امریکہ میں 90 دن

گزشتہہ سال ایک بک فیر سے ڈاکٹر ار اے خالد کی کتاب "امریکہ میں 90 دن" خریدی تھی۔ بہت سی وجوھات کے تہت اس کو مکمل نہ کر سکا۔ اس سال یہ فیصلہ کیا کہ اس کو پڑھا جائے۔ 

The man who brought colours to cricket

In 1976, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) turned down Kerry Packer's offer for broadcasting international cricket in Australia. Packer was the owner of Nine News Networks. What followed was to change cricket forever.

Disheartened, Packer decided to start a rebel league by signing international players like Tony Greig of England, Greg Chappel of Australia and player from West Indies and Pakistan. Revolutionary changes were brought to the game. Floodlights, drop in pitches, helmets, white balls and coloured clothing were used; all these were unheard of in cricket.

Players from Pakistan and Australia were banned by their national boards, whereas those from West Indies, South Africa, England and New Zealand were kept in the national side. The ACB's stance of no tolerance was shaken, and they were forced to make a compromise in 1979, granting the rights to Packer's Nine News network.

In the backdrop of the pact between the two sides, Australia hosted the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup in November 1979, inviting West Indies and England teams to participate. This was the first 'recognized' international cricket series to feature coloured apparel and day/night matches. Hence, Australia became the first nation to introduce coloured apparel in one-day cricket. 

Later, the 1992 Benson & Hedges World Cup, also held in Australia, was the first World Cup to feature coloured clothing. Many countries followed suit and started organizing day/night ODIs which featured coloured clothing and floodlights. Finally, in December 2000, the last ODI featuring white flannels was played. Hence what carries on till today, is the legacy of the Great Kerry Packer.

Shoaib Akhter and Salman Butt

I'm currently reading Shoaib Akhter's biography "Controversially yours", and while reading it I was really touched by his modest childhood. He mentions on more than one occasion that his mother tried her best to make ends meet and that his father's salary was meagre. To top this, he was from a suburb of Rawalpindi, Morgah. Another interesting anecdote described is when he sleeps on a footpath in Lahore. These were certainly new things for me as I had always seen him as an arrogant, indisciplined fast bowler.

Rawalpindi:
The fastest bowler in the World

On the other hand, we have Salman Butt. Educated from Beachonhouse school system (an elitist institution) and belonging to a well-off family.
Salman Butt was sentenced to a 30 month jail term this year after he was found guilty of spot fixing in the Lord's Test. Shoaib, on the other hand, was always blamed for being indisciplined. But he was never, even by his biggest critics, blamed for match fixing. Never was Shoaib found lacking commitment.
Hence, while going through his book, I realized that there was another side to Shoaib Akhter, a side which was never revealed by the media. This has led to an increase in the respect I had for Shoaib. As he says in his book, "a man doesn't have to be a saint to do good things."

Making my own External drive - Part 2

As I had mentioned earlier, I was waiting for my external case it to arrive. It arrived today, which means that the only thing left is the hard drive itself.
The case is Welland's ME-745J which I bought due to its eSATA and USB compatibility. It is available on beliscity.com.

Saeed Ajmal - Saqlain part 2?

Saeed Ajmal is Pakistan's new "premier" spinner. And who does he resemble? Pakistan's previous premier spinner; Saqlain Mushtaq. Where is Saqlain these days? Coaching in England!
Saqlain was an expert spin bowler and he was the inventor of the dusra (the second one), a delivery which spun like a leg spinning delivery rather than an off spinning one. Ironically, it was the dusra which led to Saqlain's downfall. He had started over using it.
So how is all this related to Saeed Ajmal? Well, other than the physical similarity in their actions, Ajmal is also over using his Dusra these days. Rameez Raja almost started crying when Ajmal used the Dusra for the umpteenth time in the test against Zimbabwe. Saeed should take it easy and use the dusra for the purpose for what it was invented - the surprise ball.

Making my own External drive - Part 1

As I've mentioned in my earlier posts, my laptop has an eSata port but nobody sells eSATA external hard drives in Pakistan. So, I opted for making my own hard drive.

The plan is to buy an enclosure which supports eSATA, and then install a SATA hard drive inside it. This would create a virtual external drive which I can use for backup and other things.

The eSATA to eSATA cable I ordered arrived today, fits perfectly into my laptop so no issues with the combo port.

The enclosure will arrive tomorrow inshAllah so I'll try to keep my blog updated on that.

Thats all the news I have right now :D

Letter to the President | Pakistan Today | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia

Letter to the President | Pakistan Today | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia

My Letter to the editor was printed in Pakistan Today's 12th August Edition.