Howzzat? I mean,“Ye kaisi thi?”

Here is a must read: Pakistan banned from speaking English in conferences. The brilliant Pakistani team management thought it would be an awesome idea to have Pak players speaking in only Urdu to – believe it or not – “promote tourism to Pakistan.”

"A journalist spoke to Danish Kaneria and asked him what he thought about the gas leak and he tried to play the incident down and said 'It happens'.”But when the report came out the journalist quoted him saying 'It happens at home as well'. "So we would rather avoid these kinds of incidents and speak in Urdu at official times, as well as for reasons of promoting Pakistan."

I have a suspicion in future matches, the Pakistani team might just play with 12 players. No I am not counting the umpire – they did that before the advent of the neutral umpires. I am talking about a translator on field to translate all the sledging and appeals. The next time Shoaib (if he decides to focus on cricket for a change) bowls a bouncer and comes snarling at the batsman with a few pleasantries to share, we might see a translator hurrying along the pitch to make sure the batsman understands every word of it.

The ICC as usual has spoiled the party They think the process of translating for the players might take too much time and hence Pakistan should resort to English. Captain Inzy Haq wasn’t too happy about speaking in Urdu either since he thought the timing of the decision reflected poorly on the players. Well Inzy, here is something I read the other day on Panicker’s blog.

Tony Greig called up man of the match Inzy ul Haq, and then Tony went into this long rigmarole about what a bitch of a pitch it was, how difficult batting was, how no batsman managed to look remotely competent, and how in the midst of it all Inzy had played like an angel.. Through it all, Inzy stands gazing at the heavens, an ex-pression of blissful unconcern on his face.
"So, Inzy, tell us, how hard was it to bat on that wicket," goes Tony.
Inzy blinks into wakefulness on hearing his name, flashes a beatific grin at his interlocutor, and goes, "Nice peetch, no problem."
It was one of the most hilarious tv moments ever.

I would think hearing the players butcher English would reflect more poorly on the team. For the select few, fortunate enough to represent their country, I would think they would work a little on their public speaking skills. Kaise rahi?