Younus Khan

Life bans for Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan?

Banning Pakistan cricketers for in-fighting? It’s like firing a computer programmer for being interested in Star Wars. Some things just come with the territory.

With Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan banned for life, there’s every chance that one of them might not play in the Test series against Australia this summer, which would be disappointing because they’re far and away Pakistan’s best batsmen. The wording is that they ’should not be part of the national team’ though, which almost implies that they could be – unless it’s a would/will type thing again.

It seems to be a massive overreaction, but the feeling in Pakistan is that it is drawing a line under player indiscipline. It’s basically saying to the players:

“You’re all being complete dicks almost all of the time. You have to stop. This is what acting like a dick gets you, so don’t do it. If everyone’s being a dick all the time, that’s more damaging than losing all our senior players. That’s how serious being a dick is. Okay? Now belt up and play some cricket.”

That’s how we’re reading it anyway.

Younus Khan resigns, quits, rests, stands down, walks

Younus Khan has had another captaincy wobble. It seems half the team think he’s a tool and won’t do what he says. This is a bit annoying for Pakistan supporters, because when Younus has been in charge and the players have made half an effort to follow him, the team has been really good.

It seems the stropping in the ranks reached its nadir with what are thought to be some deliberately gash cross-batted shots by the batsmen during Mohammad Aamer’s match. If you’re going to deliberately play badly, then your captain’s bound to have a tough time.

Presumably it’s not lack of confidence in Younus that has caused this though. More likely he took Shoaib Malik’s juice from the team fridge, even though it CLEARLY said ‘Shoaib Malik’ on the side of it in black felt tip.

You live by the sword…

Pakistan cricket’s strength and weakness

Here’s an interesting question for you. If everyone even remotely involved with Pakistani cricket just chilled out a bit, would the team be better or worse?

A member of parliament has utterly flipped out and accused the Pakistan national side of match fixing because they lost a match; Pakistan captain, Younus Khan, has handed in his resignation as a result; and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Ijaz Butt, has rejected it, saying it was an emotional decision.

With all the different factions involved and all the many different people randomly jabbing spanners in the works, captaining Pakistan always strikes us as a task akin to pushing string. Younus has been making a damn good fist of it of late and with a bit of serenity from all involved, he could really drive the side forward.

But then again, serenity didn’t give us Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi or anyone else who’s helped make cricket the best game on earth.

Younus Khan thinks Twenty20 is only a fun game

Does. He. Bollocks.

It’s the last over of the semi final and everything’s at stake. The ball goes out to long-off, Fawad Alam slings it in, hits the stumps and Albie Morkel’s run out. South Africa need 16 off three balls and Pakistan have as good as won. Is Younus Khan happy?

No. Younus Khan is busy bawling out the 17-year-old kid he’s entrusted with bowling this most crucial of overs and who’s been doing a superlative job. He’s enraged and he doesn’t even acknowledge the wicket. As the team converge on Fawad Alam, he just curses at Mohammad Aamer.

Despite the fact that the run out had been successful, Aamer hadn’t been behind the stumps. He didn’t do what he should have done and Younus Khan wasn’t going to let the simple fact that it didn’t actually matter on this occasion stop him from putting Aamer in his place.

Younus Khan hits 300-and-whatever

Younus Khan is a sublime batsman, but this innings has little to do with that. All this innings has shown us is that Younus has even more concentration and resolve than we thought he had. A triple hundred’s always impressive, but in a match that’s already had two individual double hundreds, it’s hard to get too excited.

This is a classic example of why batting averages can be misleading. They give a good idea of a player’s quality, but when you get down to deciding arguments on the basis of one or two runs difference, it’s like the difference between this and this (you have to guess what those were).

If Younus Khan makes it to 400, this match will be a draw. If he’d been bowled for 250 it probably would have been a draw too. Those 150 runs go towards his average just the same. We like players to cash in when the going’s good, but this innings has probably gone beyond that.

You’ll notice that ‘Younis’ is now ‘Younus’.

“My name is Younus Khan. I tell people that everywhere, but they don’t listen.”

You’ve got to spell a person’s name right when they put their case forward in such a world-weary way.