Interesting article! I agree with most of what he says especially the good parts where he praises Pakistan. He's also right when he says that the game in Pakistan will die slowly if there is no cricket for some more time especially because some of our players need cricket to keep them in shape and going, e.g., Wasim and Shoaib.
But I disagree with him on his opinion on Wasim. What do you guys think?
Waqar's boys; What bugs them?
By Binoo K. John
New Delhi, June 13: Subcontinental habits die hard. Pakistan in a way is like India. They are great paper tigers. They have the greatest talent on earth. Yet they lose when they have no business to. In 2002 the team has won 6 of the 9 ODIs they have played, though they could have won all 9.
Of course their record is much better than India's. They have the grit which they can show when they want to. It is not the bad loss to Australia in the first of the three ODIs that is of importance. It is what is happening to the team and the game in the country at this point that this article wants to look at.
Waqar Younis should be the happiest one-day captain after Ricky Ponting. He has the artillery with him to create havoc anywhere. But the fighting qualities of the team slowly seem to be ebbing away due to political reasons: Nobody wants to play in Pakistan. If the situation continues for a year or two it will be tragic for the game in Pakistan not just in financial terms but in terms of the morale of the players,.
Australia does not want to go there, New Zealand fled the country and rightly so. India will not play Pakistan for at least two more years. Bombs have come to be associated with the country. Pakistan is all too willing to lay out the feast but no one wants to sup with them at home. It is the right decision by other cricket-playing countries. Eventually though cricket will lose out.
It is this situation that prompted Waqar Younis to say the other day that we would love to play India anywhere. It is a genuine feeling of loss that he expressed. Only a sportsman knows the pain of being denied a good match. The adrenalin does not pump anymore. In foreign lands there is no one to cheer your beautiful yorkers or the wicket being broken into two pieces by a Shoaib Akthar blinder. Then the moral high ground is lost. There is a feeling of being a pariah in the cricketing world even though Pakistan is on paper has the second strongest team.
Waqar has only two problems now: carrying around an aging, tired and useless Wasim Akram and managing and guiding Shoaib Akhtar. Akhtar is injury -prone, naturally, considering the excessive tests to which he puts his body. Otherwise the team is bubbling with stars and super stars. In a given match it can be assumed that Inzamam-ul Huq or Yousuf Yohanna will score big. *Imagine if Saeed Anwar comes back to form after his phase of depression in his new spiritualistic avatar. *
In a given match it can be assumed that either Akthar or any of the number of pace bowlers in the team will come good. The team has hitters, grafters, havoc-creators, yorker-bowlers, reverse-swingers, stump-breakers, five-wickets-an-innings bowlers, the works . Pakistan are a great team to watch. A terrible team to lose to.
In the run-up to the World Cup Waqar and his boys are not in the best mental shape. A victory in the series against Australia will release the right amount of adrenalin this talented team needs. Looks unlikely but as I said, Waqar has the artillery.