AS I sat in front of television watching the One Day encounters between Pakistan and the West Indies, my mind raced back to the times when facing the West Indian pace battery used to be a huge assignment. Watching pedestrian medium pacers turning their arms over while wearing West Indian colours was something that brought a sad smile on my face. It was like watching sheep in a wolf’s clothing.
I remember a few colleagues who actually requested their parents to pray for them as the team departed on a tour to the West Indies back in the 1970s. The task of facing the menacing pace quartet was really that daunting. Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Colin Croft, Joel Garner, Ian Bishop, Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and many many more. They all were fearsome in their own various ways, and it took a certain amount of guts on the part of the facing batsmen to make an impression.
One did not necessarily have to be playing in the West Indies to face their wrath and might; they could be equally menacing playing anywhere around the globe — from the hard and bouncy tracks of Australia to the seamer-friendly pitches in England to the low-bounce and dusty surfaces in the subcontinent. To do well against the West Indian bowlers used to be the ultimate test of a batsman in those days.
It saddens me to see the present plight of the West Indian team which has failed to produce one decent fast bowler ever since Ambrose and Walsh called it a day some years ago. But even while they were playing, there was no talent coming to the top even half as good. The talent drought has been there for more than a decade.
All this, however, has turned out to be good for the Pakistanis who are visiting the islands these days, and comfortably registered a whitewash in the three-match series of One Day Internationals, which is probably the first time a Pakistan outfit has achieved this while on tour.
Regardless of the quality of West Indian bowling, and regardless of the absence of Brian Lara from the team, the feat achieved by the present Pakistan outfit deserves to be lauded. I have said it in the past and I would like to repeat it here that even a bad ball has to be hit properly and in the gap to make the most of it. It is not rare in cricket for a bad ball to take a prized wicket. And, by that logic, even a bad and underpar team has to be outclassed on the field of play to register a win. That Pakistan was able to do that, is something that must have made the nation proud. One thing, however, needs to be taken care of by the tour management. Even when the team has been on a high in the wake of its good performance in India and now in the West Indies, the team management for some reason still keeps changing the batting order, which is something that most teams don’t indulge in. It is rare for teams like Australia and England to do such a thing unless forced by injury. It just destabilizes the team and reflects a lack of confidence in certain players by the team management.
That the batting order will be adjusted in the first Test is obvious because Inzamamul Haq and Shoaib Malik will have to serve out their respective bans, but as soon as the team is on full strength, it will be advisable on the part of the management to stick to the original batting order. Other than that, nothing succeeds like success, and the Pakistan team deserves a pat on the back for the One Day whitewash it has registered. Keep it up, boys!
AS I sat in front of television watching the One Day encounters between Pakistan and the West Indies, my mind raced back to the times when facing the West Indian pace battery used to be a huge assignment. Watching pedestrian medium pacers turning their arms over while wearing West Indian colours was something that brought a sad smile on my face. It was like watching sheep in a wolf’s clothing.
All this, however, has turned out to be good for the Pakistanis who are visiting the islands these days, and comfortably registered a whitewash in the three-match series of One Day Internationals, which is probably the first time a Pakistan outfit has achieved this while on tour.
