Taking into account the grave situation backhome in Pakistan, I have decided not to watch or comment on the current India-pak series (I simply check the scorecard periodically and read cricinfo articles the next day) but let me make a general comment about India-Pakistan cricket matches.
Although considered to be one of the most sought after rivalry in the sporting world, the fact of the matter is that whenever these two teams play against each other, the overall standard of the game stoops to the lowest level of professionalism. But amazingly, such pathetic display of cricket – based on technicalities of the game — does not disturb the dynamics of an India-Pak match. Both teams, quite remarkably I must say, leverage each other’s weaknesses by performing even poorer. If India drops 3 catches, Pakistan will make sure that it will drop at least 4 catches in the field. If Pakistan will give a leeway to India by giving away 40 extra runs, India will be generous enough to leak at least 30 extras! Batting first in a test match, if Pakistan loses three wickets on first three balls of a test match, India will still make sure that in the end it loses the test match by 300 runs! If Pakistan bowls out India on 125 in an ODI, it will ensure not to score more than 89! And the saga simply continues. You pick any India-pak match and the story will be same. In an India-Pakistan match, the best team never wins the match; the worst team always loses it.
And frankly speaking, no one in India or Pakistan cares about the “standard” of the cricket in an India cricket match as emotions are running high and in the end if your team wins the match, every thing will be forgotten. Just imagine the last match. Pakistan’s performance in the field was simply pathetic, to say the least. They leaked 41 extra runs, dropped catches, bowled horribly for most part and allowed India to score 321. But guess what, since Pak won the match, the next day everyone was praising Pakistan’s ability to confine India to 321 and not let them score 370. Pathetic!
To make my point, just imagine the standard of a cricket match between Aus and South Africa and them bring into picture two “asian superpowers” playing against each other (note: emhasis is on “standard”). You will almost feel like “A Bhangi playing against another Bhangi! In essence, India and Pakistan complement each other perfectly and I guess they should play each other more often to boost each other’s ego.
(I know it is an emotional topic for many of you but I am just presenting my own viewpoint, As far as I know, there is no “emergency plus” on KK).
