19 January 2005	Wednesday	08 Zilhaj 1425

Even if Pakistan was to win the tri-series, it does not seem impossible though it is not likely, the fact will remain that the foundations of Pakistan cricket stand on shallow ground.

The present PCB cannot be blamed for this. It is continuing the ad hocism of many years. The only difference is that it is spending a lot more money.

There is in Pakistan a great passion for cricket and as a consequence the disappointment is greater when the team is not doing well but cricket fans have remained faithful to the team and have continued their support through thick and thin. But for the first time I am beginning to see that many are being turned off cricket. I have lived through periods when the cricket fans have been angry with the team but we must beware when the fans turn indifferent.

This is what was beginning to happen when Pakistan was playing Australia in the Test series. The cricket fans did not expect Pakistan to beat Australia but it certainly expected that Pakistan would make a match of it.

That there was so much bickering and reports of players getting unfit and the coach issuing daily statements, some of them critical of the players and some of them critical of the critics, the impression created was of a team in disarray. I don't know if a message was said from Pakistan asking the team to get its act together.

It was bad enough losing to Australia so ingloriously with the captain unfit for two of the Tests and other players claiming not to be in the pink of health. What was intriguing was that as soon as the Test series was over this fact alone acted as a miracle cure and the lame could walk again and the blind could see again.

So upbeat was the team management that it decided to send back a fully fit Danish Kaneria who had eclipsed all and experts like Richie Benaud was rating him as the best leg-spinner after Shane Warne.

It was a decision that was bewildering since it left Pakistan without a specialist spinner. Now the team is left with Shahid Afridi and Mohammed Hafeez who are batsmen who can bowl. One can only hope that Inzamamul Haq and Bob Woolmer know what they are doing.

It seems obvious to me that this particular Pakistan team is happier playing one-day cricket than it is playing Test cricket. There is to start with much less pressure and the one-day game is bit of a lottery and a coconut shy is no test of marksmanship.

Unless a team can win at a consistent level, as Australia does, the one-day game is a poor guide to the real strength of the team. Pakistan looked good in its first appearance in the tri-series against Australia at Hobart and I felt that with a little more bold captaincy, Pakistan could have won.

Neither Inzamam nor Abdul Razzak showed the slightest traces of the ailments that had had them laid low for the Tests and both had a good match at Hobart as a batsman and bowler respectively. But it was Salman Butt who seems the batting find of the decade and I am wondering if we could not put him in quarantine so that he is not infected with Pakistan's cricket culture. I have seen many a young and talented player taking the wrong turning.

Shahid Afridi remains very much as I first saw him who treats both triumph and disaster as an imposter. In my youthful dreams of remembrance, I see him as the blacksmith in an English village cricket match. He is one of those cheerful characters who is good for the game, whether he is batting, bowling or fielding.

He scored 56 off 26 balls at Hobart and the Australians had no idea what hit them. Let me say here that he is batting at the right spot. The same cannot be said of the rest of Pakistan's batting order. I am wondering if the names were drawn out of a hat.

Kamran Akmal had no business opening the innings. Mohammad Hafeez who is a specialist opener should have gone in first and it should have Shoaib Malik, Inzamam and Yusuf Youhana at three, four and five.

In the one-day game every team except Pakistan gets its best batsmen to face the greatest number of balls. What on earth was Inzamam doing at number five and Yusuf Youhana at number six? Both the captain and the vice-captain should be leading from the front as they did when it came to central contracts!

Shoaib Akhtar appears to be having a lean time and it is hard to judge from his body-language whether he is carrying any niggles or is simply someone who has had a lover's quarrel with himself.

In the absence of Kaneria, he is Pakistan's only strike bowler. Unless Shoaib Akhtar is firing on all cylinders, the Pakistan bowling attack has a certain amiability about it like a tourist's safari, armed with a camera, the danger coming from getting too close to the animals when photographing them.

I am not sure whether Shoaib is a 'loner' in the team but there should be no two opinions about his value to the team. Not so much in the tri-series but certainly on Pakistan's tour of India. The Indians know this. The time has come for us to realize it as well.