See, it is not that Pakistan always suffers like that. It was a special day for the worst reason which is losing to your bitter rivals India by the heaviest margin in terms of runs between them. And it is better that this team got to show a mirror a ground reality before the World Cup.
All those talks about Pakistan being number one should be put on hold after what happened today. Babar Azam, the captain, made the first mistake, which is why the toss and the captain’s decision matter. This pitch was nowhere promising for bowling and he chose to bowl first.
Had Babar chosen to bat, I have full confidence that the same top 3 batsmen (Imam, Fakhar, and Babar) would have made Pakistan hit 300+. What Indian bowlers did in reply to our batting, imagine the wrath our pace trio of Shaheen, Naseem, and Haris would have brought.
The next mistake was by our own bowlers. They were neither clever nor bowled on length like they did in the group game. The team went delusional that Shaheen would have just another killer spell and game set. In fact, our fast bowlers bowled plenty of short pitches as compared to Indian bowling who focused to bowl fuller lengths.
The third mistake that I consider is a SIN and needs to be avoided at any cost is the lack of F***ING INTENT. Observe, Rohit and Shubman went for a kill from the start followed by Kohli and Rahul who actually made a comeback.
In reply, what was our intent? The openers started exactly how they have been starting for some time, SLOW! Chasing 357, Fakhar and Babar faced 10 balls each to score their first runs. Yes, every single Indian bowler was on target but where was our aggression? The body language was missing. The wickets began to tumble and no one tried to smack anyone. Pakistan hit only 8 fours throughout the inning whereas Shubman alone hit 10 fours in the first 18 overs.
The fourth mistake, in fact, is not a mistake but a problem that we are unfortunately handicapped with, shockingly our SPIN DEPT! I don’t remember when Pakistan ever ran out of spinning threats like now. It is horrendous that our spin attack is Shadab–Iftikhar–Nawaz–Agha and none of them can contribute at least 2 wickets regularly. We somehow need to finish max 15 overs from them and this is where the opponent will lose their shoulders and hit us at a run-rate between 7 and 8, and cover the inning runs.
And Shadab is our leading spinner, in fact an all-rounder whose stats are not really helping as a strong case for the position. After 63 ODIs, Shadab has taken only 82 wickets at 32.53 and has scored only 731 runs from 38 innings.
Another disappointing case of a player that I have been of concern for a while is Mohammad Rizwan. No offense, I know he is a senior player and has done a lot for us but in T20Is. I refuse to accept that he is our no.4 batsman. His keeping has been average and is responsible for wasting like half of DRS, but the runs that he is scoring, HE either move to lower-order or start opening and play like he does in the shorter format.
Now what? Well I am not in favor of shuffling the squad when the World Cup is happening in a few weeks unless somehow sadly gets injured. But the XI can be changed for good.
I am running out of patience on Fakhar. I mean seriously Fakhar-Imam is the most dynamic pairing STATS-WISE but is not the case anymore. That is Rohit-Gill now. Fakhar’s early dismissal is putting pressure on Imam and this needs to stop.
Two other batsmen that have not been tried and we have ran out of time on them are Haris and Saud Shakeel. Babar could have played them against Afghanistan in 3 ODIs.
So in my opinion, this is how I feel the XI should be from now on:
01. Imam
02. Rizwan
03. Babar
04. Iftikhar
05. Saud/Haris
06. Agha
07. Shadab
08. Faheem/Mir (depening on pitch)
09. Shaheen
10. Rauf
11. Naseem
A pace trio of Shaheen, Naseem, and Rauf, and a spin duo Shadab and Agha, with either a fast-bowling all-rounder Faheem Ashraf or a spinner Usama Mir our 6th option depending on the pitch, plus 1 part-time in Iftikhar. We have 7 bowling options. And two keeping options in Rizwan and Haris plus both can switch their batting positions if demands. One of Saud or Haris must compulsorily play in the XI to boost their batting. Iftikhar at 4 is a MUST. If he stays at least 10 overs, he can manage to build the inning.
I will say this again, one bad day doesn’t mean we are a bad team. The team has to learn from the mistakes instead of repeating it again. I wish my team good luck for the upcoming matches.
Wednesday Addams punishes the boys in the school who bullies her brother Pugsley Addams. As a consequence, she is expelled. The concerned parents admit her to the Nevermore Academy, a school for the monstrous outcasts where they studied but were accused of a crime scene. Incidentally, the event recirculates with Wednesday’s admission when a creature begins to take lives and she uses her psychic instincts to solve the mystery.
ORIGINS
The Addams Family was neither a novel nor did it start as an amination show but the gag cartoons that were published in The New Yorker from 1938 until the 1950s. All the characters were unnamed until the 1964 television show ‘The Addams Family‘.
PRODUCTION
Wednesday hampers a toolbox that was decorated for Tim Burton to utilize when his turn comes to work on the project. The Addams Family and Tim Burton crossed paths but never joined hands which was a sad chapter just like Leo Messi was not lifting the World Cup before it finally happened.
Back in 1991, when Tim Burton was focused on directing Batman Returns, he was approached to work on The Addams Family. He passed on the project due to scheduling conflicts and The Addams Family and its sequel were produced establishing cult status with the audience.
20 years later, Tim Burton was planning to write and direct The Addams Family film, perhaps a reboot, but got canceled due to creative differences with the producers. Then Miles Millar and Alfred Gough acquired the rights, wrote the pilot, and forwarded it to Burton. He became interested and joined them.
It took thirty years for Tim Burton to work and complete a project that looks to me to be the most fitting project he ever happened to work on before. It was a love story that was waiting for its romantic moment to bring the two together.
When the strings are pulled rightly, there is every chance of playing the right notes. Producers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough are well known for creating ‘Smallville‘. Tim Burton has the reputation for many excellent Gothic fantasies. And then his decades-old collaboration with the musician Danny Elfman, the musical notes that ideally fit in Tim Burton films.
With Tim Burton on the director chair, I would have loved to see Morticia and Gomez Addams played by Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp. Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia and more particularly Luis Guzmán as Gomez were quite interesting choices. I felt that spark was missing between the two which was quite a thing between Raul Julia and Angelica Huston in those two films. But here, Catherine and Luis looked pretty odd together.
Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester was an imposing choice. Christopher Lloyd‘s Uncle Fester was character-driven and someone on whom the story was centered around. In a quite different setting, this Uncle Fester was more jolly and exciting. I want to see more appearances in the next season. It was a pleasure to watch Christina Ricci in the show who was Wednesday Addams in the films.
My kudos to whoever decided to give the titular role to Jenna Ortega. This has to be the best-ever casting of Wednesday Addams to date. Let me tell you how I think that Jenna did this role better than Christina.
Christina’s Wednesday lacked the body language of a melancholic personality that defines Wednesday. Plus, the writing of her character in the film didn’t guarantee any growth. Wednesday being the center stage of the plot and a tv series of eight episodes at stretch, Jenna had enough time to grow as Wednesday and answer all our questions that were related to her character that was visibly missing in the films.
WHY WEDNESDAY? WHY NOT ADDAMS FAMILY?
I will continue my point about Jenna’s Wednesday because this leads to a whole new level of storytelling. The films heavily focused on couples as well as Uncle Fester but not children. When my generation watched these films back in the 1990s, we had this feeling about the girl that her side of the story didn’t make rounds and that had a lot of potential to grow due to her sadistic personality. I felt the writers of the films missed the chance.
But this chance was smartly grabbed by Millar and Gough with the creme of the plot centralizing the hows and whys of Wednesday’s character. And this is why her parents were almost out of the frame.
The makers installed the character of Enid Sinclair who struggles to befriend Wednesday and there develops a strange bond between a cheerful roommate and a morosely black soul. The makers also built a rigid mother-daughter relationship. The screenwriting of the show also restricted the fan-favorite Uncle Fester’s character to a very brief appearance. Convincing the audience to stick with Wednesday without Fester is a win.
DANCE
Of course, I have to mention that iconic dance in my assessment. A dance that was actually shot with Goo Goo Muck by the gothic rock legends ‘The Cramps‘ playing in the background but the TikTokers perfectly remixed the dance video with Lady Gaga‘s Bloody Mary and is now called a TikTok Remix of Wednesday Dance. Jenna choreographed the dance herself and the most astonishing fact about the dance is that the dance steps pulled the right strings of Wednesday Addam’s cold-blooded personality. The dance visibly reflected her oddness.
I felt that the finale lost control of the pace and hurriedly strove to a conclusion. But in any case, there is a lot to happen in the future seasons. I really want to watch Grandmama and Cousin Itt.
I have read that Wednesday and Enid may develop a romance in the next season. This is totally out of a syllabus stunt. A girl like Wednesday who lacks emotions and has zero-match with the completely opposite Enid, goes 360 and they become lovers, is not so Wednesday we know of.
Whatever happened to something called friendship? Why cannot the writers try to bring both of them in a bond where they find common grounds to somehow live through. Befriending has been a struggle so far so better to focus on friendship.
Wednesday is highly recommended to the fans of Goth culture and The Addams Family. The films and this show cannot be compared at all. They have different vibes and aesthetics on which different stories have been presented to us.
Wednesday has a lot of adventures or misadventures to excite us. I hope to see a Stranger Things kind of excellent follow-up of the show.
SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND WATCH MY TV REVIEW HERE
Vijay Borade (Amitabh Bachchan) is about to retire from college as a sports teacher. One day, he notices some boys and girls in the slum area playing football with remarkable skills. Vijay finds new enthusiasm and after his retirement, he works with them and makes a valuable effort for the development of football in the slum area for the underprivileged children.
Jhund is based on the real-life story of Vijay Barse, a resident of Nagpur who founded Slum Soccer Organization after watching a lot of slum kids playing impressive football.
See, it is a fresh idea. A lot of sports films are showing up in Bollywood every year but this one is quite different from the others. The reason is that this sports drama doesn’t focus on a legendary player and his/her personal and professional life. This is about some children of different ages, boys and a few girls, who were involved in drugs and hoodlum. This is about the birth of a football organization that paved way for the street children throughout the country to participate, play football, and make their name.
Jhund’s aesthetics are genuine. You get a feel of a slum and I have not researched but I have a feeling that those children were all actually from the slum areas. Because those characters were so real to judge. If they really are from the slums then kudos to the makers to come up with this idea and give them a chance to work on the screen and that too with none other than Amitabh Bachchan, the only known cast of the entire film. Besides Big B, almost every actor in the film has marked his/her debut which makes me think that perhaps those people are really from the slums but not professional actors.
Unfortunately, despite a command over the story and Amitabh’s presence keeping me hooked throughout the film, Jhund has a lot of critical errors. The biggest issue is screen time and no way is this film suppose to clock nearly three hours, absolutely not! Jhund’s plot has variations and lengthy continuity for sure but the screenplay is overstretching.
Believe it or not! there is literally a half-an-hour sequence of a football match. I get it, that was the most important scene of the film that changed the lives of slum kids and made Vijay Borade devise a plan for the foundation. But thirty minutes of a match is just too much. And even a very predictable one. And I am not sure if such a match actually occurred in a reality where those kids defeated some well-trained football team of a college with a comeback from 5-0. My mind doesn’t accept that. But when they began to score over the college team, it became highly predictable that they will stretch this whole sequence to a thrilling penalty shoot-out and win. With a better direction, this football match could have been reduced to fifteen minutes easily.
And the direction is the problem. With a lengthy screenplay, one can easily notice that the pace of the film picks up and sometimes get slow. Yes, there are scenes that needed to grow on the audience and I felt it was the need of the hour like Vijay repeatedly offering the kids to play for money and the efforts by those kids with their family and friends in submitting forms and passports for the World Cup. The latter part needed emphasis and the director dramatized all those scenes well. I liked the sequences of Monica’s struggle to make a passport with her father. This is what the audience needs to watch; some harsh realities about efforts made for one passport. Ankush’s story was heartbreaking and one of the thousand stories in India whose fate keeps twisting even if he wants to leave his tragic past behind to become better. Jagdish’s backstory had a special sequence that rightfully addressed the audience about those who give up and try to commit suicide. He becomes the team’s goalkeeper.
There are a lot of plotholes in the film that indicates a rookie direction of Nagraj Manjule. I have no idea how the court allowed Vijay to give a five-minute speech and that too openly instead of sending him to the witness box. How come a team played a football match in the tournament without a goalkeeper before Jagdish asked to fill the place? How come a college agreed on a football match against the slum kids in the first place, and that too with the criminal backgrounds and drug consumption?
Jhund is an inspiring film, and thanks to Aamir Khan‘s show Satyamev Jayate which introduced Vijay Barse and gave him the chance to narrate his story.
No doubt, Jhund is a fresh and exciting film that highlights so many social issues and encourages the audience to spare a thought and do something good or right for others.
Two elements in the universe will remain melodramatic and unrepaired, soap operas and Pakistan cricket. The supporters of the team Green deserves a lifetime achievement award for their tolerance and patience for the team. We are aware of the fact that the national team has more weakness in conceding the match than capabilities to win but it is our love for Pakistani cricket that keeps us hoping that the glory days may return soon.
So there are signs in the coming times that maybe international cricket return to a normal schedule from next year. Prime Minister Imran Khan‘s announcement of staging the entire Pakistan Super League (PSL) in the country next year is delightful and diverting.
But what is the national team’s own justification for the claim on the mega event happening in a couple of months?
Pakistan’s ODI performance since 2017 Champions Trophy
Pakistan stood a ‘TOP’ ODI team for a long period a couple of decades ago but the stance has dropped with quite a huge margin and in the recent years, Pakistan has built no good memories in the format since winning the ICC Champions Trophy (CT). They were invincible against the mediocre teams of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe beating them 5-0 each but exposed fragilities while losing against the top ODI sides of New Zealand (5-0), South Africa (3-2) and Australia (5-0), the last team arriving in UAE with many key absentees. During this process, they also couldn’t even qualify for the Asia Cup final last year. With such a monumental discrepancy, the certainty of winning the biggest trophy or even doing wonders look highly unlikely.
What went wrong?
The answer to this question deserves its own library bigger than the Library of Congress. But I will highlight a few because I have other things to do in my life.
This question needs a periodic timeline from where I should begin highlighting the issues and even that will take more than a blog, a volume perhaps. So I will set a scale from winning the CT and try to be quick in my argument.
Winning the CT was one of the golden chapters in Pakistan’s cricket history because our accomplishments in this sport are quite limited. The last major trophy Pakistan ever won before this in the format was Asia Cup 2012, thanks to Bangladesh who couldn’t score 9 runs the final over with 3 wickets in hand.
(Pakistan in ODIs has won one World Cup (WC), two Asia Cups, one CT in their history but their major dominance for any trophy in the format was limited to Sharjah Cup which they won 15 times, a record. One major reason how Pakistan has a better head-to-head record against India.)
No World Cup Planning
After winning the CT in 2017, the cricket board should have focused on the WC preparations. They had a two-year time to shape a plan and devise a strategy under which the national team would have analyzed their strength and weakness through a detailed report which would aid them to build a potential team to form a winning combination and maintain it like the top sides.
PCB has a history of lacking long-term plans and that is a major reason why the performance never improves. Their main focus was in organizing PSL every year and making efforts to bring the international cricket back to the country. That even didn’t help the national team. Pakistan couldn’t find a single batting talent through PSLs in four years. Only the foreigners and the already-established batsmen representing the country before PSL’s existence have been performing.
Pakistan holds the reputation of being the factory where the fast bowlers of the supreme quality are manufactured since Fazal Mahmood in the 50s. If the assumption is applied that more newcomers are making their place in the national team since the introduction of PSL then the question is that why PSL has been made a standard or benchmark to launch their careers? What is the use of the domestic one-day and T20 tournaments then?
Britain Cricket – Pakistan v India – 2017 ICC Champions Trophy Final – The Oval – June 18, 2017 Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir celebrates taking the wicket of India’s Virat Kohli Action Images via Reuters / Andrew Boyers Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
Lacking cricket at home and unfavorable UAE games
Another major issue is lacking international cricket at home which has disturbed and disrupted the natural self-confidence of playing in front of the home crowd. The borrowed HOME country has been of no use for Pakistan in the ODIs.
A decade has crossed playing ODIs on the pitches of UAE but our performances have only declined. Neither has Pakistan adopted the modern cricket system through the UAE games nor have given many of expected positive results.
On the record, Pakistan has never won a single ODI bilateral series against a ‘TOP’ ODI side (Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, England) in the UAE in the past 10 years!
India didn’t play any bilateral series in this period against Pakistan in the UAE. Pakistan has only taken the pride of defeating West Indies and Sri Lanka in the bilateral series again and again.
To my surprise, PCB never questioned about considering the UAE their home. With dismal performances and ridiculous predictability in failing to perform and conceding the series, fans in the UAE dropped their interest showing up to the stadiums to watch their team doing no favor and therefore the attendance of spectators has dropped more and more.
The recent Pakistan-Australia encounter was played in almost-empty stadiums which is a disgrace. Much of this year’s PSL was organized there before this series and remained cold as dead. The only time the stadium in the PSL went full throughout PSL was the opening day obviously because of the fondness to watch the opening ceremony and the live performances.
Selection Dilemma
To some extent, there were some good decisions helping the team realize their strength. The opening combination of Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq gave Pakistan many decent starts and during the process generated enough runs to become one of the quickest to 1000 ODI runs. Babar Azam maintained his superb form and his remarkable scoring consistency, something which most of the Pakistani batsmen traditionally lack. Shaheen Afridi and Usman Shinwari were trusted and did some justice.
But during all this, selectors also made grave mistakes like ignoring Junaid Khan several times disturbing his form due to irregularity, giving too many opportunities to underachiever Faheem Ashraf, emphasizing on ever-failing Mohammad Amir who since his CT final heroics has taken only 5 wickets in 14 ODIs, and depending on the failing veterans, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik who have scored only 426 runs (16 inns) and 716 runs (25 inns) since the CT glory.
The worst was the ego-bound priority of keeping Wahab Riaz regular in the XI for more than two years for his undoubtedly magnificent spell against Shane Watson in the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal. Since then, he went on to play 25 ODIs taking 25 wickets at a very expensive average of 47.08 and conceding 5.82 runs per over. Out of those 25 games, he conceded 50 runs on 10 occasions. One of those 10 occasions was his unforgettable 0/110 recording the second worst bowling performance in a 10-over quota. He was finally dropped after one bad game against India in 2017 CT and never considered to include in the ODIs.
Testing bench strength 3 months before the World Cup?
Ok first thing, Pakistan hasn’t played enough cricket that their key players are exhausted. Even if I assume that Pakistan played pretty much cricket then why was playing PSL that compulsory? Was playing PSL more important than the Australia series? You could have rested your key players after the South Africa series and played directly in the next. And another point, if they are taking rest, how come Hasan Ali and Babar Azam are playing some Gujranwala Premier League? When the squad to face Australia was announced, the reason for resting key players was to give them rest. Then why were they playing this league? What kind of rest is this?
The second thing is judging your bench strength a couple of months before the mega event is sheer stupidity. If the board was really considering to judge their bench strength, why didn’t the board plan long before this time? How can you judge your bench strength from one series? The pitches of UAE and the WC host England are extremely different.
Then the squad was the question mark. Test fast bowler Mohammad Abbas was selected about whom was rumored to be tried for the WC. There was confusion over him if he should be tried in the ODIs or not. But the problem is timing. Abbas is playing test cricket for the past two years. Why didn’t the board or the selectors make their mind to introduce him in ODIs sooner than pretty later? The result was disastrous with Abbas ending the series with a forgettable performance.
Another inclusion was of another test player Yasir Shah. If Shadab was to be rested then why did Yasir take his place? PSL wonder boy Umer Khan could have been tried. Why is Amir repeatedly picked after failing again and again? He has been in miserable form and is eating other’s chances. And giving chance to Umar Akmal for the umpteenth time proved that his situation will never change. Umar will do wonders in domestic cricket but will repeat the same mistakes when he will play in international cricket. Picking him was actually the selectors thinking backward.
All these points prove that the PCB didn’t plan anything for the WC. Judging your bench strength is sending your B-team to tour Zimbabwe like Indian cricket board did back in 2016.
What Pakistan must do?
After the disastrous conclusion of being whitewashed against a resurging Australia and failed tests in the laboratory, PCB must finalize the WC squad now and send them to play 5 ODIs against England at their home where the WC will be staged a couple of weeks after the conclusion of this series.
Pakistan is the luckiest of all the WC participants to arrive in the country first and fully take advantage of growing their game on these pitches. Pakistan is even playing three limited over games against county clubs and two warm-up practice matches after the series and before the big event which means 10 games of quality practice before the mega event begins. This is more than enough preps any WC participant can ask for.
If Pakistan finalizes the WC squad after the England series then that will be the dumbest of all the decisions PCB has ever made. Because it makes no sense to make changes in the squad after the final preps. Play your 15 men in 10 of those English games to be more prepared than the others.
My 15-Man World Cup Squad
I am mentally prepared to see PCB make a mockery of the selection as they have historically attempted before. That is why under the heading, I am listing the 15 names of what I believe should enter the mega event, not PCB.
Bowlers: Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Junaid Khan, Usman Shinwari, Mohammad Hasnain
Squad Explanation
Yes, no more Mohammad Amir. We should come out of this delusion that he will do wonders like 2010 English tour or 2017 CT Final. As stated before, this bowler has picked only 5 wickets in 14 ODIs since that Final. We should admit that he doesn’t justify his place.
What makes me pick Hasnain over him is the fact that this teenager is the fastest of all the picked bowlers and his understanding the pitch makes me think that Sarfraz can make better use of him on the English pitches. Sarfraz already has been his captain in PSL. Give him those 10 games, use him properly and he is a threat.
A lot of talk on Shinwari if he is that good to be considered. Yes, he is very expensive in the T20s but when I see 28 wickets in only 15 ODIs which includes 4/35 vs South Africa and 4/49 vs Australia, that speaks a lot. I will count wickets rather than think about being his expensive.
Indeed, we don’t have power hitters, something which almost every top team has the luxury to cash on. It is highly unfortunate that Pakistan couldn’t produce a single power hitter in all these years. That is why I am bound to pick out of form but heavily experienced Shoaib Malik over him who should come at no.6 and try to accelerate the run rate.
Shadab Khan is must in every single game, he is a genuine spinner with the heavy assistance on batting when in crisis. Haris and Rizwan with two centuries in the latest series cannot be imagined to be ignored for the WC. Babar needs to drop some weight of middle-order responsibility with their support.
Abid Ali is definitely the third opener of my squad who justified his selection by recently scoring a wonderful hundred on his debut. Imam-Fakhar is the permanent pair and this should not change for a long time, even after the World Cup. These openers are the quickest to 1000 ODI runs, something which never happened in ODI history before. Imam has proven against the South Africa series that he can score against the biggies and should not be dropped from any game. We fans should stop voicing against this kind of nepotism because at least this lad is performing.
What my picked batsmen have to do while constructing the inning is to accelerate the run rate, score more boundaries, reduce the percentage of dot deliveries and try to convert their twenty-five into the fifties and fifties into hundreds. There is not a single instance of a middle-order century for Pakistan in the World Cups since 1987. All the hundreds since 1992 have been scored by the openers. So this curse should end and I have high hopes that at least Babar can do it.
WC glory chances? Extremely low. And just like the previous edition, consideration of their reaching the semis will be a miracle. But this is exactly how Pakistan won all the three major trophies. They were not expected to do anything special in 1992, 2009 and 2017 but shocked the global cricket community. So whatever and whenever the squad is finalized, let us hope Pakistan does their best and not let us down. Hoping is living.
Although I don’t write the blogs on the World Wrestling Entertainment because I don’t follow that much. I am more focused on watching pay-per-view (PPV) events. I am not able to watch Raw and Smackdown episodes because of the sharp difference of timings between the US and Saudi Arabia. After what I watched the PPV event called WWE Crown Jewel, I am thinking about writing a blog on this terrible episode of nuisance and figuring out the points due to the fact I find this show the worst PPV I have ever watched.
1. BAD POLITICAL INFLUENCE
The globally infamous killing of a Saudi journalist ignited the worldwide audience to push towards the cancellation and not to step a foot in the name of the entertainment until the political crisis between the countries over the subject is clear. There was a strong rumor of the postponement which meant the continuity of the stories running in the weekly episodes of Raw and SmackDown may have to alter in haste and their 10-year deal with General Sports Authority (GSA) was in jeopardy. But somehow this show went on and most of the global fan following couldn’t believe that the event was still on the cards. Result? The PPV event went controversial all over.
2. VENUE & CROWD
People living in the capital will agree to the fact that the ideal venue for such a massive event should have been their ‘Pearl of Stadiums’, King Fahd International Stadium holding the rich capacity of over 68,000 spectators. The sudden change in plans within a month downsized the highly expected lively environment when the show moved to King Saud University Stadium which has approximately 25,000 seats to offer.
Due to the drastic change in the numbers, the electrifying environment was numbed. Many stage entrances had no deserving roar. People in the VIP seats were the most boring and disappointing faces who sat idle and showed no enthusiasm for the event. Many times, the VIPs didn’t bother to stand on their feet and notice who was thrown to the floor from the ring. As much animating and exhilarating was the crowd in Jeddah when the Greatest Royal Rumble was staged in front of over 60,000 spectators, the outcome in the Riyadh show was on the contrary.
3. JOHN CENA & DANIEL BRYAN OUT
Both, John Cena and Daniel Bryan, are currently the biggest faces of the WWE. People love and adore them. Their refusals to the event meant that Cena-Bryan followers in the KSA had to down their plans and take the whole scenario to the other theoretical dimensions. Cena and Bryan were officially removed from the event and were replaced by Bobby Lashley and Samoa Joe respectively. Cena’s refusal was more of a worrying sign as he widely praised and considered an honor and privilege to compete in the KSA during the Greatest Royal Rumble.
4. WORLD CUP?
The concept of the World Cup is not highly marketed or recognized in the North American region due to the immense popularity of their big 4 i.e., NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL. So when this concept dropped on the cards, it sounded bizarre. A ‘WORLD’ Cup between eight men? Not buying at all. The writers could have forwarded many better proposals than this. With the weight of the name, the writers could have focused only on the tournament in this PPV event and added numerous wrestlers in an expanded knockout phase instead of starting from the quarterfinals.
5. SHANE MCMAHON – THE BEST IN THE WORLD?
And guess what, the stupidity didn’t end with bringing the idea of a World Cup, the stupidity earned its vulnerable reputation when the tournament ended with the SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon winning the trophy. The man who didn’t even compete in the whole tournament decided to replace The ‘injured’ Miz during the final against Dolph Ziggler. This was like ruining a party. Even if The Miz had won by cheating, may have some average responses from the viewers but seeing Shane taking the trophy was the mockery to the competition they were referring for so many weeks. McMahon Jr. celebrated throughout the arena with the trophy and the crowd responded with low esteem.
Brock Lesnar‘s extreme irregularity in WWE has caused wide criticism in a past few years and has raised many eyebrows over the hype of his sustaining the Universal Championship belt for that long. The complaint is just and in the storyline, viewers did get rid of him when Roman Reigns defeated him in this year’s SummerSlam. A triple threat match was scheduled in Crown Jewel between Braun Strowman, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns but then Reigns himself announced a legitimate diagnosis of leukemia. Therefore, he had to relinquish the belt within two weeks to start Crown Jewel.
Another sad news? Actually no because the audience was done with The Big Dog with lack of interest in showing up in most of the PPV as a part of the main event. His rivalry with an irregular Lesnar was booed. So it became a singles match for the Universal Championship title. With Lesnar’s reign stretched to 504 record days, there was no need to win Brock another title.
The beast who offers nothing but suplexes and F5s used a similar method on Braun Strowman and won the match within 5 minutes. And once again, Lesnar and Strowman didn’t get a better contest. Making Lesnar repeatedly win shows that the showrunner and the writer are not listening to the criticism. They are adamant to make the same mistakes again and again.
7. SHAWN MICHAELS’ COMEBACK
For all these eight years, HBK maintained his words to not come out of retirement after losing to The Undertaker in the Wrestle Mania. It was, in my opinion, a sorry departure after losing the Streak v Career match. And it was a fitting farewell. HBK showed up many times in the ring afterward. Even gave sweet chin music a few times but didn’t return until the unnecessary drama at the MCG ignited for a showdown between the two extremely beloved tag teams of the Attitude era, The Brothers of Destruction and DX.
The MCG match between The Undertaker and HHH was supposed to be the final encounter between them but the writers had something else in their minds to annoy the fans. The legacy which ended with HHH beating The Undertaker at the MCG didn’t need to expand the script to shape it like a soap opera.
The timing of HBK’s return was extremely bad. The writers could have preferred to make HBK’s return in the next year’s WrestleMania for a revenge match and possibly end their careers on a high. Seeing HBK was a nostalgia as WWE’s business is nowadays relying on nostalgic matches and appearances.
HBK’s iconic sexy-boy image has aged, the guy is 53 now. Further disturbing was watching a bald Shawn Michaels who always sported long hair. He cut his pony and then shaved his head this year. Being a huge fan of HBK, I am not convinced of his return.
I am not convinced with the stories that are extended in the continuities. The creativity in the writing has met a severe low. I hope this does not repeat again. WWE Crown Jewel was a massive disappointment. The only thing which was impressive about the event was fireworks. PPV event will possibly return next year back in Jeddah on April. Hope to be better than this.
Good mourning! PCB should introduce a handbook of all their dark chapters and controversies suffered in their cricket. The newest is banning unarguably the best bowler across all cricket formats since 2011, Saeed Ajmal, from international cricket.
The decision to ban him was taken after an ICC accredited team of bio-mechanics experts tested his action at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane. All his deliveries are reported illegal and bending more than 15 degrees which actually is critical.
There are two ways to review this decision, one as an emotional Pakistani cricket supporter and two, as following cricket with the rules and laws of the game.
As a Pakistani cricket supporter, it is a disaster as we heavily rely every single game on Misbah’s bat and Ajmal’s ball. And that put Pakistan at least HALF of chances losing the next world cup (if he is not coming back). That is why PCB’s worst management and beyond-understanding domestic infrastructure never future-planned for possible back-up players. Abdur Rehman and Zulfiqar Babar are all at career-end stages with no huge threats to batsmen.
As a genuine follower by rules and laws of the game, we have to accept the decision critically keeping in mind that with the change of ICC’s administrative hands, Saeed wasn’t the first to be suspected for bowling actions. Saeed is one of actually 5 bowlers suspected since new setup of ICC.
Lets not say that BCCI’s strong hands in ICC’s newest setup is monitoring possible low of arch-rivals Pakistan. This will be very emotional and pathetic thinking as most of the Pakistani cricket supporters think to that level sadly. This very Saeed Ajmal is currently no.1 ODI bowler in Reliance-sponsored international cricket rankings. Plus, Lahore Lions are recently issued Indian visa to play CLT20 in India.
Last of all I must say that with the passage of time and changing the laws and rules of the game, administrators have made this game more of the game of ‘batsman’ and entertain him more independence. The bowlers, once who were the mighty assassins towards the batsmen known for their rocket pace and agonized bouncers in the past, are handcuffed with many restrictions like limiting bouncers, overstepping, bending arming below a certain degree. There are reasons why today bowlers are no more a threat. There are reasons with introduction of new mechanisms in cricket, why bowlers are not bowling that quick as they used to in the past. Anyone remember who was the last to bowl at 155kph??? Hard to imagine that was bloody normal in the 70s and 80s!!!
Had cricket’s nowadays administrators were managing the game 40 years ago, cricket would certainly not witness a single ‘world-class’ bowler to date…
Right-Arm… Over The Wicket… Off Cutter… Bowled!!!!!!!!
The batsman was yet to understand when did the ball release from his hand and when it reached the stumps, all he realized was off the gloves, bat pressed in the wet armpit and there was the pavilion.
Off you go… Better luck next time… Give my love to your sister…
Shall I say, cricket playboy? Shall I say every dream girl’s HBK?
Born in Lahore and settled in Mianwali. Blood of a Pathan and rooting from the Niazis and the Burkis. Descendant of Pir Roshan and ex-son-in-law of Goldsmiths. Alumni of Oxford and Chancellor of Bradford. The winner of the World Cup and builder of the groundbreaking cancer hospital. Two sons from Jemima and a daughter from Sita. Imran Khan is the Cricketer, the Celebrity, the Politician and that’s the book I just finished reading.
Published by Harper Collins, comprised of 402 pages and 10 very interesting chapters, Sandford’s pen proved no ink miscarriage or bleaking malfunction as the man in the limelight was properly life-summarized. The book is like an exclusive documentary or the making of a legend. While reading the pages, you are sensing some footage playing in your clouds of imagination.
Sandford put three years of his efforts to shape this book from 2006 to 2008. During these years, he conducted many interviews with many personalities linked/associated with Imran’s life and careers like Mike Brearley, Geoff Boycott, Javed Miandad, Pervez Musharraf, and Jemima Khan-Goldsmith. He also collected the cricketing sources from different cricket administrations, Cricinfo, and county clubs. Many of the incidents and quotations have been picked from various books including Imran Khan’s The Autobiography, All-Round View, and Indus Journey, plus various books written on/by Botham, Miandad, Atherton, Sobers, and Parvez Musharraf. The author also conducted his three most prominent interviews with Imran Khan in 2008.
CHAPTERS
Sandford depicts his deep research towards Pakistan cricket and the first two chapters will give you an idea of how good he is in describing the gear-shifting of Pakistan cricket from the 50s to the 60s. In these chapters, enter the central character and his family tree and relatives are penned in detail.
Even the smallest account/incident means a lot for the readers to know the iconic leader as he once bribed a policeman in his teen-hood and enjoyed ammi’s scolding. While his cricket-level moves with his education from Quaid-e-Azam Trophy to the county cricket, the political environment in the surrounding proceeds like East Pakistan partition to Bangladesh and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto regime.
The third chapter is his account of his university-level and county cricket, the beginning of his international cricket career, and his life in England. The fourth chapter depicts life in Sussex county, the political crisis of the late 1970s, and furthermore tours including the 1979 World Cup. And the chapters proceed on and on.
The readers will exhume with the excitement of enjoying reading about his high-profile affairs with many ladies that prominently include painter Emma Sergeant, fashion guru Susannah Constantine and former German VJ of MTV Europe Kristiane Backer. The controversial case of Imran’s affair with Sita White is sensitively not protracted as I was expecting. But he is never bothered to call her ‘Drama Queen’.
The 1992 World Cup story is the one that will bring that josh-e-junoon page by page as a magnificent comeback is enthralling when you read it match by match. In all cricketing tours Imran participated in, with obvious picking, it is the great West Indian team to whom defeating was Imran’s biggest challenge.
Imran’s philanthropy in the book is adverted towards the foundation of integrity and prosperity with the qualities Imran has been assembled. The building of Pakistan’s first Cancer Hospital is one of the achievements by Imran, the inspiration came after the death of his mother, Mrs. Shaukat Khanum, who succumbed to cancer in 1985. For the purpose of laying the foundation and shaping it into functioning, Sandford has penned sporadically Imran’s effort of fundraising from campaigns, shows, parties, exhibition games, and earnings from his playing career.
TWO BIOGRAPHIES AND THE DECLARATION
I had read Javed Miandad’s Cutting Edge where he reflected on his cricketing career and dirty games played behind the scenes. So after reading that book, it was easy for me to now understand Imran’s take on all this. The difference was literature; Miandad’s story flows like a river but the details of this book are more broader.
Any reader like me will find a wide range of description of Imran’s relationship with Javed Miandad. On many occasion, Miandad’s book Cutting Edge has been used as an instance where indirectly the (mis)understanding between the two is reflected and perhaps becomes debatable. Most alarmingly, when it comes to the strangest decision of Imran’s captaincy of declaring the inning when Miandad on the crease was only twenty runs shy of a triple century. The arguments don’t match and I feel scratching my head after knowing Imran’s reason for the declaration. This infamous incident is mentioned in the third chapter on page 90.
RISE OF A POLITICIAN
How can the biography of Imran’s life be without the biggest happening since his cricketing career? The entry of Jemima Goldsmith and launching of his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice). From here, when more than half of the book has been read, the most critical writing pledges. Sandford surpasses the expectation of translating Imran’s most critical and beyond challenging life into a mind-frame of footages.
Many many aspects are surrendered to throw in Imran’s way like rivalries with politicians Altaf Hussain and Nawaz Sharif, General Musharraf’s imposing of martial law and beginning of his dictatorial regime, a disturbed marriage with Jemima, libel case against Ian Botham and Allan Lamb, and failure in general elections.
Politics has no bound from here. In the book, he majorly targets former President Pervez Musharraf and his government for being a US ally, and destroying Pakistan’s welfare for many incidents. Cricket fixtures continue to echo in all this. Sandford does increase the volume of Imran over major incidents that occurred in Pakistan cricket like the 2003 World Cup, India’s 2004 tour of Pakistan, and the Hair-Inzamam controversy.
CLOSING REMARKS
The book from all aspects is a complete Imran Khan book. The first impression of the reader surely comes as a sports biography but the title is enough to convince you that this is the ultimate book where Imran plays three different roles, not only as a cricketer but also as a celebrity and politician.
This book is recommended to those who are seeking for an ultimate biography of Imran Khan. You must remember that you will not be able to read a single word about Imran’s political uprise that began from 2011 after a massive gathering in Lahore because the book was published in 2009.
But you will be drown in the thickness of recount and probably some details you have never experienced to read.
The book is absolutely frank about his good deeds and wrong-doings. This biography is absolute and worth reading for all Imran lovers and loonies. The reader will be moved while moving toward different phases of his life. Visualize the footage of the great iconic legend while speaking its pages.
Sami Naik | Film Critic 