In any competitive enviornment its always about Survival Of The Fittest, And the cricketing world is no exception. With Cricket becoming a huge phenomena and the commercial value attached with, The players are on thier toes all the time to prove thier potential both on and off the park. Team Pakistan has always been "Controversy's" favorite prey. From Match Fixing to Spot Fixing, Ball Tampering to Player Power not to forget Terrorism and many other unpleasantries, our cricket has been hurt badly by all. But every time Our nation has backed the players and that has resulted in a desperate yet committed efforts by the team. Why go far if we rewind the time back to 2009 (March), when a touring Srilankan team captained by Mahela Jayawardena was attacked by Terrorists just in the premisies of thw Gaddafi Stadium Lahore. several Lankan players were injured and the horrifying attack lead to the cancellation of the tour. This was a shocking event, for the first time in the country's history any Sporting team was attacked. It brought heavy consequences for Pakistani cricket and from that day onwards Pakistani people and grounds are deprived of international cricket. But it did not affect the Mental Stability of the players, despite knowing that they will not play international matches on thier home ground, the players united themselves and gave a tough time to the then World Champions Australia in a 5 match ODI Series. Soon they found themselves in England where they had to play the ICC Twenty20 World Cup for 2009 a format of Cricket that has been suitable to Pakistani style of Cricket. The team lost its warmup games to South Africa and Arch Rivals India, Pundits predicted an early exit for Younis Khan's team Pakistan. Start to the tournament was unideal lost the host country, were on the verge of an early knock but showed their guts and class defeated Netherland, qualified for the Super eights and again lost to Srilanka in the first super eight game. But this was the end of the miseries, Khan's 11 stormed their way into the semi final crushing Newzealnd and Ireland by record margins, green shirts had a mountain to climb as they faced South Africa in the semi final, but the chokers choked and Pakistan qualified for the finals and had no problems in overcoming Srilanka in the final at the Historic Lord's London. What can one expect from a team that had recently been deprived of Inernational Home Cricket and were under stern media pressure.
It is not a single instance, who can forget the terrible tour of Pakistan to Australia (2009-2010) where under Mohammad Yousuf's captaincy the team didn't even win a single game out of 3 tests, 5 ODI's and 1T20, its unbelivable mental pressure that the team must be going through, but once more it showed a never say die spirit and reached the Carribean to participate in the 2010 edition of the ICC T20 worldcup as the defending champions. Unlike 2009 this time Green Shirts were considered a major force as they had a balanced unit and the team showed glimpses of its class but was not able to finish close games, however because of some good performances and a lot of luck the team managed to make it to the final 4 for the 3rd consecutive T20 Worldcup, they faced Australia at St. Lucia and totally thrashed their reputed and feared bowling atack that had guys like Shaun Tait, Dirk Nannes, Mitchell Johnson, and the team was all set to overcome the Aussies however Mike Hussey batted brilliantly in the last 3 overs and scored an unbelievable 22 runs of the final Saeed Ajmal over to make Kangaroos qualify for the final. Losing was not an issue, it was the fight and spirit with which the team played and it made the entire nation proud of Afridi and his troops.
2010 tour to England, another unpleasent event in Pakistan's Cricket history. Where not only we lost the 4 match test series 3-1 but 3 of our top players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and the young sensation Mohammad Amir were found guilty of spot fixing and were temporarily suspended bt the ICC, which later on turned into 5 or more years ban on each player plus a jail sentence as well. When the players were caught, there were speculations that the remaining ODI's and T20I's would be cancelled and the team wil return home however, for another time the team announced that "The Show must go on" and continued the tour, Shaho\id Afridi (a great fighter him self) lead the disturbed squad very well and gave a tough time to the English team and came very close to winning the ODI series but lost the decider at Rose Bowl, another series loss, however once again the sincere and fighting efforts received great appreciation from the Millions of Pakistanis.
Eversince there has been an evident improvement in the team's both On and Off the field's performances. No controversies just betterment of performances. Team played well in UAE (The make shift homeground) against South Africa, has an excellent away series in Newzealand, and after 1999 had a dream run in the worldcup making it to the final four, the away victories against West Indies and Zimbabwe and finally another fantastic home series agaisnt Srilanka. In all these series the team looked like a unit, and backed each other up, there was healthy competition between talented players for crucial positions and team was following the Leader.
Pakistan is renowned to always have the best pool of talented players, but the unwanted controversies do affect the performance of these players, however the mental strength and stern self belief these players have shown in the days gone, rest assured that this team will always improve and will not be hurt by any controversy.
GeoSuper