[nightprowler10]

Here I sit in front of the TV, watching the burning Marriott building in Islamabad. Nothing at this point seems to want to cheer me up, not even the prospect of watching my favorite band after almost a decade’s wait. The rising death toll is horrifying, yet I sit on the couch almost emotionless. Why? Because I’m used to this. We all are. What drags me down further is that the one distraction that used to take our minds off this sickening reality barely exists anymore. I am of course referring to the state of cricket in Pakistan.

With the postponement of the Champions Trophy until next year and Australia’s delayed tour that is unlikely to happen anytime soon, the immediate future of cricket in Pakistan looks rather bleak. Now we can blame the latter part of my statement on political turmoil in the country, but would things have been so much better if Pakistan had a stable government and no threats of terrorism? It’s a bit more debatable than you would think.

2005 was a great year to be a cricket fan. We had great contests in the Ashes, some very competitive limited overs matches; Bangladesh even put one over the Aussies. It was equally a great time to be a Pakistani fan. Obviously not much tops an Ashes win, but Pakistani fans had their fair share of excitement, the fine variety at this point in time. After receiving a drubbing in Australia early in the year, we went on to tie up the Test series in India and West Indies, the latter being a more disappointing result, though we took both ODI series. Things started looking great when Pakistan were able to put one over the post-Ashes England, who were still high on their success. We saw a rejuvenated Inzamam and Shoaib Akhtar and the beginnings of an incredible run of flawless batting form from Mohammad Yousuf, shortly after his conversion to Islam.

The high point for Pakistanis arrived in Karachi against India early in 2006. After two boring draws that included several centuries scored on flat tracks, Kamran Akmal, in the absence of Inzamam-Ul-Haq, delivered a masterpiece in the first innings that rallied the team to an emphatic win. This is the match that saw Asif deliver for Pakistan for the first time ever with Shoaib steaming in from the other end. Pakistan’s second inning saw an array of good scores from every one who batted, including a century from Faisal Iqbal. The match was an important one in Pakistan cricket’s recent history as it showed us just what our team was capable of and that our youngsters had a lot of promise. Despite an ODI series loss against India, Pakistan was able top things off with a series win in Sri Lanka in both formats, with Asif once again showing his worth. This peak unfortunately marked the beginning of our downfall.

It all started with a row of injuries preceding the tour to England with Asif, Akhtar and Rana Naved out of commission for most of the tour. A mediocre bowling attack failed to bowl England out most days and despite Yousuf’s stellar batting form, Pakistan sunk to 2-0 in the series with one Test to go. In the infamous fourth Oval Test match, Pakistan were finally on top for the first time in the series with Asif’s return, but the team was accused of ball tampering by the on-field umpire Darrell Hair. We all know how all of this panned out so I won’t dwell on it, but the effect this chaos had on the team morale was long term. Alas, this was only the beginning as barely any tournament from here on went without controversy or injury. Just a few weeks later Pakistan’s two best bowlers, Asif and Akhtar, tested positive for a banned substance. Although they were let off on a technicality, the team morale still sunk lower with an early exit out of the Champions Trophy.

Pakistan then embarked on to the 2007 World Cup with Akhtar and Asif still “injured”. If the humiliating defeat against Ireland that saw us knocked out of the WC wasn’t enough, coach Bob Woolmer’s untimely death would certainly do the job of dragging us deeper into the pits of despair. Inzamam’s forced retirement from all formats of the game amidst a series loss to South Africa at home served as the final nail in the coffin for Pakistan. A series loss against India, though thoroughly damaging to Pakistan’s rankings, was the last time Pakistani players saw any action in the Test arena. Thanks in part to the postponement of the Australian tour, Pakistan has yet to play a Test match in 2008.

This article has run a little long and this writer has done some shameless reminiscing at your expense, and I haven’t even mentioned the shenanigans Shoaib Akhtar has gotten himself into and Asif’s further troubles with the drug labs. The saddest part is that things don’t seem to be improving anytime soon as even if the unrest in the country did not exist, Pakistani cricket would still find itself in a burning building with no clear exit.

Muhammad Usman Amir

[Will_NA]

Top article. Things are bleak fr a Pakistani citizen, let alonea cricket fan.

[pasag]

Great stuff.

[Spinksy]

Great article mate.

[Ayub 95]

great article must be sad for a Pakistani fan

[baggy_blogger]

I would like to say good article, but in honesty it saddens me that this is a reality and no doubt very upsetting for you mate. I've just been watching the news. Things have taken such a turn, and its such a pity our great game has been affected. South Africa has presidency issues and instability, India has bombing to interfere with their exciting growth as a country, Pakistan as you mentioned has many problems, and now the recent hotel bombing...so much more.
I always felt cricket was a great way for people to just free their minds and see their cricket heroes in action, the thrill of the game...but this is reality and Pakistan fans can't even experience it at the moment.
Spoken truthfully mate! I hope things will change for us all.

[ankurs_009]

TRUE REFLECTION OF A PAKISTANI CRICKET FAN AT THE MOMENT ...i hope it all gets well soon..

[usy]

Good article but IMO you were a little too negative.

[nightprowler10]

Originally Posted by usy

Good article but IMO you were a little too negative.

I've been a Pakistani cricket fan for far too long not to be a pessimist.

[usy]

Originally Posted by nightprowler10

I've been a Pakistani cricket fan for far too long not to be a pessimist.

See the problem is every other Pakistani (especially our media) are starting to think that the world is gonne end right now, ohh,

Instead of doing something, we just sit there and watch people kill the country in every aspect (cricket too). you get what I'm saying?

We rely on our Governments and stuff too much because we can't do things on our own.

Same with cricket.

So, it's not about being a Pakistani fan for long or not, it's about chaning the attitude of let them fix it for us.

[nightprowler10]

I became a fan 16 years ago (92 WC) and when you have seen dozens of promising players wasted by poor management and politics and the people you worshipped growing up thrown out of the team like a piece of trash, you tend to get a bit pessimistic. It doesn't mean you give up, just that you tend to get a bit depressed about it.

That said, I'd say I've been pretty positive about Pakistani cricket post-2004. I didn't exactly look up all the events from that time in Pakistani cricket on Cricinfo, I remembered them because I have fond memories of them. But after all that's happened, (including the forfeited Test, drugs scandal, Woolmer, Inzi, Shoaib) how can one not be pessimistic about the future of cricket in Pakistan? In fact, this is exactly what my article is about!

But if you can stay positive after all this, I envy you, because I may have just seen too much to be positive on this anymore.

[vaibhav mehta]

Must say Great read Usman.Can't describe a Pakistani's fan feelings better.

[usy]

Originally Posted by nightprowler10

I became a fan 16 years ago (92 WC) and when you have seen dozens of promising players wasted by poor management and politics and the people you worshipped growing up thrown out of the team like a piece of trash, you tend to get a bit pessimistic. It doesn't mean you give up, just that you tend to get a bit depressed about it.

That said, I'd say I've been pretty positive about Pakistani cricket post-2004. I didn't exactly look up all the events from that time in Pakistani cricket on Cricinfo, I remembered them because I have fond memories of them. But after all that's happened, (including the forfeited Test, drugs scandal, Woolmer, Inzi, Shoaib) how can one not be pessimistic about the future of cricket in Pakistan? In fact, this is exactly what my article is about!

But if you can stay positive after all this, I envy you, because I may have just seen too much to be positive on this anymore.

lets just drop some liquor on last PCB management...

Power to the good People
Death to the fake phonies.

[Pak_cricketer]

Originally Posted by usy

See the problem is every other Pakistani (especially our media) are starting to think that the world is gonne end right now, ohh,

Instead of doing something, we just sit there and watch people kill the country in every aspect (cricket too). you get what I'm saying?

We rely on our Governments and stuff too much because we can't do things on our own.

Same with cricket.

So, it's not about being a Pakistani fan for long or not, it's about chaning the attitude of let them fix it for us.

The government is relyed on to guide people by making laws, roads, and schools. Education should be in the hands of the government, and thats where Pakistan fell off the track. We isolated the northwest region for so long, that now they arent "Pakistan"anymore.

[usy]

Originally Posted by Pak_cricketer

The government is relyed on to guide people by making laws, roads, and schools. Education should be in the hands of the government, and thats where Pakistan fell off the track. We isolated the northwest region for so long, that now they arent "Pakistan"anymore.

A general idea of forming a government is to secure the well being of a socitey and it's people within and outside.

I'm talking about basics here,

The people make it's king, rather then king making his people. The king is nothing without the people.