The Pakistan Cricket Board on Thursday took a journey back to 2011 to highlight the glorious performance of the national team during the year. The evening with the national team was attended by the officials of the PCB, Lahore cricket, cricket legends from the city, big names from the corporate world attached with Pakistan cricket who especially flew to the city to attend the function arranged at a local hotel.
Even the family of Punjab governor Sardar Latif Khosa was also present on the occasion where all the players of the national team were awarded Rs 300,000 each while the support staff – the team management was given Rs 100,000.
Standing ovation was accorded to the national team that marched into the arena lit with candles while the top performers of the team carried the trophies it won during 2011.
The Pakistan team’s journey to success during the last year started from the South Africa series in the UAE in which the they played 32 ODIs and won 24, figured in 10 Test matches with win coming in six and losing one while they played five T20 matches and tasted success in four and lost one.
“The team’s turning point towards success was the Test match that Pakistan drew against South Africa,” said Misbahul Haq.
The PCB especially arranged a proper presentation and video clips highlighting the team’s performance player by player and with every presentation, the player who performed well last year was called upon the stage and was asked about his views of the past and the coming series against England. Number one bowler of the world Saeed Ajmal, top all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez, middle order start Umar Akmal, the Mr Reliable Younus Khan and the most consistent batsman of the team Misbah were called on the stage and all were of the view that it was the team’s hard work and the support of those people who work behind the curtain main reason of their success.
Particular mention was made of Shahid Afridi, who is in Australia playing for Big Bash, the resounding success of Aleem Dar and former PCB COO and captain Ramiz Raja expressed his confidence that the way the team has gelled after the spot-fixing saga, made everyone believe that they can beat even the top teams of the world. “They were noticed when they beat Sri Lanka and will be noticed the world over if they beat England in the forthcoming series. All they need to do is to transform all the anger of the 2010 and perform on the field to make the England series count suffer,” he maintained.
Concluding the evening, PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf congratulated the team for their achievements and wished them good luck in the series against England. He also mentioned his talk with Ramiz about the team’s recent performance. Appreciating the way Misbah guided the team to such a glory, he showed his confidence saying 2012 will be the repeat of last year.
