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%. 

Since the new year started I planned to start a series with the title of Best of 11 featuring some of the special events took place last year, 2011. here i am sharing songs that Pakistani Music Industry produced last year. They came, we listened, and they conquered. The second month of 2011 brought the circket fever with the circket world cup. Like every world cup this also brought some nice songs. One of them was Josh e Janoon a few called it 2011 version of famosu Jazba Janoon:

Komal Rizvi made a comeback this year with Coke Studio, her contribution to coke studio this year were impressive. CS aside she gave another song telling about the love and how un predictable it is:

Boondh is another song Komal Rizvi gave this year. I am slightly confused whether it is a good to listen or good to watch, as Komal Rizvi looked stunning in the official video:

this Year gave rise to another star QB or alos known as Qurat ul Ain Baloch who was brilliant in Coke Studios. Other than that she proved to be nightingale of new era with songs like:

And the wildfire Humsafar like show the OST also became Listen of the town:

Dil Dhondhta hy phir wohi… has been my favourite of all time this year Ali Zafar re-produced it as Jee Dhondhta hay:

Political situation always play role in the productive idea, and this also drop some colours on music too. Some tried to present situation in the form of songs and two of them impressed me:

Sajjad Ali is a smart player, I am saying this because he posses the ability to feel the nerve right. That is why every time he manage to have a share in trend. KirKir of coke studio became my dish washin time song and Bol made us all listen to Din pareshan hay.

Another Humsafar touched our listening sense this was by the band Called. it might be just another song but it has some attraction in it.

Now time for the final two songs these two can be named as Return of the legends. One was Keh dena of Alamgir it was as impressive as it got special space on this blog a few month ago.

Bunny also made a come back with Roxen in a 2011 version of “Dil main tum the hit of 90s.

Related Articles

• Keh Dena… A Tribute to Albela Rahi
• Redefining Identity: something that we need
• Josh e Janoon
• Get well Soon…

Jonathan Wilson might be the greatest football writer working today. If nothing else, he’s in the conversation. So it was with great interest that I read his recent lengthy post for the Guardian Sports Blog on the state of football in Africa. The title of the post poses the question: “Is African Football Progressing?”

His answer leans toward the negative. Yet I’m not sure his evidence leads to that conclusion. First, I’m not sure what his baseline of quality is — he seems to be putting forward an idealized view of what African football should look like, perhaps fueled by African football boosters or his own liberal projections of what he’s like African football to be (an ideological leaning that I share) and thus is posing: African football could be Y, instead it is X, and X falls short of Y, so this is disappointing. That is perhaps fair, but I’m not certain it is the only frame of reference.

By Wilson’s own estimation there are more great African players in the world’s elite football leagues. There are more stars among those players (just look at the Barclay’s Premier League sides taking a hit from losing Africans who are from countries competing in the upcoming African League of Nations Tournament).

And while Wilson seems bent (albeit reluctantly and from a place of sadness and not schadenfreude) on disparaging the (perhaps slower than desired) accomplishments of African teams in the World Cup, one need only look back to the not-so-distant 1970s to recognize that even as the world’s game has improved, African teams are competing within that world far better than ever. As recently as 1978 an African team had never won so much as a World Cup game. We are a long way from those benighted days. To be sure, 2010 saw its share of disappointment for African sides, but even then Ghana came within the dastardly reach of the Hand of Fraud of advancing to the Semifinals and for the second World Cup in a row Cotê d’Ivoire found itself trapped in the Pool of Death and only failed to advance on goal differential.

His points about the Cup of Nations — that the quality of play has been dreadful — may or may not be true. I’ve heard enough people say as much that I suppose I must believe it (finding television coverage of the CAF is nearly impossible in the US — suggestions welcome) but it is hard to know exactly what that means since in the Cup of nations African teams play one another and so it tells us little about the relative level of the African game. teams tend to adapt to playing circumstances. Bad football does not necessarily equate to bad footballers or even to bad teams. Teams play the game in front of them, not some idealized game in the mind’s eye of a sportswriter or fan.

I am not here to assert that Wilson is wrong so much as to wonder whether or not we need to define the terms of the debate far more clearly than he has done. Has African football fallen short of some ideal that we have built for it? Perhaps. But has it actually fallen short relative to the performance of players and teams that exist in the real football playing world? I’m not so certain that is the case and I think a strong argument can be made that the opposite is true.

Photo: Express/Shaheryar Popalzai

This past Sunday was Christmas Day, PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif‘s birthday, and the 135th birth anniversary of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the father of Pakistan.

This past Sunday was also Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (“Movement for Justice”)’s much-anticipated political rally in Karachi. For those of us not physically at the Minar-e-Quaid (Jinnah’s Mausoleum), the PTI jalsa was cause to gather at friends’ houses, tweet feverishly, and offer sideline commentary to no one in particular. Or maybe that was just me.

By this time, you have undoubtedly read a flurry of news coverage on said jalsa. But for those who haven’t, here is the rundown. PTI leader Imran Khan – the oft-labeled “cricketer-turned-politician” – has gained much political traction and popularity in the last year, after launching his political party officially in 1996. Fahad Desmukh, in his radio piece for PRI’s The World, noted,

The PTI attracted mostly urban educated professionals, but failed to get a mainstream following. In fact, in the 2002 parliamentary elections, Imran Khan was the only candidate from his party to win a seat…But now Khan has managed to mobilize enough young urban professionals to become a rising political force. In the past, this demographic shunned politics as a dishonorable activity. But young people are coming out now out of frustration with the current leadership.

Last month, PTI’s jalsa in Lahore garnered between 100,000 to 200,000 supporters – one of the largest political rallies in the country. This past Sunday, thousands of people came out on the streets of Karachi. Although PTI estimated the number at 500,000, news agencies report that the number in attendance was closer to 100,000, still making it one of the largest rallies in Karachi in recent years. Mutahir Ahmed, a professor at the University of Karachi, told Dawn, “He is riding a wave of popular politics right now. There is a lot of frustration among ordinary people, as well as political workers right now, which he is cashing on.”

In an article for the Express Tribune entitled, “Imran Khan Wins Hearts & Minds at Karachi Rally,” Shaheryar Mirza and Saad Hasan interviewed one rally attendee, who said, “I don’t know why but Imran Khan gives me hope. I want change, security and a better future for my children.”

Ah, the psychological underpinnings of hope and change. We saw it work with the Obama 2008 presidential campaign, and leveraged again by Afghanistan’s Abdullah Abdullah during his recent presidential run.  It’s the promise of something different. And though it may just be semantics, words like hope and change induce positive associations with absolute ideals of happiness, progress, and prosperity.  For a fatigued and frustrated Pakistani populace, that is a fuzzy but welcome option.

I don’t claim to be an expert on our political system (I actually don’t claim to be an expert on anything), but I have been fascinated with the perceived rise of PTI & Imran Khan in recent months. Here are a few observations both on the lead-up to the December 25th jalsa, the rally itself, and subsequent reactions post-rally.

1. PTI Snakes on a Plane: You have to give it to Tehreek-e-Insaf. They know how to market their vision to urban masses & millennials alike. Prior to the Dec 25th jalsa, the party generated buzz by launching a telemarketing scheme akin to Snakes on a Plane (if you received a phone call from Samuel L. Jackson telling you about those mother**** snakes on the mother**** plane, then you know what I’m talkin’ about). Many Karachiites received a 30-second phone call from Imran Khan inviting them to the rally. Although the call was pre-recorded, many almost believed they were receiving a personal call from the man himself. Insert swoons here. The strategy is a reflection on the party’s overarching marketing approach – the use of choice words (hope, change & the like), leveraging social media, telemarketing all enforce a broader theme: Imran Khan & PTI offer something new, something approachable, something hip, something different from the status quo.
2. Imran Khan Cricket Hero, Imran Khan Politican = Same, Same: I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many cricket analogies. Oh my goodness. In a BBC interview prior to the jalsa he noted, “It’s like playing a World Cup final…this could be a defining moment in Pakistan.” In the lead-up to the rally, Imran reportedly called PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif a club cricketer “flexing muscles with a Test cricketer.” The list goes on. And while I think cricket & “tsunami” references could form its own drinking (coke! hee!) game, the analogies further raise positive associations of Imran circa 1992 World Cup. Imran the politician + Imran cricket hero = Imran heroic politician.
   
3. Rally like it’s a Britney Spears Concert: When the band-formerly-known-as-Junoon’s lead singer Salman Ahmed started singing Junoon songs, all I could think was, Wow he sounds just like Ali Azmat! And then I realized he was lip-synching. It was, in fact, Ali Azmat. Such a Britney move, dude. In their post on the rally, Cafe Pyala noted, “With more ‘heavyweights’ joining, PTI youth may have to live with the fact that the music has died with the Lahore jalsa.”
   
4. PTI – Stragglers Welcome: Ahsan over at Five Rupees had a great post on the politicians who have crossed over from their own parties to join PTI, and what it all means: “…when the potential for success for [insert party here] ticket goes down, and PTI’s chances of success go up, we’re more likely to see politicians from [insert party here] to leave for the PTI,” though this may not be the case for MQM or Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). The new additions to PTI are relative heavyweights, including Javed Hashmi from PML-N & Shah Mehmood Qureshi from PPP. Before watching the jalsa, I thought they were sure to help PTI’s clout. But then I watched SMQ talking like a wannabe Shakespeare (community) theater actor about nuclear policy during the rally, and am now grumpy and undecided.
5. Insecurity is the Best Form of Flattery: You can tell other political parties (namely the PPP & PML-N) are beginning to feel threatened when they start resorting to petty mudslinging and banding together. PM Gilani, who reportedly also made a statement that Zardari was actually younger than Imran, also told media outlets, “Those people who are talking of revolution – are there any new people among the revolutionaries or are they mostly those who wanted to bring revolution along with Musharraf?” Curiously absent from those critiques – the MQM. Curious indeed.

(Express Image) Gilani: Bhai, your plugs may need some sprucing up. Look who we're up against. Nawaz: Curse those gorgeous locks of hair. Curses!

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been impressed with the perceived meteoric rise of Imran & his party. His speech, especially in comparison with the other speeches at the jalsa, was powerful & hit all the right notes – from wishing Pakistani Christians a Merry Christmas to addressing the Balochistan issue. And though the PTI Manifesto can and should be a better representation of how PTI aims to do much of what they promise (including, ahem, ending corruption in 90 days! Eee!), I do think Imran has steadily moved away from the days where he stood against everything and for nothing. Does that mean I still have my reservations? Hell yes. Does he really have the establishment on his side and what ramifications will that hold? What does an Islamic Welfare State mean in reality? What does all of this mean in reality?

Every political leader in our country has set out to prove that they can undertake the ideals laid out in Jinnah’s vision. Every leader makes vague promises, tugs on our heart strings that this time, dear citizens, they will be different. The difference with Imran is that he is an option we have not tried before.

Does that merit my vote? I’m still undecided, but at least his campaign has spurred me to vote. You should too.

Other blog posts/related pieces you should read:

A Reluctant Mind – Pedaling Obscurantism (esp. on the female dress issue)

Obama Says Do More – The PTI Rally in Karachi or Democracy is Alive & Well in Pakistan But Not Really

Dawn – Cowasjee’s Open Letter to Imran Khan (from 1996)

Filed under: Op-Eds

KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricket board on Sunday said it has invited former World Cup winning Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore to finalise his appointment as head coach of the national team, an official said.

Pakistan cricket team is without a full time coach since former paceman Waqar Younis left the post in September citing health problems.

“We are in the process of finalising the appointment and in this regard are in discussions with Whatmore,” Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed told local media on Sunday.

Whatmore is expected to reach Pakistan in second week of January, he added.

Former opening batsman Mohsin Khan has been serving as interim coach and was retained for Pakistan’s series next month against England in the United Arab Emirates.

The 57-year-old Whatmore, who played for Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s, is regarded as one of the most successful coaches in international cricket, having guided Sri Lanka to the World Cup title in 1996.

He subsequently enjoyed a successful coaching spell with Bangladesh and is currently in charge of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.