The instinctiveness of Pakistan

Putting England’s endless injury list to one side for a moment, Mike Atherton concentrates on the Pakistan side and their abundance of talent and flair in today's Sunday Telegraph.

It is always a treat to watch Pakistan play because their players bring an instinctiveness that is increasingly hard to find in a modern game dominated by a uniformity of coaching methods. This is because the game in Pakistan is still largely unstructured, because their players learn to play the game by playing tape ball on any patch of scrub land that can be found.

If that wasn’t a daunting enough prospect for England to contend with, he sounds a further warning of the support Pakistan will receive.

That particular tour [in England, 2001] was played to a backdrop of race riots in Oldham, Burnley and other northern industrial towns. The issue of identity and race is a more complex one than simply a case of being either 'one of us' or 'one of them' and little that has happened in the intervening years suggests that Pakistan will not enjoy the same level of support that they enjoyed then. England's players should brace themselves for a fierce time on and, especially at Headingley and Old Trafford, off the field.