Pakistan: The future looks dark

The mighty Pakistani team looks so defeated at the moment that there is little hope of salvation in the near future.

There is nothing as pathetic or dismal in sport as when the giants look ordinary. This fall from the heights has been the stuff of many classics but when it happens right there in front of a million eyes it looks very real.

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The mighty Pakistani team looks so defeated at the moment that there is little hope of salvation in the near future.

It is not just about the defeat against India, nor its ouster from the World Cup without even being able to put up a real fight, that should be of concern to Pakistan. The team will have to rebuild since at least three or four top players will find no place in the team after the World Cup.

The battering that the team received against India will most probably send captain Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram into retirement. In that sense the defeat is a scar that will be visible on the façade of Pakistani cricket for a long time.

The Waqar-Wasim dissention in the team has been written about but considering that both of them will be forced to retire means that the divide in the team will no longer be a problem.

The problem is the casting away of four great players and the yawning gap that it will produce. A world cup campaign gone awry can have tremendous negative repercussion on the game in the country.

The veterans, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar and Inzamam-ul Haq (who will return of course) have symbolised what Pakistan cricket is about. New players will replace them, and some of them are already in place. But what about the team?

Imran Khan has said that the team did not have any strategies in place against India but just waited for India to commit mistakes. However both he and Wasim Akram were pretty clear that on a day when a great batsman like Sachin Tendulkar was playing the innings of his life there is nothing any bowler could have done.

“My time is almost up — it's been a roller-coaster journey with lots of ups and downs, but whatever controversies I have gone through, it was worth it," said Wasim, after he snared Holland's Nick Statham to become the first man to take 500 one-day wickets in one-day cricket.

After the World Cup, Pakistan will have to refit themselves under the leadership of wicket-keeper Rashid Latif (most probably), if not Saeed Anwar.

A long-term prospect as captain is Yousuf Youhanna whose religion (he is a Christian) will go against him.

Very few players will be willing to take on the mantle of captaincy considering how difficult it is to hold the team together as Waqar realized to his dismay.

Too much has been made of a brawl between Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Khan during practise. The brawl itself is not the problem but if there has to be a scuffle during a fun game it shows how worked up each player is. That could be because of their performance.

The team needs a new Imran Khan, But that person is not around.

Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammed Sami, Abdul Razzaq will be in charge of the new ball, but how much of a threat will these three hold for the opposition? Who will take charge of the middle order till and when Inzy returns to form? Is there a teenager somewhere there in the maidans of Peshawar who can come to the rescue of the team as many youngsters have done in the past.

The century against India is unlikely to get Saeed Anwar any long extension in one-dayers and he is unlikely to be around in Sharjah in April. But the 100 was a classic innings built up of little nudges and late cuts and made with a bat which has Inzy 329 inscribed on it.

Anwar said later that he decided to let the ball come up to him instead of chasing them on that pitch and that is what helped him.

When the ball came he made way and then cut the ball. On one such occasion his sliced bat took the ball almost out of Rahul Dravid’s glove.

Come to think of it. It was pure poetry befitting the grand finale of his career. If at all he gets to stay in the team a bit longer, it will be just to play out from memory. The century against India is up there among the top innings.

Destiny too it seems conspired against Pakistan not letting some of these great players go away after a last great act in their game against Zimbabwe.

They deserved a better last hurrah.