Pakistan Vs Newzeland 2018 - Tour Preview Analysis

Post the dramatic Champions Trophy, The forthcoming tour of Newzeland is the first major overseas tour of Pakistan. Will it be a major chance for Pakistan to regain some glories in Newzeland this time? Following is my crisp analysis of the scenario.

Pakistan Squad

Sarfraz Ahmed (Capt&Wk), Azhar Ali, Fakhar Zamman, Imam Ul Haq, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Muhammad Hafeez, Haris Sohail, Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz, Muhammad Aamir, Hasan Ali, Aamer Yamin, Rumman Raees

In: Azhar Ali, Aamir Yamen, Muhammad Nawaz, Muhammad Amir

Out: Ahmed Shehzad, Imad Wasim, Junaid Khan, Usman Khan Shinwari

Squad Analysis

I believe that its pretty balanced squad under the current scenario, Out of all these outs from the squad, Only Ahmed Shehzad is one who is being left out on the basis of form, The rest three i.e. Imad Wasim, Junaid Khan, Usman Khan have been excluded on the grounds of injuries. Pakistan is blessing with some amazing fresh talent at the moment that despite the team is missing three frontline bowlers who performed so well in the last matches, The team still has frontline bowlers like Aamir, Hasan Ali and Rumman Raees, Had Junaid and Usman Khan been fit to bowl, The competition would have been tougher as well to grab spots and it would not have been an easy way for one of them to grab the permanent spot. Overall, This squad is best for the tour as said and very much capable to put on a great fight with the mighty Newzeland in their home soil.

Newzeland, on the other end, is on a great run of putting up some great matches for many many years now. They have always been lethal on their home grounds naturally. With a clean sweep given to west indies, their moral must be quite high at the moment. The inclusion of Guptil is good, He has always performed really well against Pakistan in shorter formats. He alongside the newest opening batsman Orno can take things turn around at the start. The squad of Newzeland is equally good for this tour.

In some way, Newzeland matches up with Pakistan in style and nature, There is a common theme between them which is "being unpredictable" Though this tag applies to Pakistan more Newzeland isn't too from it as well. 

Pakistan would surely like to continue their ODI winning streak, while Newzeland would strive to have a great start and demoralize Pakistan early to clinch the series.

Pakistan has though won the warm-up game quite convincingly, I don't think so any Pakistani spectator would fall into the trap of winning warm-up games, All importance holds the International game. History says that Pakistan has always been good at warm-up games virtually in overseas tours but not so up to the mark in actual games. However, this time the scenario is little different as this is a new emerging Pakistan team having an energetic leader Sarfraz who would be at his 110% to win the series. The only cause of concern for him is when he attempts to do 200 to sometimes 400% efforts to win games that lead to desperation and hurts the overall team morale and creates panic within the team. A leader has to be quite calm in most of the situations, the team members take inspiration from the leader as he sets the mood of the game. We have noticed that at-times Sarfraz gets little harsh on his team-mates and gets panic even when the team is at the very strong position to win the game. This is the problem which Sarfraz knows himself as well that he needs to overcome his temperament. 

The other problem I have noticed with Sarfraz that he mistimes the bowling changes sometimes, When there is a time to kill the opposition through pacers, He generally introduce part-time spinners and don't go for a kill, This always costs Pakistan extra runs, We saw that glimpse in the CT final when Pandya was whacking every spinner for huge sixes.

Not to worry much as every captain learns through the process, I am quite hopeful that with each and every game Sarfraz would get better tempered and would be sharper in his bowling change plans. Winning or losing is a different ball game. Sometimes, Its very important to lose some games because you always learn more with hard experiences and become better in your future works. 

Newzeland key players would be their Opening pair, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor, While Pakistan would bank heavily on Azhar Ali, Hafeez and Shoaib in batting department, While Aamir and Hasan Ali are key as far as bowling is concerned. 

This series should be a good decider for Azhar Ali as a permanent top order batsman for ODI. I disagree with this rotation policy that Azhar should only play as opening batsman in seaming and tough tracks, thats not fair with him as well, If he is your opening batsman then he should hold a permanent slot for any series whether it is home or away. Shoaib Malik has been performing like a cornerstone middle order batsman, He is in the batting form of his life and if he carries this till 2019 World Cup, It would be great for the team. This series will be a good test for him as well.

Final Remarks

Both teams share a competitive historical rivalry as well as who can forget their World Cup encounters. The end result is that matches will hopefully be very interesting. Pakistan, If managed to take off a flying start it would be tough for Newzeland to stop them, Newzeland if wins the first game by a massive margin, Pakistan can then come even harder because you always expect unexpected from cornered tigers. My final judgment for this ODI and T20 series is 50-50 percent chances to both sides.


About the Writer:

A passionate Cricket lover and likes to opine his views on things related to Cricket from real-time matches to cricket video games

Pakistan Cricket: A Magical Story of Powerful yet Mismanaged Talent

Cricket In Blood!

If we say that Cricket doesn't run in our veins like blood we would be lying to ourselves. Cricket has been the first love of the majority of the Pakistani Nation since the game came here. I am among that lucky generation of kids who exposed to this Sports game back in the famous early 90's era when there were two great emerging fast bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis attempting to reach their peaks, A classic middle order batsman what we call the backbone of the batsmen The Great Javed and the of the most renowned charismatic captains ever Imran Khan was around the twilight of his career. To my experience as an extensive viewer of Pakistan Cricket for the past 30 to 32 years, we came to a conclusion Pakistan is probably a land where you find amazing born cricketers in every other street of different cities of the country. Cricket has been in the blood of this nation for many years and 1992 famous World Cup win was a trigger to instill energy to the powerhouse talent that country was holding within itself.

If you look at the World Cricket closely, On one hand, you would see the superpowers of Cricket, The top teams like Australia and England having their first-rate first-class cricket systems which produce top quality players and on the other hand, Here in the other side of the World, you will witness a huge amount of raw talent coming up from quite a weaker first-class system with all the burden of economic problems on their shoulders and those players become World class heroes in no time. The credit goes to the naturally gifted talent of Cricket here.

This talent is the specialty and contribution of Pakistan towards World Cricket that it gave the world incredible matches.  Be it the Two W's, who mastered the reverse swing like no other, The Great captain Imran Khan, The destructive opening pair Saeed Anwar & Aamir Sohail. You got the big man Inzamam who used to bulldozed every fast bowler or spinner once one a charge, You got the fastest bowler Sohaib Akhtar and the fastest century maker Afridi, You name it and you will find an extraordinary talent here which the World Cricket recognized over the years. These were the cricketing heroes who shone the World Cricket sports not only with their skills and powerful performances but also with their passion and charisma.

One of the most destructive Opening Pairs of Mid 90's

Some years ago, I remember on an occassion, The great Steve Waugh said that the surprising element with Pakistan Cricket is that they throw such good cricketers out of nowhere to the World. I believe that every word of him was true, this is because of the love for the game and immense natural talent nation possess.

The Sultan Of Swing Used To Fire In Crunch Situations Like No One!

Unpredictable Play With Unpredictable Squads

There have been no questions on the high-quality diverse talent Pakistan cricket has produced over the years, however, there are questions on how the nation and the authorities managed that very talent. This has been one of the dilemmas of Pakistan Cricket, i.e. The management of players into the domestic and international cricket system. The inconsistent chances to players, instability with the team and a sudden disappearance of cricketers from the selection became the trend. This has been an unfortunate thing started to happen more after the 1992 World Cup. Many young players debuted with a bang and suddenly went off like a flash boom and goes off from the scene all over. In early 92/93 I can recall we got a very good opener/1 down batsman Shahid Saeed who didn't get the chances he deserved. He toured England and performed well there, Later in the tour to Australia, He had some failed innings on the tough tour where even the Great Javed, Inzy, Aamir and others were struggling to perform. After that tour, He was then disappeared from the cricket scene.

There used to be only one channel in those days. The fans remain unaware of many talent disappearances from cricket. People didn't have the 100 news channels luxury those days. We really couldn't get to know the inside stories of what really happened with some of the great looking players.

Basit Ali played like young Javed but the heroics went short-lived

Who is not aware of an emerging classy middle-order batsman Basit Ali a.k.a replica of Great Javed Miandad who got over with Cricket very early in his career. I don't think so any old school Pakistan cricket fan has forgotten the sixes hit by him to Ambrose and Walsh in Sharjah. The windies two lethal fast bowlers who were at their peaks looked helpless before Basit's hard-hitting sixes. Shahid Nazir, Muhammad Zahid, Taufeeq Umar, Asim Kamal, Ali Naqvi, Salim Elahi and Yasir Hameed are some of the other known talents who got wasted by the mismanagement either from board or tour selection committees. Who was more responsible? At the end of the day, the onus lies with the cricket board. The board has the responsibility to channelize the players according to their capabilities.

The unpredictable tag is famous for Pakistan Cricket team. To this date, Every top team is on its toes when playing with Pakistan because they know that on their day Pakistan is unstoppable and that day can come to any time and place during a tournament so never take them easily. While the unpredictable nature produced some great and some very bad results for Pakistan, The lineup and squads had also been quite unpredictable often times. With the exceptions of some cornerstones to the game, Pakistan mostly ended up experimenting with the lineups and combinations resulting in an unstable pool of players for the tournaments and series. Some great captains came in, they settled the team but their own reign was short-lived and this was one of the most obvious reasons that we couldn't get a stable lineup for a longer period of time. There was a time in mid 90 to late 90's that we had 8 or 9 captains used to play in the Final XI, You have a captain in one tour and on the next tour we used to see a new captain. Then we used to see a captain's announcement of a player who was never in the team and now he is your captain. It felt like a musical chair of who will be the next captain in those days.

Unfortunate at its Best

The Powerhouse of talent and skills which Pakistan Cricket had gotten, Had the channelizing and captaincy musical chair been improved, I don't think so that Pakistan won't be winning World Cups regularly and could have been the No.1 ranking ODI team for some good period of time. In an ideal situation, I dream of Javed Miandad as Captain from 92 to 96, Wasim Akram from 96 to 2000, Waqar from 2000 to 2003 then and Inzy from 2003 to 2007 and the list goes on but its irony that it couldn't happen. It's surprising that this only happens with Pakistan Cricket, The rest of the world cricket team got it right and had captains with longer runs. Unfortunately, The eras of some greats got plagued with internal rifts, high time politics between board and players and some match fixing stuff. One can feel so deeply about the fans emotions and feelings especially for the kids of that golden era... How much they got hurt when they come to know that their superheroes were fighting with each other rather than playing as a unit for the competitive matches. However, when you work together, differences do come and on grounds, Pakistan did perform to their best of capabilities.

Despite all the unfortunate problems, Pakistan didn't stop to surprise the world with some power-packed performances. The era from 1999 to 2009 went well overall where we saw the brilliance of Shoaib Akhtar, Inzamam peak performances as a captain batsman, Asif and Aamir bowling brilliance and winning of the World T20 under Younis Khan captaincy and some of Afridi's heroics in India and other parts of the World.

In 2009, It seemed that problems were not going to get over from Pakistan Cricket as Srilanka was on home tour when One fine morning of a brilliant test match at Lahore Qaddafi Stadium, Pakistan Cricket got a worse hit of its lifetime when Srilankan cricket team caught an attack on their bus while coming to the stadium. The players saved but home cricket didn't.

In the same year, Pakistan surprizes the world again by becoming World T20 champion under Younis Khan leadership. It looked like a new captain was born. But later, An unlucky Younis Khan dropped a crucial catch of Grant Elliot in Champions Trophy 2009 Semi-Final at a crucial stage, as a result, Pakistan lost an opportunity and lost the match eventually. People forgot Newzeland great performance in that match what they only remember was the dropped catch. When the teams came back home despite getting a warm welcome to reach to semi-finals, The players were accused of match-fixing particularly Younis Khan. An honest yet disappointed Younis resigned from Captaincy eventually. The internal rift between players again reached its peak. Younis era as captain was ended before it was ready to take a flight. On an important Australia tour, Pakistan was under a new captain Muhammad Yousuf. The team got thrashed badly by Aussies in all thee formats. Fans kept hearing internal rift news. The captaincy musical chair seemed to start all over again but PCB made an important decision of making a popular choice by appointing Shahid Afridi as captain for all three formats.

A nightmare was awaiting Pakistan yet again in the test series against Australia, Afridi made a hasty decision of taking retirement from Test Cricket after losing the first test from Australia. Salman Butt then appointed as brand new test captain. Three top Pakistani players Aamir, Asif and Salman Butt got involved in match-fixing. The fans were disappointed, Cricket already went away from home... The sadness prevailed everywhere...... But it is as they say, "Every darkness ends up with light one day.....

The 2nd Survival

In 2010, Misbah-ul-Haq came as a savior to bring stability to Pakistan test cricket. He got the great role from PCB, selected a pool of test players, gave them enough confidence and fans were started to seeing some stability in the test cricket. Under his run, We witnessed the most consistent pool of test players in the history of Pakistan Test Cricket. Misbah's run as test captain strengthen the popular view that stability of captaincy and lineup can make you World No.1 Rank Team despite you are playing away from home and you have got all the other problems too.

Pakistan was forced to play at a neutral venue and UAE proved as heaven for Pakistan Cricket for those times. The wickets suited Pakistani batsmen and bowlers, Younis Khan shone like no other, Misbah produced some match-winning innings, Azhar Ali developed to an established batsman, Ahmed Shahzad got developed as a very fine opener, we saw heroics from Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul and Hafeez to name a few. Pakistan managed to beat some top teams like England and Australia with big margins powered by some fantastic performances on their new home cricket soil UAE.

No Tuk Tuk, He's the Most Successful Test Captain fo Pakistan

On the other side, Afridi took command for the One Day Team, He took care of his army really well till 2011 World Cup. The team got gelled as a unit after a long time, Afridi's role to instill energy and passion into the team was remarkable at that period of time. The aggression was back which was very much needed. The era had become literally a second survival for Pakistan Cricket. We can remember the fans were happy and excited like anything when Afridi took the team to Semi-Final in 2011 WC in India. The confidence was coming back and the team was moving in the right direction... Until Pakistan toured Westindies.

Another Debacle

The team got a warm reception on its way back to home after WC 2011. Despite losing semi-finals from the arch-rivals India, The fans were joyous with the hard-fought out matches and they greeted the team at the airport with open arms. It was for the first time that fans gladly accepted defeat in the World Cup and that too against arch-rivals. It was an honorable tournament for them. Pakistan then toured West-Indies, Lost the only T20 but won the 5 ODI match series with 3-2 in the end. The fans heard some news of conflicts between the Captain and the Coach Waqar Younis over team selection.

Just when things were moving great for the game, Suddenly we got the news that rifts have started and this time between Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis as well as some differences with the chairman of the board Ijaz Butt came back again. People were smelling a dramatic change. Overnight we saw tickers as breaking-news that PCB has replaced Afridi as captain with Misbah-Ul-Haq, The fans were grasping this news when they got hit with another bombshell that as reaction Afridi has announced his immediate retirement from all forms of the game till Ijaz Butt acting as chairman of the board. The team got to break up one more time than another... We saw a new captain and a brand new thought within the team. Misbah proved a strictly okay captain for the One Days relative to Test Matches. The team overall momentum shifted from aggression to defensive approach overtime, Hafeez was appointed as T20 Captain, Afridi eventually took his retirement back and came to action back but his performance started to decline as time passed. Pakistan lost another World T20 semi-final against Sri Lanka.

Afridi then becomes the T20 Captain again but that old aggression and energy which he used to bring to the team as a leader were surprisingly missing. Misbah remained ODI Captain, Eventually, we saw a debacle in 2015 ODI World Cup. Rest of World Cricket adapt to new cricket rules quite quickly, the homegrown leagues like IPL, Big Bash, BPL, and SLPL brought some amazing talent for them and changed the way of how cricket gets play especially in the shorter formats. Pakistan Cricket left far behind than other competitive teams meanwhile. The reasons were obvious. Inconsistency and Unpredictability in cricket operations ultimately brought the same results for the team.

Captaincy Trend Unchanged

After the debacle in 2015 World Cup, Misbah retired with a heavy heart from ODI as well while Shahid Afridi announced that He'd like to remain Captain for 2016 T20 World Cup, probably he wanted to leave the International arena on a high ground for good. The dilemma of ODI captaincy remains there with a monumental blunder of appointing Azhar Ali as a One Day captain out of nowhere. This has not been a new thing with Pakistan Cricket as many times a player who is out of squad suddenly makes a come back after a debacle and marks his come back as captain. There have been plenty of examples of this trend, Azhar Ali's story was the same chapter similarly. As expected, Azhar run was not away from the expectations people have with him. Meanwhile, Pakistan lost World T20 matches quite badly. The ODI team, on the other hand, was going nowhere but downwards... Azhar had to resign to from the captaincy eventually. Afridi then couldn't make a return to the international side as well.

Miraculous Revival

With Sarfraz knocking the captaincy door hard for because of his energy, freshness, some great wins as captain of Quetta Gladiators in PSL and his powerful batting performances with an added factor of having no old baggage and politics in his short career made him the most reasonable choice for captain in shorter formats. Sarfraz appointed as shorter format captain as the most popular choice among cricket circles.

Pakistan with its hard fought efforts managed to qualify for the famous Champions Trophy. At the start of CT, The match was none other than the arch-rivals India, The team got smacked by the arch-rivals in the first game, It was an immensely disappointing performance.

Post that match, every cricketing expert was disappointed with the performance, It looked like an unlimited nightmare for Pakistan ODI Cricket, Ganguly opined that Pakistan's big names like Javed Miandad, Salim Malik etc needs to sit down and construct a strategy to bring back the old magic of Pakistan Cricket which used to be there in the 90's era, Little did Ganguly know that Pakistan is most dangerous when cornered. To no expectations at all, The unpredictability star of the team made a return big time and Pakistan steamrolled all the big teams in the remaining CT matches, Ultimately clinched the championship by beating India in a one-sided affair final.

Mandi Bahuddin Express on the run. An emerging Fast Bowler "Hasan Ali"

The fans rejoiced, the experts were shocked, the entire cricketing World saw a miraculous revival of Pakistan ODI team as the team worn white coats and lifted the champions of the champions trophy Upon coming back home, the entire nation stood behind the champions, People stormed to Sarfraz's house and paid great tribute to team's performance. It indeed looked like a miracle that a team which lost its old magic and was written off by the experts before the tournament eventually delivered a marvelous performance and became the champion.

A champion's welcome! Like a 1992 World Cup Revisited

Cricket Comes Home

Good things have again started to happen Pakistan in quick fashion, First Misbah made it possible to reach top ranks as test team and then Champions Trophy victory under energetic captain Sarfraz played a major role in the revival of Pakistan Cricket that Pakistan is here to stay and a strong Pakistan team is necessary for International Cricket.

ICC felt the right thing at the right time. The great performances, Two successful events of PSL and some strong security measures, all played a huge role in the World to consider touring Pakistan again. Pakistani fans finally saw World XI touring the home soil to play 3 T20 Matches in Lahore. The games went ultra successful and it seems that door for international cricket teams is about to open very soon.

What's Next

The smooth transition of test captaincy from Misbah to Sarfraz is one of its kind and rare in our cricket culture, however, it's a great news for the stability of Pakistan Cricket. With a new captain with champions trophy in the bag carrying some amazing talent. At the moment, Pakistan is pumping hot with some brand new talent both in the bowling and batting department. PSL played a big part in exposing the fresh talent before people, Hasan Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, and Rumman Raees are among few who are the prime products of PSL in such a short time.

However, PSL shouldn't be the only face of domestic players. Critical steps are required in the domestic structure to generate fans interest in the domestic matches because there are plenty of players who haven't shown up in PSL but carries some fantastic performances to their records but due to lack of fans interest, lack of sponsors in the domestic games, those players are not highlighted before people. Although with strong local sports media, The names are now known relatively but until or unless the domestic games got some better exposure on the television with sponsors and crowds, I am afraid the talent might not get well-deserved chances to the national squad.

We must realize that having a bunch of talent is one part and its a blessing but to manage them well is another part which is none less than an art and it is what we can say valuing your blessing. I am hopeful that the chief selector Inzamam Ul Haq will create a pool of players for all three formats on merit basis and give due chances to players depending upon the requirements in different formats. I am hopeful for an Improved domestic structure. As far as selection is concerned, Inzy has been a World Class batsman and his experience of cricket make us expect good things from him. In my opinion, He has done a good job so far but there is a lot of work to do in managing and channelizing this talent on merit basis. Its a tough ask for sure. Whether the old guns deserve chances more than the fresh talent? This is the question for some other time in future. There is an amazing opportunity lies ahead of PCB and if this PCB team manages to handle this great talent well, improve the domestic structure and pitches and a stable on the merit selection, Boy Pakistan would be unstoppable and rise again than ever in the Golden Era.

About the Writer:

A passionate Cricket lover and likes to opine his views on things related to Cricket from real-time matches to cricket video games

The Highs & Lows of Prince Of Persia Sands of Time Trilogy -- A Critical Analysis

Introduction

You may wonder who I am and why I am writing this, Know first that I am among the veteran Prince of Persia fans. An old-school generation of gamers whose first love was POP and that was where it all started for me to play video games on the famous Atari, 386 to Pentium Computers to XBOX360 & PS3. This is my first blog on Prince of Persia game and it is about POP Warrior Within, The reason of writing this that before this blog, I don't think any such thing has been written on this game before. Its about the debacle of what could be great game its implications on the entire POP Trilogy. The views are right from a gamer's heart!

What's this Blog About?

I have divided this blog into two parts i.e. The Gamers Take, The Reality Check
In the first part of the blog i.e. The Gamers Take, I will opine the 5 big reasons for the debacle of this game. I will only talk about from the gamer's eye. What was his perspective? How a hardcore POP fan received this game? What were his expectations and What he wanted from this sequel and what they actually received in the end?

At the end of the day, The gamers don't care about the ground realities of a certain experience, They only care about the ultimate experience and that is the hook and fun factor. Rightly so, as gamers have nothing to do with business and marketing stuff. They just want a satisfying performance from a product like every other product of any other industry in the world.

In the second part of my blog, I'll opine a little bit about the positive side, a little bit of business side, The Warrior Within's side effects on the later part of the trilogy and finally the final verdict. This blog is a critical analysis of the entire game and its impact but I have also given some recommendations that what should have happened which surely can't applicable to this day until or unless in future Ubisoft decides to recreate this game. I hope you will enjoy the read and come up with your comments and feedback. Without further ado Let's get started

Quick Flashback

Master of All Action-Adventure Games Till Date

"Most people may think that why there is a need to write on this topic about a game which released 12 years back? You may wonder who I am and why I say this. Sit down and I will pen down a note right from the bottom of a hardcore POP fan's heart"

Pardon me for twisting the hallmark quote of a legendary game trilogy known as Prince of Persia The Sands Of Time. 


Back in early 2004, I remember when the fans of Prince of Persia got the chance to experience the first game of this epic trilogy (after a virtual demise of POP post ill-fated Prince Of Persia 3D) they were flabbergasted with the kind of return Prince made. It's a known fact that Prince of Persia is the brainchild of Jordan Mechner.

 PRINCE OF PERSIA - A Game with humungous ports & adaptations 

It was a game which revolutionized the action-adventure gaming back in the late 80's and early 90's. I believe that to this date, POP became the benchmark for platformers, action-adventure games across the board. Thousands of 3D games which came later by other developers took inspiration from classic Prince of Persia. 

Background

The Prince Returns Big Time

Fast flashback to 2003, The prince returns with POP Sands of Time, A new prince, a new story with all new characters. The fans mesmerized with the beautiful adaptability of Sands of Time by the POP team from Ubisoft studios. Not only it looked relevant to the time, but also it connected well with the POP fanbase, A fresh take on the game while keeping the original theme intact i.e. Storybook Arabian Nights Tale The fans around the globe hailed for this strong comeback. They rejoiced that this brand new POP game is according to the current generation of games and technology. It became huge fun to play and won a massive critical acclaim all over as well as some gaming awards. Sands of Time brought some new things into the game world on a mass scale like the Time Rewind and acrobatic gameplay especially the Wall Running. The acrobatic fast-paced young Prince soon became the favorite for every POP fan who wanted a return of POP for the past 4 years.

Sands of Time served as perfect tribute to the Originals

Just like the 1989 POP arrived with some features never developed before, Sands of Time replicated that essence in a big way in the 3D form of the platforms of those times. A kind of return which Prince deserved when the side-scrolling 2d adventure made its first entry into the 3D World first time back in 1999 which couldn't happen successfully, unfortunately.

POP Team Delivered Fun

The POP team from Ubisoft delivered to their promises and they give the much-deserved tribute to the original Prince of Persia via Sands of time covering virtually all aspects gameplay, storyline, animations, magic, combat and Arabian Nights theme. The fans were hungry for a brand new POP game. Little did they know that Jordan Mechner won't be the part of the sequel.

The Dagger Of Time did revolution in this Critical Acclaimed Adventure

They instantly demanded a sequel to see how Prince and Farah's story unfolds when Prince left Farah's shocked by saying the magical word "Kakulukia" which Farah heard from her mother in her childhood. They knew that the character who revolutionized the action adventuring gaming back in 90's can't die like this. He has to come back again and win hearts all over again with the current and next-generation of platforms.

Kakulukia Never Came Back

The Prince killed vizier, Kissed Farah, rewinded the time after seeing her expressions and then left her shocked by saying the magical word "Kakulukia" in response to the question of what was his name. Farah left wondering how in the world Prince came to know about this deep secret between her and her mother.  A code word Kakulukia which can open the gate in the time of need. Just like the famous "Open Sim Sim" in one of the classic tales of Arabain Nights.

This climax was such a great cliffhanger. A perfect end to the first adventure. Magical, surreal, highly romantic with mixed emotions of happiness and grief that it took over the POP fans hearts. After we played Prince of Persia Sands of Time, All the fans were anxiously waiting for its sequel. The expectations were immensely high this time around. Kakulukia magic will never make a return no one expected though.

Forums Mania

During those times, The official Prince of Persia forums used to pump hot, there were no facebooks and other social media platforms. Forums was our first social media. I can remember the excitement and eagerness we used to have with respect to the sequel to Prince and Farah story. We were very excited that the story of the Prince despite being an amazing cliffhanger it was quite open-ended as it reached the climax of sands of time because nothing has happened despite everything had happened, Farah doesn't even know Prince, The Prince yet changed her life by narrating the complete story and killing the Evil Vizier, So we are back to where we are waiting for an exciting adventure of Prince and Farah as to everyone expectations.

Ubisoft announced a sequel soon after and it was like a thunderstorm in forums. A lot of fans out there posted threads about the sequel. They wrote stories according to their opinions and wishes. I can remember that literally, every fan wrote their story drafts keeping in view the bonding between Prince & Farah. The Vizier was killed, What would be the reaction of Maharaja now, What Farah would tell to his father? What would be Prince's next adventure, What would King Sharaman move after this, What must be the emotions of Princess Farah regarding the mysterious young Prince etc... I don't remember a single story draft where anyone discarded Farah, storybook theme and the essence of Prince of Persia from the main storyline. Everyone was excited to move forward the story keeping the roots intact. Little did everyone know that Jordan Mechner isn't involved with the sequel and Ubisoft has some other plans.

Let's take a look at those core reasons that lead to the debacle of Warrior Within which ultimately put a dent into the trilogy that even remained in the last chapter of the trilogy POP The Two Thrones.

THE 5 BIG REASONS FOR DEBACLE

1. The Storybook Theme Aborted

It is widely accepted fact that the cornerstone of a video game is gameplay because at the end of the day, Gameplay is the directed towards the player and it is the end result so it should be fun. However, even that cornerstone sets on something to balance itself and that is what we can call the setting and in a video game, it is called "The Game Setting" Difficult to understand? Consider a simple example, Just a like a House needs solid roots upon which the structure is built. A game setting is like roots upon which the entire structure of video game works and the entire structure can't deviate itself from its roots, it's like the basics of the house. So, your art direction, gameplay, music, sound effects, storyline all depends upon where and how your game setting is. Want another example? Tomb Raider is all about exploring and adventuring Tombs, The moment it deviated from it in Tomb Raider 6, It was a debacle among fans. Indiana Jones revolves around exploring global places for pure archeological purposes, Resident Evil crux is Zombies Survival Horror, Enough examples? Now, what is Prince of Persia? Prince of Persia is a rich story-based action adventure platformer sets in a  classical magical Arabain Nights environment. I believe this was the first and foremost reason for a drastic change in the feel of Prince Of Persia Warrior Within i.e. The Game Setting, The Roots of the game were no more Arabain Nights. The storybook feel was replaced with a hardcore, darker, a much mature theme to the extent that the game setting deviated from the thing which made Prince of Persia unique in its own place. I don't think so that there is any game which deviated drastically from its roots in this way till date.

The Prince wasn't the same anymore

Adding more specific detail to this point, Prince of Persia has always been known for its storybook feel, Arabian Nights theme, Setting, relatable culture, Magical and exotic environments and a rich storyline. Those ingredients have been the essence of POP. Those seeds crafted the roots of POP Tree from where a classic gameplay and other branches emerged which gave sweet fruits for people to enjoy. This is not to say that POP never went darker or mature, rather POP 2 Shadow & The Flame was much darker but it was made within the original setting, atmosphere, and theme of the series. If we talk about the 3D aspect, even if we look at POP 3D which came in 1999, it was despite a commercial debacle and ill-fated with bugs and all sorts of problem, It was quite a darker game in terms of setting but its setting was connected to its roots. The point is that you can achieve a mature and darker theme and cater that audience keeping your game intact with the basics of the game.

2. The Endless Backtracking

To understand this major flaw in WW, Let's go back to the past and take a look at the 2D original Prince of Persia series. Prince of Persia 1 (1989) was confined to a huge fort of the King of Persia where Prince came across prison and palace and rescued the Princess because the Princess was jeopardized by the Vizier right in the palace. The game went with blockbuster sales due to all of its great elements which players witnessed for the very first time on this scale. POP 2: Shadow and the Flame banked on the greatness which POP 1 created and advanced itself to present a massive scale and liberty in terms of environments where Prince can apply its wits to climb the ledges and encounter different elements on his journey like lethal heads, dangerous skeletons, traps, magic carpet, horse and palaces which connected with the storyline so cohesively that it made the game much bigger than POP 1 in terms of likeness. Consider the example of Uncharted 2, It banked on what Uncharted 1 built and advanced itself to the next level keeping the roots intact.

If Only I won't be visiting them 1000 times!

Likewise, POP Warrior Within was a huge opportunity for POP Team to build upon the great elements which POP Sands of Time created and take the game to the next level. However, The opposite happened, The eagerness to create a real part 2 went way too much off direction that it limited the scope of Prince's adventure. The Prince reached the island of time quickly at the start of the game after the ship battle and once he entered into that big empire which the empress of time created, Little did the player knew that he has now entered into the painful endless backtracking saga which one can only get rid off once he will reach the climax of the story. The storyline demanded Prince's to backtrack in the same levels perhaps, No matter you have awesome platforming mechanics in place in the gameplay but if you are moving in the same environments time and again with your two versions, It feels boredom because as a player you want different things to happen in environments, you want different settings and levels, but it remained a wish in Warrior Within. Hence, The backtracking further led the game to boredom and it didn't help the cause for the Prince. On the flipside, the player did want longer hours of play after Sands of Time but the majority didn't want the longer journey in repeated number of environments, again and again, It made it too long to handle and likeable.

3. Hardrock Music

Know first that the hard rock music in Warrior Within was good in its core, but it doesn't suit Prince of Persia. POP was never made to have this kind of fast-paced music with rock bands and all that stuff. It was simply not relatable to the theme and story even. It looked forced. If you are making a darker game, it is not necessary that Hard Rock music is the only way to go. The darker theme could be supported by the kind of music that resembles the roots of the franchise. A techno, with little rock and Arabian nights darker music, could have been the solution but on the contrary, the Music was yet another major shift from the essence and hence played a role in further drastic changes which players were already receiving. It is not to say that all tracks were off-track, but the majority of the music wasn't suiting.

4. Cuteness Underloaded with Confused Character Development

Prince of Persia Sands of Time created some beautiful looking characters who were not only representing the classic Arabain Nights tale but also the fresh start, the youthful and naiveness of Prince and Farah relationship helped in crafting an epic romantic tale which the players still remembers.  

The Chemistry was one of the hallmarks of the success of Sands of Time.

In Warrior Within however, The Prince turned into a badass bully, All the cuteness from the predecessor was scrapped and took over by evil darker characters like Shade, Dahaka, and other enemies, While Kaileena was a bit different she got trapped between being Empress of Time or Prince's Love and couldn't get developed to her potential. The relationship between Prince and Kaileena felt confused. The culprit was the main storyline and screenplay which didn't allow the two characters to develop. The mature scene in the climax had no basis and it just worked like you too much sweet in the tea just for the sake of it which tasted sour in the end. On the flipside, As a suggestion, It would have been a lot better story if Kaileena would really be the slave of Empress of Time and Empress of Time would be a different character, The Prince and Kaileena must stop the Empress together to create the sands of time. Remember, that before the release of the game, The Marketing side did promote to us Empress and Kaileena as separate characters, In the game, you get the surprise which couldn't save the story, however.

5. The Unexpected Hit To High Expectations

After finishing POP Sands of Time, If I summarize the feedback of the players, The expectations were real high as I wrote before, The fans loved Prince & Farah relationship like anything, they loved the entire setting and overall game elements. What they wanted? They wanted a longer version, some long hours of play, they wanted to see how the story takes a further step after Prince went back to his hometown leaving his Love to shock about the magical maternal word Kakulukia. 

It had a chance to be epic like POP 2 Shadow & The Flame

The fans were more excited about the story and characters than anything. I believe in my humble judgment that the fans were expecting an advanced level of Sands of Time adventure rather than expecting a 360-degree turn-around, which actually happened as Warrior Within info started to fold before release. There is no doubt that Prince is the main character in a POP game for sure, but the fans equally loved Farah as well. It was huge surprise and disappointment to them when they came to know that Farah wasn't in the game at all and this thing did make a hurting dent in the game. Warrior Within hit the expectations in an unexpected way and hence paid the price of massive dislikeness among the major community of Prince of Persia and game critics.

These were the 5 big reasons for the debacle in my view, lets come to the second part of the article by having some positive points of the game as well as Warrior Within's implications on the rest of the trilogy to conclude the article.

The Positives Of Warrior Within

Despite the roots of the game had been distorted which actually affected all other elements that make a POP game great. Warrior Within was still a very much better game if you forget that it was Prince of Persia for a moment.

The Free-Form fighting system was probably the best feature of the Game

You can say it's a good game but as a POP title, It was the worst POP game from 1989 to 2005. Ubisoft's POP Team sort of revolutionized the platforming action-adventure genre by integrating some innovative gameplay consisting of how the Prince runs jumps ledges and do the wall run. The acrobatics were superb, moreover, the brand new free-form fighting system was enough to make a gamer feel good about the combat system so as a game it was worth to play for one time but it couldn't achieve the greatness due to the elements discussed which were immensely missing from the game. 

Free-Form was the biggest leap forward in the combat system of POP

Credit must be given to the Ubisoft's dev team who made Sands of Time in a way that the gameplay, rewind feature and Prince as character saved Warrior Within from going towards a huge commercial and critical flop. Warrior Within with its mature rating, darker theme, and hard rock music must have captured some new fans so the audience actually got widened, but the developers realized that this was not the direction to carry forward for the last part.

POP The Two Thrones, The Face Saver!

We can all remember the last chapter of POP SOT trilogy, POP The Two Thrones was 90% Sands of Time and 10% Warrior Within in its all content, Setting, Gameplay, Voice Acting, Story, and Music. Perhaps The team, as well as hardcore POP fans, could not afford another Warrior Within. The damaged however done and POP Two Thrones literally felt like it has come to fix the damage which Warrior Within has done to the trilogy, which is why Two Thrones couldn't get the success equivalent to Sands of Time, It fell into the category of a satisfying end of a Trilogy but not something blockbuster or the kind of happiness which Sands of Time generated.

WHAT?

With Warrior Within, Ubisoft clearly lost a huge opportunity to create something even bigger. The message which we got from this debacle is that Don't fix the thing which is not broken.

The Reality Check


As a POP fan and web savvy, I came to know from internet sources gaming websites, blogs, forums etc I came to realize that POP WW direction was more a commercial than a creative decision. The mature rating, violence, hard rock music and Hollywood style voice acting and dialogues with longer hours were planned to capture a wider audience to increase sales, to delight the existing as well as capturing a much broader fanbase. It didn't work though, the sales must have increased but the value of the series went quite down as far as the feedback was concerned from the loyal POP fanbase.

Final Verdict

I genuinely believe that Warrior Within side effects was too strong that it even hurt POP The Two Thrones which was another opportunity for Ubisoft to win the critical and commercial acclaim all over again. Every problem has a solution but Ubisoft tried too hard to resemble the Two Thrones with Sands of Time which seemed a lost connection all over in the end.

The right way in my view was to keep the positives of both games to make a perfect blend. For example, The free-form fighting system was the must to keep in place, The Voice Acting should have been the same of Characters to the entire thing more believable, The Prince face was resembling his looks in the first chapter suddenly, How Come? There was no need to change the face back. The Prince didn't have a single sword in his right hand throughout the journey, As far as the storyline was concerned, Farah and Prince once an epic relation turned into a souring confused one.

The Storyline was the biggest confusion that now the Prince has actually done a biggest rewind of the entire trilogy that without the sands nothing has happened, Not even the Kakulukia climax scene of the first chapter Sands of Time. It felt so annoying that Farah and any other character doesn't know what the Prince has gone through. Kaileena suddenly transformed like a shy eastern girl. It all messed up in the end which eventually didn't make happy the Warrior Within fanbase and the SOT fans were also not too satisfied in the end. What happened is that Prince went to the Island of Time to rectify his biggest rewind and eventually the solution was to do another giant rewind? Not a cool storyline, I am afraid.

Personally, I believe the first reveal of POP 3 in the E3 2005 trailer and first demo was the right direction to go, It felt more like a perfect blend of two games, Some call it Kindred Blades, For some odd reasons and that maybe the market ones I am not sure, Two Thrones got too close to Sands of Time and ultimately lost its own originality. 

The trilogy finally wraps up in 2005 and after a three year break Ubisoft brought a brand new storyline with a brand new Prince once again. The Sands of Time Prince and characters were gone leaving many fans sad probably saying in their hearts "It was cool, it was cool, but If Only and If Only....."

I'd love your comments and feedback on the article. Till next time, Goodbye :)

Did Pakistan took it too Easy? Or was Sri Lanka too tough to handle? An Insight to recent Test Match Series between Pakistan vs Sri Lanka.

Overview

A few weeks back, A test team seeking redemption for quite some time and on a rebuilding phase shocked the cricketing community by defeating a team which carries loads of experience, a recent ODI fame and prescribed as lethal in their home grounds, we are talking about none other than the recently completed test series between Sri Lanka & Pakistan in UAE. 

Before the start of the test series, No one would have thought this result despite Pakistan had no longer the MISYou Duo (Misbah Ul Haq, Younis Khan), the team still supposed to carry enough experience and talent. A far settled test side than its competitors apparently. Most cricket experts and the Pakistani fans thought that Sri Lanka is down and out after the recent thrashing from India in their last test venture and it would be a monumental task for them to give tough time to the well-settled strong Pakistan side in the hot UAE conditions. All speculations and conclusions proved wrong in the end as to everyone’s surprise Sri Lanka clinched the two-match test series with 2-0. Shocking isn't it? Let’s take a little inside look on the matches

The First Encounter

On a flat track of Abu Dhabi, The first test match started. It was the first venture of Sarfraz as Pakistan test captain and on the other hand, Sri Lanka searching for their good things had luck on its side, the guests won the toss and decided to bat first. Pakistan team management went with three full-time pacers M. Aamir, M. Abbas and Champions Trophy Man of the Series Hasan Ali. In the spin department, the plan was to go with one genuine leg-spinner Yasir Shah and with some part-timers in the form of Haris Sohail and Asad Shafiq. It was quite tough for the pacemen to bowl in the first innings in hot and humid conditions of UAE. On the other hand, it seemed that Sarfraz’s strategy with bowling looked more of experimentation than banking on his bowlers strength. It more looked like a one-day game strategy than a test match which requires calmness, consistency, and stability. The rapid change of bowling spells and the introduction of part-timers quite early in the game didn’t work out. Nevertheless, Sri Lankan batsmen played quite well too and put a decent 1st innings score on board. 

Pakistan hit back with a good score but perhaps should have done a bit more to capture the lead of at least 50 runs but able to get only 3 runs lead in the first innings. Yasir Shah as expected came hard in second innings and played a major role in booking Sri Lanka to 138 runs. Pakistan only required 136 runs to grab the first match but the problem was it was a 5th-day pitch. On paper though it sounded quite an easy job, Everyone back home was relieved that it’s gonna be a piece of cake for Pakistani batting lineup but probably deep in hearts of every Pakistani cricket fan had the feeling that when Pakistan is chasing in general and on 5th day in a test match in special, One cannot rule out a major collapse. It can happen and unfortunately, it happened. The bitter reality played its masterstroke one more time, Pakistan collapsed and collapsed big as the entire team got out on 114, and Sri Lanka won a dramatic test match by 21 runs.

Pakistan did what they do best, an unpredictable side which produces results on extreme ends. This time the turn was for the bad. An experienced Hearth turned out damaging for some inexperienced young batsmen. Azhar and Shafiq couldn’t resist, however one positive from Pakistan side was a very good test debut by Haris Sohail. Coming after almost 2 years gap from an injury and scoring runs at a very difficult No.6 position shows his talent and future for Pakistan Cricket. All eyes were set on second test match to take revenge.

The Final Battle

The final test match was a pink ball day/night outing in Dubai. Lucky Sri Lanka won the toss again and chose the winning formula to bat first. Pakistan didn’t learn from the 1st test mistakes and instead of going with an extra spinner to hold an edge, the team management again decided to go with the same formula of having three pacers and one leg spinner, the only change was the return of Wahab Riaz in place of injured Hasan Ali. Results were no less different, Sri Lanka again piled up a decent score on the board. Pakistan, in reply this time couldn’t meet up the expectations and give Sri Lanka a heavy lead of 220 runs.

The second innings of SL was a nightmare for them, Wahab Riaz made a strong comeback well supported by Yasir Shah and Haris Sohail, Pakistan got able to restrict SL on 96 runs. Probably the comeback was little late as Pakistan required a big total to chase for to level the series. The innings went off to a bad start, the openers intent was poor and confused, The fresh pair failed again, middle order collapsed and at one point it seemed like that Pakistan would book under 100 to 150 runs, Shafiq and Sarfraz took charge and expressed some good intentions to fight the big total. Asad Shafiq (a regular No.6 batsman under Misbah’s captaincy) came back to his form and scored a century, Sarfraz supported Shafiq well with some positive shots down the ground. The momentum looked great and just when things were going in right direction, one bad sweep shot by Sarfraz changed the whole scenario on the 5th day, The rest of the batsmen then couldn’t resist further, Shafiq’s century gone in vain again, he got out because of extra pressure and Sri Lanka won the match with bigger margin than the first match with 68 runs.

The late hard work didn't pay off but Shafiq regained his test form

Series Analysis

If we see the overall picture of the test series we came to a conclusion that though it was an unexpected and to be fair a shocking clean sweep from Sri Lanka, We must admire the side who played with more conviction, belief, and intent than hosts and as a result better team won the series on the given days. SL conviction, old school campaigner Hearth, and Pakistan’s over-confidence was the major difference between the two sides. Sri Lanka wanted to prove something while Pakistan was looking to march on an already established route i.e. “Continue the winning streak”

After the retirements of Misbah and Younis, The side was going with a new captain and a fresh combination, the team banked on Shafiq, Azhar, and Azam as middle order strength to fill the gap of two greats but every gap fills with time. Right combination and consistency are keys which Misbah achieved in his leadership over time. It will take a while for Pakistan to have a settled test match lineup. One can also say that Pakistan didn’t lose because of lacking one extra spinner but rather the lost was because the batting didn’t click up to the expectations. I think to summarize the combination and mindset weren't perfect.

Sri Lanka has a long way to go. The clean sweep is certainly a major boost for them as a team and their fans back home. Russel Arnold and Roshan were rejoicing and why not they have taken a big step towards their redemption in test cricket.

Don't know about Witch spell, But Hearth's magic worked for sure!

Closing Remarks

Pakistani fans and experts did take this series easy for sure, Pakistan team, well maybe took it a bit easy and paid the price ultimately. The MisYou factor did play its part in a number of ways, not only their absence hit on psychological grounds but also in formulating a right combination. Pakistan went with a fresh opening pair. The top 3 batsmen set the mood of a game, Shan Masood and Sami Aslam, unfortunately, fell into the trap to secure their own positions first than to play some fearless cricket. Shehzad was left out of the squad for some unknown reasons despite having a fine run in the last test series against West Indies. Aamir looked fatigue and first innings efforts by Sri Lankans dried up the bowlers. In the end, the series result can't be called too disappointing for Pakistan because the shades of positivity were there and one can see that with a right combination, better planning and more test matches can settle Pakistan Test Cricket back into a good shape. It will take some time and for that, let’s wait for 2018

About the Writer:

A passionate Cricket lover and likes to opine his views on things related to Cricket from real-time matches to cricket video games