Pakistan's terrible record at home continues to worsen, as they still have to register a home win since 1997, when they last beat the West Indies. There are many relevant issues that can be discussed at length. However, in doing so, let us not discredit England of a thrilling win at Karachi that led to their first ever series victory on Pakistan soil for 38 years.

I believe the result of the Karachi Test was a due to the combination of poor planning, below par captaincy and some faulty decisions by The Management.

Initially, it looked that England had settled for a draw in the series, as their scoring rate throughout the series had been very slow. There even came a stage in the last Test when it looked that the visitors had lost the chance of winning the match only because of their slow run rate during the whole of the match.

The PCB got carried away with the concept of making England play on spinning tracks and embarrassingly lost the series because of this negative ploy. In the first place, all the three pitches used during the Test series never deteriorated or took sharp spin in the latter stages of the matches as was expected. Rather they proved to be batting friendly. Saqlain Mushtaq never sparked after the first Test at Lahore, whereas the leg spinner, Mushtaq Ahmad looked only a shadow of his old self. The new comer Danish Kaneria did well for a debutante, and although I do not claim to be a Shahid Afridi fan, I still feel that he was under-bowled in the series.

The five-wicket haul by Afridi in the second One-day international at Lahore must have convinced Moin Khan that spinners were going to be more effective against the English batsman. That could have happened had the wickets contained a bit more venom, but as we all watched none of the wickets induce the sort of spin that was required to bowl the visiting team out twice. The blame then falls on The Management which opted for three spinners in each of the three matches. England, on the other hand, used only their left arm spinner, Ashley Giles, to maximum effect.

Now credit must go to Giles who bowled excellently in all the three matches. I believe that he alone proved the series winner for the visitors. England would surely have struggled had Giles not carried the brunt of their bowling. It was a brilliant performance from this tall left armer who got wickets at just about the right times. One wonders if Salisbury had had a bit more success with his right arm leg breaks, what would have been the fate of Pakistani batsmen.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) needs to review its policy about designating Test matches to various venues. Many overs were lost at Lahore and Faisalabad due to poor light and slow over-rates from both sides. Teams need to be punished for such tactics. It is highly unfortunate that the bowling side would slow down the over rate on purpose so as to avoid conceding advantage to the opponents. Before the series started the PCB checked with the English cricket team if it agreed to the use of floodlights whenever required. I think they declined this offer only because they feared that the ball would get wet, as we all saw at Karachi during the first ODI of the series.

Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam ul Haq from Pakistan and Michael Atherton and Graham Thorpe from England shone throughout the series. Generally speaking, Pakistani batting was excellent until the last test, where the last seven wickets fell very quickly in both innings. Again excellent application of pressure via bowling and fielding from England was there for everyone to see. Thorpe's stunning catch at the long leg boundary to get rid of Saeed Anwar in the second innings was, for me, the turning point of the game.

Yet again at Karachi the PCB failed to prepare a wicket that could suit the home team. The idea to make England play on spinning tracks was quite legitimate, but nobody bothered to check whether the wickets would be result-oriented or not

Now that England have successfully tackled the Pakistani spinners, it will be interesting to see how they fare in Sri Lanka with the likes of Muralitharan against them. Their confidence would certainly be sky high. However, Nasser Hussain and his boys would have to put in extra effort against the Sri Lankans if they want to prove that their success in Pakistan was not fluke.

Moin had a mixed series as he dropped vital catches, proved indecisive when it came to bowling options, and was unable to come to term with England batsmen's resilience. A captain needs to set an example for his players. The problem with Moin was that he did not only show a poor performance behind the stumps, but he also failed with the bat. Apart from a fifty in the first Test, he utterly failed to display his batting potentials with the bat in the rest of the series. The England captain could not do much with the bat, but he made for that with his excellent captaincy.

The PCB selectors should have waited till the end of the series before announcing their decision to stick with Moin for the next six months or so. The announcement to retain him as captain for the tour of England in May 2001 might have caused him to relax a bit in his efforts during the last day of the Karachi Test.

The only positive point of the series for Pakistan was the continuing good form of Inzamam and Yousuf Youhana. Saleem Elahi did well enough to be considered for the tour of New Zealand. Saeed Anwar started off brilliantly in almost every innings but threw his wicket away in the end.

The bowling department has been affected by the continual absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Azhar Mahmood. I am sure had both these bowlers been fit, Pakistan would have benefited by playing on fast pitches. Waqar did enough to raise questions as to why he had been dropped for the early part of the series. Whether Wasim was injured or not just before the start of the 3rd test is a separate issue, he will surely be recalled to fill the gap of the experienced pace bowlers. After the cancellation of the series against India and Bangladesh, the next major series is the tour of New Zealand. It should be an interesting contest as Pakistan has performed really well on New Zealand soil lately.

For now it is a case of restoring depleted confidence and making amends to what can be termed as a worrying home record. I would like to suggest that the PCB should start making result-oriented pitches, irrespective of the stature of the visiting team. It should also be remembered that one should never underestimate his opponents; over-confidence in one's abilities can sometimes prove fatal.

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