Pakistan’s humiliating defeat at Lords has plunged this cricket crazy nation into an ocean of frustration, anger and depression, not for the team losing a match but because it surrendered without a fight

Rafi Nasim24-May-2001Pakistan’s humiliating defeat at Lords has plunged this cricket crazy nation into an ocean of frustration, anger and depression, not for the team losing a match but because it surrendered without a fight. They feel as if the team was devastated by a storm, from which the debris has to be collected, reconstruct its body and inject it with a soul. One that is full of imagination, wisdom, and a strong will to resist aggression. Can it be done in the week left before the second storm waiting at Old Trafford?The PCB and the players will only be spared of the people’s wrath if the team emerges victorious at Old Trafford. They’ve done it before and can do it now, but not with the same unimaginative, careless, timid and insipid attitude towards the game. The team management has to put its head down, do soul-searching to analyze the blunders committed and pledge to rectify them.The papers are full of news, comments, reviews and articles on the catastrophe that hit Pakistan at Lords. The major criticism revolved around lack of preparation, poor selection of the playing XI, lack of harmony, cohesion, motivation and the requisite fighting spirit. Above every thing else there was neither a visible plan of trying for victory nor one for saving the match when the going got tougher.Many observers of the game decried the inclusion of a half-fit Shoaib Akhtar in the side in place of master off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq who had carved his place among Wisden’s 5 Cricketers of the Year and had been a match winner on many an occasion.Mudassar Nazar, a former test player and presently Chief Coach of the PCB Cricket Academy found the Pakistan players confused and moving about in some kind of a daze. He termed the team’s overall performance as pathetic and advised the batsmen to stop chasing swinging and chasing balls outside the off-stump.An official of the PCB who accompanied the team to New Zealand as an Analyst has reflected badly on team discipline. According to him, the Pakistan team tours abroad without a set of rules and regulations. Staying up late nights and other frivolities, taking breakfast in bed, considering keeping in good shape as one’s own affair and attending practice sessions at will, were the common features. If such practices are continuing even on the England tour, we have no hope on Earth of performing better than at Lords.Former Captain Imran Khan who happened to visit the boys in the dressing room, tried to boost up their morale, at the same time being severely critical of the team’s warm up schedule. "It is the worst thing to happen after having had just five days of cricket. It is no preparation for a side for which the conditions were completely alien" he commented.Skipper Waqar Younis did express his disappointment on the defeat but had no excuse for the thrashing his team received. He frankly admitted that the team played badly, bowled and batted badly while England did not! He paid England pacers Darren Gough and Andy Caddick the ultimate compliment by comparing them with his own deadly pairing with Wasim Akram in the heydays. He, however, insisted that he had picked the right team discounting the need for a spinner.Being the controlling body, the PCB naturally comes under fire whenever a disaster of this nature occurs and history is replete with instances when the Board was dissolved for being incapable of efficiently handling the affairs of cricket.After all, what are they paid for, especially in the present times when every official makes a living out of cricket? Gone are the days when people used to work for love of the game, in honorary capacity and were still able to bring good results.Going through the chart of defeats that Pakistan suffered during the last 18 months rule of the present PCB set up, one finds the team’s performance at its worst, what to say of other administrative affairs. This is what prompted the press to surround the PCB Chairman and ask him all sorts of questions.The General expressed his disappointment on losing the Lords Test but did not think that the team deliberately threw it away. "Their body language was also not looking good and they made a lot of mistakes during the match", he commented. He also felt surprised as to why, one of the two spinners Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq was not included in the squad and that England was invited to bat after winning the toss.Furious at the disgrace, the public in general is demanding dismissal of the cricket establishment and accountability of the cricketers. Holding them responsible for messing up the national team, they asked for immediate sacking of the PCB officials. Such were the views expressed by the ardent cricket lovers during a poll conducted by the press. Even a businessman when interviewed said that `managing high profile game like cricket was different from running a battalion of semi-literate soldiers’.Amidst the wave of shock and discontentment that prevailed all over, the PCB Chairman was perhaps the right man to answer the queries. Replying to a sensitive question, whether he was thinking of quitting the office voluntarily or waiting for his removal after the humiliating defeat at Lords, he said that he had no intentions to quit. Those who appointed him could only remove him. He was right, because in Pakistan we have no such tradition of quitting a prized appointment. At a lower level people do so but a top man would never!The need of the hour is to re-group the team, motivate the boys and induce undying fighting spirit in them. The debacle at Lords must provide them a lesson to follow and put them in the right frame of mind to perform well in the 2nd Test. Whatever the result, they must acquit themselves honorably.