Cricket has no doubt created unprecedented unity for a very divided nation but a victory here would have been seen — by a massively superstition-prone population — as a divine reaffirmation of all we have done wrongLet me first start by restating the most important fact that people on both sides of the cricketing divide have lost sight of. Pakistan has, over the 58 years of cricketing rivalry, outplayed India time and again both in test and one day internationals. It will take no less than two dozen back-to-back victories by India to better our record again. It is no wonder then that Indians celebrate the way they do because their victories are few and far between.
Despite our crash and burn in Mohali, it has been an excellent World Cup for Pakistan’s revival as a top cricketing nation. We had been ruled out to begin with. After all, this was the weakest team we had fielded in the World Cup since the inception of the tournament in 1975.
Yet we not only managed to top our group but also completed one of the most comprehensive victories in the tournament’s history in the quarter-final against West Indies. Credit for this, almost entirely, goes to the first rate leadership shown by Captain Shahid Khan Afridi.
So we lost the semi-final. Big deal. It really was not for the reasons everybody said we would lose. The Indians did not outplay us despite being in terrific form. Even little master Tendulkar, who, along with one billion of his supporters, fancies himself as an equal of Bradman (a claim that is quite inappropriate given that Bradman had an average of 99.99 in the pre-helmet bodyline era), was dropped four times and was very unconvincing. Then our batsmen got out due to poor shot selection. Kamran Akmal, Hafeez, Shafiq, Younas and Afridi got out by failing to resist the temptation to go after the bowling. Slightly more discipline in our batting would have seen us through.
I would have liked to see Pakistan beat the Indians in Mohali but, in retrospect, it is probably not such a bad thing that we lost. For one thing, the title of ‘mercurial mavericks’ is something we should all be wary of. Both as a team and as a nation, our finest hour came when we were able to overcome our national psyche and gel together as a responsible and disciplined people. As a cricketer, Imran Khan was no mercurial maverick. He was a disciplined performer who planned with a precision that would even inspire awe in the Australians. And, as a nation, who better to look to than Jinnah who was known for his meticulous approach to politics and the discipline he could bring to the ranks of his followers.
More importantly though, this would have been the wrong year for us to win the World Cup. Cricket has no doubt created unprecedented unity for a very divided nation but a victory here would have been seen — by a massively superstition-prone population — as a divine reaffirmation of all we have done wrong. A victory in the World Cup would have meant placing a band-aid on the gaping open wound that has been inflicted on our country.
It is now time to get back to the task before us of ridding ourselves of the cancer of religious extremism, bigotry and reaction. Unless we solve the myriad problems that plague our homeland, even if we win a 100 world cups, we will remain an emotional but poor and backward nation, held in contempt by the world and not trusted to host international sporting events.
This is what we need to channel our energies towards, and take the disappointment of this loss and apply it to building ourselves a hopeful future where sporting victories only supplement our self-worth and defeats do not demoralise us as a people. We owe it to ourselves and the generations that shall follow us. If we do not, our posterity will condemn us.
The writer is a lawyer. He also blogs at http://pakteahouse.net and can be reached at yasser.hamdani@gmail.com
Source : http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\04\04\story_4-4-2011_pg3_6
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