If you ask any random Pakistani what combines different ethnic groups into a single nation, most of the time, you will hear answers like ‘Pakoray, Chai aur Cricket.’ I know this because my answer was something along these lines, in a philosophical debate with myself in the shower. Pakistan is one of the ten countries that have the privilege of participating in the Cricket World Cup, and it is understandable how a people so far etched into economic, political and social despair, finds joy in a fairly simple game.
If you ask me (which you really shouldn’t), cricket, as a national hobby, has often served to distract people from harsher realities. In a country where 6.65 million people are jobless, 22.8 million children are out of school, and 51,241 women faced violence over a period of six years, cricket acts as a timeout from life’s constant struggles for the average person, magnified tremendously by the media.
But time and time again, the Pakistani Cricket Team has failed to deliver to its people the joy it so desperately craves. In fact, for as long as I can remember, the Pakistani government, Pakistani economy and Pakistani batting has never been stable and reliable. Although it often surprises us with impressive performances, such as in the 2017 Champions Trophy when Pakistan entered the tournament as the #8 underdogs, but ended up thrashing arch-rivals India in the final by a priceless 180-run margin, one cannot entirely predict what our Shaheens will end up doing on the pitch. From humiliating defeats to glorious, nail-biting victories, Pakistani cricket is like a pendulum, but only if it skipped the middle.
Adults who witnessed the now-PM Imran Khan lifting the glass trophy at the 1992 World Cup in Australia, start to lose hope in the game quite often, but performances like the 2007 T20 World Cup run, the 1996 Sharjah Miandad Miracle and the 2014 Asia Cup triumph, have resurrected their spirits repeatedly.
Lately, however, Pakistan hasn’t fared well internationally. Disappointing in the 2019 World Cup even more than usual and a shadow of its former glory at the Asia Cup in 2018, Pakistan went from bad to worse. Individuals like myself now reminisce the days of Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi. When we look at the captain, Sarfraz Ahmad, yawning in the middle of a crucial World Cup game, against India nonetheless, it is only logical that we are disheartened at the lack of effort put in by the senior-most players of the team. The latter are offered contracts worth hundreds of thousands of rupees annually. Antics by individuals like Momin Saqib and Sarim Akhtar (subject of internet trolls and memes) further disenchanted the people, especially when news broke out of players attending clubs the nights before life-or-death matches.
But even as Pakistan was kicked out of ODI as well as T20 tournaments, there was a significant improvement in the Test format of the game. Under Misbah’s leadership, Pakistan rose to #1, in 2016, on the ICC Test rankings, a first in nearly thirty years. But Misbah is no more and Pakistan has slipped. Currently, Azhar Ali bears the test captain’s embalm, and his team sits at #7, sulking at yet another loss at the hands of their former colonial masters.
The Manchester test that ended in defeat for Pakistan just yesterday was only the latest in a series of embarrassments faced by the team. For months, cricket fans all over the country waited patiently for any sort of cricket, while stuck at home. Even the popular domestic contest, PSL, was cut short when the government announced a lockdown pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic back in March. So when reports started circulating that England would play host to Pakistan, cricket enthusiasts were quick to tune in to their televisions and started viewing the first test match, a format spread over 5 days which serves to diminish its popularity in normal circumstances.
Hope instituted as Pakistan finished the first set of innings with a 107-run lead, well set on its drive to victory. The captain’s flustering, but unsurprising duck was overshadowed by Shan Masood’s third consecutive century in the test format. In the second innings, however, Pakistan managed a measly 169, which captain Azhar Ali later labelled as ‘enough for us.’ It clearly wasn’t. Although the bowling side knocked off 5 Brits by the time they had scored 117, Jos Butler and Chris Woakes took it upon themselves to bring the English back into the game when they partnered 139 runs together. Woakes, in particular, was not-out until the very end when he directed the ball to the boundary between gully and the second slip to clutch victory. Since he also bagged 4 wickets, Woakes was declared Man of the Match.
So what does this mean for the Pakistani team and the millions watching at home? Disappointment at the performance. Resentment at the people responsible. Abuses at the players: Azhar Ali for poor captaincy; the batting order for failing the team; incapable coaches, staff and the entire Pakistani cricket infrastructure for playing with people’s emotions. Hot-headed fans were quick to blame the game itself, the PCB and the PTI government which hasn’t been able to drastically improve the team despite having a former World Cup-winning captain at its helm. References were made to Adolf Hitler’s notorious murder of the German cricket team (which, I found out, is complete and utter nonsense) with suggestions to beat up the team at the airport where they’ll arrive once the remaining matches are completed.
What can be done? Before the introduction of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), emphasis was made by cricket experts and barbers alike to hunt for talent in the country. Now that PSL has provided players like Shadab, Fakhar Zaman, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, etc, Pakistani cricket infrastructure has managed to make many of them complacent as well. Batsmen like Haider Ali, Azam Khan and others have impressed in the latest, incomplete edition of the league, and it is crucial that they are nurtured by experienced trainers so that the Pakistani batting lineup doesn’t depend on Babar Azam entirely.
A complete overhaul of the team would be a wise decision. Senior players like Azhar Ali and Muhammad Hafeez must give way to new talent, permanently. Oftentimes the PCB offers healthy contracts to mediocre players, and then the coaching staff, as well as the Selection Committee, add them in the lineups to make use of the money that is being paid. A more scrutinized survey of the contracts players deserve must be carried out, and lucrative contracts must be offered on the basis of talent and merit instead of seniority.
Instead of individuals like Ehsan Mani who have no experience of playing international cricket, former players must be inducted into the PCB at decisive positions since they have a better idea of what players individually, and what the team collectively, needs and they don’t have to rely on advisers for it. Captaincy must be given to gifted players who can manage the additional responsibility with their job as a normal cricketer, instead of picking out the oldest player in the squad.
Instead of spending money on the same players again and again, who often fail to give satisfactory performances, those resources should be allocated to hunting talent, in the same way, Imran Khan discovered Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who would go on to be world champions, terrorizing batsmen for years. The PCB must be courageous enough to dismiss senior players when they no longer bring anything special to the pitch. If Shahid Afridi had been thanked and shown the exit years before he actually was, we wouldn’t have to see him returning to the pavilion on a duck, once every series. Instead, excellent players like Fawad Alam could have been utilized.
Pakistanis need cricket to get through their day, but poor performances have made them used to defeats. When new players find their way to the National Team, for a while, they justify their positions with exceptional performances, like Fakhar Zaman’s century in the 2017 CT Final, but with time, they fall victim to the decayed system. Although helpful for the team to improve, criticism must also be directed towards this cricketing system, and the people most powerful in it.
Read more: A Beginner’s Guide to Journalism in Pakistan
