The daggers are drawn again! Pakistan cricket team’s recent drubbing at the hands of England in limited overs has seen the team slip to the eighth position in ODI and sixth in T20 format. Not only that, many former cricketers have been heard saying that there is a dearth of new talent in Pakistan cricket, especially batting talent. Astonishingly, a country which has produced top class batsmen like Hanif Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas, Majid Khan, Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, and Younis Khan in the past is facing a block in this major department of the game.

Having talent or rather no talent is one thing, but to waste potential talent is another matter altogether. In the recent past there have been quite a few cases in which potential talent, a talent which could have reached another level of excellence was ruthlessly wasted in Pakistan cricket by the authorities or an individual himself. Let’s look at some of the batsmen who were spotted as raw talent, but never nurtured to be recognised as great talent in the world of cricket.

Mohammad Wasim was one of the few cricketers to reach the three-figure mark on his debut. He made 109 not out in the second innings against New Zealand at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore in 1996, when he was only 19 years old. Wasim was ‘a product of the system’, a phrase seldom used for a Pakistani cricketer. He was groomed as the future captain of a country. As a youngster he was lucky enough to be the member of a team which played under Wasim Akram’s captaincy, and he learnt a great deal.

What’s stopping talented batsmen from making it to the Pakistan cricket team?

In 1997, he was selected in the ODI squad to play in series in Australia, but many believed that he was not a good hooker and puller of the ball so he would fail in Australian conditions. On the contrary, he proved his critics wrong by displaying brilliant wrist work on Australian pitches. In one of the matches, he faced mighty Warne and McGrath with ease when his team mates were falling like ninepins in Adelaide. He made 44 in that lost cause of a match. Wasim wanted to stay neat and was unable to cope with the on and off field pressures of international cricket, which eventually brought his career to an abrupt end.

Yasir Hameed announced his arrival on the world stage with a bang. Although, at the time he was making his debut, Bangladesh was considered a minnow, but his two 100s in his maiden Test was not a small feat. He made 170 in the first and 105 in the second innings. He was a stylish opener, a rare commodity these days. His batting style reminded one of Mohsin Khan.

Yasir’s half centuries in both innings of the Sydney Test in 2004/05 were a treat to watch. When he was trying to make a permanent place for himself in the line-up many of his team mates thought that he lost his marbles and became the butt of a joke in the team. Unfortunately, his repute alone became the reason behind his non selection than his batting abilities. It was an undercover interview to the British tabloids after the infamous spot fixing scandal in 2010 that squashed hopes of his comeback into the national team.

Asim Kamal played his first Test against South Africa in 2003 at Lahore and what a debut it was to see a rock solid batsman against the pace bowling of Pollock, Ntini, and Nel. It was almost a dream debut until he got out at 99, making him one of the three unfortunate ones to score 99 on their Test debut (the other two being Arthur Chipperfield of Australia and Robert Christiani of West Indies).

The sad part is that he never scored a hundred in the 12 Tests he played though he was consistent enough to score eight half centuries. Asim played his international cricket in the era in which talented, young middle-order batsmen were considered a threat to the established middle-order. So they were never allowed to even settle down within the team.

Faisal Iqbal had to carry the label of ‘Javed Miandad’s nephew’ ever since he started representing his city Karachi. There is a certain amount of pressure on a cricketer on the day he makes his debut for the country. In Faisal’s case, because of his being a relative of Miandad that pressure came long before the big day.

Faisal, unlike other cricketers, had a different career path altogether due to which he was never able to do justice to his game. Though, his innings of 139 against India at the National Stadium Karachi in 2006 made everyone believe for a while that he had finally arrived, it was not so.

He should have followed the footsteps of Shoaib Mohammad, son of great Hanif Mohammad, who faced similar or perhaps bigger challenges, but came through with flying colours. Despite all the hardships, Shoaib eventually made a permanent place for himself in Imran Khan’s Test eleven; which speaks

volumes for his grit and determination. Faisal missed a trick or two in that regard. At times, his flared temper made things easy for his critics who never wanted to see him in the team anyway.

Umar Akmal showed so much promise but delivered so little. If there is one talented cricketer who played his cricket in self-destruction mode it would surely be Umar Akmal. He has no one but himself to blame for his poor showing on international scene.

Personality traits can make you do funny things and these involuntary actions can have dire consequences on your whole life but you end up doing it anyways; not sparing a thought that luck will not always be on your side. Now many of Umar’s supporters have given up on him. Meanwhile, one has never seen him take responsibility for his dismal performance. In his opinion it’s either the captain or the coach or the batting order stopping him from earning laurels for his country. Sadly, this approach takes you nowhere, no matter how much talent you may possess and Umar’s is a classic example.

Twitter: @CaughtAtPoint

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 13th, 2015