Cricket worries

Panicking after the Pakistan cricket team’s dismal performance at the Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates would be an easy mistake to make. Successive thrashings by arch-rival India were bad enough but sneaking a last-over win against Afghanistan and losing badly to Bangladesh underscored just how terrible Pakistan cricket’s performance really was. There are no positives to take from the Asia Cup. Our fielding was abysmal, the batting – Inam-ul-Haq and Shoaib Malik aside – repeatedly collapsed and the bowling was so bereft of confidence that star Mohammad Amir has now been dropped from the team. To make matters worse, former fielding coach Steve Rixon alleged that the Pakistan Cricket Board was run so unprofessionally that it did not even pay its staff on time. In the lead-up to a crucial series against Australia next month, our cricket team is not in the best frame of mind. Still, it is far too early to be writing obituaries for one of the more successful Pakistan teams in recent history. Pakistan is still the deserved number one T20 team in the world and the ODI side is ranked a credible fifth. The nucleus of a successful side is still there and one poor tournament does not change that. Losing to the mighty Indians is far from unexpected and we need to use the Asia Cup experience as a reminder that there is still a need for incremental improvement.

While changes in administration every time a new leader comes to power is hardly ideal, the impact on the cricket team’s performance is does not necessarily manifest itself immediately. There is a general unfortunate tendency in us to overreact to every loss – especially against India – and to blame it on intrigue. The team still seems to be united around captain Sarfraz Ahmed – although his own prolonged poor form is now a worry. There is less reason to believe that the failure of key players like Fakhar Zaman was anything other than a temporary blip. This is still a young team that is learning with every match and needs a vote of confidence from the PCB and the larger viewing public. So long as we do not make wholesale changes in a knee-jerk reaction to the Asia Cup, performances will quickly pick up.