[wasi siddiqui]

Pakistan Cricket: A face of disappointment
By Wasi Siddiqui
(Member of Canadian Authors Association)

Ever since the Pakistani cricket team won the world cup in 1992, there seems to be a coincidence, when they were near to be ousted in the tournament, but one point they got as a result of rain and another team in the competition lost their game, turned out to be the key for Pakistani winning style, which eventually resulted in the winning the world cup.

This was the exactly the case in the current world cup 2007 , where Pakistan was playing against Ireland , and many Pakistani knew that , this will be the most easy game for Pakistan and will move ahead after winning the match with Ireland. The condition was ideal as Pakistani bowlers who are well-known of exploiting the moisture conditions and getting the opponents out with their bowling skills, as did by the great bowlers such as Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, and Waqar Yunis and spinners such as Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, and world class wicketkeepers Rashid Latif, Moin Khan but alas, as these players are no more with Pakistani cricket team.

The shocking defeat against Ireland was a biggest upset and many cricket lovers, were disappointed to hear such a shameful news , that Pakistan has been defeated by Ireland and could not score more than 133 runs , not to forget that 30 runs are the extras runs given by the Ireland bowlers , so Pakistani cricket team actually scores only 103.

Pakistan, where politics plays an important role in deciding the man who will be the coach, manager and chief selectors, again was the victim of such poor selection of the team, the Pakistani cricket team which was selected includes 8 new players for the world cup, whom never played in one –day matches and most of them to face the world cup matches for the first time, and hardly a experience member can be found in the team.

Over the last few years, we have seen a number of coaches has been changed, including the great legend Javed Miandad, who has been completely ignored for many years, and foreign coaches are being hired and given priority over the Pakistani cricket heroes, such as Mushtaq Mohammad, Hanif Mohammad, Sarfraz Nawaz, and Wasim Akram, their contributions are always ignored and put a side, but one must pay high tributes to Bob Woolmer for excellent training he provided to Pakistan cricket team, but these players did not learn anything from him. What a shame !!!!

The politics must be removed from the cricket game on the permanent basis and only deserving people should be given the right to select the team on merit. The sudden death of the Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer is indeed a sad news, he may have died due to natural causes, but how can we denied that he may not have suffer a shock , watching his team being defeated by Ireland, after 4 years he spend with them in training . One cricket lover said “It was whole cricket team should have died of shame and not Bob Woolmer”.

If Politicians continue to interfere in the game affairs and then here is my suggestion which would eventually, solve the issue. The new cricket team is as follows:


New Pakistan Cricket Team
1- President of Pakistan
2- Prime Minister of Pakistan
3- Foreign Minister of Pakistan
4- Interior Minister of Pakistan
5- MNA President of Pakistan
6- Opposition Leader of Pakistan
7- Tharik-e- Insaf Chairman
8- Punjab Chief Minister
9- Sindh Chief Minister
10- Baluchistan Chief Minister
11- Pakistan Peoples party
12- Jamuri Watan party
13- Muslim League of Pakistan