Zahid Suleman Sadiq Gill - Turn Back the Clock on Pakistani Cricket

Lekin ek baat hai bhai, if Pakistan somehow come to face New Zealand in the quarterfinal or semifinal na, mazaa aa jayega. Idhar ki logon ko toh already f*t rahi hai!” Zahid, an Auckland cabbie, originally hailing from Lahore, laughs outrageously as he talks about how his colleagues and friends still fear a repeat of the ‘92 semi-final. Zahid says he was there at the semifinal of ‘92 at the stadium. “When Inzy had started to hit those fours, my friends and I would just turn back and look at the faces of these New Zealanders. Kya mazedaar din tha (what a fun day)!” (Full Coverage| Points table| Fixtures) And so I decide to check it by asking seven New Zealanders I see next and decide to come at a conclusion. Surprise surprise. For Pakistan. Zahid’s expression was perfect. Now please don’t rant that it’s not a scientific poll as if you didn’t take the Indian election polls in good humour. Close contest in Dilli between BJP and AAP it seems, bah! But can this Pakistan team somehow manage to come through knockouts and then depend only on ‘on their day’ stuff? Thus far, they have been eerily dull, soul-less and lacking chutzpah. A wonderful question was put across to Waqar Younis in Napier on Wednesday night. “Waqar bhai, our batting seems to be so behind the times. You see batsmen like AB de Villiers and others play the paddle-scoop, lap shot, this and that, and our batsmen still seem to play like the old ways”. Strictly speaking, it’s incorrect as not only was the birth of IPL due to one such silly shot by Misbah-ul-Haq in Johannesburg but also because the old Pakistan was full of dare and innovation. No one who has seen cricket in ’80s can forget their batsmen, led by Salim Malik, leave the stumps and have a slash like there was no tomorrow. IPL platform But you get the sense of what he was asking. And Waqar nodded sagely and said “yeah AB and co do it, perhaps it’s because we don’t play in T20 competitions like IPL and they have learnt and perfected all this shots under pressure there”. Interesting point, but it triggered an Indian journalist to jump into this follow-up question. “Do you think not playing IPL is proving detrimental to Pakistan cricket”? Nice try but Waqar was quick on the act this time and played kill joy. “No, Pakistan cricket is set back by lack of cricket in Pakistan and not because of IPL”. Ah! But let’s return to the soul-sapping cricket of the Pakistan team. The bowling is actually pretty decent.