BYE BYE PAKISTAN

MAHTAB BASHIR
mahtabbashir@gmail.com
+92 333 5363248

Islamabad

There’s an old dictum goes on like “If a Muslim and a Non-Muslim (simultaneously) enters into a deep water- the one who knows how to swim will come out as a survivor”.

The dismal start of the WC2019 campaign against minnows Windies, winning the toss against India and Australia and opted to bat first knowing well our strength is bowling, the top and middle order continuous failure, our lingering chase against Kiwis and Afghanis (till the 5oth over) that put us below the New Zealanders in NRR and last but indeed not the least prior to our final encounter against Bangladesh the skipper boasting of “We will make 500+ against Bangalis to cement our place in top 4” - knowing the fact that Pakistan has not a single slogger but surprisingly, Asif Ali who was not part of the playing 11 - was few of recipes for own disaster.  

In the matters of cricket, the Murphy’s Law always comes handy that if something unpleasant is likely to happen, it does happen. Pakistanis were relying much on the dreamy 1992 World Cup parallels, which could not become a reality even though the Green Shirt ended the trophy chase at a high note against Bangladesh. But the game is over. Despite beating Bangladesh with 94 runs in its last match, and despite having 11 points on the table, the team Pakistan could not qualify for the semifinal, given the pesky format ruling the game. It was next to impossible to pile up a huge score and then bowl out the opponents at a low score. When Pakistan posted 315-9 in the Friday match, they were to bowl out Bangladesh for just eight.

 

The weird rules aside, Pakistan, however, began the tournament at a dismal note, partly due to poor performance (against West Indies), and partly due to gods of weather (in match against Sri Lanka). The team, once outsmarted by India and Australia, however, picked up the momentum and started striking back, much to the pleasure of the gallery. The whole Pakistan started seeing parallels with the fascinating 1992 World Cup. Pakistan beat South Africa, England and New Zealand with style and smartness but the other factors, like New Zealand and England match, did not stand by us.

The tournament offers both bitter and sweet lessons to the team management to reflect over. The team selection in the pre-tournament days had many question marks. Leaving out Muhammad Amir and Wahab Riaz and including out-of-form Hassan Ali and Shoaib Malik speak volumes of the selectors’ ability to pick the best. The first five games of the tournament put up a poor captaincy, poor team management and poor performance. Despite an unforgivable onslaught against the team on social media, the team did not lose composure and soon overcame the three factors. The captain, the team and the team management, all are worthy of congratulations.

 

Since 1992, every time the world cup ends, barring 1999, we start talking of team’s rebuilding. This time, we can say that we have got a team, a real team, but it needs to be refined, groomed and trained. Starting from the team selection, we have a plenty of choice in bowlers and batsmen. The abundance of choice will create tough competition among the players to outplay each other to grab a berth in the team. Moreover, the team should be given ample chances to exhibit their talent in the international cricket. Pakistan is thankfully out of terrorism blues, so the international community must be convinced to start playing cricket in Pakistan.*