ONE is amazed to read opinions and comments by former cricketers, commentators and even an editorial on the performance of our cricket team.

We all knew that we were going to play against the world’s number one team, with the world’s number one bowler and the world’s number one batsman and equally good  other players.

We also knew that these matches will be played on the world’s fastest pitches.

Was there anyone one in Pakistan or the cricketing world who gave us any chance against them.

South Africa appointed Smith as their captain when he was in his early 20s and stuck around.

He has now captained the side in more than 100 test matches, an all-time record.

Out of the 11 Pakistani players five were captains. As far as preparations are concerned, we landed and played a match and entered the test match arena with the best team.

During the 1992 World Cup, Imran Khan took his team to Australia well in advance and practised on RCC with tennis ball to accustom our players on bouncy tracks.

We did nothing of the sort. Losing test series was written on the wall.

However, we played quite well in the second test, so let us give credit to the team.

Winning 20/20 was nice and losing 50 overs by a margin of 3-2 is no defeat and that too against South Africa in South Africa.

Come on Pakistanis, let us not be too critical of our blokes!

Look forward and enjoy the longest sixer hit by Afridi. After all, we believe in one-off things only.

IQBAL RAZA Karachi