It was a mixed day for Asia and a disastrous one for Pakistan. While all of Bangladesh would have celebrated all night, all of Pakistan and India would have struggled to sleep. The fact that one former World Cup winner is out of the competition and another has to do something extraordinary to stay in the race, is simply unbelievable.
Pakistan’s insipid performance against Ireland is, in many ways, a culmination of all that has happened on and off the field over the past few months. The cricket team is in a mess, and that is putting it mildly. Matters have reached a stage wherein you feel like requesting every player to play for himself, given that he is obviously finding it difficult to play for the side. But so poor have the players been in recent times that it seems that they are incapable of even playing for themselves. This has been going on for far too long.
The nation had waited for this competition for four years. Several changes had been made, a new coach requisitioned, and a lot of money spent. The Pakistani public has every right to feel cheated and demand an explanation. The only problem is that there is nobody around who has the inclination to give one. Overconfidence wasn’t the reason for Pakistan’s defeat and ouster from the tournament. The team flopped because not many of its members deserved to be there in the first place. Both Pakistan and India have been guilty of favoring reputation over merit. Would teams like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have persisted with players who were failing repeatedly? I think we all know the answer.
The Pakistani selectors have no option but to start from scratch. The deadwood needs to be discarded. They should at least try to learn from their mistakes. The team was selected on the assumption that most of the players would ‘strike form’ when needed. This isn’t exactly the best or safest course of action to adopt on the eve of a World Cup.
Once the team was picked, it might well have helped had the Coach of the Pakistani side devoted his energies to improving it, instead of making innumerable statements about ‘proving the critics wrong’. Several former cricketers had pointed out chinks in the Pakistani armor in the past few months. These individuals have represented the country at the highest level and care deeply about cricket in the land. But even their constructive criticism wasn’t taken note of. The team management appeared to have forgotten that cricket was a game played on the field and not in the media. You can talk and speculate about ‘processes’ and ‘wanting to prove people wrong’ in newspaper or TV interviews, but ultimately your worth is judged by how you perform in the middle.
Ireland’s remarkable comeback against Zimbabwe should have set alarm-bells ringing in the Pakistani camp. The so-called ‘minnows’ haven’t exactly applied for participation in the World Cup; they are there because they registered impressive wins in the qualifying tournament. It is easy to say that Pakistan should have taken into account the fact that Ireland had some wins under its belt, but then, you will consider such factors only when you sit down to plan and strategies. But as results indicate, ‘planning’ is something the Pakistani team refuses to believe in. The lack of a stable opening pair and an out-of-sorts middle order, the leading lights of which have continued to push themselves back, cost the Pakistan team the game and its self-respect. The openers had little or no patience, and they looked clueless on a pitch that was doing a bit. As uninterested in occupying the crease were the middle-order batsmen. Ireland’s bowling, fielding and self-belief gave them a famous victory.
It was a disaster of colossal proportions, and there can’t possibly be a lamer excuse than blaming the wicket for the same.
The Indians were as badly hit as the Pakistanis. But India are not out of it as yet. I have a feeling they will come back strongly.
