On a new pitch, softly

After the cataclysms of the year just gone, Pakistan are still celebrating and berating equally, writes Osman Samiuddin in the Indian Express.

... what else is there in this nation if not cricket, politics and cricket’s politics? Hockey dies anew each year, only to keep people vaguely interested, it does so spectacularly. (“Lost to China? No worries, we’ll lose to Japan this time.”) Squash is less sport, more memory, a glory long gone. (“Isn’t that a drink?” I heard a child say recently). Cricket survives because nothing else did.