social media wave and make it work for you.

Web designer Mark Williams also writes for mintleaf studio in Melbourne, Australia. As a freelance writer, he is able to bring a fresh perspective on many topics like this one.

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