I vowed myself fifteen
years back not to watch cricket and had always denied any discussion regarding
the sport until Pakistan’s recent victory over Ausies. Cricket has got almost
the status of religion in Indo-Pak subcontinent and like my fellow Pakistanis I
lived two decades of my life in Cricket Phobia. I remember back in school and
college days, instead of reading course books; I used to read cricket
literature and had been terribly busy memorizing names of cricket stars and
their records. Being a Child, I saw the last days of legendary “Zaheer Abbas”
and “Sarfraz Nawaz” and being a teenager had closely monitored the wonderful
cricket played by both “Imran Khan and Javed Miandad”
The 1992 World Cup
squad led by Imran Khan was the team of stars who brought glory and respect to
entire Pakistani Nation. However with the birth of betting in late 1980s and
early 1990s in cricket, had changed the entire scenario. Pakistan is a country,
where corruption is rampant, where rich and famous go un-punished for their
heinous crimes and little poor criminals get severe penalty. The entire team
and people associated to this sport cannot be blamed for the crimes their
colleagues have committed in recent past. Although it is very hard and almost
impossible for young emerging players to refuse juicy lucrative offers like ten
thousand pond sterling for just one “NO Ball” but it can be controlled by
introducing new code of conduct for cricket players in their relevant cricket boards.
A bunch of purported
super stars driven with limitless greed had always been the in charge of entire
team in recent past. Three of them got full treatment in an inquiry conducted
by ICC and the rest of them got the lesson. If Pakistan cricket board had
launched honest inquires against black sheeps, the Pakistani cricket and her
reputation would have been in a different state today. One pseudo judicial
commission was set up to enquire the shameful defeat of Pakistan team from the
hands of Ausies in 1999’s World Cup final. The commission was headed by
honorable Mr. Justice Abdul Qayum Malik who very wisely saved the skin of our
great super star Waseem Akram and had placed a life time ban on Ijaz Ahmed and
Salim Malik who had already squeezed their share of milk and were at the end of
their careers. Later on, with an interview with BBC, Justice Malik revealed the
fact that he had been an admirer of All-rounder and Ex-captain Waseem Akram.
The terrorist attack on
Sri Lankan cricket team was a major blow to international cricket played in
Pakistan. Almost all cricket playing nations refused to play on Pakistani Soil
and their denial still persist to present day. Nevertheless, with all such
terrible events our boys did not lose their passion and by doubling their
efforts they have successfully showed the new face of Pakistani Cricket. The
Current performance of Pakistan Cricket Team against Australia and New Zeland has restored my faith and in fact all cricket lovers. The skipper Misba-ul-Haq
has thoroughly given the shut up call to all his critiques and has become the
most successful captain in Pakistan’s test cricket history. Honestly, I do not
have suitable words to appreciate the performance of both Younis Khan and Misba.
Team Pakistan, you have won the hearts and minds of fellow Pakistanis again.
