Sarfaraz Ahmed

Sarfaraz Ahmed (born 22 May 1987) is a Pakistani cricketer who captained Pakistan to victory at the Under 19 World Cup in 2006. He is a wicket-keeper and a right-handed batsman. He had played just 5 games for the Pakistan Under 19 cricket team before being selected as captain for the Under 19 Cricket World Cup. He plays first class cricket for Karachi. On 4/12/2014 Safraz Ahmed scored a brilliant 76 not out in a t20 match against New Zealand. At the same time Pakistan became the first team to reach 50 t20 wins. 

International career 

One Day International 

Sarfraz Ahmed was called up by Pakistan as cover for Kamran Akmal who had a finger injury in the one-day series betweenIndia and Pakistan in November 2007. He made his one day international debut in the final match of the series, on 18 November 2007. He kept well but didn’t get a chance to bat as Pakistan had won the match before he was needed to bat. In 2008, Sarfaraz Ahmed was selected ahead of Kamran Akmal for the Asia Cup. During the Asia Cup he impressed with his keeping skills but didn’t get a chance to show his batting skills.

Test 

He made his test match debut in Hobart on 14 January 2010, in the third test match against Australia, replacing Kamran Akmal who suffered an “error-ridden performance” in the second test.[1] After an unimpressive debut with the bat, he was dropped again after one match.

Return to International Cricket (2011) 

Sarfaraz Ahmed returned to the international team for the ODI series against Sri Lanka in November 2011. His impressive keeping and small cameos kept him in the team for the subsequent series against Bangladesh and the 2012 Asia Cup. He proved his worth with the bat in the final of the tournament where he scored a crucial 46 not out (the highest score from his team) as Pakistan won the match by 2 runs. He was consequently rewarded a Category C contract and selected for Pakistan’s next series against Sri Lanka, again for ODIs.

Misbah-ul-Haq

Misbah-ul-Haq Khan Niazi (born 28 May 1974 at Mianwali, Punjab) is a Pakistani cricketer. He is the current Test and One Day International (ODI) captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. He is a solid middle-order batsmen best known for his composure with the bat whilst also having the ability to be an aggressive big shot player when required. He is the top scorer in ODI cricket among those players who haven’t scored a century in ODI. Misbah has an MBA degree from theUniversity of Management and Technology in Lahore, Punjab.[1] He belongs to the popular tribe of Pashtun known as Niazitribe. 

Career

Related to the former Pakistan captain turned politician Imran Khan,[2] Misbah ul Haq was initially noticed for his technique and his temperament in the Tri-nation tournament in Nairobi, Kenya in 2002, as he scored two fifties in the three innings in which he played, however, over the next three Tests he played against Australia, he failed to score more than twenty runs and was soon dumped from the team. Having witnessed Pakistan being eliminated in the opening phase of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Misbah was part of the changes made to the team in the aftermath of these results, but failed to make much of an impact and was soon dropped again.

Comeback

At the age of 33, Misbah was chosen to play in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in 2007, filling the middle order spot vacated by Inzamam-ul-Haq. He had been regularly making runs in Pakistani domestic cricket and in the years before his recall he was consistently one of the top run scorers at each season’s end, with his first-class average briefly climbing above 50.

Misbah was one of the stars of the tournament, playing a large part in many thrilling run chases. The first was in the group stage against India where he scored a half century in a tied match. He was run out attempting the winning run off the last ball of the match. In their Super 8s encounter with Australia he was named Man of the Match with an unbeaten 66 off 42 deliveries to see his side home with 5 balls to spare. Another unbeaten innings in the semi final against New Zealand saw Pakistan book a spot in the final against India.

He played an instrumental role in Pakistan’s recovery in the inaugural 2007 ICC World Twenty20 final against arch-rivals India, with Four sixes. He hit the second legitimate ball of the last over for six. With 6 runs needed to win off 4 remaining balls, Misbah tried to scoop the ball over short fine leg, but was caught out by Sreesanth.

Misbah scored his first Test hundred against India at Kolkata in the 2nd Test of the 2007 series. After India managed 616 in their first innings, Pakistan were at 5 for 150 in reply and in danger of following on when Misbah and Kamran Akmal put together a match saving 207 run stand. Misbah finished on 161 not out. In the 3rd & final Test of the series, Misbah made another fluent century this time finishing on 133 not out.

2008 began with some high points for Misbah as he was elevated to the post of Vice – Captain of the Pakistan team and was awarded a Grade A Contract. Since returning to International Cricket for Pakistan, Misbah has gone through a sustained patch of prolific run scoring. In his last 5 Test Match innings for Pakistan, he has notched up 458 runs at a very high batting average of 152.67 against India. In his last 5 ODIs as well, Misbah has made 190 Runs at an average of 63.33 & in Domestic Cricket for Punjab, he has amassed an astounding 586 runs at an average of 195.33 with 2 centuries and his highest first-class score of 208*. He holds the record for having scored the most ODI fifties without ever having scored a century, which is 26, having surpassed New Zealand’s Andrew Jones’ 25. Misbah has completed his MBA.

Misbah was dropped from the team after the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 owing to a dismal performance with the bat, and missed the team’s controversial tour of England in August 2010. 

Captaincy

Due to the batting-collapses that Pakistan suffered during England tour 2010 and spot-fixing controversy, Misbah was recalled for the subsequent tour against South Africa in the UAE to lead as a captain of the team for test series. After resignation of Shahid Afridi as test captain and suspended captain Salman Butt due to spot-fixing scandal, Misbah was preferred over Younus Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Kamran Akmal as captain. Wasim Akram stated that although the decision was surprising if Misbah bats and fields well everything else will go according to plan.  Former Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson stated that he believed Misbah has the best cricketing brain within Pakistan and he will do incredibly well in the plans for the captaincy  Misbah hit back at those who criticised the decision to appoint him captain and stated that he should be given a chance to prove himself[6] In his first match as test captain he set an example for his team when he scored 71* in a 168 run partnership with Younus Khan this helped Pakistan salvage a draw from the match. Misbah has led Pakistan in 33 test matches, winning 15, losing 9 with 8 draws. In 2012 Misbah led Pakistan to a clean sweep against the world number one ranked team England and also become only 2nd Pakistani captain to win the Asia Cup after Moin Khan. He has won 6 out of 10 series during his captaincy, winning series against New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, England and South Africa (a feat no Pakistani captain had been able to manage before Misbah), drawing against South Africa and the West Indies, and losing to South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Rashid Latif

Rashid Latif   born 14 October 1968) is a former Pakistani wicket keeper and a right handed batsman who represented the Pakistani cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International matches, between 1992 and 2003. He also served as the captain of the Pakistan cricket team in 2003. Latif is the current coach of the Afghan National Cricket Team

Career

Latif started playing for the Pakistan national cricket team in 1992 after the 1992 Cricket World Cup. He impressed the national selectors by scoring 50 runs in his Test debut, however it did not cement his place in the national squad as throughout his career he had to compete with another Pakistani wicket-keeper, Moin Khan. This led to frequent changes of wicket keepers in the next decade. In 1996, he announced his retirement after conflicts with some players and the team management. He returned to the Pakistan team and became the captain of the National side in 1998. Latif remained out of the national squad until 2001, when after a string of poor performances, the Pakistan team replaced Moin Khan. After returning into the squad, he secured his place by keeping the wicket and giving a string of good batting performances.

 

The highlight of his career came after the 2003 Cricket World Cup, when he was announced the captain of the Pakistan team. Under his leadership, Pakistan successfully experimented with several new players and the team gave positive results. He was also involved with uniting the players through his captaincy in both on and off the cricket field. However, problems between Latif and the team management again surfaced in 2003–2004, which resulted in him giving away the captaincy to former Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq. He was omitted from the squad and since then has never been recalled in the team, despite his attempts to get back into the squad during 2003–2005. In April 2006, Latif retired from First class cricket as he toured with the Pakistani senior players to play against Indian senior players in April 2006 in a series played between players who have retired from professional cricket. Latif has not participated in domestic first class cricket since 2005. His last match was in 2006, when he played for Lashings cricket club, a club in England.

Coaching career

Latif has notably became batting coach of the Afghanistan National Cricket team^[2] Latif also stated that the Afghan players were keen to learn from him.^[3] Latif further added that he liked the challenge of coaching the team and helping at grass-roots level of Afghan Cricket ^[4] in July 2010 he also talked about having a Pakistan-Afghanistan cricket series in late 2010 to help Pakistan return to staging international cricket.^[5] As a wicket-keeper Latif also commented on the form of Pakistani wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal by stating that “Kamran has gained weight for a wicket-keeper, his wicket-keeping has been poor due to that and a lot of work load as a cricketer. I strongly suggest to all wicket-keepers that when they are struggling they take a rest and then comeback to the scene stronger as poor wicket-keeping can destroy you confidence as a batsman.”^[6] In August 2010 the coach of the Afghan team Kabir Khan announced that he was going to leave his post because of consistent interference by the board. This led to Latif who was batting coach at the time to be named his successor. However just after that Latif announced his resignation also citing consistent interference caused by the board.^[7]

 

In 2010, Latif responded to the spot fixing allegations against the Pakistan team by saying that ICC needs to re-design its laws and rules to root out the match fixing and spot fixing problem. Latif wrote a letter to the ICC citing his concerns back in 2003,”In that letter, I told them to change the rules and laws in one-day internationals which, were more prone to spot-fixing. I even offered to assist the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit but I got no response,” he said. “The key is to design laws and rules that do not allow players and bookmakers to manipulate things. I told the ICC remove the fielding restrictions and they introduced the power-play which only encouraged fixing.”^[8]Following this statement Latif resigned from his job as wicket-keeping coach at the Pakistan National Cricket Academy and subsequently reconciled with the Afghan Cricket Board and returned as the team’s coach^[1] He stated that his aim was to help the team get the status to play Test cricket in two years time.^[9] Latif also stated that he believed that a broad-cast delay of 30 seconds would help curb fixing.^[10]

Latif’s stint as Afghan coach got of to a good start when Afghanistan registered a 162 run win of Kenya in the ICC Intercontinental Cup but then lost the first ODI by 92 runs as Kenya were bowled out for 160. But then Afghanistan’s batting order collapsed for 88. The team took a six-wicket victory during the second ODI as Kenya sucummbed to 139 and Afghanistan’s suffered a poor start with opener Noor Ali retiring hurt and Karim Sadiq being caught. However Asghar Stanikzai scored his second half-century and along with Mohammad Shahzad who scored 37 guided the run chase.^[11] The finest moment of Latif’s coaching career came at the 2010 Asian Games when Afghanistan upset the cricket super-power Pakistan in the semi-final as Afghanistan sealed a comfortable 22-run victory and setup a final tie with Bangladesh.^[12] However Afghanistan lost the final but the celebrated accomplishment was that the Afghanistan collected their first ever Asian games medal with a second place silver.

 

Latif’s team next assignment was the ICC Intercontinental Cup and Afghanistan play Scotland in the final. Latif stated that Afghanistan likes to play aggressive cricket and that the players are mentally very tough and hate to lose.^[13] On 2 December the match against Scotland started and because of Hamid Hassan Scotland were bowled out for 212. More than half of Scotlands runs came from Neil McCallum who scored 104*. Afghanistan got of to a good start but collapsed to 171 all out. Giving Scotland a 41 run lead. Despite this another great bowling performance from Hassan and Samiullah Shenwari meant that Scotland were skittled for just 82 in their second innings. On the third day Afghanistan sealed victory early in the day with seven-wickets in hand courtesy of a superb 56* by Mohammad Shahzad.^[14].^[1]