About time, and in fine style!
The number of international records smashed during the just-finished Pak-Australian Test series does a fair job of explaining the magnitude of Pakistan’s win; most Test centuries by a Pakistani batsman (Younis Khan with 27), century in both innings by a batsman (after 40 year and 425 Tests against Australia, and three Pakistani batsman bagging the honour), three consecutive Test centuries against Australia (last done in 1924/25 by the legendary Herbert Sutcliffe), and a number of others, including captain Misbah’s fastest Test fifty and hundred (the latter shared with Viv Richards, another legend). That this turn around happened when Pakistan was clearly down and out – pundits, of late, comparing our performance with the likes of Zimbabwe and even Kenya – explains why the achievement takes an even more special meaning.
In retrospect, it seems the Pakistani team leveraged the demoralisation of the recent past when it went back to the drawing board after a rather prolonged string of spineless defeats. And that except for the very best, this team did not feature the long list of tried, tested and failed old-timers, is refreshing. A mostly young team is now making its mark, and it has proved its mettle against the best in the world. That has silenced the critics for now – and rightly so, few teams, if any, can boast such an overwhelming win against the very best. But now the technical aspect of the game must be improved further. The management, and the players, have overcome the physical on-ground hiccup that stopped them in their tracks so often. Now they must further fine tune the more subtle aspects of the game as they look to harness this momentum and take advantage in the One Day format ahead of next year’s World Cup.
Unfortunately, though, the cricket board cannot be complimented for a part in the great turnaround victory. In fact, the team was able to reverse its fortunes despite PCB’s shenanigans. First, for many months there was an ugly musical chairs between Zaka Ashraf and Najam Sethi, the prime minister going out of his way to favour the latter. Then PCB was given to an octogenarian with a questionable track record from his previous stint. And now, for some reason, Sethi has been nominated to head the ICC, despite lacking in cricket understanding and a poor management resume. It’s about time that the board, too, pulled its socks up, lest its regressive tendencies eat into the team’s gains, and compromise the ‘miracle’ that has just been achieved.