Strategies floundered and individual brilliance of Pakistani cricketers was thrown out of the window by the black whirlwind at Dhaka, a city which doesn’t hold good memories for Pakistan in many respects.

Pakistan team played like paper tigers under a questionable leadership on a fateful day that proved disastrous.

Sher-e-Bangla Stadium Dhaka in 2014 had so many commonalities to the Ramna Race Course of 1971. The state of preparedness of Pakistan team was questionable, as its players and management were more focused on celebrations than preparations before departure to Bangladesh.

The untimely departure of Dav Whatmore left the team with a weak management.

Despite having four major fault lines in unfit Umar Gul, Kamran Akmal, Sohail Tanvir and out-of-form Mohammad Hafeez, the team was overconfident. And they made a poor evaluation of the opponents. Apart from Ahmad Shahzad who got out to a beautiful delivery from Santokie, all Pakistani dismissals were acts of sheer irresponsibility.

There was hardly any game plan from the Pakistan side, as West Indies plundered 166 in 20 overs. Skipper Darren Sammy played a true captain’s knock. Alongwith DJ Bravo, he added 71 runs off 32 balls for the sixth wicket, leaving behind many messages for the ‘professor’ who on the contrary had a poor season with bat and captaincy.

The Pakistani dugout was equally unimpressive as its think tanks failed to evolve any plan in the heat of battle like headquarter 14 division of the eastern command. Not a single player showed character to stay on the wicket and crumbled under self-created pressure.

Pakistan played like an army without a commander or a herd of sheep lost in jungle chased by wolves.

The team and the management have no justification for this wretched performance in the crucial match against West Indies. In the five months lull of approaching summers, the national team and the management will have to undergo some serious soul-searching and major shakeups.

Technically faulty players will have to be sidelined. Young players must be brought in and a professional management should replace the ex-players’ group.

It is time the Chairman looked beyond the cricket politics of Lahore and Karachi and took bold decisions. The reforms have to start from the PCB headquarters in Lahore and go all the way to the roots of regional and domestic cricket.

Many a time have I written about the establishment of Summers Cricket Academy at Abbottabad, but the idea always fell on the deaf ears of the cricket establishment, which can’t look beyond immediate interests.

Pakistan is full of cricket talent. All those who say we don’t have the cricket talent of international level are either blind or too naive to induce confidence among the young players.  The disaster must not be forgotten over the weeks ahead and the status quo must be broken.

We have not learned anything from what happened in Ramna Race Course in 1971 and it seems we will not learn any lesson from what happened in Sher-e-Bangla Stadium on April 1.

But the people of this country should not be fooled anymore in the name of bad luck and loss of toss.

I hope and pray that sanity prevails at the top of PCB and the sparrow drinks some wisdom water from the fountain of prudence, thus fixing the loose ends of Pakistan cricket before it is too late.