COLOMBO, July 22: Pakistan's highly-acclaimed coach Bob Woolmer failed to wake up cricketing world's 'sleeping giant' from its deep slumber for its tie against Sri Lanka on Wednesday and it will require a miracle in the next three days to make Inzamamul Haq and his men ready for the crunch match against India on Sunday.
After the Asia Cup Super League's disastrous result, the dejected Pakistani players on Thursday were nursing their wounded pride and were given a day-off to visit the swimming pool and gymnasium to relax their aching bodies. Whether such unfamiliar routines will provide the desired results for our boys is anybody's guess.
Unless Woolmer, described by the Pakistan Cricket Board's top officials as a 'messiah', comes with that miracle potion assisted by his laptop expertise and scientific approach, Pakistan's well-paid and talented stars are to leave these shores empty-handed and once again go into coma.
The coach did not take the humiliation on his own chin and instead placed the entire blame on the players. He minced no words with his sarcastic and below-the-belt remarks especially against batsmen during the post-match press conference.
Woolmer's choice of words against the dismissals of Inzamam, Yousuf Youhana and Imran Nazir were not only insulting but also gave a hint of suggestion that they deliberately threw their wickets.
Pakistan batsmen have performed even worse at the R. Premadasa Stadium on numerous occasions in the past but never has the coach degraded the players so distastefully in front of the world media.
Surely, it did not go well with the players and already there seems to be a cold war between the coach and the captain on the tour. Inzamam has not attended any of the last five press conferences alongside Woolmer. It has been two 'silent characters' Youhana and manager Haroon Rasheed who turned up at the briefings but hardly uttered a word.
Setbacks such as the one against Sri Lanka have been a regular feature of Pakistan cricket during the last five years, but unfortunately instead of learning from such reverses the results have gone from bad to worse.
What happened to Pakistan cricket at the Premadasa Stadium has not happened against a not-too hot Sri Lanka. It was humiliation all-round and it will need nothing less than a victory over arch-rivals India to erase the memory of that disgraceful show.
Another performance of this magnitude would dealt a body blow to Pakistan cricket from which recovery will take a very long time just like the past masters West Indies who were facing an uphill task presently.
All is not lost yet and it is time for the team management to restore confidence of the players since they are capable of bouncing back.