Ahmer Naqvi
The beauty of the maghrib chase
The Sharjah chase took you back to the days of playing street cricket and wanting to complete a game before the sun set
Ahmer Naqvi
23-Jan-2014
One of my favourite memories of cricket involves fielding at midwicket and watching a batsman curse just about every relative our team's players had. The reason he was so upset was that the bowler was wasting time, and this gentleman was getting late for his maghrib prayers.
The maghrib prayer is the fourth of the five daily prayers offered by Muslims and is scheduled right after sunset. It marks the end of the day in the Islamic calendar, which is why important rituals, like breaking the Ramzan fast, take place at this time. Beyond the religious, maghrib also marks the time when people return home from work, when dinner preparations begin, when young children are not allowed to go outside anymore. The call for maghrib prayers also represents the moment when all cricket played on the streets must come to an end.
In a country like Pakistan the advent of maghrib is a distinctly palpable affair. The traffic increases, street lamps flicker on, older men start walking slowly to the mosque, and there is an urgency to end the galli match. The lengthening shadows and rapidly disappearing light make chasing a target at this hour nearly impossible.
Full postAustralia's Ashes win: a blast from the past
The 5-0 result was the ultimate validation of the impulse towards an idealised notion of Australian cricket
Ahmer Naqvi
14-Jan-2014
In general political terminology, the word "radical" is meant to denote someone interested in thorough political change, at the expense of the existing social order. In contrast, a reactionary is one who seeks a return to an earlier, idealised society. Previously these two terms were used as antonyms.
However, it is obvious that some of the most radical political movements these days are essentially reactionary in nature. It is easy to be glib and cite the Taliban and the Tea Party as examples of this phenomenon, but reactionary attitudes are also prevalent in the rise of many other political forces that espouse the value of a society built on tradition while demanding comprehensive and immediate reform in order to achieve it. A facet central to the arguments of such radical reactionary movements is the idea of a loss of identity. Consequently it is repeatedly argued that aggressive measures need to be taken in order to preserve a dwindling sense of identity.
Watching the current Ashes, it was obvious that the Australian media and former players had adopted a "radical reactionary" approach. In the resolutely puritan and remarkably over-the-top outcry over Stuart Broad's (not) walking, and the employment of every masculine adjective imaginable for Mitchell Johnson's bowling, one saw the notion of an ideal that the Australian cricket team was meant to return to.
Full postIs Misbah one of Pakistan's best captains?
If you go by the numbers of wins and individual performances while in charge, he hasn't done too badly
Ahmer Naqvi
31-Dec-2013
When it comes to Pakistani cricket, longevity is automatically a hallmark of greatness when judging captains, since it implies that the leader in question managed to tame the wild forces that rip Pakistani cricket apart long enough to establish some sort of coherent reign.
Two thousand and thirteen marked three years into the captaincy of Misbah-ul-Haq, and thus represents a remarkable achievement in the context of Pakistani cricket. The question now is: where exactly does Misbah rank on the all-time list of Pakistani captains?
Just as it is when we judge any player's importance in cricket, there appear to be two broad ways of looking at a captain's achievements - their personal performances and the track record of their team. Pakistani captains tend to perform much better once they secure the top post, which is, of course, the best way of warding off challenges to their reign. It is a facet visible in most Pakistani captains, and, for me, is best exemplified by Shoaib Malik's figures. A player with a bit of a Machiavellian reputation, his ODI average jumped 11 runs during his stint as captain.
Full postWhy Mitchell Johnson fails the hipster test
He may be all the rage but to a hipster-connoisseur of fast bowling, he's not quite the real deal
Ahmer Naqvi
13-Dec-2013
Over the past few weeks, the cricketing world has been agog at the achievements of Mitchell Johnson in the Ashes. There has already been talk that his performance in two matches merits him being rated the world's best bowler.
In digesting and reacting to this news, I realised that I was a fast-bowling hipster.
At its heart, the whole point of hipsters is not about being counter-culture, but rather laying claim to authenticity. You can't be a hipster if you jumped on a bandwagon or showed up without appreciating what you were there for. A hipster is authentic because an authentic experience means being there before it was cool and marketed. Consequently, while the rest of the world treats fast bowling as a seasonal fad, for Pakistanis it is more like l'bowling rapide pour l'bowling rapide.
Full postTwo more to Pakistan's fast bowling tally
It's too early to anoint Bilawal Bhatti and Anwar Ali as the next big things, but it's great to watch them send stumps flying and batsmen hopping
Ahmer Naqvi
25-Nov-2013
"How many Bhuttos will you murder? Each house shall give birth to one."
This slogan is one of the most popular in Pakistani politics. Part of a poem written by the late Naseer Kavi, it was originally shouted in defiance against the military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq. It was General Zia's coup that deposed the charismatic, polarising prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and it was Zia's regime that orchestrated the trial that led to Bhutto's hanging.
What interests me about this slogan is its premise, namely that Bhutto was an idea, not a person. Consequently, it argued that killing one Bhutto would be futile, since others would be born who would manifest the same idea.
Full postSachin mania: it's about religion
Like saints were revered and worshipped by people of various faiths, Tendulkar transcends differences and brings his devotees closer to the divine
Ahmer Naqvi
16-Nov-2013
Sachin Tendulkar has finally retired. As I type this, there are a fair few letting out sighs of relief, because the sheer hype and hoopla surrounding his farewell Test series has left many feeling distinctly uncomfortable. The cynical nature of the BCCI's scheduling, the hyper-opportunism displayed by politicians and corporations, and the general hysteria of the crowds has left many decrying the spectacle as slightly unnerving.
As a Pakistani, I have been relatively immune to Sachin's appeal for most of my life. It was only in my more mature years that I came to support any Indian players at all. Even then, it was the likes of Rahul Dravid and perhaps Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni whom I admired, rather than Tendulkar.
Yet over the past few days, the backlash against the Sachin celebration has left me intrigued. Why were certain opinion-makers so visibly aghast at the treatment being accorded Sachin? Why were the sights of delirious crowds being countered with stats showing Sachin to be the 29th best batsman of all time?
Full postThe existential dread of the Pakistani fan
Pakistani fans genuinely fear the death of the country's cricket. There are reasons for this
Ahmer Naqvi
01-Nov-2013
Stephen Fry is perhaps the most intellectually admirable person to contribute to the popular sports-fan superstition that sometimes you need to move away from the TV (or whatever you are using to follow the match) because your presence is harming your side's chances. Fry claims to have spent the agonising climax of Edgbaston 2005 hiding out in his backyard for this very reason.
The implication of such beliefs (which can include not moving from your seat, and closely coordinating jinxing rituals over intercontinental phone calls) is that the fate of your team's performance depends on your actions. This is fabulously irrational, but intriguingly it has never been disproven in any clinical trial.
When I woke up on Thursday morning and checked the score (having gone to bed with Pakistan needing 30-odd, with six wickets in hand), I felt as if I had been jackbooted in the nether regions. The reaction to this sort of a Pakistan loss isn't a pain felt in the heart but one felt by the body. Tears, vomit and blood coalesced around my throat in a macabre cocktail.
Full postSlow strangle in the UAE
Pakistan's bowlers have developed a style of attacking but attritional cricket that saps the opposition's strengths, like the heat and aridity of the Middle East do
Ahmer Naqvi
18-Oct-2013
The graveyard of empires, they should call it. Another No. 1 side left wondering how they came to be pulverised so relentlessly in Pakistan's UAE fortress.
In the run-up to the series, Graeme Smith thought England hadn't prepared well enough in 2012, while Paul Harris thought Pakistan didn't take their chances and didn't respond well to falling behind. One Test match later, it's South Africa's preparations and attitude coming under scrutiny.
But perhaps it is time we focus some attention on the "home" team's achievements. Pakistan seem to have developed a UAE slow-strangle strategy, one that is in many ways at odds with the long-running clichés about the team, but which utilises the local conditions to perfection.
Full postLittle England on top
England's best sporting moments have mostly come when they have been cast in the role of the scrapping underdog. That has changed somewhat under Andy Flower, though not much
Ahmer Naqvi
15-Oct-2013
A shanked corner, a defender's assist to the opposing striker, a goalkeeping fumble. Those three touches by Norwich set up Chelsea's second goal in a recent Premier League encounter between the two. Norwich had fought back lion-heartedly from 0-1 down to equalise a while earlier, but once on level terms, they seemed unsure and error-prone, failing to take advantage despite their illustrious opponents looking shell-shocked. Eventually, Chelsea scored with some sucker-punches and plucky Norwich went on to lose 1-3.
In many ways Norwich - the David versus Abramovich's Goliaths - played like the platonic ideal of English football: they were brave, full of effort and running, and dedicated to the cause. They gave blood and sweat, which are often seen as their own form of glory.
Jonathan Wilson's masterly book Inverting the Pyramid has a quote about how English sides are caught in an urge to "constantly recreate Dunkirk". Many football journalists refer to this impulse as the "Little England" mentality - a desire to view oneself as a small, brave team, battling the odds. To my mind, this is a hangover of the post-war period, when the narrative was of a country recovering from a decade of blitz and battering, even though a more accurate way of looking at it was as one of the mightiest empires in history being reduced to rubble. That transformation from a giant empire to a little island seems, in my hugely generalising mind, to work as an inhibition on the psyche of English teams. Often, particularly against good sides, they play valiantly when behind, but seem confused and docile when on top.
Full postAren't Pakistan catching 'em young anymore?
What has happened to Pakistan's celebrated history of throwing barely pubescent youngsters into international cricket?
Ahmer Naqvi
04-Oct-2013
Recently, while looking at another set of Misbah-related arguments on Twitter, it struck me how much older Pakistan's current side is in comparison to the mythical notion of our teams being stocked with teenagers. While trying to think of reasons as to why this might have happened (beyond the claim that Misbah is conspiring to fill the team with people as old as him), I was reminded of Hassan Cheema's notion of the Lost Generation, and of how a tumultuous decade has affected Pakistan.
I wanted to explore this idea further, so I turned to Statsguru. However, given that the only thing I know about statistics is the spelling of the word, I chose a very crude way to try and measure this change: by looking at Pakistani teams from the last seven editions of the Under-19 World Cup, a time in which they won the trophy twice, reached one final and two semi-finals, and were knocked out twice in the second round. I then tabulated how many players from both Pakistan, as well as their opponents' sides, went on to play international cricket. I chose to list the opposition's numbers to help place Pakistan's choices in context.
In the 2000 edition of the tournament, Pakistan were knocked out in the semi-final, and nine players from that team went onto play Test cricket. Almost all of them played in the Test side within a year, save for Yasir Arafat (who took till 2007 to do so) and Hasan Raza (already a Test player at the time). Intriguingly, players like Imran Farhat, Faisal Iqbal and Taufeeq Umar were promoted to the senior side back then, and are still in the reckoning now, despite never having been permanent fixtures in between. The team that knocked them out, Sri Lanka, had seven future internationals, three of them Test players, although only Jehan Mubarak could be said to have established himself somewhat.
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