Lack of grit and tenacity let our talented team down (26 July 1999)

26 July 1999

Lack of grit and tenacity let our talented team down

Syed Fakhar Imam

A controversy has been raised after the dismal performance by the Pakistan Cricket team at Lord's in the final of the World Cup. Those supporters of the Pakistan team who were expecting a triumph and cannot reconcile to a defeat are creating doubts about the intentions of the players. Their claim is that the team's poor performance is linked to wagering and betting and not to their nerves which made them capitulate to a more professional side on that day.

Pakistan team's strength as could be seen in the earlier matches was its bowling. Shoaib Akhtar gained the unofficial title of the fastest bowler in the world. Waseem Akram showed his prowess as a bowler of guile, skill and tenacity. Abdul Razzaq was the find of the Pakistani team for the World Cup as an all-rounder with commendable talent. Azhar Mahmood alongwith Razzaq will serve Pakistan well as an all-rounder of ability and skill. Saqlain Mushtaq was the fifth bowler considered by many as the leading exponent of off-spin (see extract below) in the world today alongwith Muralidharan of Sri Lanka. Saqlain bowls the delivery that goes the 'other' way without change in action that has brought him several wickets.

This abundance of talent resulted in Waqar Younus, a man considered a match winner few years ago, to be left out alongwith Mushtaq Ahmed, a leg spinner of some repute. So the Pakistan squad was blessed with an abundance of riches as far as the bowling was concerned.

Pakistan's batting was on the other hand very unreliable and some what brittle. In the earlier matches the middle order with the tailenders kept the Pakistan batting afloat. It was performances by Moin Khan, Inzamam, Ejaz Ahmad, Wasim Akram and others that kept the innings going. In the last two matches prior to Lord's it was Saeed Anwer who played two brilliant innings, but unfortunately at Lord's the Pakistani batting succumbed to the Australian bowling.

It was lack of grit, determination, tenacity and courage in our batsmen that was lacking on that fateful day. These batsmen were dismissed in a way that looked like a Greek tragedy. The players were overawed by the occasion and seemed to be out of sorts with the challenge of the day. They completely wilted and allowed out of form Gilchrist to deliver the coup de grace when Australia wound up the proceedings in only 20.1 overs. Even though the performance was abysmal at Lord's, we the supporters and spectators from Pakistan must learn to take defeat in an honourable and a dignified way. Instead of starting a smear campaign against the players and immediately putting them under great pressure for that defeat we should have said that we lost because we played much below our potential and had a bad day.

Our emotions somehow get the better of us and many of us give vent to our feelings by dragging people down and think the worst of our people. We need to have a rational or objective approach to a bad performance. Unfortunately Wasim Akram's speech at Lord's was not very well worded and he should have said that we played badly and congratulated the Aussies for winning the match. Somehow the expectations buildup were so high that we were not able to reconcile with what hampered at Lord's.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (which is no more) needs to appraise and assess the World Cup performance so that we can plan ahead in two different ways (1) To develop a team for Test matches based upon the future tours and home matches (2) To develop a team for one day internationals that has the temperament for crucial matches. The Australians have shown that it is not necessary to carry the same players for the two types of matches.

Pakistan's Cricket has immense potential as can be seen by the way we keep on producing players of quality from all over the country. But as we can see most of them lack formal coaching so that they are not always the best of fielders or runners between the wickets. Lack of elementary skills shows up at the highest level and expose some of the stars in the key matches. Therefore we need to combine the brilliance of individuals with the requirements of the team to get the best performance.

Source :: The Dawn (www.dawn.com)