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After reaching the semifinals of the highly competitive 2011 World Cup, and then sprinting to an unassailable 3-0 lead in the not-so-competitive ODI series against West Indies, Pakistan cricket finally returned to normalcy last week. A superb head start in the rain-shortened fourth ODI was squandered, resulting in a narrow loss; and the fifth ODI witnessed one of those embarrassing batting collapses and one-sided defeats to which Pakistani fans are well accustomed.
We may not like to admit it, but this kind of temperamental behavior from our team is what really suits us best. If the Pakistan team suddenly became a world-beater outfit, mowing down everything in its path and evoking comparisons to invincible West Indian and Australian teams of the past, we wouldn’t know what to do. Oh sure we’d enjoy it and gloat just like the fans of any other cricketing nation, but after a while it would get pretty boring.
Just as we desire spice in our cuisine and pathos in our TV dramas, in the same way we look for spice and pathos in our cricket team as well. Luckily, our team does not disappoint, blending flashes of ecstasy and achievement with liberal doses of agony and misery.
Take the case of the rift between coach Waqar Younus and limited-overs captain Shahid Afridi. During the World Cup they seemed to have developed an effective and mutually respectful understanding, which left the fans wondering how long is this going to last? Not long as it turned out. We cannot be sure if Waqar has become dictatorial or Afridi has become more sensitive; perhaps it is a bit of both.
Nor is the friction between Waqar and chief selector Mohsin Hasan Khan all that surprising. Mohsin threatened to quit his post after Waqar vetoed the Test squad Mohsin had picked. This has all the markings of a clash of egos, because the cricketing merits of the case (dropping middle-order batsman Umar Akmal and including wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal in place of Mohammad Salman) can easily be argued both ways.
Interestingly, in the scenario emerging from these squabbles, PCB chief Ijaz Butt is no longer the most controversial man in Pakistan cricket. If anything, he comes across as peacemaker and leader. Throw in ambitious talk of a Dubai-based Pakistan Premier League, and you could almost mistake him for a visionary.
One has to say hats off to Mr. Butt. Despite presiding over the two most catastrophic events in Pakistan’s cricket history – terrorism on the visiting Sri Lankans in March 2009 and the spot-fixing scandal in August 2010 – he has never looked more settled. It appears he has learned important lessons in riding out storms from Pakistan’s political leaders.
This is an opportune time for Mr. Butt to have recovered his bearings. He has a chance to consolidate not just his own standing, but Pakistan’s cricket standing as well. The death of Osama bin Laden offers a kind of closure to the so-called war on terror, which has extracted a heavy price from Pakistan cricket. There is a chance now to turn the page and negotiate a home visit by a Test side that could serve to erase Pakistan’s stigma as an international cricket destination.
Pakistan’s forthcoming schedule is relatively light. After the tour of West Indies, we go to Ireland for a series of ODI matches, and then have no commitments until September when we are due to tour Zimbabwe. According to the ICC Future Tours Program, in the upcoming 2011/12 season Pakistan are due to host Sri Lanka and England, but with the security situation still in flux, it remains to be seen how those engagements will materialise.
For the moment, the focus is on the two Test matches in West Indies, and the possibility of Pakistan securing its first-ever series win in that country.
