Pakistan
Test status granted	1952
First Test match	v India at Delhi, October 1952
Captain	Inzamam-ul-Haq
Coach	Bob Woolmer
Official ICC Test and ODI ranking	3rd (Test), 4th (ODI)
Test matches - this year	329 3
Last Test match	v South Africa at Cape Town, 10 December 2006
Wins/losses - this year	103/87 1/2
As of 27 February 2007

The Pakistani cricket team is a national cricket team representing Pakistan. It is administrated by the Pakistan Cricket Board. Pakistan is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and one-day international status. As of 5 January 2007, Pakistan is ranked third in the ICC Test and fourth place in the ICC ODI Championship

History

Following the Partition of India in 1947, and the establishment of the separate nation state of Pakistan, cricket in the country developed steadily and Pakistan was given Test Match status at a meeting of the Imperial Cricket Conference at Lord's Cricket Ground on 28 July 1952 following recommendation by India, which, being the successor state of the British Raj, did not have to go through such a process.

Pakistani™s first Test match was played in Delhi in October 1952 as part of a five Test series which India won 2-1. Pakistan made their first tour of England in 1954 and drew the series 1-1 after a memorable victory at The Oval in which fast bowler Fazal Mahmood took 12 wickets. Pakistani™s first home Test match was in Dacca in January 1955 against India, after which four more Test matches were played in Bahawalpur, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi (all five matches in the series were drawn, the first such occurrence in test history).

The team is considered a strong but unpredictable team. Traditionally Pakistani cricket has been filled with players of great talent but limited discipline, making them a team which could play inspirational cricket one day and then perform less than ordinarily another day. Over the years, competitions between India and Pakistan have always been emotionally charged and provide for intriguing contests, as talented teams from both sides of the border elevate their game to new levels to produce high-quality cricket. Pakistani contest with India in the Cricket World Cup have seen packed stadiums and elevated atmospheres no matter where the World Cup has been held.

  Recent controversies

Ball tampering accusations re-surfaced with the forfeiture by the Pakistani team of the 4th Test against England at the Oval on 20 August 2006. On the fourth day of the Test, during England's second innings, the ball began to late reverse swing for Umar Gul in particular, resulting in him dismissing Alastair Cook LBW to an inswinging yorker. Four overs later, on examining the ball, umpire Darrell Hair decided there was evidence that the ball had been tampered with. He consulted with the other umpire, Billy Doctrove, and penalised the Pakistani team for interfering with the condition of the ball, awarding five runs to England. Following the playing conditions for that Test, the England batsmen were allowed to choose a replacement ball from a selection of six provided. Although play continued until the end of the afternoon session, the Pakistani team failed to reappear on time at the start of the third session in protest of what they believed to be an unjust and insensitive decision. As a result of the Pakistani team's failure to appear at the field, the umpires awarded the test to England, cricket's first and only forfeiture. However the Pakistani team was cleared of any wrongdoing when further proceedings saw captain Inzamam-ul-Haq found not guilty of ball tampering. However, the team's protest led to him being banned for four games on the charge of bringing the game of cricket into disrepute.

Immediately following the ball tampering controversy was the news that its front-line pace bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif had both tested positive for Nandrolone, the banned anabolic steroid. Though both denied any substance abuse, on November 1, 2006 both Akhtar and Asif were banned for a period of 2 years and 1 year respectively. However, both bowlers were successful in their appeals with the earlier bans being revoked, although the World Anti-Doping Agency has made an appeal in the International Court of Arbitration for Sport over the revoking of this ban.

  Tournament history

  Famous moments

1986 Australasia Cup

The 1986 Austral-Asia Cup, played in Sharjah, is remembered as a famous last-ball victory for Pakistan against arch-rivals India, with Javed Miandad emerging as a national hero.

India batted first and set a target of 245 runs, leaving Pakistan with a required run rate of 4.92 runs per over. Javed Miandad came in to bat at number 3, and Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals, leading to what looked to be an easy Indian victory. Later recalling the match, Miandad stated that his main focus was to lose with dignity. With 31 runs needed in the last three overs, Miandad hit a string of boundaries while batting with his team's lower order, until four runs were required from the last delivery of the match. Miandad received a leg side full toss from Chetan Sharma, which he hit for six over the midwicket boundary. The shot is still considered as one of the most historic moments in ODI cricket history.

1992 Cricket World Cup

The 1992 Cricket World Cup in Australia & New Zealand marked Pakistan's first World Cup victory. It is remembered for the improbable comeback Pakistan made after losing key players such as Waqar Younis and Saeed Anwar, and being led by an injured captain in Imran Khan. Pakistan lost 4 of their first 5 matches and were nearly eliminated in the first round of the tournament after being bowled out for 74 against England, until the match was declared a "no result" due to rain. Captain Imran Khan famously told the team to play "as cornered tigers", after which Pakistan won five successive matches, including, most famously, the semi-final against hosts New Zealand and the final against England.

1992 Cricket World Cup Semi Final

After winning the toss, New Zealand chose to bat first and ended with a total of 262, which was considered a very good score in 1992, when run rates were generally much lower. Pakistan batted conservatively yet lost wickets at regular intervals. With the departure of Imran Khan and Saleem Malik shortly thereafter, Pakistan still required 115 runs at a rate of 7.67 per over with veteran Javed Miandad being the only known batsman remaining at the crease. A young Inzamam ul-Haq, who had just turned 22 and was not a well-known player at the time, burst onto the international stage with a match-winning 60 off 37 balls. Once Inzamam got out, Pakistan required 36 from 30 balls, which wicketkeeper Moin Khan ended with a towering six over long off, followed by the winning boundary to midwicket. The match is seen as the emergence of Inzamam onto the international stage, and would later become the symbolic starting point of his rise to become Pakistan's top batsman, replacing Miandad, the player with whom he shared his historic partnership.

  Cricket Grounds

Notes: Pakistan have a strong record at the National Stadium, Karachi, where they have won 21 of their 39 test matches and lost only 1 test match.

Captains

Pakistan's Test captains:

* Indicates current captain.

Notes: Kardar led the first Pakistani team to victory over all the Test playing nations of the 1950s, including historic victories over England in England in 1954, and against Australia in Karachi in 1956. Imran Khan led Pakistan to a World Cup victory in 1992 in Australia.

Notable Pakistani cricketers

Batsmen

Famous Pakistani batsman;

• Hanif Mohammad
• Mushtaq Mohammad
• Saeed Ahmed
• Zaheer Abbas
• Asif Iqbal
• Majid Khan
• Sadiq Mohammad
• Javed Miandad
• Mudassar Nazar
• Shoaib Mohammad
• Mohsin Khan
• Inzamam-Ul-Haq
• Aamer Sohail
• Saeed Anwar
• Saleem Malik
• Ijaz Ahmed
• Mohammad Yousuf
• Younis Khan

Batting records

• Hanif Mohammad scored 337 against the West Indies in 1958, the first triple hundred by an Asian cricketer, and at the time the longest innings by any batsman in terms of time spent at the wicket.
• Hanif also held the record for the highest individual first class innings for just over 35 years, 499 runs, until Brian Lara scored 501 for Warwickshire in 1994.
• Saeed Anwar holds the record for scoring the highest ODI innings against the Indian cricket team (194) at Chennai in 1997.
• Mohammad Yousuf holds the record for the most Test match runs in a calendar year (1788), the most centuries in a calendar year (nine) and the most centuries in successive tests (six centuries in five successive tests).

Fast bowlers

Famous Pakistani fast bowlers;

• Imran Khan
• Wasim Akram
• Aaqib Javed
• Waqar Younis
• Fazal Mahmood
• Sarfraz Nawaz
• Shoaib Akhtar
• Mohammad Sami
• Rana Naved-ul-Hasan
• Umar Gul
• Mohammad Asif

Bowling records

• Wasim Akram has taken 502 ODI wickets, the most in ODI cricket.
• Shoaib Akhtar holds the record for the fastest delivery recorded, clocked at 100.2 Miles/H.

Spin Bowlers

Famous Pakistani spin bowlers;

• Intikhab Alam
• Iqbal Qasim
• Abdul Qadir
• Mushtaq Ahmed
• Saqlain Mushtaq
• Danish Kaneria
• Tauseef Ahmed
• Shahid Afridi

Notes:

• Saqlain Mushtaq is credited with inventing the delivery now known as the doosra, and is regarded as one of the best off-spin bowlers in cricket history

All rounders

Well known Pakistani all-rounders

• Imran Khan
• Aamer Sohail
• Moin Khan
• Abdul Razzaq
• Shahid Afridi
• Kamran Akmal
• Shoaib Malik
• Wasim Akram
• Azhar Mahmood

Records:

• Shahid Afridi holds the record for the fastest ODI century reaching the milestone off just 37 balls and also equalled the second fastest ODI century (45 balls).

Reverse swing

Reverse swing was first discovered by Sarfraz Nawaz in the 1970s, who then passed it on to another Pakistani bowler, Imran Khan. Khan mastered reverse swing and the evidence of reverse swing by him was seen in 1983 in a Test match against India at Karachi, where he took 5 wickets in 25 balls. Imran Khan subsequently passed this skill on to Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram who are considered to have been the finest exponents of the art.

On Pakistan's 1992 tour of England, the England had no answer to the reverse swing, a new phenomenon to them. Pakistan won the series 2-1. The series was controversial one as the Pakistani team were accused of ball tampering, particularly by the English media.

Reverse swing soon expanded around the cricket world and more bowlers, including those from England, mastered the art.

Current Team

The team's coach is currently Bob Woolmer, who succeded Javed Miandad.

Trivia

• Abdul Jalil aka Chacha cricket (photo) has been following the team since 1969. The PCB pays him 10,000 Pakistani rupees per month to follow the team, and he himself has a number of his own followers.
• Pakistan are the only cricket team to lose a test match by forfeiture. They did so against England at The Oval on the 20 August, 2006, following a refusal to play, in protest of their penalty of 5 runs, the changing of the ball that they were using, for being accused of unfairly altering the condition of the ball.However the jury later decided that the ball was not tampered but charged captain Inzamam-ul-Haq with bringing the game into disrepute.
  
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