Misery it seems is very conducive for humour and Pakistans miserable defeat against New Zealand has given our wiseacres some much-needed fodder against the hapless Kamran Akmal. Much of the rage of this loss has been directed at the poor chap who cant seem to catch a break.
While bashing a scapegoat is undoubtedly cathartic, we need to take a macro-view of this loss. Kamran Akmal, indeed, wicket-keeped abysmally if at all that can be called wicket-keeping but our batting collapse and the lack of fire-power in the bowling for the death overs should have raised more eyebrows.
While there is cricketing virtue in not pressing the panic button every time we lose, there is also virtue in reviewing a failing strategy. These same issues had reared their ugly head in our wins as well and finally got the better of us in the match against the Kiwis.
We should use our remaining matches to consolidate our batting line-up, induct another regular bowler and to give Kamran Akmal a probationary run before dropping him like a hot potato if he indeed continues to damage us like this.
Meanwhile, we need somebody to vent our pent-up anger at and it seems Mr Akmal is going to be the unfortunate chosen one unless he chooses to redeem himself which seems unlikely. Maybe we should continue with the joke-making. After all, its all part of the game we love so much.
OMER ABDULLAH
Lahore