Indifferent Cricketing

Its been an exciting ten days in the world of Pakistani cricket. Sometimes I just hope for a quiet ten days, where all that happens is a few matches, where the performance is at par, we make a few comments about individual players' roles in the team, and then we move on!

First, Pakistan teased us with winning the first ODI against Sri Lanka. The bowlers, and the batsmen, and even Shoaib Malik at that, teased us with what they were capable of. Exciting strokeplay, tight, incisive bowling and swift and deliberate captaincy. Yet, all that only lasted for the first match. Everything quickly devolved into the disaster which was the third ODI in Lahore, where we were suddenly all out in the 70s, one of Pakistan's lowest scores of all time. How fitting that the Prime Minister had to be there to share in the sorrow of the team and its fans.

For most cricketing boards, a tough and difficult loss to another strong team would have been enough to make headlines for the next week. Not for us. We canned Shoaib Malik, three weeks after renewing his captaincy indefinitely. We brought on Younus Khan who can't seem to make up his mind about whether he actually wants to be captain, or just likes playing one in matches (refer to the prolonged stretches where he seems to be directing on-field strategy with Inzamam before, and Shoaib Malik now). I agree with Osman Samiuddin (CricInfo), that while it is by default, Younus Khan is the captain Pakistan needs at the moment. Seasoned in cricket, a dogged competitor and one who's credentials no one can question.

Shoaib Akhtar continues to play his peek-a-boo with international cricket. After dismal and indifferent performances over the first two matches, he pulled out the injury card for the third ODI, and then we were all promptly informed that he will miss the Sri Lanka tests, and hence will be out for another few months. This injury merry-go-round would be fine if everyone could somehow agree that Shoaib Akhtar is committed to cricket, and committed to playing it without the continuous drama that surrounds his every move on and off the cricketing field. No one can agree on that, or even say that its possible in the near term, and given Shoaib's medical problems, there really is no long-term to his cricketing future. Let him go.

What else? The Champion's Trophy has been taken away, Javed Miandad has quit over money or prestige, either which way because of his own vanity, and Asif has been banned yet again. What had begun a few months ago, with a hope that there would be a new direction to cricket in Pakistan, is now a vision which is uncertain again. With no hope of meaningful cricket at home in the near future, and a leadership which does not appear to have a clear strategy for the game or for the team itself, it appears that for the next few months we will just seem to jolt from crisis to crisis, from uncertainty to uncertainty. It appears that we are all in danger to becoming indifferent to the future of cricket in Pakistan.