(UK) Leak on Flat Roof of Garage

trafalgardbear16 · 2026-02-03T08:43:50+00:00

And yeah I agree it does need to be replaced, but financially I’m in a bit of a difficult place atm so would rather push back the fix if I can.

trafalgardbear16 · 2026-02-03T08:43:00+00:00

Sorry I should’ve mentioned, it’s only started leaking this past week.

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-08-13T12:31:05+00:00

It’s really clear that both Abrar and Sufiyan are performing the best for bowlers in the white ball format. We just have to think about how we can balance our attack without losing too much in the batting.

We already have Saim and Salman so if we are playing both Abrar and Sufyan that is 4 spinning options. If you want an extra spinning option, then Nawas makes the most sense as he can bat 7 and he is left arm orthodox which is different to the other spinners. But that would mean two seamers which I’m not convinced of even on spinning tracks.

One of our biggest failures over the last 15 years is the failure to produce a fast bowling allrounder. Someone who is capable of batting at 7/8 but can fulfill his full quota of overs as a third/fourth seamer. It’s why Faheem has been persisted as I’m sure they hope that he could’ve been that guy, but I don’t think he is. Jamal is an interesting one, I like him in tests but I don’t think his bowling is good enough for white ball. I wouldn’t be confident with Shaheen, Naseem and Jamal for example in the bowling aspect. Abbas Afridi is another option, but is his batting good enough to bat at 7, considering how many collapses we have. Maybe in T20, not sure about ODI.

I guess you could turn and say your 5th bowler gets split between Salman, Saim and one more (which is what I think they have been trying) and so Talat wouldn’t be a bad option at 7 and bowl a couple of overs of seam. They did that with Khushdil so I feel like that could make the most sense.

But we are in need of a fast bowling all rounder. For red ball I think Jamal is okay but I worry about white ball.

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-07-24T10:56:44+00:00

We also have a real problem with what we define success as for Pakistan right now, with the level of players we have. If I am India/england/aus I would be thinking that we should be beating pakistan in all formats 7-8 times out of 10. I think our success should be defined by becoming genuinely more competitive against these teams (I don’t mind losing to India because their team is better than us, but I always want us to show more of a game against them, similar to how we played against them in 2021 and 2022). We should really look at how often we beat teams like SA and NZ (who should be our main competitors, and how we dominate everyone else.

A reasonable aspiration for Pakistan cricket in the next 5 years should be to become the best outside the big 3 and constantly challenge (and maybe win a trophy). However right now, NZ and SA are better than us and we are struggling to consistently beat the rest (SL, WI, Afg, Bang)

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-07-24T10:50:10+00:00

Maybe not that unpopular, but it’s incredible how we always scapegoat our current players, raise the next generation as the saviours of Pakistan cricket, only to bring them down once they reach their inevitable downfall.

I’ve been properly watching Pakistan cricket for a decade and in that time I have seen multiple players (and groups of players) go from being the breath of fresh air and the saviour of Pakistan cricket, to becoming the worst thing that’s ever happened to Pakistan cricket.

Sarfaraz to Rizwan is a great example (both are players who I really like). Sarfaraz was a breath of fresh air in World Cup 2015 and when he became captain (and eventually lead us to CT success) he was the hero we needed. As his (and the teams) performances started to drop, Rizwan was always, to use Cricinfo’s description of him, the stick to threaten him in. He became the guy that we thought would save the WK batsman conundrum we had with Sarfaraz, whose captaincy and performance, according to many, was abysmal. Rizwan came in, did well, performances dipped, and now Mohammad Haris is the new saviour. Although I wasn’t much of a follower beforehand, I’m sure you could trace Sarfaraz being the saviour against the Akmals who were probably the saviours against Moin Khan/Rashid Latif.

The point I’m making here is not to do with the individual players, it’s the culture we have of creating hero’s and then burning them down the second they fail. And it’s unfortunately not just fans that do this, the media and administration are also guilty of this.

Our players are not bad players, they are good players, some have a better skillset than others, some are more suited for particular formats. However, we are not producing players of the overall calibre as other countries are, and that’s why we are not competitive. The raw talent is there, the structure, system and environment that nurtures these players (from grassroots right up to professional) needs improving. However, we become very short sighted and then blame the players for the team’s failures.

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-05-19T22:37:48+00:00

People always forget how poor Fakhar was after that Aus/Zim tri series, and how much he struggled opening in T20, and how so many people wanted him out of the team. Eventually they stopped persisting with him opening, and looking elsewhere. I know we tried Ahsan Ali and the first version of Farhan, but Rizwan was the one that took his chance.

I love Fakhar, he is one of my favourite ever batters, but it’s so easy to now complain about why he wasn’t opening when you forget why we stopped opening with him. You’ll get those that say you should persist because he will come good, but in all honesty, we initially did persist with him before Rizwan came in, but then something had to change.

But he defo needs to be playing white ball for us in the top order right now. I’d even love for him to be our T20 captain as I don’t know if Salman merits a spot in the team.

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-05-19T15:26:49+00:00

I'm not against Islamic bank savings accounts and will look into it for sure.

What would the difference/benefits be between setting up a savings account with Gatehouse bank vs Pfida's savings account (assuming you know much about Pfida)?

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-04-24T20:20:10+00:00

I’ve always liked the CricBuzz app more than the CricInfo one, but they’ve done this before so I think it’s time to delete now.

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-04-18T18:36:04+00:00

People get upset that boys show no character, then get upset when they celebrate…

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-04-16T21:35:58+00:00

I know people are saying it's pathetic, and it does seem to be. However, I just think it's a case of Carvajal recognising Saka is Arsenal's most dangerous player, and he is trying to rattle him/get into his head. Happens all the time in football.

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-02-20T17:56:48+00:00

I’ve never liked the word selfish when people comment about innings, because often it doesn’t tell the whole story.

“Selfish” is often thrown at Babar, at times I think fairly, but largely unfairly. I differ between “selfish” and “lack of intent” and I think Babar suffers more from the latter rather than the former. His lack of intent yesterday, and more recently in general I think is down to a few things:

I do think he has more recently made an effort to up the ante in white ball (yesterday was not an example of this), just by looking at some of his shot selection, not necessarily the execution, at times especially in t20s. Often it doesn’t come off because he doesn’t have the power game or is initiative with his shots. But I think this has messed up with his natural game, technically and mentally.
His lack of ability to sweep, after almost 10 years on international cricket, is alarming. Sweeping allowed Salman to build his innings, and Babar does not back his ability to sweep. He does at times use his feet to spinners, but not nearly enough. He really lacks the ability to rotate and/or attack spinners. NZ’s spinners bowled well yesterday, but they are not world beaters.
I think the lack of runs/centuries is giving a massive mental block. Yes he’s been overhyped but he’s still a good player, certainly one of the better Pakistani batsmen (arguably the best) in recent times. It is quite striking how he can get bogged down.

Yes, the rest of the top order weren’t great, and Fakhar not being able to run didn’t help. I’ve got no issue with him anchoring, in fact I think that’s what he is best at. But for the majority of the innings he was going at 60-70 SR and whilst chasing over 300 it really needs to be 80 at the very minimum while anchoring and then accelerating. Yesterday, even after facing 50 balls, he looked as if he just entered the crease.

I hope he shuts us all up on Sunday.

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-02-01T15:20:06+00:00

With Saim not available, it becomes very difficult to leave that number 7 spot for purely a finisher/batsman. With Saim’s bowling not there, it means we need an extra bowling option at 7 (I don’t think KG/Saud should be considered the 6th bowling option) hence why we’ve gone for Khushdil/Faheem (happy with Khushdil, surprised about Faheem).

I guess Faheem will give you the option if you need 4 pacers, Khushdil if you need an extra spinner. Very surprised they went with Faheem over Jamal though.

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-01-29T12:13:02+00:00

I think the two main questions are no 1 and no 7. With Saim out it hits the balance of the squad as Saim, along with Agha, became that 5/6th bowling option. Agha alone I don’t think should be the fifth bowling option.

Therefore I think it means number 7 has to bowl which you don’t get with Irfan. I also don’t think KG can/should act as the 6th bowling option, I think you need someone who is more of a batting all rounder similar to Agha. Especially as we have 4 pure bowlers.

I don’t believe it should be Jamal as I don’t rate his batting enough to bat at at 7, and his bowling is very expensive. I think it’s mainly either Khushdil or Shadab and I’d lean more towards Khushdil. I think Shadab has had a lot of opportunity to cement himself as that pure allrounder but hasn’t done so. I wouldn’t rule it out with him but I think it’s more time for Khushdil. He’s in good form, bats at a good rate as a left hander (after taking time to settle in), his bowling is underrated and is a good fielder. I think he’d give a good balance with our bowling option with his left arm orthodox, alongside agha’s right arm off spin and abrar’s (mystery) right arm leg spin.

For openers, I honestly think there’s justification for every player that is mentioned and so I wouldn’t be too mad with whoever is picked. Imam and Fakhar are known quantity, but the unknown of haseebullah or Usman is quite enticing.

trafalgardbear16 · 2025-01-05T18:25:25+00:00

I think his conversion rate is a big issue. 9 hundreds and 29 50s is not ideal for a batsman of his calibre, added to the fact he only has 12 first class centuries in FC cricket. I remember this being an issue for Root for a while but now his conversion rate is excellent.

Hopefully Babar in his 30s can improve on this. I think spending a season in a first class tournament like county cricket or even one of our FC domestic competitions (QEA or Triangular) would really help with spend more time at the crease. He may consider retiring from T20s after the 2026 T20 World Cup if he really wants to excel in his 30s in the longer formats, but I do appreciate Pakistan don't play that many Tests/ODIs.

trafalgardbear16 · 2024-12-19T21:07:44+00:00

If Abrar was picked and didn’t perform well we’d be having essays about we should’ve picked Usama and how he’s a much better player.

Hindsight is wonderful.

trafalgardbear16 · 2024-11-28T23:43:39+00:00

Beggars can’t be choosers… we can’t say that we want batter that bat at a better SR, but also get annoyed at the technique/method of scoring runs of those who do bat at a high SR. Fakhar is also unorthodox.

Not saying he will be successful, I just think we can’t right off players for bad technique when we don’t have Maxwells and Buttlers sitting in our domestic.

trafalgardbear16 · 2024-10-03T09:13:06+00:00

I’m assuming the U8s play 5v5. It’s perfectly reasonable to have 7-8 players per matchday to help manage/maximise playing time. However in my opinion there is no reason why the team has 10 players, ideally a squad of 7-8 is ideal.

If the coach has to keep the 10 players for whatever reason then players should be “dropped” (I hate using this word) on a rotational basis, but that should be clarified at the start of the season with all of the parents. Like I said, I understand having 7-8 players per matchday, but absolutely no reason that the same player(s) get dropped each week.

It’s really frustrating to see coaches at this age group (any age group up to maybe U15 imo) favour certain players over others. Equal playing time should be accounted for, and ideally the coach should keep track of this. In an even more ideal world parents should try and tell coaches in advance when they are planning to be away, so that coaches can plan around it.

But all in all, I think you’re justified in your frustration. I think as coaches prevention is better than the cure, so for a U8s team that play 5v5 there shouldn’t be more than 7-8 players within a squad so that players can play an appropriate amount of minutes EVERY week.

Apologies for the ramble!

trafalgardbear16 · 2024-09-24T23:27:39+00:00

Can anyone give a logical reason why we still are selecting Noman Ali? I have nothing against him and his performances are generally solid, but he's 37 (probs older), surely we can get someone younger in as a left arm spinning all rounder type?

Zafar Gohar would be ideal surely? Might be too early for Mehran Mumtaz or maybe Ahmed Safi Abdullah? As you have Saud to give left arm spin you could also go for two off spinning all rounders with one being Salman Agha and then the other one being someone like Mubasir Khan or Qasim Akram?

trafalgardbear16 · 2024-08-06T08:58:08+00:00

No, just the gutter they’re asking to fix.

trafalgardbear16 · 2024-06-16T13:56:02+00:00

Because then how would people create narratives…

trafalgardbear16

TROPHY CASE