Reluctant fundamentalists
When our once underrated and censured and now victorious Test skipper Misbah-ul-Haq received the prestigious Test mace from the ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, he said that winning the coveted title of the number one Test team in the world (now relinquished to India) was like winning the World Cup. It showed how much success in Test matches in England meant to him and his team. Sadly, a majority of cricket fans in Pakistan would never share the same sentiment. For them, triumph in Test matches can never match the proud moment of lifting the limited overs World Cup trophy.
The question remains: Is Test cricket popular in Pakistan? In July this year, the excitement after the success of Pakistan in the opening Test of the series against England at the home of cricket — Lord’s — momentarily made one fall for the false belief that it is. But a lapse in performance of the national team in the second (Old Trafford) and third (Edgbaston) Test matches brought things back to ‘normal’.
Pakistan’s recent success at Lord’s had such a short life that a Test defeat at Old Trafford made the whole euphoria of the opening Test — along with its ‘push-up celebration’ — subside in no time. On the other hand, one doesn’t see the popularity of the T20 format declining in Pakistan in spite of its team standing, which is currently languishing at the seventh spot in the world T20 rankings. One of the reasons for this could be that Pakistan is the birth place of T20 cricket which perhaps originated with some other name in the late 1970s in this part of the world. Or perhaps it’s just the more conusmer-friendly format.
Playing Test matches in deserted stadiums in the UAE is nothing new for Pakistan’s cricketers. Even before our home cricket went ‘away’, attendance at Test matches, considered ‘real’ cricket, was as grim as death in Pakistan
One can understand that Test cricket was never meant to be in ‘vogue’, but the indubitable fact remains that it has a cult following all over the world. Test cricket is like Jazz & Blues music, always competing with limited overs cricket (pop music). Test (Jazz & Blues) cannot challenge the popularity of T20 (pop music) but the latter cannot challenge the former in quality.
At any given day, Test match audiences we easily outnumbered by the limited overs cricket, especially T20 format which is the most admired format of them all. But the ‘cult’ followers and the administration in countries like Australia, England and India try their best to keep Test match cricket alive in their respective countries.
Over the past 20 years or so, in Pakistan, Test cricket has been weeping quietly like a neglected child. It took ages for the Pakistan Cricket Board to understand that most of the Test matches all around the globe start on Thursdays for a reason. PCB is perhaps the only cricket board which has scheduled Test matches on Mondays or Tuesdays in the past, not sparing a thought for the fact that weekends bring maximum viewership and spectators to the ground.
Perhaps it is the word ‘Test’, which doesn’t tickle our fancy. We are people in a hurry, we like to get on with the things. A five-day Test is a bit too long for our liking. And there is always a possibility of a drawn match, which is not a ‘result’, if you ask us. Patience has never been our strongest virtue. As a nation we abhor planning. Most of our cricketers act before they think, unlike others who do things slightly differently. And the so-called ‘talented’ Umar Akmal was the prime example of that. Who can forget the shot he played in the Sydney Test in 2010. He could have taken his country’s ship to the shore but instead he chose to jump into the water midway through.