Whether, this current defeat is just another defeat or it will have some effects on nation’s psyche is difficult to say. Or to be more general, every defeat in a cricket match which is a result of a coward fight effects out nation psyche or not? I can at least talk about myself and it did effect me in many ways. It made me depressed to some extent and I can share a personal experience with you guys. I really had hard time to concentrate on my Professional Engineering Exam’s preparation, which I took on April 16th, the same day Pakistan lost the test match……… I did not follow the fourth day (it was the examination night for me here in usa) of pindi test deliberately because I knew that if Pakistan lost the match, which was pretty imminent at the end of third day, I wont be able to concentrate cent percent in this most crunching exam of my life. Here comes the million-dollar question. Am I being too emotional?…may be or maybe not. But it happens to me all the times whenever Pakistani team lose to anyone in general and to India in particular in a cricket match. Why is that? Yeah it hurts when we lose hockey but not to the same extent.
The point I am trying to make here that no matter what you say, no matter what you do, cricket does affect us (pakis) in a different way. We can always claim that it is nothing but a sport but is it really? It seems to me that it is more than just another sport. And I guess it has a lot to do with our national history. What do we have to be proud about? I am not pessimistic, I am just being realistic. With no democratic institutions in place, no real strategic/social/scientific advancement made in last 50 years (of course with exception of few personal geniuses) and with a very little recognition at international level, cricket does provide this lost but very aggressive nation a medium to express. We all felt so proud when we won the world cup because we as a nation discovered our true potential. We felt that we can beat anyone no matter how disastrous the circumstances are. With politicians being one of the most corrupted ones, civil servants being dishonest and even its own army-leadership being selfish on several occasions, this nation always looked towards its cricket heroes as a role model and took a psychological relief whenever the national cricket team beat other nations in general and Indians in particular. Alas, the notorious match-fixing scandal that followed the world cup achievement broke the spirit of this betrayed nation once again. We as a nation felt that the only door to release our psychological tensions was closed by our own “role models”.
Now if the aforementioned arguments make sense and if cricket does play an important role in elevating or decelerating this particular nation’s spirits based on some specific reasons outlined above, then don’t you guys think that this nation has every right to exert pressure on its players? Don’t you guys think it is time to make our players realize that when they represent Pakistan cricket team, they are not playing just another cricket match but they are also carrying an extra burden on their shoulders to give boost to this battered nation? I strongly believe that our players don’t realize this particular aspect. Don’t you guys think that even though people did not show up for test matches but somewhere deep inside every one was hurt and it affected whole nation’s performance for at least a week? So isn’t this a good idea to be harsh on our players and grind them under extra pressure of “nation’s expectations” rather than releasing the pressure by saying “ it was just a match”. Yeah it will be hard for players in beginning but eventually they will learn to play under this sort of pressure and show more responsibility.
If this poor nation is so sensitive about cricket and people don’t have anything else to be proud of and in respond, they see shoaib’s ( and other players too) lack of professionalism and commitment, what are they supposed to do as counteraction? ….we all saw wasim, malik and many others involved in match fixing ( though it was never proved but you only see smoke if there is some fire underneath). Why should nation put up with such a crap when it gave so much love and trust to these players?
All of us have seen our team giving up without putting up a fight. And it is not only about this series. This thing has become trademark of paki team. So question is whether nation has every right to be upset with these players or people should stand behind them to give them a boost? If proved guilty, should we punsih those superstars and kick them out of the team forever no matter how important those players are so that every one realize that they are kicked out because they did not respect nations emotions? But the million dollar question is who will do that. Some time you need a monster to fight with monsters. I am not calling our players monsters. Most them are nice guys with little realization of their responsibilities. I am just giving an example. But seriously who could be savior of Pakistan cricket by showing exemplary management, strict discipline and immaculate character and integrity?