Dance
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2010
- Messages
- 4,850
- Reaction score
- 0
The Pakistan cricket team must be the most resilient entity in the world. Exiled from playing at home, repeatedly riven by internecine bickering and factionalism, and with three of their top players, including their two best bowlers, recently imprisoned for spot-fixing and still last week they completed a Test series victory against Sri Lanka.
They did so in the UAE, because the last time Pakistan tried to play a home series against Sri Lanka, gunmen attacked the away team's bus on the way to Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, killing six policemen and two civilians and injuring several players and officials, and now no international team will play there. Never playing in front of home crowds doesn't seem to have too detrimental an effect on the team (much like their neighbours Afghanistan, one of cricket's great success stories of recent years, who also can't play at home), but it certainly does on the Pakistan Cricket Board's coffers. They experimented with England as a home away from home, playing two Tests there against Australia last year, but crowds were smaller than expected. They were even smaller in the UAE, where at times the stands were roughly as densely populated as the surrounding desert, but at least the costs of hosting a Test there are lower.
Then there's the 800-pound gorilla hanging over the series, a distraction that would have bought many a team to their knees: the conviction in London for corruption and cheating of former captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. Quite apart from the distraction to the players of knowing that their former teammates were on trial, that people they'd played alongside might not always have been trying their hardest, and that the honesty of the culture of the team they represent was being called into question, the loss of players of that quality would be hard for any team to absorb.
When the spot-fixing incidents took place, Asif was ranked the second best Test bowler in the world, having taken 105 wickets in 22 games at a very impressive average of 23. Without much pace but with a masterly control of line, length and slight variations in movement in both directions, his craft was more like that of a spinner than a fast bowler. At 19, tall left-armer Amir was even more promising; pacy yet accurate and able to extract both bounce and movement, he appeared to have all the ingredients for fast-bowling greatness. Just before the scandal was uncovered, he had become the youngest player ever to take 50 Test wickets.
It's part of a bigger problem for Pakistan: they need to produce at least two teams' worth of international players at any given time, because half of them won't be playing. Other players accused of involvement in the scandal but not charged have also been quietly dropped from the team. And if it isn't bans and positive drug tests a fate that both Asif and larger-than-life retired fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar have suffered it's the endless rows and rivalries between players, staff and officials. The team is currently missing the wildly inconsistent but unbelievably entertaining and pretty much universally popular all-rounder Shahid Afridi, who fell out with former coach Waqar Younis and has never returned, although he's talking about it (causing Waqar to remark that "Afridi should just keep his mouth shut and focus on his cricket", which gives you a pretty good flavour of the debate). Similarly, all-time great batsman Mohammad Yousuf hasn't played since he was banned along with a host of other players following the team's disastrous tour of Australia, in which everyone, it appears, fell out with everyone. Another of those banned was former captain Shoaib Malik, who appeared to be a locus of discord for several years.
Indeed, the PCB has frequently been at war with its own players, dropping them, banning them, and sometimes apparently throwing the captaincy around at more or less anyone left standing. With a bit of luck, that era might be behind them now that one of the least talented board chairmen in the history of the game from any country, Ijaz Butt, has retired. With the spot-fixing trial, the tenure of his successor, Zaka Ashraf, couldn't have had a much more stressful start, and it's something of a concern that his main qualification for the job appears to be his closeness to the man who appointed him, PCB patron Asif Ali Zardari, who also happens to be the president of Pakistan. But it's an opportunity to start a new era of improved governance off the field decoupling the PCB from the government would be a good start to go alongside the encouraging performances on it.
The team, fortunately, seems able to absorb almost limitless amounts of off-field incompetence and skullduggery. Not only did they beat Sri Lanka, they did it in a way that owed more to persistence, application and nerve than the traditional Pakistani cricketing stereotype of flashing blades and frustrating inconsistency. Among the top six, only Mohammad Hafeez has a tendency to impetuosity; alongside grafting captain Misbah-ul-Haq and consistently brilliant former captain Younis Khan, Azhar Ali looks a real find at number three, while Taufeeq Umar is finally establishing himself as a solid opener. Misbah's leadership has been impressive as much for what hasn't happened as what has: the usual discord appears to have been absent.
Shorn of the services of Asif and Amir, the astonishing Pakistani fast-bowling conveyor belt keeps churning them out (they're the only South Asian nation to have consistently produced top-quality quicks, including statistically the greatest opening bowling partnership of all time, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis). Alongside the reliable, quietly impressive Umar Gul, during the recent series Junaid Khan emerged as a canny, reliable bowler with some Asif-like qualities, while Aizaz Cheema looks lively, and the extraordinary windmilling flail of arms resembling a cartoon fight that constitutes the bowling action of Pakistan's Sohail Tanvir continues to have the occasional capacity to befuddle the best. They are backed by the only man even close to currently rivalling England's Graeme Swann for the title of world's best spinner, the increasingly impressive Saeed Ajmal.
In other words, the endless production line of freakishly talented Pakistani players continues to draw the sting of everything that happens to the team. That production line is driven by the deep love for the game in the country a love that appears as resistant to the repeated abuse it receives as the team does. Against the backdrop of the London trial, their win in the UAE, against a side ranked above them, represented a heartening refusal to be steamrollered by events beyond their control. It's a quality every Pakistani cricketer needs in abundance.
Pakistan Shows Resilience Amid Turmoil - WSJ.com
They did so in the UAE, because the last time Pakistan tried to play a home series against Sri Lanka, gunmen attacked the away team's bus on the way to Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, killing six policemen and two civilians and injuring several players and officials, and now no international team will play there. Never playing in front of home crowds doesn't seem to have too detrimental an effect on the team (much like their neighbours Afghanistan, one of cricket's great success stories of recent years, who also can't play at home), but it certainly does on the Pakistan Cricket Board's coffers. They experimented with England as a home away from home, playing two Tests there against Australia last year, but crowds were smaller than expected. They were even smaller in the UAE, where at times the stands were roughly as densely populated as the surrounding desert, but at least the costs of hosting a Test there are lower.
Then there's the 800-pound gorilla hanging over the series, a distraction that would have bought many a team to their knees: the conviction in London for corruption and cheating of former captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. Quite apart from the distraction to the players of knowing that their former teammates were on trial, that people they'd played alongside might not always have been trying their hardest, and that the honesty of the culture of the team they represent was being called into question, the loss of players of that quality would be hard for any team to absorb.
When the spot-fixing incidents took place, Asif was ranked the second best Test bowler in the world, having taken 105 wickets in 22 games at a very impressive average of 23. Without much pace but with a masterly control of line, length and slight variations in movement in both directions, his craft was more like that of a spinner than a fast bowler. At 19, tall left-armer Amir was even more promising; pacy yet accurate and able to extract both bounce and movement, he appeared to have all the ingredients for fast-bowling greatness. Just before the scandal was uncovered, he had become the youngest player ever to take 50 Test wickets.
It's part of a bigger problem for Pakistan: they need to produce at least two teams' worth of international players at any given time, because half of them won't be playing. Other players accused of involvement in the scandal but not charged have also been quietly dropped from the team. And if it isn't bans and positive drug tests a fate that both Asif and larger-than-life retired fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar have suffered it's the endless rows and rivalries between players, staff and officials. The team is currently missing the wildly inconsistent but unbelievably entertaining and pretty much universally popular all-rounder Shahid Afridi, who fell out with former coach Waqar Younis and has never returned, although he's talking about it (causing Waqar to remark that "Afridi should just keep his mouth shut and focus on his cricket", which gives you a pretty good flavour of the debate). Similarly, all-time great batsman Mohammad Yousuf hasn't played since he was banned along with a host of other players following the team's disastrous tour of Australia, in which everyone, it appears, fell out with everyone. Another of those banned was former captain Shoaib Malik, who appeared to be a locus of discord for several years.
Indeed, the PCB has frequently been at war with its own players, dropping them, banning them, and sometimes apparently throwing the captaincy around at more or less anyone left standing. With a bit of luck, that era might be behind them now that one of the least talented board chairmen in the history of the game from any country, Ijaz Butt, has retired. With the spot-fixing trial, the tenure of his successor, Zaka Ashraf, couldn't have had a much more stressful start, and it's something of a concern that his main qualification for the job appears to be his closeness to the man who appointed him, PCB patron Asif Ali Zardari, who also happens to be the president of Pakistan. But it's an opportunity to start a new era of improved governance off the field decoupling the PCB from the government would be a good start to go alongside the encouraging performances on it.
The team, fortunately, seems able to absorb almost limitless amounts of off-field incompetence and skullduggery. Not only did they beat Sri Lanka, they did it in a way that owed more to persistence, application and nerve than the traditional Pakistani cricketing stereotype of flashing blades and frustrating inconsistency. Among the top six, only Mohammad Hafeez has a tendency to impetuosity; alongside grafting captain Misbah-ul-Haq and consistently brilliant former captain Younis Khan, Azhar Ali looks a real find at number three, while Taufeeq Umar is finally establishing himself as a solid opener. Misbah's leadership has been impressive as much for what hasn't happened as what has: the usual discord appears to have been absent.
Shorn of the services of Asif and Amir, the astonishing Pakistani fast-bowling conveyor belt keeps churning them out (they're the only South Asian nation to have consistently produced top-quality quicks, including statistically the greatest opening bowling partnership of all time, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis). Alongside the reliable, quietly impressive Umar Gul, during the recent series Junaid Khan emerged as a canny, reliable bowler with some Asif-like qualities, while Aizaz Cheema looks lively, and the extraordinary windmilling flail of arms resembling a cartoon fight that constitutes the bowling action of Pakistan's Sohail Tanvir continues to have the occasional capacity to befuddle the best. They are backed by the only man even close to currently rivalling England's Graeme Swann for the title of world's best spinner, the increasingly impressive Saeed Ajmal.
In other words, the endless production line of freakishly talented Pakistani players continues to draw the sting of everything that happens to the team. That production line is driven by the deep love for the game in the country a love that appears as resistant to the repeated abuse it receives as the team does. Against the backdrop of the London trial, their win in the UAE, against a side ranked above them, represented a heartening refusal to be steamrollered by events beyond their control. It's a quality every Pakistani cricketer needs in abundance.
Pakistan Shows Resilience Amid Turmoil - WSJ.com
