Kamran Abbasi
Crushed but not broken
Defeat hurts. You feel hollow and broken. You have been let down, misled. Your expectations falsely raised, your dreams dashed
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Defeat hurts. You feel hollow and broken. You have been let down, misled. Your expectations falsely raised, your dreams dashed. It might be your favourite cricket team, your beloved football club, or your star tennis player. It doesn't matter how many times it happens. A true supporter is crushed, snapped in two. Today it is Pakistan cricket fans. By Saturday night we will be joined by Indians or Sri Lankans. You anticipate that this time you will be better prepared, more resilient. When defeat strikes, you realise you are just as devastated as the first time.
The immediate aftermath, those dark moments, are no time for analysis. No time to relive those pantomime dropped catches or your star bowler's transformation into a gibbering wreck. No time to reconcile the number of lives your team gifted the greatest batsman of his age as he played as woefully as anybody can remember.
No time to consider what makes a man lash a wide half volley to cover point for catching practice or swish a stupid Dilscoop when the bowlers were at his mercy. No time either to understand why a gifted young player would square cut a straight ball from a part-time bowler only to miss it. You probably wouldn't want to dwell on two ex-captains, your most experienced players, batting like debutants -- in the wrong format.
Full postWho will seize the day?
When twenty-two men face off in the Punjab, hundreds of millions of Indians and Pakistanis around the world will turn their attention to a sport born in England
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Expectant hysteria is reaching a climax. When twenty-two men face off in the Punjab, hundreds of millions of Indians and Pakistanis around the world will turn their attention to a sport born in England but loved with a mad passion in South Asia. Does anybody doubt this is cricket's greatest rivalry? The tension of this moment is intense, and it has spawned daft predictions of India's defeat based on numerology and irrational fears about Pakistan's use of a 'kala pathar' during net sessions.
The test the Indians and Pakistanis face, however, is not simply confined to sport. It is an examination of our maturity, tolerance, and perspective. This is the World Cup semi-final, perhaps the one-day game of greatest import that these nations have contested, fuelled by years of acrimony, atrocities, and politicking. Some of us have already failed the test, but this semi-final is an opportunity to show that sport can unite and ennoble despite a bitter history.
The players themselves have set the best example, enjoying cordial relationships even though the baggage of jingoistic expectations is their constant burden. These are the same cordial relationships and deep friendships enjoyed by Indians and Pakistanis in all walks of life all around the world. Sadly, the pressure cooker environment of South Asia too easily strips us of our maturity, tolerance, and perspective.
Full postIndia v Pakistan in World Cups: A historical pseudo-analysis
A look back at how India and Pakistan have fared in World Cups, and who has the better record going into the 2011 tournament
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
1975
One-day cricket was new, so new that Sunil Gavaskar played for a draw in the first ever World Cup match (he scored 36 not out off 174 balls). The South Asian giants didn't progress to the semi-finals, only managing wins against minnows Sri Lanka and East Africa. Pakistan's defeat from the jaws of victory against eventual winners West Indies was the high point for either nation. At that moment, one-day cricket and South Asia seemed ill-suited to each other. Pakistan had the better tournament but not by enough to gain a clear early advantage.
India 1 Pakistan 1
1979
India still hadn't got the hang of one-day cricket, managing to lose all three matches and finish bottom of their group thanks to a defeat to Sri Lanka, who were still considered minnows then. Pakistan fared better, reaching a semi-final against West Indies that they threatened to win until Viv Richards ripped out the middle order with three wickets.
Full postThe joy of discipline
Load shedding has been put on hold -- for a day. Pakistan simply won a World Cup quarter-final, what's the fuss?
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
"Keep your feet on the ground," pleads Imran Khan, "we haven't won anything yet." Celebratory gunshots are ringing out across Pakistan, fireworks and firecrackers are exploding into the night air. Load shedding has been put on hold -- for a day. Pakistan simply won a World Cup quarter-final, what's the fuss?
Cricket has a special power in South Asia. We see it in the exuberance of Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans, in the passion of Indians and Pakistanis. Cricket, a mere sport, has the magic ingredients to make hundreds of millions of people happy, bring a little joy to harsh and unforgiving lives, unite rich and poor, and rip asunder the walls between castes and religions.
And so it is in Pakistan, and among Pakistan fans, that the illness of expectant hysteria has taken hold. A World Cup win is elevated from possibility to formality. Shahid Afridi, the 'Idiot' King, reincarnated as a lightning rod for two hundred million expectant hearts, a captain of ambitions; Pakistan's downward spiral of gloom broken by the uplifting derring-do of Afridi and his foreign legion.
Full postProgress is a bonus
A wonder of this World Cup is that all the expected teams have qualified for the knock-out stage but the tournament has still been thoroughly exciting
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
A wonder of this World Cup is that all the expected teams have qualified for the knock-out stage but the tournament has still been thoroughly exciting. The so-called minnows must take great credit for ensuring that the first phase was competitive. Now, the remaining nations are close enough together in ability to ensure that this is the most open World Cup since 1999. Hence both Pakistan and West Indies will believe that with some luck the trophy is within grasp.
Of the two, Pakistan have had the better tournament, registering wins over Sri Lanka and Australia while the West Indies are yet to bring down a major power. That probably doesn't count for much except it is better for a team to be running into form at this stage rather than struggling to find or retain it. As a result West Indies don't seem entirely sure about their best combination or strategy, and are yet to put together a meaningful run.
On that basis, Pakistan will start as favourites in their quarter-final clash in Mirpur. Not that they should see that as a burden. Pakistan entered this competition with low expectations, and their performances have already exceeded those downbeat predictions. Anything the players achieve from here on in is a bonus. The mere fact that Pakistan have become serious challengers is a minor triumph.
Full postStorm in an idiot cup
Pakistan end Australia's unbeaten World Cup record and Shahid Afridi, the winning captain, is an idiot? Excuse me, is that news?
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Pakistan end Australia's unbeaten World Cup record and Shahid Afridi, the winning captain, is an idiot? Excuse me, is that news? Afridi's stupidity is well documented. This is ball-biting pitch-dancing cow-cornering Shahid Afridi we are discussing, isn't it?
Ever since his debut in 1996, Afridi's batting performances have been desperate attempts to suppress the madness of King Shahid. This mental anguish is mostly futile but invariably compulsive viewing. That's why cricket fans around the world love Afridi, whatever Ian Chappell has to say about his irresponsibility or his self-obsessed starman celebration.
Pakistan might crash against West Indies, and then Chappell can reprise his words around the globe and into a billion homes, but that will not change three salient facts.
Full postPakistan's Australian sandwich
The last time Australia lost a World Cup match, Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar both played. It was a dramatic May day in Leeds
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
The last time Australia lost a World Cup match, Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar both played. It was a dramatic May day in Leeds, when Pakistan fans owned Headingley with their flags and claxons, the kind of occasion that inspired the ECB that a neutral Test series involving Pakistan was bound to succeed. How wrong that proved to be, with last summer's experiment making embarrassing losses.
Equally wrong was everyone who gloated over Australia's demise after such a thrilling defeat. Steven Waugh looked pained, almost broken, as he acknowledged his team would need to win an improbable seven matches in a row to win World Cup 1999. That hurt sparked an undefeated run in World Cup cricket spanning four tournaments, three decades, three trophies, and two millennia.
Wins over Australia and New Zealand in 1999 were Pakistan's champagne moments, the last time they thrilled at a World Cup. It was less of a thrill for Waqar Younis, Pakistan's current coach. I remember looking across the balcony that separates the press box from the players' dressing rooms at Headingley and seeing Waqar looking on wistfully as his fellows completed a dramatic victory.
Full postA cringe at the death
Pakistan's serene progress to the World Cup quarter finals suddenly became a shambles in the final ten overs of the New Zealand innings
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Pakistan's serene progress to the World Cup quarter finals suddenly became a shambles in the final ten overs of the New Zealand innings. The Kiwi batsmen were powerful and clinical but Pakistan's death bowling was dreadful, probably the worst I've ever seen from an attack renowned for excelling in this period of an innings. Waqar Younis, who was a master at the death, must have been cringing.
Despite Pakistan's control for the first 40 overs, there were signs of trouble. The fielding was sloppier than it has been in this tournament, and Kamran Akmal set the tone with a resounding return to dreadful form. By missing at least three chances, two of them sitters, he presented Ross Taylor with welcome birthday gifts and Pakistan fans with an unwelcome reminder of the bad old days.
Paradoxically, Taylor may have helped Pakistan by exposing the current weaknesses in their strategy, which have been happily glossed over by three early victories. Apart from focusing attention on Kamran Akmal's wicket keeping, Taylor strengthened arguments that Pakistan are a bowler light in their selection, and this is where the loss of Mohammad Aamer is being felt.
Full postSurprise but no shocks enliven Pakistan's progress
Until the turn of this century qualifying from the first stage of a World Cup had become a formality for Pakistan
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Until the turn of this century qualifying from the first stage of a World Cup had become a formality for Pakistan. One-day cricket was a successful specialism for Pakistan's cricketers. That same minimum standard was expected in 2003 when Waqar Younis, the current coach, captained his country in South Africa. A listless, over-the-hill team crashed out of the group stages. Redemption was expected in 2007 under the dogged captaincy of Inzamam-ul Haq but nobody could have predicted the climactic events that followed.
Now Pakistan have all but qualified for the second stage of a World Cup tournament for the first time this century, a remarkable statistic. In typical Pakistani fashion, Shahid Afridi's team has progressed rapidly when it might have been expected to falter. We know Pakistan cricket has been an enigma, and it remains one today. One minute we are surprised by the team's apparent consistency, the next shocked that it is stumbling against Canada, rekindling terrible memories of the 2007 decider against Ireland.
Yet this eternal drama never ceases to fascinate. Why would it? Pakistan's cricketers are capable of swinging from exhilarating panache to laughable amateurism in a matter of moments. Canada brought out the worst in the batsmen but the best in the bowlers, although the performance did produce consolation on three fronts.
Full postAmbition demands an extra bowler
Pakistan, like all the major teams, have three banana skins to avoid to ensure qualification and they neatly sidestepped the first one
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Pakistan, like all the major teams, have three banana skins to avoid to ensure qualification and they neatly sidestepped the first one. In their last two one-day series Pakistan have rallied well and developed a consistency about their cricket, which was continued at the cavernous Hambantota stadium.
The surfaces in the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand managed to replicate South Asian conditions, a factor that has helped ensure that Pakistan's players are decently prepared. Familiar conditions help mask the vulnerabilities in Pakistan's batting order, allowing the bowlers to make a decisive impact. And it is on that point that Pakistan face something of a dilemma.
The current selection, with batting in depth, is a healthy insurance policy for disaster against a minor nation but less suited to winning the trophy. The extra batsman is probably unnecessary. As the tournament progresses, the better teams will eye up an opening attack of Shoaib Akhtar (past his best) and Abdul Razzaq (short of pace) and lick their lips for a twenty-over run spree. Shahid Afridi might then turn to Mohammad Hafeez but the reaction in the opposition will be further salivation.
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