Kamran Abbasi
In praise of low expectations
In the tournament's early years, Pakistan cricket fans viewed the World Cup with fascination but reasonable expectations
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
In the tournament's early years, Pakistan cricket fans viewed the World Cup with fascination but reasonable expectations. Defeat in a semi-final was a minor triumph, as anybody but the West Indies winning the trophy was unimaginable. Those carefree days were banished by two related events. First, India's shock success in 1983 gave everybody else hope and an insight into the unpredictability of limited-overs cricket. Thanks to India's achievement, as well as much political intrigue, the right to host the 1987 World Cup was awarded to India and Pakistan.
When India and Pakistan lined up for their respective semi-finals, on home territory, low expectations had metamorphosed into expectant hysteria. The pressure was too much as co-hosts and co-favourites were defeated by unfancied teams from Australia and England; the cricket world's upstarts put in their place by the founding nations.
The scars of those defeats burned long and deep, especially in Pakistan. India had already bagged their World Cup trophy. Pakistan had become perennial semi-finalists, mere onlookers. Happily, Pakistan quickly satisfied their desires with the iconic victory of 1992, but the disease of expectant hysteria had taken hold, reaching fever pitch at roughly four-year intervals.
Full postEnd of grief
Denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance: the five stages of the grief reaction that Pakistan fans have experienced over the spot-fixing controversy
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance: the five stages of the grief reaction that Pakistan fans have experienced over the spot-fixing controversy. Denial and anger were left behind in the English summer. Bargaining for a better outcome was almost exhausted by the Doha hearing and the criminal case launched by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service. It may continue with an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. But now that we know the ICC's verdict, the predominant sentiments are sadness and acceptance.
Once the News of the World videos and transcripts were released the future looked bleak for Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir. The integrity of cricket had to be protected, and the ICC had to do that by pressing charges. Encouragingly, a healthy proportion of Pakistan fans have shunned knee-jerk defence of their fallen heroes in favour of a desire to ensure that corruption is punished.
Appeals are inevitable. None of the punished cricketers will want to give up their best years in international cricket without a fight. The ICC process has been questioned at regular intervals as if to prepare the ground for such an appeal. And with the ICC tribunal's admission that more flexibility in sentencing would be desirable, the defendants have a hope to cling on to.
Full postDivide, rule, and destroy
Any tinge of happiness at Pakistan's Test series victory over New Zealand is rapidly vanishing courtesy of a farce orchestrated by the Pakistan Cricket Board
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Any tinge of happiness at Pakistan's Test series victory over New Zealand is rapidly vanishing courtesy of a farce orchestrated by the Pakistan Cricket Board. The national team's chances of winning the 2011 World Cup look wobbly enough without more self-inflicted damage.
Invariably, cricket boards know who their first choice captain is, especially so close to a major tournament. Often, the captain has some say in squad selection. While Pakistan's selection process has come to resemble a tin-pot dictatorship, the selection of a captain had not previously been in doubt - even if Shahid Afridi was to be snubbed at the last.
Now Afridi is no longer assured of the captaincy. He has either been too outspoken or too out of form to be named as he should have been. Only the PCB knows what it is playing at. Coach Waqar Younis' justified complaint about this strategy was met with a disciplinary charge. Benign dictatorships can be productive but malevolent ones are destructive.
Full postTest cricket, a wiser priority
Test wins for Pakistan are rare pleasures. The last time they enjoyed two in succession was in 2005, and the wins were five months apart
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Test wins for Pakistan are rare pleasures. The last time they enjoyed two in succession was in 2005, and the wins were five months apart. The last time Pakistan won back to back Tests in a series was against Bangladesh in 2003. Four wins in the last twenty Tests speaks for itself.
Pakistan fans are long-suffering but never patient. Each twist and turn is dissected in microscopic detail. But despite innumerable setbacks, the only event to diminish their passion for cricket has been the demoralising spot-fixing drama of this last year.
Now, out of the wreckage of the scandal, Pakistan's current team has emerged with surprising resilience. A seemingly decimated and dishevelled national squad has produced a creditworthy drawn series against South Africa followed by a rapid destruction of New Zealand in the first Test in Hamilton. Win or lose the final Test, Pakistan will only have lost one of their last four Test series -- and that loss was possibly in the most traumatic series in Pakistan's history.
Full postJustice is best delayed
Pakistan's ex-cricketers are lining up to condemn a delay in the spot-fixing verdict. Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal, Rashid Latif, and Sarfraz Nawaz have all joined the chorus
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Pakistan's ex-cricketers are lining up to condemn a delay in the spot-fixing verdict. Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal, Rashid Latif, and Sarfraz Nawaz have all joined the chorus. Yet they miss the point. It matters little whether or not these players are available for the next World Cup. How important is that tournament when the integrity of cricket and future of cricketers is at stake?
Above all, the verdict that Michael Beloff and his team reach must be a considered one based on the evidence that has been presented to them. They will understandably take some time to digest the events in Doha. At the end of that deliberation the verdict must be one that can be substantiated. Any verdict against the players will inevitably meet with an appeal, most likely against a process which the players and their legal representatives have already muttered about.
On the face of it -- and a behind-closed-doors hearing doesn't present much of a face --punishments can be expected. Salman Butt, in particular, must be dreading a life ban. Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir will be hoping that they have sufficiently distanced themselves from any evidence of corruption. But the ICC is clearly in no mood to allow the players to escape. If any of the players emerges with a career that can be rescued, Pakistan fans should consider that a bonus.
Full postForsaken trio face toughest test
In the middle of last year, three men held the future of Pakistan cricket in their hands. A young captain in command of possibly the most compelling new-ball partnership in world cricket
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
In the middle of last year, three men held the future of Pakistan cricket in their hands. A young captain in command of possibly the most compelling new-ball partnership in world cricket. A triumverate that might save Pakistan cricket from implosion. Instead Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir face calamity. Pakistan cricket is once more on the brink of disgrace.
The three players have responded to adversity in very different ways. Butt has been most vocal with shifting statements of bravado, innocence, and counter accusation. Amir has spoken up too, but generally to extract sympathy for his plight, describing the current proceedings as the toughest test of his career. Meanwhile, Asif has been monkish in his silence. The differences reflect their personalities to some degree but are probably most indicative of the legal advice they have received.
Their cricket board, for its part, after an embarrassment of bluster has virtually abandoned the defendants. Bluster comes easily to Pakistan cricket administrators and politicians, hence this dramatic change, after the intervention of the ICC to improve anti-corruption mechanisms within Pakistan cricket, presents a bleak outlook for Butt and his fellows. The present and future of Pakistan cricket forsaken on a nod, wink, and slap from the ICC.
Full postDark clouds over Pakistan's New Zealand tour
Pakistan approach the tour of New Zealand with two major worries oppressing them. The spot-fixing crisis inquiry is expected to a reach preliminary conclusion in January
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Pakistan approach this year's tour of New Zealand with two major worries oppressing them. The spot-fixing crisis inquiry is expected to a reach preliminary conclusion in January now that Salman Butt's request to postpone the proceedings has been rejected. The result will strike like lightning in the middle of Pakistan's tour, and could trigger a further descent into chaos.
The accused players appear unlikely to quietly accept a lengthy ban or suspension. If that happens, expect the circus to move to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, especially as defence lawyers are already making noises about the ICC process and conflicts of interest.
Uncertainty over three of Pakistan's leading players in addition to the PCB's reluctance to clear Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, and Danish Kaneria for selection has left Pakistan's World Cup plans in disarray. Five of those cricketers would probably have walked straight into the World Cup squad. Their absence has an effect on Pakistan's batting but a greater one on the bowling.
Full postAzhar shines in new middle order
The value of the ICC's Test rankings might be debatable but a quick glance makes one immediate impression: the world of Test cricket is two divisions in one
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
The value of the ICC's Test rankings might be debatable but a quick glance makes one immediate impression: the world of Test cricket is two divisions in one. Pakistan are in the second tier, an unhealthy distance adrift of Australia who prop up the top teams. That Pakistan haven't hit the bottom of the pile, however, is a wonder in itself. Even in the severest adversity, mostly self-afflicted, Pakistan have been able to pull off a surprise win or commendable draw.
The South Africa series is a case in point. Despite the loss of leading players, the one-day series was a thriller right up to the moment that Zulqarnain Haider fled to England. The deciding match was a disappointment but Pakistan's nerves were clearly frazzled by the sudden controversy. In that context, and compounded by injuries to Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Yousuf, Pakistan looked set for an absolute battering in the Test series.
Typically, expectation and reality were distant cousins. Much to everybody's surprise Pakistan batted with grit, sound technique, and occasional aggression. It was a method that hadn't been exhibited by Pakistan for quite some time. What prompted it is unclear? But a drawn series in Dubai and Abu Dhabi was a minor triumph for Pakistan cricket, although both teams were more defensive in the Test series than they needed to be.
Full postZulqarnain Haider's troubled mind
A week that promised to deliver the right kind of headlines for Pakistan cricket has once more deepened everybody's sense of bewilderment
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
A week that promised to deliver the right kind of headlines for Pakistan cricket has once more deepened everybody's sense of bewilderment. Zulqarnain Haider's covert escape from the international squad and his arrival in England has quickly banished the euphoria of two nail-biting victories over South Africa.
What drove Zulqarnain to this extreme measure isn't entirely clear but he is certainly a troubled young man. Threats to Pakistan cricketers are not new, and at the very least Zulqarnain's act will help people outside Pakistan understand some of the pressures that he and his colleagues uniquely face. Pakistan cricketers, like other human beings, aren't born corrupt. They are products, even victims, of their peculiar environment.
Experienced voices in Pakistan are already condemning Zulqarnain's behaviour. He should have turned back to Pakistan and his cricket board in the first instance, they say. Perhaps so. But it is equally understandable that he might feel unable to trust the current malfunctioning cricket board, despite the ICC task force's rather hasty announcement of the PCB's wonderful progress in combating corruption. Naturally, he would feel safer in exposing his concerns in England than in Pakistan, or even Dubai.
Full postRazzler dazzles Pakistan back to life
Pakistan fans have been feeling like punching bags, taking one heavy blow after another
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Pakistan fans have been feeling like punching bags, taking one heavy blow after another. A few have even revoked their support of the national team, although true fans wouldn't do that, would they? Admittedly it has been hard mustering enthusiasm for Pakistan's cricket and its cricketers. Shorn of its best bowlers, depleted of batsmen of any substance, and betrayed by butter-fingered fielders, the Pakistan cricket team has cut a pathetic figure across the globe. A previously uplifting pursuit, replaced by the upper-cuts received by a punching bag.
Enter Abdul 'Razzler' Razzaq, a prime specimen in the tragedy of Pakistan cricket, a player of rare ability and a victim of wanton neglect. Razzler's thunderous century against South Africa in Abu Dhabi came at a moment when even the most hardened supporters had begun to despair. Was there anything of merit or joy in the current Pakistan team?
In 2006, I watched a Pakistan practice session in London. Bob Woolmer was beginning to grapple with the technical issues in Kamran Akmal's glovework. Waqar Younis was overseeing the endeavours of the pace bowlers. Eventually Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq emerged, side by side in the practice nets. What followed was not entirely professional although it was great viewing. Afridi annd Razzaq embarked on a spontaneous competition to smite the bowlers as far as possible. My money was on Afridi but the Razzler won by a clear distance. On form, no ground can hold his power and we were reminded yesterday of his rare ability to hit far, hard, and handsome wherever the ball lands.
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