Pak unceremonious exit from CT is no surprise

KARACHI:

Pakistan’s unceremonious exit from the ICC Champions Trophy on Monday, following New Zealand’s convincing win over Bangladesh, has come as no surprise to anyone. In fact, it would have come as a shock for most people had the national team advanced in the tournament.

In crashing out early, Mohammad Rizwan’s men have earned the dubious distinction as hosts to experience an ouster at the group stage of the event, which adds to the team’s woeful display on the field.

And yet, one is not sure if this massive humiliation will prove to be a red flag for the Pakistan Cricket administrators, its team management or the players and will force them to come out of their comfort zone to sincerely work for a turnaround.

During the past year or so, the cricket administrators have exhausted such terms as ‘surgery’, ‘overhaul, ‘change of guard’ etc, only to settle, each time, for the status quo and to back the ‘dead horses’. As a result, they have made a laughing stock of themselves and both critics and fans now see such rhetoric from the PCB and the governments as an attempt to hoodwink them into believing that corrective measures are finally being taken to put Pakistan Cricket on the road to success.

In more ways than one, there was no better occasion for Pakistan Cricket than the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 to re-launch itself and for the team to put up a grand show. Alas it was not to be.

Not since the 1996 ICC World Cup has an event of this magnitude and grandeur been held in Pakistan where the six top teams of the world have converged in the country, with over a hundred international players showcasing their talents and style in more than two weeks of exhilarating cricket.

There are more than 25 top cricketing experts and commentators, including a number of legendary figures, touring the country during the extravaganza, besides hundreds of fans from England, New Zealand, Australia and other countries.

The refurbished stadiums in Karachi and Lahore have surely augmented the cricketing fever for the home fans while numerous food, art and cultural festivals been arranged in Karachi and Lahore to coincide with the prestigious event. It is sad then that the poor quality of cricket displayed by the national team has taken the sheen off the mega event, at least for the home fans.

In the final analysis, Pakistan’s disastrous trophy campaign was always on the cards owing to a variety of reasons, none more glaring than the absence of a think-tank that was required to devise a sound strategy for the tournament. Further damage to the campaign has been caused by the band of egotistical national selectors, hell bent upon flouting merit, even at the cost of destroying the team.

It was just last December that Pakistan’s ODI team was hailed as a world beating outfit after they had defeated the formidable Australians and the South Africans in their own backyards. Several newcomers were tried in those two series and spinner Sufyan Muqeem, pacer Abbas Afridi, all-rounder Irfan Niazi and a couple of others stood out with their fine performances.

It was a given that these youngsters will be retained for the ICC Champions Trophy since they contributed well on the challenging tours and boosted Pakistan’s bench strength.

But the national selectors decided to ‘destroy’ the winning combination and named a weak, lop-sided 15-member squad for the Champions Trophy that defied logic and merit, and more importantly, lacked match-winners.

For most part of the 70 years that the game of cricket has been played in the country, Pakistan has banked on raw talent to serve it well, and it indeed did. However, it is not a key to success anymore and the game in Pakistan has lagged far behind in the ways how modern cricket is being played around the world.

Regretfully, the respective governments and the PCB administrators have been too busy playing politics and enjoying the perks to shift their focus to reorganising the game on scientific lines, establishing cricket academies to groom the players to meet international standards, and revamping the pitches and domestic cricket to ensure long-term success and viability.

It is never too late and one sincerely hopes and wishes that the cricket administrators realise the need to resurrect and revitalise the game which literally unites the country, is a huge passion with the people and brings joy and happiness to them even in today’s difficult times.