THE outgoing Pakistan skipper is in the mood. At a media briefing in Lahore on Tuesday upon his return from the World Cup campaign, Misbah-ul-Haq picked up from where he had left off in the quarter-final game against the Australians.

Just as uncharacteristically as he had broken the calm by stepping out to try and heave Glenn Maxwell out of the stadium in his last one-day international innings, Captain Cool decided that it was time he furnished some crisp answers to his critics.

Take a look: I am not the devil: Misbah

Without being too loud and without naming names, he was aggressive and quite a lot of what he said made sense. It doesn’t take too deep an inquiry to establish that much of what was said against — and not so much about — him or his team in the media reeked, if not of personal vendetta, then of a propensity to be sensational.

His target was undoubtedly some ex-cricketers looking to build careers as critics in a competitive market sustained by the Pakistani passion for the game.

Misbah has been pulled up for being ungrateful to the media, by and large. Whereas he has been brutally reminded of the huge role the media does play in advertising the game and the players, indeed there has been some debate about how it is a two-way avenue now: under the new rules, the one who is under attack has a more recognised right of response today than was the case in the past.

The trend is reflected in how strongly ‘accused’ cricketers elsewhere have asserted their right to reply in recent times. The Pakistan team had gone about their World Cup expedition like a group put on trial.

Pakistanis must now show generosity even if some are a little perturbed by some of the reactions by the outgoing ODI captain. The criticism must always continue — about what Misbah lacked as player and captain — just as his rebuttal should in no way prevent recognition of his contribution to national cricket.

Published in Dawn March 26th, 2015

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