The Pakistani Fast Bowling Enigma

F Zamanov
Jun 21, 2006

For a nation that is almost Brazilian in its following and passion for , with the -gifted natural talent that shows up from no where to destroy the opposing teams, the Pakistani nation and its cricketers have been dealt one unjust blow after another. Blame it on the lack of systemic continuity, poor infrastructure, petty personal politics or haughty egos, the fact of the matter is every national side selected at least in the post-Imran Khan era, has been plagued with some nonsensical selection choices and an almost criminal neglect of true performance in the domestic arena. Since last year the new PCB bosses started a worthy effort of rankings based on some objective criteria in order to get a better idea of the intrinsic worth of every cricketer playing domestic .

The following excerpt from the Board (PCB) website has this to say about their ranking system:

"The National First-Class player rankings are based on the performances of players in domestic first-class matches over the last five seasons. While generating the National rankings we have not taken into account one-day or any tour matches either to or from or of Test matches.

Bowling rankings

For each match two basic factors are set up: wickets taken and runs conceded.
These factors are adjusted to take account of the strength of any batsmen dismissed. Thus taking the wickets of batsmen who are high up in the batting rankings is considered better than taking those of inexpert batsmen low in the rankings.

The bowling factors are then adjusted depending whether the bowler’s team won or not. Those taking wickets in an innings in a winning cause are given a bonus; those taking few wickets in a losing match are penalised.

The bowling factors are then adjusted depending on the bowler’s strike rate compared to the other bowlers in the match.

The bowling factors are then adjusted depending on the bowler’s rate compared to other bowlers in the match.

Finally the bowling factors are combined together and then combined with the previous ranking to generate a new ranking for the player. Previous matches played are given successive lower ratios in this computation, so that the ranking takes more account of recent matches than earlier ones."
(Source: www.pcb.com.pk)



Based on these rankings, which seem to be quite comprehensive and weighted towards recent performances, the following bowlers were in the top 10 list of the PCB ranking at the end of the 2006 domestic season:

1 Fazl-e-Akbar 23432

2 Najaf Shah 18324

3 Sarfraz Ahmed 18132

4 Samiullah Khan 17779

5 Wasim Khan 17648

6 Shahid Nazir 17448

7 Yasir Arafat 14286

8 Mohammad Sami 12465

9 Ahmed Hayat 11947

10 Tahir Mughal 11939


Keep in mind that this list is for domestic performances for the last five seasons with more weight given to recent form, yet the team selected for England had just one of the above bowlers initially selected, Mohammad Sami at #8, someone who has been repeatedly tried at the international level with lack luster results. After the unavailability of spearhead Shoaib Akhtar due to injury, Shahid Nazir was selected who is #6 on the list, represented once in 1999 and then forgotten about.

The irony of the above ranking is that the top two bowlers according to PCB’s own ranking, Fazl-e-Akbar and Najaf Shah, are neither in the national team or in the A side announced for the Australian tour. Fazl-e-Akbar, who has a tremendous record domestically, with 535 FC wickets and by far the most points in the ranking devised by the PCB’s own gurus and analysts, doesn’t even warrant a place in the A side. What may we ask is his fault? Has he not performed against every team in the domestic circuit including some of the star batsmen from the test side? Will his style of seam and swing bowling not be suited to the pitches in England? Why is Mohammed Khalil selected in the A side when he is not even in the top 30 of the national bowling rankings? The reserve for the national squad to England, Rao Iftikhar is ranked last at #30 on the PCB list.

This is the height of unfairness and makes a mockery of PCB’s own ranking system, which was obviously devised with good intentions to smooth out the statistical bias due to performance against low ranking teams and batsmen. What earthly good is the current domestic structure of PCB, on which it purportedly spends billions, if it does not reward its own best performers? Why do they constantly keep harping about their state-of-the- academies and incorruptible national selectors when the best performers maliciously keep getting ignored while mediocre talents keep getting selected thus destroying the confidence of the entire domestic cricketing whose only dream is to represent their national team?

People argue that the selectors notice the bowlers up close in the camp and are better aware of the talent or that domestic first class is not a true indicator of test match capability. While there may be some merit in both arguments, the fact is that the first class structure is the same for all bowlers in the circuit. Every bowler has a chance to use the same quality balls on the same pitches against the same standard of opposing batsmen! Thus every bowler who participates has an equal chance to perform against their peers just like the top five or ten performers do year in year out. Guys like Fazl-E-Akbar, Najaf Shah, Yasir Arafat, Shahid Nazir, Tahir Mughal have been consistent first class performers but have repeatedly been ignored even when frontline bowlers of the national team have been injured. None of the top 10 ranked bowlers besides Sami and the last minute selection of Nazir due to injury in the national squad, were deemed worthy to be even in the A team on the important tour of Australia. This is not a matter of personal likes and dislikes. If any of these players are given a fair (and extended) opportunity to perform in the national team, and they still fail then they should simply be replaced by the next ranked player. Hence, the system will keep correcting itself, and the best talent will keep rising to the top. This process can only help Pakistani and it will do wonders for player competitiveness and public interest in the domestic tournaments.

The people have to trust the system to keep young talent from losing heart and in improving their performance in the domestic structure. The obvious high-handedness of the selectors and powers-that-be is endemic of the ugly nature of Pakistani society - screw the meritorious performers and put personal prejudices and likes above national interests. The results are there for all to see. Instead of having a ready lineup of backups raring to go to England for the injury prone Akhtar and the erratic Sami, the whole country is praying for poor Asif, a five Test veteran, and Kaneria, the well-meaning fielding clown, to win them the England series. As they say, merit should be the only criteria for selection.

I think coach Bob Woolmer is on the right track in organizing the team and making their preparations more professional, but until the best performers have a fair and open chance to get selected the Pakistani team will end up in one crisis after another and will always be subject to the miraculous performance of one or two bowlers to win them the series. To the punters who say why mess with the team that has not lost a series in the last year, they forget that to be the top team in the world, ala Australia or South Africa, you have to have at least 4 strike bowlers in a test team.

When a Pakistani team can go to Australia and get 20 opposing wickets in every test match, only then can we truly say that this is a world class team with the best available talent. Until then let’s seek solace in the fact that the national team will be a bunch of under-achievers who can come close (due to the sheer natural talent of a few) but can never finish the job or be #1. The present system although producing good teams but not world-beaters and thus must be improved with all selections being fair and meritorious.