Pakistan cricket’s downward spiral

If the slide continues, which seems an irreversible process at the moment, the game will lose something precious, writes Madhu Jawali.

Bengaluru: A recent online discussion summed up the state of cricket in Pakistan with stinging sarcasm.

“Pakistan were more competitive when half their players were fixing somehow,” one fan quipped.

Another responded, “That was because they were being paid to occasionally underperform. You don’t need to pay these current players to flop.”

Brutal? Yes. But it captured the frustration of fans who have celebrated Pakistan's team as much for its breathtaking cricket as for its spectacular collapses. Pakistan cricket has always been a paradox -- brilliant one day, baffling the next; exhilarating one moment, exasperating the next. No other team has worn the cloak of unpredictability with as much comfort as Pakistanis did. Their moods swung as wildly as their deliveries, but that’s what made them such a compelling team to watch.

Every major cricketing nation has contributed something unique to the game -- the West Indies with their ferocious fast bowlers, Australia with their relentless hard-nosed competitors, India with their world-class batsmen and spinners. Pakistan’s legacy has been its genius for fast bowling. Their pacers didn’t just master the art of swing; they redefined it, sometimes even attracting a hint of suspicion.

But reducing Pakistan cricket to just fast bowling would be naive. While the Sarfaraz Nawazs, Imran Khans, Wasim Akrams and Waqar Younises inspired both awe and admiration with their skilful fast bowling, the country has its own share of batting icons as well -- Hanif Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq to name a few.

For Indian fans, nothing stung more than losing to Pakistan. But even in bitter rivalry, there was a grudging admiration. Take the “Indian” fan out of the equation, and any true cricket lover would agree that few teams in the ’80s and ’90s were as fascinating as Pakistan. Their players had an undeniable aura, and they carried themselves with the swagger of someone fully aware of their own appeal. Beating the Pakistan team of that era felt special which you barely experience these days.  

The downturn of the game in a country sliding into an economic crisis and prolonged political turmoil was inevitable. The 2009 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team’s bus was a death knell for international cricket in Pakistan. For a decade, no foreign team visited the country. When Sri Lanka finally returned in 2019, the damage had already been done. Since then almost all countries, except India, have visited Pakistan for a bilateral series but that 10-year gap did extensive damage to the fabric of Pakistan cricket. A generation of Pakistanis grew up without international cricket at home and that obviously is having an impact on its supply line. 

There was a time when most of Pakistan’s cricketers burst onto the scene in their teens or early twenties even if you were to take their stated age with a pinch of salt. Now, debutants at the official age range between the late 20s and 30s, reflecting the fact that young talent is at a premium. In the first T20I of the ongoing series against New Zealand, Pakistan had three debutants of which one was 27 years old and another 32. Even their captain Salman Agha was just two weeks shy of 31 when he made his T20 debut late last year.

A majority of Pakistan team's on-field problems is a by-product of boardroom machinations in the Pakistan Cricket Board. PCB has always been plagued by political interference, but in the last few years, it has been in complete disarray. Administrators are hired and fired at whim, selection decisions reek of favouritism, dressing room conflicts are outed and foreign coaches are treated poorly. The issues are unlimited and chaos is relentless.

On paper, their white-ball attack of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf appears one of the best in the world not just for the quality it possesses but also the variety it offers. But it was baffling to see their collective failure in the Champions Trophy. The shocking slump in the form of Shahin Shah -- young, fast, skilful and a potential pace-bowling great --  is a classic case of how not to handle a player, and that stands as a screaming statement of everything that's wrong with Pakistan cricket.

It's not like Pakistan were without any issues before, but somehow the players then found ways and means to manufacture wins. With the present team, few get that sense of "surprise". Even after their sensational chase of New Zealand's 205-run target in just 16 overs! They may pull off a heist here and a coup there, but can they conjure up such performances on a consistent basis?

The problem with Pakistan is they are a few years behind the rest of the cricketing world that has gone progressively professional, innovative and imaginative. Pakistan appear to be stuck in a time warp. Their batters haven't embraced new-age batting while their pacers lack innovation against marauding batters. They haven't been able to produce a quality spinner since Saeed Ajmal - a damning indictment of their failed domestic structure.              

If Pakistan continues to slide, which seems an irreversible process at the moment, the game will lose something precious. Cricket has survived despite the decline of the once-mighty West Indies and Sri Lanka, but it hasn’t been the same. And it will be even poorer without the Pakistan of yore. One way of arresting this free fall is the resumption of bilateral series with India. That will not only bring financial windfall to PCB, but spike the interest in the game as well. But for that to happen, a conducive atmosphere should be created -- the onus of which lies solely on Pakistan.