It’s really just a game – cricket that is. Of course, one could easily argue that when it comes to matches between Pakistan and India, it is far more than that, and of course, for many people, extreme emotions are involved.
Some watch every ball as if their life depends on it, and many don’t watch the match at all because of their bitter viewing experiences of recent Pakistan versus India cricket matches.
Pakistan is now out of the Champions Trophy – there’s not enough of a statistically significant chance that it could sneak into the semi-final because of how other teams do. And the hurt of losing, yet again in an ICC tournament match, to India must sting a lot of Pakistani fans and supporters of its cricket team. And the team played poorly in both its games against New Zealand and then against India.
That said, some criticism of the team and its players has been completely unwarranted and unnecessary and seems borne more out of spite than any constructive approach. To call it a reflection of a ‘permanent decline’ in Pakistan cricket, as some articles have suggested, is taking it a bit too far.
Pakistan cricket is neither in permanent decline and nor it is dead – it going through a rough patch and will come out of it sooner or later
And there is good reason to say that because the basis for such a wildly inaccurate and absurd assertion is two matches that Pakistan played in the Champions Trophy. It obviously lost both matches and played poorly in them. But if one looks at the specifics, in the first match against New Zealand, its chase of a mammoth score was hampered by Fakhar Zaman’s injury and him being unable to open the batting. In the case of India in Dubai, there was first the ridiculous spectacle of hosts Pakistan having to take a two-hour flight to another country to play the match. Its team selection would have been affected by having to choose teams for pitches in Pakistan as well as the one in Dubai (the latter turned out to be quite different from Pakistani pitches) while India had the relative luxury of playing all its matches in the same city stadium. Other teams have had to travel between Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi, and New Zealand will have to travel to Dubai for its match with India and then back to Pakistan possibly for a semi-final and so on.
Of course, this is not to say that Mohammad Rizwan perhaps misread the conditions and the pitch and batted first when he should have batted second, especially since there is no dew factor in Dubai, unlike in Pakistani cities.
Pakistan also lacked at least one specialist spinner – the one it played in Abrar Ahmed did very well and bowled the ball of the tournament so far to take out India’s star batter Shubman Gill.
But to say that Pakistan cricket has been destroyed and is decimated is a bit of an exaggeration to say the least. Many people who have been suggesting this are also not all that upset at Pakistan’s dismal performance because in their mind the decline of the national cricket team is a logical consequence of the ouster of their leader from the office of Prime Minister since if he were still holding that post, Pakistan cricket would be doing well.
Of course, in all the criticism and assertions that Pakistan cricket was now over, these people conveniently forget that it was not long ago that Pakistan defeated both Australia and South Africa in ODI series. Pakistan cricket is neither in permanent decline and nor it is dead – it going through a rough patch and will come out of it sooner or later, and absurd and needless criticism does not help.