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The ban on Shoaib is an outrage

The Pakistan Cricket Board's decision to ban Shoaib Akhtar for five years is yet another step on what has been a long and winding road to oblivion. Once one of the top drawcards in the game - no other team stretched the West Indies at much as they did when the men from the Caribbean were at their peak - the Pakistanis are now in danger of becoming a sideshow, with hardly any proper cricket on the itinerary for the next two years. On top of that, they've just decided to dispense with one of the few potent pace bowlers they have, a man who also happens to be a maverick and entertainer from the old Pakistani school.

Paddy's Day memories

A year ago, I was at Sabina Park, watching one of the greatest sporting upsets. To the tune of Cotton-Eye Joe, Molly Malone and many others, Ireland's finest, some of them originally from Australia, held their nerve to shock Pakistan. A South African, Andre Botha, did a fair imitation of Glenn McGrath on a seam-friendly pitch, before Boyd Rankin and others sent Pakistan plummeting to a dismal total.

No Australia. Champions Trophy next?

What most of us suspected has now been confirmed, and though the official line from the two boards says that the series has only been postponed, it's hard to see Australia touring Pakistan before 2010. The itinerary is packed for the rest of this year, and 2009 has an Ashes series as its centrepiece. With the Pakistan Cricket Board not amenable to hosting the series at a neutral venue, it's hard to see where the matches will be fitted in if they're not played now.

Should Australia tour Pakistan?

Barring a spectacular about-turn, Australia will not tour Pakistan next month. Enough noises have already been made to suggest that the security inspection after the elections in Pakistan will be a mere formality, with Cricket Australia bowing to the players' wishes.

Test cricket in Pakistan has been dying for more than a decade now - even matches against India don't get anything like a full house - and this could well prove the final nail in the coffin. And while Cricket Australia can talk about exploring the idea of a neutral venue, there's no conceivable benefit for Pakistan from such a move.

Cricket's bad boys

Sydney's Daily Telegraph probably didn't realise that they were playing into Indian hands with this hatchet-job on India's disciplinary record. If anything, the "cricket sinners" list that they have drawn up based on offences under the ICC's code of conduct only reinforces the subcontinent view that players from the region are treated far more harshly than those from other countries.

Some lessons are never learnt

In the home series against South Africa, Pakistan went in with a four-man bowling attack. It was a gamble on a placid surface, and When Mohammad Asif aggravated a shoulder problem, the other three were left to carry the can. Jacques Kallis pillaged them remorselessly and a series was lost.

A few fit men

Usually, on the eve of a game, the speculation surrounds the playing XI - who will make it and who'll be left to ferry the drinks. On Thursday morning at the Eden Gardens, you had a bizarre situation where people wondered whether Pakistan could even get eleven fit men on the park come start of play on Friday. The back problems that have plagued Umar Gul's career have struck again, while Delhi's winter chill and smog have severely enfeebled Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, the two most experienced new-ball bowlers. Shoaib Malik, the captain, limped around and appeared unlikely to play, while Misbah-ul-Haq was just recovered from the flu bug that laid him low in Delhi.

Will Younis inspire a weakened Pakistan at Eden?

Defeat in the one-day series and the first Test would have been hard enough to take, but now Pakistan face an injury crisis that could severely dent their chances of keeping the three-Test series alive. With less than two days to go for the start of the Kolkata Test, Shoaib Malik, the captain, appears certain to miss out with an injured right ankle. But it's the health of Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistan's best player in Delhi, that's causing the most concern.

Pakistan rocked by Asif blow

Pakistan cricket doesn’t do simple and uncomplicated. Rare is the major tour that starts off without controversy or mishap. If it was Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif failing drug tests before the Champions Trophy last October, it was Shoaib taking a swipe at his new-ball partner in the build-up to the World Twenty20. And like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, it seems as though the dream pairing just isn’t meant to be. This time, it was Asif that stayed behind at home as the team touched down in Delhi.