Is Pakistan cricket team finally becoming consistent?
Words like ‘controversy’ and ‘fixing’ have been recently associated with the Pakistan cricket team, but one tag that has been there over all these years is ‘inconsistency.’
However, things have finally changed, as the team seems to have found a new direction. The year 2011 has been good for the Men in Green, as they have been performing consistently in all three formats of the game.
Last year, three top cricketers http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Amir-c76675 were banned from all forms of cricket following the spot fixing saga.
This left the Pakistan team badly bruised, as they were already suffering because of being unable to host international matches in the country.
The reason was the attack on the Sri Lankan team’s bus in Lahore back in 2009. Pakistan lost the rights of co-hosting the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 and Sri Lanka, as no team was interested in paying a visit to the troubled country.
Just before the start of the Mega Event, veteran all-rounder http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Waqar-Younis-Maitla-c96193 retained his coaching job.
The same combination had worked earlier in the Twenty20 World Cup 2010, as the team managed to qualify for the semi-final of the event. They were in a winning position at one stage of the game, but Australia’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MEK-Hussey-c1942 took the game away single-handedly.
The Men in Green suffered after that in a bilateral series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 due to the spot fixing controversy.
However, Waqar and Afridi kept the team united and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 also played a crucial part in leading the Test side.
Just before the start of the World Cup, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 and won the Test and One Day International (ODI) series there. The team did lose the Twenty20 series, but was delighted by the overall result.
Afridi’s men managed to play the semi-final of the Mega Event against arch rivals India, which was a big achievement for a team that went through a lot in the past few months.
This performance proved to be a morale booster for the team, as they carried onto the momentum, winning a bilateral series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 on the Caribbean soil.
Although everything seemed to be fine on the tour, captain Afridi and coach Waqar generated some differences and the former slammed Waqar in front of the media.
This was against the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB’s) code of conduct and Boom Boom was sacked from captaincy. He saw that as a disgrace and announced conditional retirement from the sport, claiming that he will only comeback if the management is changed.
Misbah was named captain in all three formats of the game and he guided the side to three back to back series victories against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758.
With Waqar quitting the coaching job citing personal reasons and Ijaz Butt’s tenure as PCB’s chief ending in October this year, Afridi announced he was once again available to play international cricket for Pakistan.
The veteran came back to the side and offered full support to Misbah during the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 (UAE) series against Sri Lanka.
Pakistan cricket team is getting stronger and stronger with the passage of time and has finally started winning consistently. The team is yet to lose a single series under Misbah and will look to continue the same momentum for the years to come.
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