CRICKET NEW: PONTING NOT WORRIED FROM AFRIDI

Ricky Ponting said he is confident that Australia can get the better of Shahid Afridi, the new Pakistan captain, during their two Test matches in England in July. Surprisingly Afridi has not played a Test since 2006 and in 44 games against Australia across all formats, he has only ever scored one half-century.

Interestingly Afridi will be the third man to captain Pakistan in Tests since the start of 2009 and Ponting is not worried about him as he is not one of Pakistan's best 11 Test players. Ponting said he was confident Australia's pace attack would be able to counter Afridi's attacking style in the five-day game.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure we do," Ponting told AAP. "He hasn't played much Test cricket of late, has he? If you read between the lines he's almost in there as that leader and captain, not necessarily one of their best Test players. So we'll test him out.

"Even in the one -dayers in Australia last season with our quicks bowling the way they did to him, I think we can sort him out in Test cricket for sure. I see Shoaib Malik's life ban has been lifted as well, so who knows what happens around their set-up, but we know they're a dangerous team.

"I guess with him being captain of the Twenty20 side it was a natural progression for him to be the Test captain with all the rest of the guys they've tried there not having succeeded. But that's all irrelevant stuff to us, it doesn't matter who's captain and it doesn't matter who's playing, we just have to make sure we're focusing on our little things to be the best team we can be when we play them."

Australia will play ashed series after PAKISTAN matches so he added;
"I guess we speak pretty loosely don't we about looking forward to the Ashes and all that, and we are, but it's not with both eyes," he said. "We've got one eye on that and one eye on what we need to get in place to make sure we're the best team we can be for November."

It will be interesting to note that what strategies will be employed by Shahid afridi against Australia as Australia has aleady started the verbal battle and we all know how good Aussies are in their verbal battle and of the field strategies to pressurize the opponents. I m eagerly waiting for Shahidf Afridi's comment about AUSTRALIA

well this is CRICKET NEW for where every NEW thing is possible in CRICKET !

THIS IS all from my side, your comments will be welcomed

SHOAIB AKHTAR BACK IN THE TEAM

I had been working hard in gym with Pakistan star Shoaib Akhtar, I always wondered that why is he working so hard on his fitness as it will be difficult for him to make come back. But today i got the reason behind his hard work when his name was announced in the 35 probable’s. When i met him in the gym, he was excited to be in the list, he said,heeagerly waited for this comeback. Today, he trained like anything, he was lifting heavy weights but only one goal on his mind, i need to play for my country again and i have to perform. It really clicked me, and i hope he may get a chance and perform because he has undergone sheer hard work for this comeback.
Anyhow, 35 players have been announced for the England tour and the final 15 will be announced later. Following are the probable’s for busy summer,
Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Khurram Manzoor, Shahzaib Hassan, Azhar Ali, Azeem Ghumman, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Faisal Iqbal, Fawad Alam, Hasan Raza, Asad Shafiq, Umar Amin, Aamer Sajjad, Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi (capt), Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Sami, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan, Tanvir Ahmed, Aizaz Cheema, Danish Kaneria, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Zulfiqar Babar, Kamran Akmal (wk), Zulqarnain Haider (wk)
Pakistan has to play six test, five ODI’s and 4 T20 matches against Australia and England which will be played in England.
Shahid afridi has been named as the captain for the whole tour, he said at a press conference, "As a challenge I have accepted this," Afridi said. "Pakistan needs a senior player right now to lead them and that is why I accepted this. I don't think we should have too many expectations for Test cricket right now but I will try to get our ranking up to where it should be."
One decision that surprised all was the inclusion of 2 banned senior players, younis khan and shoaib malik
Well that is cricket new for you, where everything is possible !
I wish good luck to Pakistan team for the asia cup and the summer tour !
This is all from my side, would love your comments

CLARKE wants to retain his captaincy

Michael Clark said he is ready to continue with the responsibility as a captain of Australian T20 squad besides bad performance in ICC world T20 cricket tournament. He said that he needs to rediscover his attacking nature of game to become a successful T20 operator. He said in an interview that he has no intention of leaving captaincy despite being not able to make a statement with the bat.

In the herald sun on Thursday, Ricky ponting said he was impressed with the leadership qualities that Michael Clarke possesses. Afterwards eve, Shane Warne defended Clarke by saying that Clarke was the best captaincy option and No. 3 for the Twenty20 team. All these statements came when Australia came back home after losing the final to England.

"Who knows? Maybe I need a little bit of that back," Clarke said. "Everybody has a different role in our team though and that is one thing that players certainly are aware of, and you need to do your role to the best of your ability.

"For me my role is not the same as Dave Warner or Shane Watson. I always want to perform, I always want to score runs, it doesn't matter what form of the game I'm playing, but like I said in this game, sometimes you can't always make those runs."

Clarke's future as the T20 captain is still in doubt, and his future will be decided in the next few weeks when the selectors will select the squads for the upcoming tour of England. It will be interesting to see whether the selectors still will pursue with Clarke or not as he himself is determined to take the role ahead.

"No doubt [I want to continue], I'm disappointed we couldn't win the World T20, win the final, but I've really enjoyed the opportunity," Clarke said. "I've loved playing with the guys, I've had a lot of support from people back at home, the people who came and watched the games in the West Indies, and family and friends, so it's been great and I'm enjoying it."

"It always hurts losing to England in any form of the game, but obviously a lot of guys in both teams that won't take part in the Ashes series," Clarke said. "They will take confidence out of it, no doubt about it, but I can guarantee the way we've been playing Test and one day cricket of late, or even T20 cricket in this tournament, we're very confident."

Well this is new cricket for you where everything is possible !