That Pakistan is ranked number 1 by the ICC on their list of T20 cricket teams can obviously never be bad news.
Yet the recent achievement won on the final leg of the tour of New Zealand is one in a long list of turn arounds that seem to be holding the team, selectors, coaches and cricket board back from badly needed introspection.
Captain Sarfaraz leading his men to a two comprehensive wins in the shortest format of the game was enough for Pakistan to slink back home from down under with their dignity intact. Yet the two wins came after a resounding whitewash in the ODIs, the likes of which the recent ICC champions trophy winners have not faced in nearly a decade.
The backlash for their pathetic performance might have had some impact if the two wins had not taken the team up to their new ranking in the twenty over format, after which media criticism and board inquiry alike seemed to have fallen flat.
Now, however, Chief Selector Inzamam ul Haq seems to have stepped up to the not-so-easy job of bursting the ever shrinking bubble in which Pakistan cricket has existed since well before their champions trophy win, and perhaps as far back as the test series draw in England and winning the test mace.
Perhaps their comparatively deplorable ranking in the longer formats of the game are what irked Inzi into taking his concerns to the press, but he definitely seems intent some major changes to the team selection.
Even during the New Zealand tour, opener Ahmad Shahzad was recalled to mixed results which ultimately have to be admitted as successful ones.
Where the team goes next from here is another matter completely. With no set test opening pair, and the limited overs openers dependent on the ticking time bomb that is Fakhar Zaman, the team could face some serious challenges up ahead.
At this stage, the team seems to be mirroring the slump it went through post the steady period that was most of Inzamam ul Haq’s own captaincy, which saw the team almost permanently fixed in the number three or four spot of cricket, only ever dropping drastically in the 2007 world cup.
Similar to the disaster that was rebuilding post-2007, Pakistan is already on their second captain since Misbah, who while having established himself, is still facing trouble reigning in a volatile team of cricketers.
That Pakistan is in a delicate situation is nothing new. They have been in this limbo for at least a year now, and would have descended into collapse if this period had not been littered with the odd but major success.
Perhaps the only constant that the board has to offer at this moment is the Pakistan Super League, preparations for which currently engulf the Pakistani cricketing community. Yet as the plans and aspirations for the league grow bigger, the focus of the board, and perhaps even the players, seems to be becoming hazy.
The sense of alarm was clear in the chief selector when he lamented the situation of club cricket and first class cricket in the country. With the PSL proving to be a star maker, there are many that would argue against the age old argument of strengthening the domestic circuit.
Yet with the Minto Park closed down yet again, Inzamam’s concerns seems to be valid. Where will we get cricketers if you shut of the paltry facilities that created so many gritty cricketers from all over Lahore?
With the PSL dominating conversation to no end, one wonders what will become of club cricket, and whether the next generation of Pakistani cricket is going to, perhaps for the first time, face a serious drop in the number of available players.
