The highs and lows of Pakistan cricket in the last three years – Opinion – Part One
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 cricket faced one of the worst times of its history during the tour of Australia in 2009-10, losing all the matches of the series, including a disastrous defeat in the Sydney Test, where they let the match slip from their grasp.
Grouping and politics within the team was quite evident throughout the season. Such was the situation that the then captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, was caught on camera biting the ball, which counts as tampering.
Controversies shattered the team and many senior players were banned and fined for their ill-practices. Things looked horribly out of shape for the Green Shirts and matters got worse as Afridi announced his retirement from Test cricket after getting thrashed by Australia at the Lord’s.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) opted to trust the young blood and handed over the captaincy to the left-handed opening batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Younis-Khan-c98325 remained out of favour.
The young Pakistani team defeated http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 at Headingly to square the series. This was a massive achievement for Butt and company as the Green Shirts defeated the Kangaroos in a Test match after 15 years.
The fast bowling duo of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wahab-Riaz-c95839.
After two impressive Test wins on the tour in extremely difficult playing conditions, the future of Pakistan looked bright at the ultimate level of the sport. However, the real highlight of that tour was yet to come as a British tabloid, the News of the World broke a story on the third day of the last Test at the Lord’s, according to which, Asif and Amir bowled deliberate no-balls with the consent of their skipper.
The trio was immediately suspended from playing any kind of competitive cricket after the match. Quite ironically, the youngster, Amir, who was considered to be the new fast bowling sensation in the cricketing world, was named as the Player of the Series. All three of them were later banned and jailed by the International Cricket Council and the British judiciary respectively for bringing the game into disrepute and cheating the fans.
The encouraging performance of the young team suddenly turned into the darkest period in Pakistan cricket, even putting to shame the horrors of the Australian tour earlier that year.
There were calls for banning Pakistan from international cricket, because as it was, no team was prepared to go the south Asian country to play due to the poor security conditions.
One may argue that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 could have handled the situation a little better. After the incident, the Chairman PCB refused to withdraw the three players from the remainder of the tour and also alleged the English team for fixing the ODI at the Oval.
The poor administrative skills of the Chairman PCB further brought a bad name to the country.
To be continued...
Disclaimer: Any views and opinions expressed in this article are solely of the author and do not represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: