 |
Pakistan waiting to come to the boil
FOR a side which has blown as hot and cold as Pakistan over the years, their recent consistency has come as a bit of a surprise. Unfortunately for those concerned, the only consistency they have been showing is in losing matches. Quite why a side laden with so much talent has been so below par of late is difficult to fathom, although the refusal of sides to tour their country has undoubtedly been unsettling. That has left them having to travel to far-flung places like Sharjah, Tangiers and Nairobi for their cricket, and the constant jet-setting is clearly not always conducive to team spirit. The cracks were visible in two separate incidents involving players last summer. First, paceman Shoaib Akhtar pulled out of the Morocco Cup one-day tournament citing injury as the reason for his decision, while rumours abounded he had signed a lucrative deal to play for the Lashings celebrity team. Captain Waqar Younis was far from impressed, but the whole affair was a mix-up that resulted from poor communication. Another problem surfaced before September’s three-nation tournament in Kenya when batsman Yousuf Youhana was sent home after a petty dispute with the side’s management. Conspiracy theories then
abounded when Youhana, the only Christian in the team, was run out after
a dreadful mix-up with Saeed Anwar on his return to the fold at the ICC
Champions Trophy.
|
|||||||||||
|
The sad thing was during most of that troubled period Pakistan, for once, had tried to maintain a settled side and show faith in their captain. Nothing is ever certain in the turbulent world which is Pakistan cricket, however, and coach Mudassar Nazar paid for the failures by losing his job. Quite what the fate of Waqar will be is anyone’s guess, but despite his side’s shortcomings and their recent defeats by Australia and South Africa, his leadership has at least appeared adhesive. Waqar was far from a regular member of the side during and after the last World Cup. But his return and his willingness to play alongside Wasim Akram, with whom he has seldom seen eye to eye, almost injected a dose of sanity into the Pakistan camp. With the likes of Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Saqlain Mushtaq and Rashid Latif remaining regular fixtures, the team is hardly short of talent or experience. With youngsters such as batsman Younis Khan, paceman Mohammad Sami and new find Misbah-ul-Haq—all staking their claim for places—Pakistan seem a powerful side waiting to spark into life. Sooner or later, someone like Afridi, Inzamam, Razzaq or Wasim should provide that spark. They may be off the boil, but there is certainly no reason why Pakistan cannot peak in time for the World Cup. The memory of their abject capitulation to Australia in the 1999 final at Lord’s still lingers, and the tournament in South Africa will give them the opportunity to put that right. |
 |
|
