Pakistani Cricket faces crisis :
Pakistani players did not celebrate their team’s victory against Zimbabwe in the first encounter of the three-match series ODI in Lahore on Tuesday, because they know that they have to wade through a teeming river if they want to play in the next ICC Champions Trophy championship. The last month’s 0-3 drubbing by Bangladesh made their eligibility in any world level competition very cumbersome.
The TV commentators were saying that Pakistan will have to win the underway ODI series against Zimbabwe by 3-0 margin and then triumph over Sri Lanka by at least 3-2 in the series beginning next month. The current form of Pakistan’s bowling and fielding side says that the task is almost impossible.
On Tuesday, batting first the home team made mammoth 375 runs in three wickets and threw a big challenge to the visitors, who did not surrender but continued gallant fight to score 334 runs that astonished the cricket experts and critics. The host team bowlers’ inaccuracy and the fielders’ absence of application of the mind inspired the Zimbabwe batsmen to exceed 300.
In fact, al-Qaeda and the Taliban militia have smashed the backbone of the games and sports in Pakistan. No foreign team agrees to visit that country for security reason. What the whole world fears to do, Zimbabwe did. The security which is given to any US President visiting Pakistan is arranged for the African nation’s cricketers.
Meanwhile, the new menace is ISIL, a deadly Middle-East based guerilla regiment. The other day, it claimed to have killed 41 bus passengers in Karachi and thereby issued a note of strong warning to the government that none is secure in Pakistan. In short, the future of games and sports in that country is dark. That is why no other nation considers the highest four times World hochey Champions Pakistan as one of the contenders for the world title any more.
However, the good news is that Bangladesh have earned the right to play in the ICC Champions Trophy.
Pakistani players did not celebrate their team’s victory against Zimbabwe in the first encounter of the three-match series ODI in Lahore on Tuesday, because they know that they have to wade through a teeming river if they want to play in the next ICC Champions Trophy championship. The last month’s 0-3 drubbing by Bangladesh made their eligibility in any world level competition very cumbersome.
The TV commentators were saying that Pakistan will have to win the underway ODI series against Zimbabwe by 3-0 margin and then triumph over Sri Lanka by at least 3-2 in the series beginning next month. The current form of Pakistan’s bowling and fielding side says that the task is almost impossible.
On Tuesday, batting first the home team made mammoth 375 runs in three wickets and threw a big challenge to the visitors, who did not surrender but continued gallant fight to score 334 runs that astonished the cricket experts and critics. The host team bowlers’ inaccuracy and the fielders’ absence of application of the mind inspired the Zimbabwe batsmen to exceed 300.
In fact, al-Qaeda and the Taliban militia have smashed the backbone of the games and sports in Pakistan. No foreign team agrees to visit that country for security reason. What the whole world fears to do, Zimbabwe did. The security which is given to any US President visiting Pakistan is arranged for the African nation’s cricketers.
Meanwhile, the new menace is ISIL, a deadly Middle-East based guerilla regiment. The other day, it claimed to have killed 41 bus passengers in Karachi and thereby issued a note of strong warning to the government that none is secure in Pakistan. In short, the future of games and sports in that country is dark. That is why no other nation considers the highest four times World hochey Champions Pakistan as one of the contenders for the world title any more.
However, the good news is that Bangladesh have earned the right to play in the ICC Champions Trophy.
Ameer Hamzah
Dhaka
