The highs and lows of Pakistan cricket in the last three years – Opinion – Part Two
Continued from the previous part...
Pakistani fans were stunned and many stopped following their team after the disheartening corruption allegations. The Men in Green were disavowed by the public at large, alongside their image being tarnished at the international level.
If this was not enough to dramatise the whole situation for Pakistan’s most loved sport, another episode was yet to come.
On the morning of the fifth ODI against South Africa at Dubai, in their very next series, the wicketkeeper/batsman from Lahore, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zulqarnain-Haider-c98685, disappeared from the team hotel, leaving his side without a gloveman. The lanky cricketer flew to London, expressing
that he was getting death threats from bookmakers, who http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zulqarnain-c98682 claimed, were asking him to underperform in the series.
The whole fiasco attracted criticism the side could have done without.
However, Ijaz Butt made the best, but the most surprising decision of his tenure by appointing Misbah ul Haq as the captain of the Test team. Taking into account the fact that Misbah was not even a part of the previous Test squad, it was an extra-ordinary
move.
Pakistan put up a good fight in the two-match series against the Proteas and avoided defeat in both encounters. The middle-order batsman led his team from the front by performing well with the bat and on the field.
On the other side of the coin, the Green Shirts started winning in the shorter formats as well under Afridi’s captaincy. Pakistan went on to beat New Zealand at their own backyard in Tests as well as in the 50-overs format.
Things started to look better and stable for Pakistan, who are known in the cricketing world for their unpredictability.
From being under the clouds of corruption six months back, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and West Indies in the event. The boys were
given a historic welcome when they landed back home because of the spirit they displayed in the mega event.
The Men in Green faced a little hiccup yet again after the limited-overs portion of the Caribbean tour, which was followed by World Cup, when Afridi was removed from captaincy, after his verbal spat with the then coach, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Waqar-Younis-Maitla-c96193.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 continued to show more faith on the batsman from Mianwali as Misbah was given the captaincy of the shorter formats as well.
Since the middle-order batsman took over as the skipper, Pakistan defeated http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760.
The Green Shirts also won limited-overs series against Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747, alongside lifting the Asia Cup this year for the second time in history.
However, Pakistan’s most emphatic victory came against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 in UAE when Misbah’s men whitewashed the number one ranked Test team of the world in the three-match series. Most former players believe that it was the greatest achievement of Pakistan’s history
in the longer version of the sport.
Recently, PCB decided to replace Misbah with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Hafeez-c76898 as the T20 captain and talks of grouping within the team have started to emerge once again. Some believe that it is the race of captaincy which is hampering Pakistan’s performance in the on-going
tour of Sri Lanka, where the Green Shirts lost the ODI series, levelled the T20s and were outplayed in the first Test as well.
Let us hope that the current low does not stay long for the sake of the sport in Pakistan. Considering Pakistan’s record in the previous World T20s, one can expect the Men in Green to bounce back in the upcoming event in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758.
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