Massacre Down Under

NOVEMBER 1999 - Even as we read this, the debacle in Australia continues. When I last saw, Ponting and Langer had made hundreds and it looked like the 3-0 result is well on the cards. The Pakistan cricket team flew to Australia just a little while back full of determination and the desire to “avenge” the World Cup defeat earlier this summer. However, they forgot one important detail. The Australians.

The three match series of tests has simply showed our weak areas and highlighted their strengths. We have simply been outplayed by a team which is so professionally motivated and driven that the thought of making them crumble, is a thought one should not consider. From the time our openers went in on that sunny day in London in the great final, the writing was on the wall. Saeed Anwar wore a helmet and a stricken look of great anxiety. The same look seemed to have infiltrated the entire team and we were demolished by the ruthless Aussie machine. The outcome was never in doubt and the better team simply won the World Cup. Cries of David Shepherd having conspired to undo Pakistan were in no way a justification for a bad performance.

Down under, the same scenario has continued. This is a highly talented Pakistan team and has just the right blend of experience and youth but talent is never enough when it is not supported by some serious professional thinking and attitude. Our team is only a reflection of ourselves and when you examine the national psyche, it is not difficult to understand what happens to the cricket team. I was particularly amused to see the old master, Dennis Lillee talking to our speed gun, Shoaib Akhtar at the very start of the tour. What the old pro was telling the rookie was to use his brains instead of his muscles but the look on the Rawalpindi Express (now sadly derailed) was one of skepticism. Of course it is also possible that Shoaib not the most well read of all people never understood a word of what Lillee was saying to him. It is hard enough to understand the language particularly if it comes with a strong Australian accent. All that Shoaib seemed to want was to break the sound barrier. Glen McGrath, an intelligent and thinking fast bowler (I know there is a contradiction here), gave young Shoaib good advice too. He said get wickets not speed records. This apparently had no effect on Shoaib or his team seniors who did not prevent Shoaib from making a fool of himself and get plastered all over the Australian cricket grounds.

This incident simply indicates the approach that the team has taken on this tour. It also explains to some extent why we have been unable to win the Hobart test when it was all over and again yesterday when we had Australia on its knees at 54-4 and then let them get away with it. Agreed that it is a game but there is a marked difference in the attitude of both teams and that is the difference. We seem to have a “putting out forest fires” attitude where each crisis is tackled as it comes. There is no cohesive action plan and the Australians simply have one which has worked for them. Blaming defeats on crucial decisions going the other way like the Parker decision on Langer is not good enough but has become a typical refuge that we take when things go wrong. Parker made a mistake both times with Langer but he is human and does not have the privilege of the arm chair critic who observes everything six times in super slow motion and then calls the umpire names. If the umpire does not hear a click or see a deviation, that’s the way it is and while decisions can cause matches to be won or lost, in Australia this has not been the case. Those who promote this are no friends of Pakistan cricket.

Considering that the Cricket Board had been hijacked (not a favourite term with the PML – N) by people who had no business running cricket (which is why they were), we have still a side with enormous potential to do well. As we are humbled in Australia and probably will face the same fate in the one days as we have in the tests, it would be the popular thing to launch a witch hunt of the team and is the last thing Pakistan cricket needs. There is no deep rooted conspiracy afoot down under. It is just that one side is mentally and professionally superior. We have good professional running cricket affairs and trying to once again set the house in order. Linking the dismal performance to their names is not what we need. Most people believe that given one or two exceptions, this is the best cricket side we could have taken and if they are getting clobbered, so be it.

While this is perhaps not the best time to be discussing issues other than performance on the ground, the Board may start considering the very important matter of “educating” its star performers. Every time Inzamam, Youhana, Azhar or Shoaib open their mouths to talk to broadcasters and interviewers, they make fools of themselves for no fault of theirs. We all know that if you wish to pursue serious cricket you can’t do so and still read books, go to university and hold a conversation in English without tripping over your feet. The boys are illiterate and need to be given basic lessons in not only English speaking but in table manners and social behaviour. They are young men out in countries where women, wine and song are available in abundance. They are not friars and monks and should not be expected to behave like disciples of a puritan religious order. But they need to polish their speaking skills since the media continues to grow stronger and they will have to sooner or later open their mouths other than the time they are appealing for LBW decisions. The Board should organize English lessons for a start. It is not a difficult task and there many ways to get this communication advantage in the favour of cricket players. Leaving them adrift is not fair. And above everything else, spare them the rope when they return.