It is slightly hard to make a judgement about Pakistan's World Cup squad. The rumours and whispers heard in the lead-up to the announcement led many to expect the worst, and so the final 15 largely prompted a lot of relief. But have Pakistan picked their best possible squad, or one with the best chance of winning the tournament? The answer is inconclusive at best and a flat "no" at worst.

The exclusion of Fawad Alam was perhaps the most controversial call, although it was cushioned slightly by Haris Sohail and Umar Akmal making the squad. Like Fawad , these two are busy ODI players, who play at a decent tempo and are used to rotating the strike. But the logic, or rather lack thereof, for Fawad's exclusion was more worrisome - it is one thing to drop a man averaging almost 70 for the year, but quite another to attempt to justify it with perceptions of his physique and style rather than the stunning stats he achieves.

Beyond Fawad's patently unfair exclusion, it was also a relief to see Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal not making their way into the side. A look at their recent numbers would have made this an obvious decision. Yet both players were pulling strings across the media to make their case, and actually seemed to be seriously considered. Their not making the side was a pro to chalk up against the con of dropping Fawad.

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Was it right to play the fourth ODI?

Why there really is no point in the PCB trying to get international cricket back to Pakistan

Ahmer Naqvi

18-Dec-2014

On Tuesday the 16th of December, a city that has seen almost a decade of unending, unceasing violence saw an attack so barbaric that it shook the entire world. On Wednesday the 17th of December, players from Pakistan, including those from that city, took to the field for the fourth ODI against New Zealand in the UAE.

There was a certain logic for going ahead with the match. Resuming sporting events and other facets of a "normal routine" is meant to show that the terrorists haven't won or scared people from going on with their lives.

However, Pakistan is not an ordinary country where terrorist attacks are rare, unforgettable shocks. This is a country in the midst of a decade-long civil war that has seen horrific attacks so regularly that terror has become normalised. From a political and military perspective, the aftermath of the attack saw an unprecedented acknowledgement that this last assault marked the drawing of a line in the sand. A protracted anti-government movement was called off and a moratorium on death sentences for militants on death row specifically revoked. Regardless of the merits of these decisions, they showcased the fact that there was a broad consensus about dealing with Peshawar differently.

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A song called Younis

For a country torn by internal strife, he offers hope with his magnanimity, humility and cheerful disposition

Ahmer Naqvi

27-Nov-2014

A few years ago, the popular Pakistani singer Sajjad Ali was asked why he had never released a "patriotic" song, an essential part of every local pop musician's repertoire. With a sly smile, Sajjad replied that he had released a few songs that he certainly felt were patriotic. The audience laughed at the inside joke, since Sajjad was making a reference to his song "Chief Saab". Ostensibly, the song uses typical Karachi slang to call out a bully, yet this song came out when Karachi was in the midst of essentially a civil war, and "Chief Saab" referred to a very powerful and dangerous man. The song was courting death.

Yet despite the fact that such foolhardy provocation is an essential aspect of his persona, Pakistan celebrates Sajjad for his remarkable versatility, his astonishing longevity, his grasp of the hopes and dreams of ordinary Pakistanis, and his ever-present smile. Last week, a fortuitous change of channels meant that I went from a Sajjad Ali song to a Younis Khan innings, and the similarity between these great men had me floored.

For a man Michael Clarke recently called "a true gentleman of the game", Younis certainly has his share of crazy. His "Chief Saab moment" came during the 2005 tour of India, when a PCB official told him after a bad match that his career was khalaas - finished. Younis smacked a century in his next innings, jabbed a defiant fist at the dressing room before rubbing his palms in a gesture whose meaning everyone understood: khalaas.

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In praise of those who don't set the pulse racing

Pakistan cricket has largely been about celebrating the winners, the mercurial, the flamboyant, but its current success has been built on players who are largely the opposite

Ahmer Naqvi

08-Nov-2014

A few years ago, sparked by a popular columnist, the Pakistani internet saw a wave of old images being shared online that gave an alternative view of what we perceive Pakistan to be. Karachi was a recurring subject in these pictures: its famed nightlife, its cabaret dancers, its swing bands and its splendidly attired citizens.

One thing that the pictures don't evoke is the ridiculously inequitable and unjust nature of that era, the beginning of the end of which was marked by a civil war that left the country partitioned in 1971. Since then, every decade has seen a new set of rulers proclaim a Year Zero of sorts, where they blame the previous guys for all the current problems. Each time, we reinvent and reimagine Pakistan, and each time these new rulers swiftly rise to the top before falling down, ten or so years later.

Each time, the vast populations who suffer from these chaotic swings are forgotten. There is no memory of those who lose their lives and livelihoods when those at the top decide everything needs to change. Love them or loathe them, those at the top end up being celebrated and remembered, but what of those who were lost and left behind?

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The thing about Australia's superiority to Pakistan

The numbers are all in Australia's favour but the fact that they haven't played in Pakistan for 16 years weighs against them

Ahmer Naqvi

22-Oct-2014

The first time in my life I heard an adult use serious curse words was also one of the most momentous occasions in cricket history. The adult in question was Sir Asif, a legendary maths teacher at school, who was a tall, intimidating man with razor-sharp wit. That day, his was the final class we had and I was desperate to go home and find out about what was going to be an epic win for Pakistan. Instead, as we filed in for class, Sir Asif, who had a small radio pressed against his ear, let out a stream of bloodcurdling invective. In between, he revealed that the crooked Australian umpire had cheated and given Justin Langer a reprieve, allowing Australia to chase down an eye-watering target of 369.

That Australia side then embarked on the first of its record-breaking consecutive win sequences that established it as one of the greatest teams of all time. It would be nearly 11 years before Pakistan would win a Test match against them, to add to the four since the previous win. Today, as the two teams line up for a two-match series, an entire generation has grown up that has seen Australia ruthlessly pummel Pakistan in Test cricket.

And yet, it could all have been so different. Had Australia played any tours in Pakistan since that 1999 series, we might not have seen the lopsided scores that have come to characterise the encounters between the teams.

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Confessions of a Pakistan fan-turned-cynic

It is time we accept that the team is a lesser force now, and will be. Highs are momentary, enveloped by a sense of hopelessness

Ahmer Naqvi

09-Oct-2014

I did this last in 2008, and it is not something I am proud of.

In a time where we have an overload of constant information and infinite perspectives, there is a tendency amongst us to cling to what we know, to what we are comfortable with. Perhaps no contemporary emotion is as pervasive, at least to me, as cynicism - a retreat into pulling everything down. Cynicism and despair come across as the fear of those who wish to pretend they are able to understand what they can't. Hope, sincerity, love - those are brave emotions to aim for, because they are instinctively mistrusted, and believed to be naïve and foolish.

So back to 2008, when while watching Pakistan succumb to what would be their heaviest defeat to India in all one-day matches until then, I wrote: "I'm too young to be an old fogey living in the past… but the future feels uninhabitable at this rate." My first reaction when I revisited this post yesterday was to laugh. Some of the greatest moments I would associate with the game, particularly the 2009 World T20 win, were right around the corner. And yet, I also laughed because I was eerily prescient. Six years later, Pakistan cricket has unarguably gone through its worst period ever. I don't wish to recount the list of the disasters of this era - you know it by now.

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Four Pakistan women to watch in the Asian Games

As Pakistan look to defend their title in Incheon, we look at two bowlers and two batsmen who could be crucial to their campaign

Ahmer Naqvi

22-Sep-2014

This week, the Pakistan Women's cricket team left for Incheon to defend the title that has come to define the modern history of women's cricket in the country. The gold medal in the Asian Games had come in the midst of devastating floods in the country as well as the trauma of the spot-fixing scandal. Consequently, it allowed the women's national team to get a rare moment in the spotlight.

Unfortunately, the team has dropped off the national consciousness since then. Those of us with a passing interest were disappointed to find out that the team had been whitewashed in its recent tour of Australia, in both the T20s and the ODIs.

Yet in a country as cricket-mad as Pakistan, women's cricket suffers from being held up to unrealistic expectations. The origins of women's cricket in Pakistan are fairly recent and have involved equal measures of unprecedented sacrifice and effort as well as disastrous administrative battles. It still hasn't been ten years since the PCB officially took over the team and despite four years since the Asian Games medal, the squad has not been provided the women's-team-only stadium and training facilities promised then. Moreover, the lack of international cricket has hit the women even more than the men. The UAE is not a regular fixture as yet, and the team has to face long spells without any international or domestic duties.

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All hail the new, macho Fawad Alam

He had phenomenal numbers before he sprouted luxuriant facial hair, but it seems Pakistanis have started to take him seriously only now

Ahmer Naqvi

27-Aug-2014

One of the less celebrated aspects of Will Ferrell movies is the lampooning of ideas of masculinity. The characters he plays are often large, simple alpha males struggling to come to terms with a world where their conventional brawn and bluster are not of much use, and where they have to come to terms with navigating those curious things called feelings.

Yet in a time where very few men have to go out to hunt for their family's dinner, idealised versions of masculinity aren't quite dead. The recent trend of full beards becoming fashionable could perhaps be a way of reclaiming an idealised notion in a society where ideas of gender are constantly being shown up.

I should know. A combination of a round face, baby fat that was actually just normal fat, and a chin weaker than India's batting in away conditions, all meant that the ability to grow some hair to cover and contour my face was a much-awaited relief. The presence of a beard in this day and age is a way of fooling people into crediting you with attributes you don't necessarily possess, but the presence of which might help them take you more seriously.

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Is Pakistan's slow approach now holding them back?

Under Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan have had a lot of success when they have batted for time and strangled teams with spin. But they may need a different tactic now

Ahmer Naqvi

12-Aug-2014

There comes a time when every pioneer is forced to confront the very changes they unleashed turning against them. Historians repeat tales of wise rulers who made much-needed reforms only to see those undermine their own power.

On Sunday evening, after Sri Lanka narrowly beat the rain gods, (they had defeated Pakistan much earlier) the post-mortem of the defeat focused on Pakistan's negative approach in the third innings. While I was among those bemoaning the drip-torture run rate, it is slightly churlish to blame this tactic. After all, batting for time rather than runs, and bowling tight and forcing mistakes, has always been the approach under Misbah-ul-Haq.

When he began, Misbah's strategy was mostly a result of necessity rather than design. The task ahead of him was the toughest faced by a Pakistan captain since Abdul Hafeez Kardar. Misbah's team was already in international exile and had just been rocked by the game's biggest scandal, losing its two best bowlers. His batsmen were young and callow, while his bowling spearhead was an ageing spinner. To take the team from there to the world's No. 3-ranked side in Tests is a remarkable achievement. Most importantly, it came in the face of widespread derision from a country obsessed with playing a certain attacking style. Misbah's defensive approach helped Pakistan rebuild and punch above their weight despite the chaos all around them.

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