The Challenges ahead for Pakistan Cricket

[THX_1138]

Drugs, Sex and Money... no i am not talking about the three things i seek in life, but the problems faced by the Pakistani Team. With an exodus of experience to the ICL, though in all fairness most of the departing talent was either washed out or on its last legs. As much as pakistani supporters cringe the loss of Razzaq, Rehman, Inzi and Yousuf, with the exception of the last the others had little to offer to pakistani cricket. Combined with the imrans: fahrat and nazir... the ICL has conveniently flushed the so called "beasts" from the pakistani cricket team and with afridi now the last remaining edifice of the now defunct institutions of "no brain no skill buffoons"; pakistan must now reconstruct its team, especially viz a viz their batting which ought to be modeled around the line of grafters and gatherers rather than the current approach. Nonetheless, those challenges aside, there remains the ideological concerns about what is the motivation for these players to play for their country. I can understand the migration of the players left asunder like used kleenex tissues: the rehmans, the razzaqs; but what about those with a confirmed spot on both the test and the ODI team such as Yousuf? And was there not some talk about Asif joining the ICL some time back before he eventually joined the IPL? speaking of which, would he be permitted to play in the ICL if a ban is imposed on him? Are Pakistani players not enthusiastic about being members of their national team or are they so underpaid, oppressed and mismanaged that they are willing to seal shut their careers?

[King]

Pakistan cricket is a goner, it's heading Zimbabwe way. Not many want to play them and they can't afford to invite anyone either. Once a terrific team is now pretty much at the bottom both resource wise and ability wise. I suppose they will look forward to ICC or BCCI to bail them out but unless they host a long enough series against good cricketing nations they will not know where they are going to get their next cent from. On top of it they are wasting their money on coaches that aren't even being used enough. They could have used Lawson to work with upcoming players but as usual Pakistan seriously lacks good administrators and the ex-players aren't any more concerned with Pakistan cricket. Double blow that.

[bharat297]

Its a terrible shame that a country that has produced the likes of ... Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Inzamam Ul-Haq, Shoaib Akthar, Mohammad Asif, Saqlain Mushtaq , Mohammad Yousuf, and a host of other world class players is now struggling to get a team to play them, and struggling to get a team to play for them. Yousuf is over at the ICL. Asif is serving a ban. Shoaib is past his used-by date. Younis Khan is playing for South Australia. Where are there players going? There is an urgent need for drastic action to be taken to fix Pakistani cricket.

[Nova]

I want to see Pakistan cricket rise again. It's good for competition and for cricket as whole. Wake up administrators - do something!

[Fontaine]

Until the political conflicts are resolved in Pakistan I don't see how cricket will function. Playing a few ODI series and Abu Dhabi isn't going to cut it. The longer this goes on the more damage there will be the current team and players without match practice will be rusty and to the next generation of players.

[DomainK]

The problem in Pakistani cricket is not as bad as it looks. Its worse. (Thanks Sidhu for the expression.) Everyone associated with Pakistani cricket has a personal agenda which conflicts with the interests of the team and Pakistani cricket in general. From the players to the administrators....everyone is acting selfish. If someone wants to act for good, he does not have a choice to do so. Because he stands alone. Pakistan cricket will see even worse days.

[MundaPakistani]

please don't turn the following comment in to an India vs Pakistan thing, i am only using it because PAK have played IND most in recent times. I find it quite amazing that despite all the problems PAK have still some how managed to beat IND on 3 out of the last 5 occasions including a trophy final. This leads to believe that the ODI team will continue to produce these "mercurial" performances but the test team on the other hand has totally frozen due to lack of cricket, 14 months with out a single test match is quite ridiculous.

[ucilite]

how can the state of cricket team be any different than the country? its a complete mess. i was quite optimistic when butt was appointed new chairman, but his sacking of lawson and appt of saleem malik has really shocked me!!! but to think that pak cricket will turn into another zimbabwe or WI is also wishful thinking. with respect to the players lost to ICL, most of them were past their glory days so we didn't loose much there. through, i would like to see the board lift its ban on ICL players. However, this would mean that BIG B, BCCI, will no longer be looking over PCB and the board will have to stand on its own. And i bet then BCCI will also not allow the Indian team to visit Pakistan due to security reasons :)

[sharma]

how can the state of cricket team be any different than the country? its a complete mess. i was quite optimistic when butt was appointed new chairman, but his sacking of lawson and appt of saleem malik has really shocked me!!! but to think that pak cricket will turn into another zimbabwe or WI is also wishful thinking. with respect to the players lost to ICL, most of them were past their glory days so we didn't loose much there. through, i would like to see the board lift its ban on ICL players. However, this would mean that BIG B, BCCI, will no longer be looking over PCB and the board will have to stand on its own. And i bet then BCCI will also not allow the Indian team to visit Pakistan due to security reasons :)

well its simple then, dont mess with what bcci wants, and u'll "survive"

[King Tendulkar]

how can the state of cricket team be any different than the country? its a complete mess. i was quite optimistic when butt was appointed new chairman, but his sacking of lawson and appt of saleem malik has really shocked me!!! but to think that pak cricket will turn into another zimbabwe or WI is also wishful thinking. with respect to the players lost to ICL, most of them were past their glory days so we didn't loose much there. through, i would like to see the board lift its ban on ICL players. However, this would mean that BIG B, BCCI, will no longer be looking over PCB and the board will have to stand on its own. And i bet then BCCI will also not allow the Indian team to visit Pakistan due to security reasons :)

You can't upset Indian cricket and the BCCI. We are the only country who will tour you

[DomainK]

You can't upset Indian cricket and the BCCI. We are the only country who will tour you

In spite of that, Pakistani fans keep abusing BCCI using ifs and buts.

[King Tendulkar]

In spite of that' date=' Pakistani fans keep abusing BCCI using ifs and buts.[/quote'] I know its ironic. Its also ironic we are willing to tour there despite us being the ones the jehadis want to kill the most and do kill the most!

[MundaPakistani]

In spite of that' date=' Pakistani fans keep abusing BCCI using ifs and buts.[/quote'] TBH i have not met a single non Indian cricket fan who hasn't criticized BCCI in fact even the sensible Indians like Shewtabh know that BCCI are hurting the game. I would rather have IND NOT tour Pakistan if its going to play such politics and secondly they are not doing PAK any favors because PAK in the past have toured IND despite death threats by the racist organizations. oh and dsr shows his true colors again.

[DomainK]

TBH i have not met a single non Indian cricket fan who hasn't criticized BCCI in fact even the sensible Indians like Shewtabh know that BCCI are hurting the game. I would rather have IND NOT tour Pakistan if its going to play such politics and secondly they are not doing PAK any favors because PAK in the past have toured IND despite death threats by the racist organizations. oh and dsr shows his true colors again.

There you go....thats exacly what I was talking about.

[bharat297]

please don't turn the following comment in to an India vs Pakistan thing, i am only using it because PAK have played IND most in recent times. I find it quite amazing that despite all the problems PAK have still some how managed to beat IND on 3 out of the last 5 occasions including a trophy final. This leads to believe that the ODI team will continue to produce these "mercurial" performances but the test team on the other hand has totally frozen due to lack of cricket, 14 months with out a single test match is quite ridiculous.

I think those results indicate that despite the drama the talent is still very much there in Pakistan ... its just that there needs to be some proper administration.

[punjabi_khota]

I think it is too early to write obituaries for Pak Cricket, or saying that they are going to go the Zim-WI way (although WI is on an upswing lately). Cricket is as much of a fever in Pak heartland, as it is in India. I have interacted with a lot of Pakistanis and looking at their enthusiasm, I see no reason to worry. They have way too much passion, love and talent at all levels to just wither away due to current political turmoil. Pakistan has never been a stable state anyways, and like most other times, this will pass.

[MundaPakistani]

I think it is too early to write obituaries for Pak Cricket, or saying that they are going to go the Zim-WI way (although WI is on an upswing lately). Cricket is as much of a fever in Pak heartland, as it is in India. I have interacted with a lot of Pakistanis and looking at their enthusiasm, I see no reason to worry. They have way too much passion, love and talent at all levels to just wither away due to current political turmoil. Pakistan has never been a stable state anyways, and like most other times, this will pass.

yeah but they really need to fill up the schedule or it will be a case of out of sight and out of mind. I am sure even the Indians who are genuine fans of the game(not trolls like dsr) would want to see a half decent PAK team in JAN. I would assume seeing IND beat a half strength, rusty and washed up PAK team will not be too entertaining, this off course doesn't mean that PAK recall that idiot Asif.

[King]

Well Windies cricket fans are still enthusiastic but the administration and the player development is what screwed up Windies in the past decade. In a way Pakistan is just heading that way too. There is not enough money for the players, the team isn't one of the best out there so they can't get the best deal out of the tours. West Indies and Pakistan of the past had terrific cricketers that were most sought after but not anymore. When the West Indies greats and Pakistani greats retired there have been none of the same stature to fill in for them. West Indies atleast had Lara but Pakistan has none. Only Younis Khan can command some respect, that's about it. Unless there is enough money to develop grass root and domestic cricket there's no way Pakistan can get out of this mess. Don't expect them to produce 11 great cricketers out of blue. Even the likes of Australia with strong domestic cricket is struggling to produce great players after the retirement of some of the legends. On top of this Ex-Pakistani cricketers are leaving Pakistan's shores in a hurry to live elsewhere. Unless there is enough cricket held at home, the locals will not be inspired to take up cricket. Success of a particular team is directly related the quality cricketers they can produce in future. If Pakistan is not even going to get a game then how are they going to inspire the youth?

[DomainK]

Lessons must be learned from what happened to Hockey in both countries. That's what bad administration can do. Unfortunately the political situation in Pakistan does not look like improving overnight and Cricket will continue to suffer for quite a few years to come. Yes, we do want to see a decent Pakistani team in Jan. It will hurt us as much as the Pakistani fans if its a no contest (which I am sure it wont be). But I am not so sure what the team will look like two years later.

[ucilite]

Well Windies cricket fans are still enthusiastic but the administration and the player development is what screwed up Windies in the past decade. In a way Pakistan is just heading that way too. There is not enough money for the players, the team isn't one of the best out there so they can't get the best deal out of the tours. West Indies and Pakistan of the past had terrific cricketers that were most sought after but not anymore. When the West Indies greats and Pakistani greats retired there have been none of the same stature to fill in for them. West Indies atleast had Lara but Pakistan has none. Only Younis Khan can command some respect, that's about it. Unless there is enough money to develop grass root and domestic cricket there's no way Pakistan can get out of this mess. Don't expect them to produce 11 great cricketers out of blue. Even the likes of Australia with strong domestic cricket is struggling to produce great players after the retirement of some of the legends. On top of this Ex-Pakistani cricketers are leaving Pakistan's shores in a hurry to live elsewhere. Unless there is enough cricket held at home, the locals will not be inspired to take up cricket. Success of a particular team is directly related the quality cricketers they can produce in future. If Pakistan is not even going to get a game then how are they going to inspire the youth?

Are you serious? When exactly did we have strong domestic structure? How did we produce the likes of Imran, Wasim, Waqar? It's no brainier that a strong domestic structure is to our benefit, but producing great cricketers from Pakistan WILL never be a problem. However, I do agree with you that we need quality games to be played in Pakistan. I hope the upcoming series with India will somehow bring the best out of Pakistan cricket. Also, I would just like to share two recently concluded domestic games with you guys. Check out the scorecards and you will see some great performances from both known and some upcoming players: 1. FATA vs Punjab 2. Sind vs. Baluchistan