India-Pakistan Lovefest or Sledge Match at Mohali?

Cricket was considered a gentleman's sport until the Australians invented sledging, defined as words or phrases designed to upset opponents to gain a competitive edge in crunch matches.

Though Aussies still remain the king of sledge, Indians and Pakistanis are also known to engage in this coarse practice when emotions are running high. But somehow, they tend to get in trouble more often than their Australian counterparts.

In a 2008 encounter between India and Australia, Indian bowler Harbhajan Singh was disciplined by the ICC when Australia's Andrew Symonds accused him of using a racial slur. Upon further investigation, it turned out that Singh said to Syomnds "teri maaN ki c---" (Your mother's c---) which Symonds heard as "monkey".



The Harbhajan-Symonds incident implies that there are some rules for sledging that permit verbal salvos against the character of women in the players' lives, while prohibiting any race-based verbal attacks. It also appears to imply that misogyny is permissible on the male-dominated cricket field but racism is not. Given this background and their common language, it's quite possible that both Indians and Pakistanis will freely offer their unflattering opinions of each others' female relatives at the upcoming World Cup semifinal at Mohali on March 30, 2011.

Among the most quoted sledges is this one about Australia's Rodney Marsh and England's Ian Botham: Marsh: "How's your wife and my kids?" Botham: "The wife's fine; the kids are retarded."

Not all sledges relate to females. The one reported about Pakistan's Javed Miandad and Australia's Merv Hughes goes like this: Javed Miandad called Hughes a fat bus conductor during a match. A few balls later, Hughes dismissed Miandad. “Tickets please,” said Hughes, as he mocked the departing batsman.

Regardless of sledging and match results, I do hope that the high-energy, high-emotion India-Pakistan encounter in Mohali offers a great spectacle of fine cricket and the best possible sportsmanship the two South Asian neighbors have to offer.

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Pakistan Thrash India to Reach Champions Hockey Final

Pakistan and India have had two sports encounters this year at major international events in cricket and field hockey. Pakistan have won on both occasions to go on to the the final or semifinal. In September this year, Pakistan beat India in the ICC T20 Champions Trophy group match in South Africa to qualify for the semifinal. And today, Pakistan beat India 6-3 in a Champions Challenge hockey tournament semifinal at Salta, Argentina. These wins are very welcome at a time when Pakistanis need their spirits lifted to deal with the extremely difficult situation at home.


Here's a Times of India report Pakistan-India field hockey encounter today:

SALTA (Argentina): Pakistan beat India 6-3 to set up a final against New Zealand in Champions Challenge hockey tournament on Saturday.

New Zealand held out two-time defending champion and host Argentina 3-2 to reach Sunday's final, where the winner will qualify for the Champions Trophy next July in Moenchengladbach, Germany.

Pakistan took only two minutes to score, through Rehan Butt, who would collect a hat trick in another classic match between the archrivals.

While two Pakistan players were cooling off on cards, India forced a penalty corner and leveled through Dhananjay Mahadik. India continued to enjoy the run of play, but Pakistan nailed its chances with Butt shooting home and Sohail Abbas adding a penalty corner goal for a 3-1 halftime lead.

After the break, India dominated, but its desperation to score left the defense vulnerable, and Haseem Khan's goal against the run of play made it 4-1. There were four goals in the last eight minutes, with Butt claiming his third and Abbas his second. Mahadik also finished with a pair for India.

As in the Pakistan-India semi-final, New Zealand scored quickly, with Andrew Hayward converting a penalty corner to hush the home crowd. Argentina's penalty corner specialist Pedro Ibarra claimed his sixth goal of the tournament to draw level, but just before halftime Phillip Burrows finished a counterattack to send New Zealand ahead into the break.

After Shea McAleese's penalty corner goal 10 minutes into the second half gave New Zealand 3-1, Argentina's attack ramped up but continued to be bottled by the New Zealand defense until four minutes from the end, when Lucas Vila's counterattack field goal gave the home side renewed hope, but without enough time.

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Injury-hit New Zealand (234 for 5 in 47.5 overs) easily defeated favorites Pakistan (233 for 9) by five wickets in the second ICC Champions Trophy Semifinal match in South Africa today, bringing a sad end to Pakistan's quest for ICC Championship Trophy. After marginally losing to Australia on the last ball of the last match in group A a few days ago, this was Pakistan's second defeat in a row in ODIs leading up to the Final in Johannesburg.

While the young Pakistani bowlers performed well, the serious flaws in Pakistan's batting and fielding were on full display for all to see. On a decent batting track, Pakistani batsmen's lack of intent and self-inflicted wounds resulted in a very slow run rate and rapid of loss (throwing away) of wickets in their innings. The only bright spot in batting was the 19-year-old Umar Akmal, who fought back with a half-century. But just before the batting Powerplay, he became a part of a 32-for-5 collapse due to Simon Taufel's bad LBW decision against him. The other powerful display was by Pakistani tail-enders and bowlers Aamer and Ajmal who performed well as batsmen by putting on the last wicket partnership of 35 runs to take Pakistan to 233 runs.

Captain Younus Khan's crucial dropped catch, in particular, symbolized the failure of Pakistan's fielding against the well-disciplined New Zealand side. Younus fumbled the easy catch from Elliott when he was on 42 off 78 balls and New Zealand required 69 from 64, and only one four and two sixes had been hit in the preceding 21 overs. That drop, off Mohammad Aamer, came during an extremely tight period when New Zealand scored only 13 runs off four overs. With 59 runs required off the last eight, Vettori and Elliott called for the Powerplay, and with 10 and 14 coming off its the first and third overs, the pressure disappeared.

Looking back at the tournament, the only match where Pakistan side performed well was against traditional rival India, when they scored over 300 runs and limited India to less than 250. In all other matches, including the cliffhanger against Australia, Pakistan's lackluster batting and sub-par fielding continued to be a problem. In the only other match that they won against the weak West Indies side, they had serious problems responding to a very low score of 133 put on the board by the West Indian batsmen.

Younus Khan's interview that followed the match was very disappointing. There was no acknowledgment of responsibility for the loss, nor any understanding of the serious flaws on full display in both batting and fielding during the encounter with a relatively weak but disciplined New Zealand side.

Amidst this debacle at the ICC Championship Trophy matches, the best thing that was demonstrated in spades was the exceptional talent of Pakistani youngsters such as Umar Akmal and Mohammed Aamer, and relative newcomer Saeed Ajmal. These individuals offer great hopes for the future of cricket in Pakistan.

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