Season Review: The plague of self doubt

A good cricket team, very generally speaking, is a team that plays the basics of the game well, wins well in conditions that suits it, and doesn’t disgrace it self when faced with different ones. Under Bob Woolmer and Inzamam collectively, Pakistan have showed, at least at times and in bits and parts that it can fulfill this definition of a good team.

Pakistan victories under them have often had a very similar, never-say-die feel. Under them, Pakistan have developed the quality to fight back, to perform against the odds and under pressure. As a matter of fact it was only during the recent series against England did Pakistan first win a first test of a series.

Otherwise in previous outings under Booby, against Sri Lanka at home, against India and West Indies away, Pakistan each time fought back to come from behind to level the series after losing a previous test, often quite comprehensively. Many theories went around speculating on the reasons for this bizarre habit of Pakistan’s, of performing well only after they’d done poorly first.

Some experts implied it was simply the product of Pakistan being a young, emerging side, still very much in rebuilding mood, learning to play in a new era, a post-Wasim, post-Waqar, post-Saeed Anwer, post-many-legends-in-the-same-team era, under a new coach and his news ways.

Others were less kind; putting it down to simply to complacency and an overtly laid back, unprofessional attitude of not taking things seriously enough, until they got really desperate. Being the optimistic fan that am, I often tended to side with the former line of thought, relatively happy to think of it as a bit of an interlude, something that we’ll hopefully get over with in time.

And we seemed to have done exactly that. The series win against England was special. Ashes hangover or not, Pakistan out played a side that was considered by some to be at that time the best in the world. That win, brought with it praise, most of it very well deserved, but what it did, at the same time, was take Pakistan into an unknown territory. A territory where their fans, followers, and many on-lookers, more importantly, suddenly started taking them seriously, in other words expectations rose.

This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it probably all happened too quickly for Pakistan. From being ear marked to be the next victims of England’s quest for world domination, all of a sudden we’re deemed one of the big three, along side India and England, as a side that could, in the long term, give Australia a fight for their World Champion status. It was a sudden change, and the Pakistan team, it seemed, wasn’t quite sure how to react.

When the series against India kick started with two laborious draws on dead pan wickets that might have only produced results in timeless tests, it confirmed Pakistan’s sense of anxiety. It wasn’t necessarily self-doubt one might argue, more like a fear of the unknown.

It was as if Pakistan knew they were good, but just didn’t quite know how good. These kinds of pitches were a direct result of this very sense of insecurity. Here in started the blame game, everyone from the groundsman, to the captain, to the coach, to the cricket board; even the poor old weather wasn’t spared, perhaps sighting the fact that mother nature would be the only entity in the blame game that was incapable of passing on the buck to some one else.

No one was prepared to take responsibility for the pitches, the level of hysteria that was showcased during this was one of the uglier sides of Pakistan Cricket. It was partly like going over the ugly whinging over pitches in India’s last tour here all over again. Many things have changed in the way cricket is administrated in this country, we have better facilities now, more professionalism, less politics, attitudes have changed within the parts of the PCB hierarchy, but some things never change.

Bring in a situation like this and for all the progress we’ve made, the response will be just as idiosyncratic, nearly always you’ll end up with the infamous ‘who should have the final say in the pitch?’ discussion. The coach, the captain, the board, the groundsman, whosever’s fault it was, it clearly showed that Pakistan was a circumspect side, happier to try and hope for a win, rather then actually push for one.

If you were in unsympathetic mood, you could easily twist the words around and say Pakistan were scared of losing, and this was precisely what the world said in the aftermath of the first two tests. Pakistan, perhaps taking this as a personal affront, produced a performance in Karachi that once again, made people sit up and notice.

From 0-3 to 36-6 on the first morning to end up winning before stumps on the fourth day, which ever way you see it, this was a come-back of sorts. Once again, it was a win that had the same Woolmer character to it; an Inzi-less side, facing the backlash of its press and the fans, and in all sorts of trouble, yet despite all this, some how, through a series of magic performances by Akmal and Asif, almost out of nowhere, there it was: a win, a series win, another series win.

But again, just when I felt this was good time to address pressing issues, to look at that problem of insecurity and self doubt, the celebrations over took, before long, the one-day series started. And now, four games on, as Pakistan have lost that one-day series, inevitably, that same problem of insecurity has come to haunt Pakistan.

No, I’m not about to say Pakistan have become an incompetent team over night, one series loss, and that too a one-day series loss, can hardly be deemed a major set back. But it is high time to look back at how Pakistan have done in this home season, both against India and England, and reflect on how one underlying problem has prevented further success.

Yes, it is partly harsh that I should use this tone to assess our performances, given we have, everything said and done, still managed two commendable test series wins against two very strong sides. But it’s the manner of some of the losses, and more then the losses them selves, which to be fair have been few, it is the tactics employed, the body language exhibited, the statement of intent spelled out that is worth questioning.

Questions must always be asked. That’s how good sides become great sides, by striving for perfection. Pakistan have been slow to do this. We must know why the team management continues to feel so overwhelming unsure of the capabilities of its younger batsmen that it keeps on feeding them with one feather bed after another.

Does it think this will make them any better at batting in conducive conditions for bowling? How long can one allow Inzamam the liberty of being unacceptably tactically naïve just because he is such a supremely good batsman, and leads from the front, mostly, by way of scoring lots of runs?

How long can Danish Kaneria be kept away from the one-day side? How long before, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf start getting runs in non-batting friendly conditions? How long before Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq develop another mode of batting other then all or nothing?

How long before the likes of Rana and Sami translate their promise into wickets at the test level? How long before Shoaib Akhtar actually plays a full season of cricket without being injured mid way through? How long till the fielding and running between the wickets comes at par with the international standards?

How long? Is it realistic to keep on expecting the individual brilliance of a few to come to the rescue of the relative mediocrity of the rest all the time? This might have worked at home, but when Pakistan travel to Sri Lanka, and more importantly later in the year to England, will these policies pay off? All these are questions that must be answered.

The best sides in world cricket are constantly looking to improve, Pakistan must also. It must not be content that they have beaten India and England on home soil; it must start, sooner rather then later, to look to exceed beyond just being a good side or an occasional good side.

And the first step towards this must be to get rid of the self doubt and insecurity that plagues them and start believing in them selves. Time has come for the ‘safety first’ approach that has been unconditionally adopted in recent times to be shed, time to stop protecting our weaknesses at the expense of not trying to exploit our strengths. It is time to move ahead.