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What is behind the Yousuf and Ramiz public spat?

Roar Rookie
18th May, 2016
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Roar Rookie
18th May, 2016
1
1697 Reads

It is not unusual to find sportsmen (retired or current) having a negative attitude towards other sportsmen or personalities.

More often than not there is a reason behind the animosity between the two individuals – it could be professional or personal.

Former Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Yousuf is often seen and heard making harsh comments on other cricketers. One can understand his negative opinion on Misbah-ul-Haq because he was the one who replaced Yousuf for the inaugural World T20 played in South Africa in 2007. Yousuf took this exclusion from the team so much to his heart that even a century made by Misbah gets nothing but criticism from him.

But why does Ramiz Raja get so much flak from Yousuf?

Is it a clash between two different segments of societies? Is it Yousuf’s inferiority complex of not speaking fluent English like Ramiz? Or is it that Ramiz gets all the big endorsements and Yousuf doesn’t?

Yousuf was quite vocal about not getting ads during his playing days, remember? One can only wonder what pervades Yousuf’s mind when he makes Ramiz the target.

According to Yousuf, Ramiz is nothing more than an English language teacher who doesn’t know anything about cricket and he should be ashamed of giving expert views on the game. He shared these thoughts on a live program on one of the most viewed sports channels in Pakistan, not too long ago.

This kind of attitude towards a former player who has nine ODI hundreds to his name is deplorable.

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Traditionally, batsmen from Pakistan have always struggled to perform in Australia which means that tough Australian conditions provides us a good performance barometer to judge Ramiz and Yousuf. There is no harm in going across the Tasman and considering their batting averages in New Zealand as well. Conditions are comparatively far less challenging, but still difficult for the Pakistani batsmen who grow up playing on flat mud rolled or cement tracks.

The following stats make interesting reading. It is important to mention here that this analysis is in no way meant to undermine Yousuf’s contribution to Pakistan cricket.

Undoubtedly, he remains one of the best batsmen produced in the country, but it is also necessary to value and respect others who have served this great game.

The reasons for selecting only ODI performances is that it gives us a fair picture because more often than not a player has played a good number of One Day Internationals than Test matches in a certain country in his cricket career, and secondly, Ramiz was predominantly an ODI player.

As for Yousuf, in-spite of his lacklustre performances in Australia and West Indies, he could have walked into any Test or ODI team in the world.

The figures include matches played against the host country and other opposition.

ODI Batting Performance in Australia
Span Mat Inns Runs HS 100 50 Ave
Ramiz Raja 1985-93 35 35 941 116* 3 4 30.35
M Yousuf 2000-10 26 26 754 105 1 5 31.41

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ODI Batting Performance in New Zealand
Span Mat Inns Runs HS 100 50 Ave
Ramiz Raja 1985-95 15 15 711 119* 2 5 50.78
M Yousuf 2001-04 10 10 293 88* 0 2 36.62

Contrary to popular belief there is not much of a difference between performance of Yousuf and Ramiz in Australia. As a matter of fact the so-called ‘English language teacher’, Ramiz’s performance in New Zealand is leaps and bounds better than Yousuf.

Talking about tough batting conditions, how can one forget the West Indies? The Winders were considered as the ‘final frontier’ by many teams until the late 1980s. Many batsmen had sleepless nights before facing the hostile West Indies bowling in their backyard.

Ramiz had to face a lot of ‘chin music’ on the 1988 tour which the post 90s generation of batsmen had never experienced. The figures show that Ramiz has a decent batting average of 31.20 compared to a meager 18.84 by Yousuf in the West Indies.

ODI Batting Performance in the West Indies
Span Mat Inns Runs HS 100 50 Ave
Ramiz Raja 1988-93 10 10 312 71 0 2 31.20
M Yousuf 2000-07 13 13 245 56 0 2 18.84

It is not always wise to compare two players from different eras because rules and playing conditions go through constant changes, not to mention the quality of bowlers and batsmen.

Batting on WACA Perth pitch was once considered as the ultimate test for any batsman against fast bowling, but after the mid 90s the deck gradually became flatter and flatter. And now it has become one of the highest scoring grounds in Australia.

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We can safely say that with the passage of time things became easier for the batsmen, which further cements the notion that Ramiz Raja played his cricket in far tougher conditions than Mohammad Yousuf. Ramiz played in the era when bowlers like Malcolm Marshall, Richard Hadlee, Ian Botham, Courtney Walsh and Curtley Ambrose were ruling the roost – when six bouncers in one over were considered as a norm.

During his playing days as well as his career in the media, Ramiz has been perhaps one of the best ambassadors of Pakistan. He had to fight a lone battle in the media in 2010 when the Pakistan team was rocked by the spot fixing scandal.

Passionate cricket fans know how to put their heroes on the highest pedestal. It’s about time that ‘heroes’ too start respecting each other and stop sharing their personal grudges on the media.

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