No one has given more of themselves to help Pakistan achieve the No. 1 ranking in Test cricket than Intikhab Alam. He is a common thread through the last 57 of Pakistans 64 years as a Test nation - as a player, captain, selector, a leader of the National Cricket Academy, and as a coach or manager for four stints, including today.The Test victory at The Oval, his home ground for 13 happy years as a player for Surrey, was fit to rank with any of those Intikhab has known on the cricket pitch. That was one of the best Ive seen, the way we won that Test match. These players have shown a lot of character, and togetherness, and self-belief.In the background, as with all of Pakistans most memorable triumphs, lay Intikhab. On the field, he led Pakistan to their first ever Test series victory overseas. Off it, Intikhab was the only constant in Pakistans two triumphs in ICC events: the 1992 World Cup and the 2009 World T20. His involvement with the national side, stretching back to his debut as a 17-year-old in 1959, has seen off four military rulers, eight civilian governments, and over 20 heads of the Pakistan Cricket Board, according to White on Green: Celebrating the Drama of Pakistan Cricket, the new book from Richard Heller and Peter Oborne.I think its passion and love for the game. Whenever I have accepted any responsibility, I accept it as a great challenge. And I enjoy it, or else I wouldnt be doing it, Intikhab explains when we meet during Pakistans ODI series in Ireland. A little more rotund than in his playing days, he is proudly wearing his Pakistan blazer and tie: symbols of his unstinting devotion to his countrys cricket.I think its a great honour for anybody, for any era, to play for Pakistan. I dont see anything better than that, he says. Administration is a great responsibility but the next best thing. When you have an administration role, then you have to make a lot of sacrifices. You have to discipline yourself, at the same time youve got to discipline the boys also. So its been a great experience for me in the various capacities that I have been in through these jobs.And what of all that political instability? I dont think it makes much difference, actually, because whoever comes in, naturally theyre all cricket lovers, so it doesnt really matter, really. All the governments have been very supportive of sports.****The story of Intikhab and Pakistan begins in the days after partition, when he was five. The Alam family had lived a comfortable and happy life in Shimla, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Intikhabs father was an electrical engineer.In the panic and violence that followed Partition, Intikhabs father feared for the safety of his wife and five children. They believed they were the last Muslim family left in the city.Intikhab and the family fled their home to hide in the house of one of his fathers colleagues. A few nights later, the colleague told Intikhabs father that a mob was approaching. The Alams fled immediately to a power station.For many years, Intikhabs father had played cricket for the Maharaja of Patiala, making copious British friends. He called one of them, a Brigadier in the British Army, with the message: I am in trouble.A few hours later, an army truck arrived. It took the family to Ludhiana, where they stayed with relatives. Another truck was then organised to take the family to Kalka, where they could catch a train to Lahore. They waited overnight in a tent while mobs fought around them. You could see the bullets going through your tent, Intikhab remembers.The train departed in the early hours of the morning. The first train was a passenger train, which was coming to Pakistan. They used to stop in the jungle, and massacre everybody. It was a wrong signal that said that the first train was a goods train, and the second was the passenger train, so this is how we got through. Very lucky. After that no train came from India. That was the last train.****The family were refugees in Lahore for a month and a half. Then Intikhabs uncle, a superintendent of police in Karachi, arranged for the Alams to move there.In Karachi, Intikhab and his two brothers inherited their fathers love for cricket. When I was very young I used to go and see my father play - he was a fast bowler. And so it was sort of a family tradition.Intikhab, the middle child of the five siblings, attended Church Mission School, where he says he benefited from very good sports facilities. I used to bowl quick in those days, when I was very young, and I used to bowl legbreak as well. So my elder brother told me, Well, if you want to play, there are hardly any legspinners, so why dont you just concentrate on bowling legspinners? I took his advice. This is how I became a captain of my school XI. We won the inter-school tournament.Intikhabs brother Aftab, his elder by four years, broke into the Karachi Public Works Department team. Aftab and the side netted with many members of the Pakistan Test side. One evening in 1958, Pakistans captain, Abdul Kardar, attended the nets.As was often the case, Intikhab was acting as an auxiliary net bowler. He had played a few first-class matches for the Karachi C side, but had recently suffered the disappointment of not being picked for the Combined School XI to play Pakistan.While Intikhab was bowling in the nets, Kardar started to watch him. When Intikhab dismissed Wazir Mohammad, who had recently made 189 in a Test in the Caribbean, Kardar was impressed.After the nets were over, Kardar called me and he asked my name and he said, Are you playing tomorrow for the School XI?, Intikhab recalls. I said, No sir, Ive not been selected. He said, Oh. Then you will play for us tomorrow, for Pakistan. I couldnt believe it. I was over the moon.The next morning I arrived at the Karachi stadium and the school selector was there. He said: What are you doing? I said, Im not playing for you. Ive come to play for the Pakistan team. They were flabbergasted. They couldnt believe it.Intikhab got four wickets. Soon after, he was selected for the Commander-in-Chiefs XI against the West Indians in Rawalpindi. A creditable display ensured he was selected for the Pakistan Eaglets tour of England in the summer of 1959. There was just one snag. If you were selected, you had to pay 5000 rupees for the tour expenses - a lot of money. And I couldnt ask my father to give me Rs5000.Intikhab could find no way to raise the money. Eventually, he decided to go to Kardar himself. I said, Ive been selected, but I dont have the money. He said, Dont worry. He got me Rs5000 from the Ministry of Education to go on the tour. That was a very successful tour for me.When he returned home, Intikhab was picked in the Presidents XI to play the Australians. He got eight wickets in the match and was then picked to make his debut against Australia in Karachi, a few weeks before turning 18. Intikhab and the team had no coaches, only a solitary team liaison officer. They were paid Rs15 a day. The money was not the criteria. The only thing was to play for your country.Intikhabs debut did not begin well. He was run out for a duck in the first innings. But with his first ball, Intikhab clean-bowled the Australian opener Colin McDonald. Over the next 18 years, he would add another 124 Test wickets in his 47 Tests.For 17 Tests between 1969 and 1975, Intikhab served as captain. My philosophy was that I needed to be very truthful to my players and explain what I wanted from them. That was very important, and they all responded exceptionally well. We were very sincere to each other, and I think that was the one reason we that we came together.Intikhab was also the central character in a seminal landmark in Pakistan cricket: the sides first ever Test series win abroad. In February 1973, Intikhab took 11 for 130 in Dunedin, the only positive result of the series. It is the performance of which he is proudest.The following year, he led Pakistan in the Test series in England. Though all three Tests were drawn, Pakistan left having emulated Don Bradmans 1948 Invincibles by not losing a single tour match. That was a great tour, he recalls. Intikhab believes that Pakistan were helped by having a large contingent of players in county cricket; he himself served Surrey with distinction.In 1977, Intikhab played his final Test match and retired from international cricket soon afterwards. I wasnt enjoying it. I think I wasnt treated well enough, he says, though he declines to name anyone responsible. Still, playing cricket was the most fun hes ever had. The only shame is that he was born rather too early to experience T20 cricket. I would have loved it.****Intikhab thought that his life in cricket might be over, and he might instead devote himself to his familys knitwear business in Pakistan.A few months after his retirement from Surrey, he received a message from the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, requesting that the two meet. Like football, his idea was to have a cricket manager, rather than a coach, and give all the power to the cricket manager to look after everything. So I had a long meeting with him and they offered me a job.In 1982, Intikhab became Pakistans manager, a role that he held for the next decade, albeit not on every tour. It clicked, he says. Most important was his relationship with the captain, Imran Khan. Intikhab did not attempt to impinge upon Imrans power. There was never any unpleasant moment. That was very very good.He had his own vision. He was very straightforward, very disciplined. He used to set an example for everyone. If he said something then he was the first to do it. And the players respected that.One memory of Intikhab and Imran together stands out - from the 1992 World Cup. I remember before the final, he went out and he bought himself a t-shirt, and then he got a tiger on this - a printed tiger. And when I saw him going for the toss, I looked at him. I didnt say anything to him, I dont want to upset him, because I knew exactly what he was going to do. So when he went there, Ian Chappell, who was interviewing, asked, Why are you wearing this t-shirt? And he said, I want them to play like a tiger. So that paid off.****Intikhab left when Imran retired, but he never really went away. He remained Pakistan crickets great uncle on speed dial, always willing to answer any call to fill a vacant post. In between his various roles for the PCB, Intikhab even had time to make history in India. He coached Punjab - it was just like coming home - for two seasons, becoming the first Pakistani to coach an Indian domestic team.Last year, at the age of 73, Intikhab was enlisted to return to Pakistan again, as manager once more. He is a survivor so adept, writes Osman Samiuddin in The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket, that not only would he survive a nuclear holocaust, he would also emerge as the bomb makers administrative director.Perhaps unsurprisingly, this company man highlights stability as a reason why this Test team has succeeded where others have not in reaching No. 1. I think to be successful on an international level you need continuity - of coaches, and the management. If you keep on changing it doesnt help. It takes time for any new coach coming in. You have to give him time to try to understand the players, they to understand the involvement, try to understand the language problem, try to understand the different culture. So you need time, you need to be very, very patient with people. And I think the success for this team is the continuity of management. Throughout his 57-year involvement with the Pakistan national team, Intikhab believes that it has retained one fundamental characteristic: the tendency to identify talent outside of the system, just like Intikhab himself all those years ago.I think there was a lot of talent - raw talent - available over the years. They came from nowhere, really. There was no such structure available. The street-smart cricketer, you know. At times, some of them, we just saw them and we got them in. So there was no real drill… It was all self-made cricketers we were, with all the natural, raw talent.It is different in other countries. They think, Oh, hes not yet ready. Well wait, give him another couple of years. But we didnt believe in that, actually - just throw him in the deep water and see if he can swim.Yet, Intikhab is concerned that Pakistan cricket is now becoming too structured, and losing a little of its distinctiveness and flair. Coaching is everywhere now - Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4. I have some reservations. He says that there is too much emphasis on coaching now. If somebody is good at hitting the ball, if you want to change him, that doesnt help either.Now, Intikhab suggests, more of Pakistans best talent is coming from outside Lahore and Karachi, the sports traditional centres: not just because cricket has expanded its reach, but also because of the paucity of formal coaching in remote outposts. Its sort of a natural phenomena that you keep on getting these blokes from nowhere. Still in remote areas, theres no concept of coaching - they come from very, very humble backgrounds.****At the end of this year, Intikhab will turn 75 midway through the Boxing Day Test against Australia. But declaring his career can wait. Intikhab will stay for as long as I enjoy it, as long the board wants me. There is nothing he would rather do; there is nothing he would rather have devoted his life to. I dont regret a minute.All that remains is to ask how Misbah-ul-Haq ranks compared to Pakistans other captains. There have been some very good experienced former captains, but when we talk about statistics then hes probably the best, Intikhab says. He laughs when asked to compare Misbah to Imran. They are two different personalities. One is laid-back. Imran was very aggressive, and thats the difference between the two. That Intikhab was able to work with both is testament to his enduring diplomatic skills. Adidas Nmd Sko Dame . Mitch Holmberg added a goal and three assists. Connor Chartier also scored for the Chiefs (3-0-0). Luke Harrison spoiled Garrett Hughsons shutout bid with a power-play goal at 13:17 of the third period. The Spokane goaltender finished with 28 saves, including a Brandon Fushimi penalty shot in the second period that would have tied the game 1-1. Adidas Nmd r2 Dame . -- Josh Sterk scored once and set up two more as the Oshawa Generals edged the visiting Belleville Bulls 3-2 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. http://www.dknmdskotilbud.com/adidas-nmd-herre-outlet-danmark.html . That left plenty of energy for pitching books and swatting away free agency questions. Anthony had 24 points and nine rebounds, and the Knicks avenged an embarrassing home loss with a rout of their own, beating the Boston Celtics 114-88 on Wednesday night for their third straight victory. Adidas Nmd Dame Udsalg . "Jeff is a hard worker who was an important special-teams contributor for us last season," said Stamps GM John Hufnagel. Adidas Nmd Herre Sort .com) - The game was all punts and field goals before Kodi Whitfields catch. MILWAUKEE -- Bucks coach Jason Kidd wondered if his young team could rebound from a third-quarter lull.Milwaukees kids did just that, winning their fourth straight game despite letting a 16-point third-quarter lead slip away.Matthew Dellavedova scored 12 of his season-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Bucks hold off the Brooklyn Nets 112-103 on Saturday.I thought it got a little sloppy, Kidd said. I wanted to see if they were going to figure it out. I wasnt going to call timeout. I wanted to see if they were going to talk themselves through it because thats what good teams do.Milwaukee led 62-46 after a layup by Tony Snell with 8:11 left in the third, but Brooklyn closed the quarter on a 26-13 run to get within 75-72. Consecutive 3-pointers by Joe Harris gave the Nets an 82-81 lead with 10:00 to play.Sean Kilpatrick scored 13 of his 19 points in the third quarter, when he went 8 for 8 from the foul line.It definitely wasnt anything the coach did, Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. It was all the players playing well. We didnt change anything and kept with our rotations. The guys came out with focus.With the game tied at 94, Milwaukee began a 9-1 run to lead 103-95 with 1:43 remaining.We had a chance in the third quarter to break the game wide open, and we didnt take it, Dellavedova said. They came back and played well. We then did a good job of pulling away.John Henson led Milwaukee with 20 points and added seven rebounds, Giannis Antetokounmpo had 16 points and 10 rebounds, Jabari Parker added 15 points, Greg Monroe scored 13 points and Snell chipped in 10 points.They were just finding me, Henson said.ddddddddddddI was open. (Antetokounmpo and Parker) are huge threats coming down the lane and off a pick-and-roll, so it is my job to finish for them and take a little heat off of them.Bojan Bogdanovic led Brooklyn with 24 points. Brook Lopez had 13 points but was just 3 for 17 from the field and 0 for 10 in the first half.I just wasnt good enough, Lopez said. I made a lot of turnovers. I missed a lot of shots that I need to make. I think I let us down on both ends of the floor.TIP-INSNets: Forward Trevor Booker missed the game due to an illness. Anthony Bennett started in his place and had seven points and a career-high 14 rebounds. ... Lopez grabbed four rebounds to tie Derrick Coleman for second place on the Nets career list with 3,690.Bucks: Milwaukee is 10-0 after leading at halftime and 8-0 when leading after three quarters. ... The Bucks scored 62 points in the paint. ... Antetokounmpo tied his career high with five blocked shots.FAMILIAR FOESMilwaukee and Brooklyn were playing for the second time in three days after the Bucks beat the Nets 111-93 on Thursday night.The Bucks will face the same team in consecutive games four more times this season, including home-and-homes later this month with the Bulls, Cavaliers and Wizards.UP NEXTNets: Brooklyn hosts Washington on Monday night. The Nets went 0-3 against the Wizards last season.Bucks: Milwaukee hosts San Antonio on Monday night. The Bucks have lost eight straight games to the Spurs. ' ' '