Pakistan Cricket Team: Crisis Or Bad Luck!

Now, I feel sorry for Pakistan Cricket team. Yes, they lack consistency, but their recent record in Cricket does not realistically highlight the quality cricket they have been playing.

It all started from the ICC Champions Trophy in 2009. Pakistan, the-then T20 World Champions, played against New Zealand in the Semi-finals. Pakistan Cricket Team played well, the game was very close, but New Zealand managed to hold their nerves and won the match.

Then Pakistani Cricket team toured New Zealand in the end of 2009. Pakistani team was winning the first test but eventually lost to the Kiwis by 32 runs on the last day. Pakistan Cricket team comprehensively won the 2^nd Cricket Test by 141 runs but the final match was without result. The series was drawn 1-1.

Just before the end of New Zealand tour, Pakistani

Cricket team’s captain Younis Khan announced his unavailability for Pakistan Cricket team for the Australian tour. Pakistani Cricket team then flew to Australia led by Mohammed Yousaf, for what turned out to be the worst ever tour of Pakistani team. Australia won the 1^st test quite easily. However, the most controversial match was the Sydney test.  Pak team was winning the match but on the last day, Pakistan lost the match by 36 runs. Thanks to some pathetic wicket keeping from Kamran Akmal and some equally pathetic batting from Pakistani batsmen.

I think this defeat in Sydney has had great repercussions on Pakistan Cricket team. Not only Pak team lost the 3^rd test, but also defeated comprehensively in all 5 ODIs and a maiden T20 match in Australia. Mohammed Yousaf gave up his captaincy after humiliated defeat in 5 ODIs. Shahid Afridi led the team in the T20 match. During which, the captain was shown on TV camera, biting the ball to temper it. Afridi was banned for 2 T20 matches.

Pakistan Cricket has been in turmoil ever since the Sydney Test defeat. However, one thing needs to be mentioned here. Pakistan performance in the ODIs against Aussies was not very poor. In some matches they played well, but just could not achieve a victory. In the T20 match again, Pak team fought hard. The match was close, but the victory was still far away from Team Pakistan.

Pakistan Cricket team then played in the World T20 earlier this year. They were the defending champions. As usual their start of the tournament was not good. In Super-8 round they started getting some momentum. Against England, they were very close to win the match, but Peterson’s heroic came in the way! Pakistan lost the match.

However, Pakistan team managed to qualify for the Semi-finals of World T20. Pakistan played against Australia. It was a close match. Pakistan was winning the match until last 3 overs. But then the magic of Mike Hussey ruined Pakistan’s hard-work. Pakistan was beaten again.

This leads us to the Asia Cup-2010. Pakistan played their first match against Sri Lanka. Pak team was chasing 242. Afridi’s heroic innings of 109 almost took Pakistan home. But then, Muralitharan got him out. As soon as Afridi departed, Pakistan lost the remaining wickets and they lost the match by just 23 runs.

Pakistani Cricket team played their 2^nd match against their arch-rival, India. We had already predicted in our preview of the match, that India had a little edge over Pakistan in the match. But we also predicted that this India Vs Pakistan Match is bound to be close.

That’s what exactly happened. Pakistan scored 267. India started well. However, in the middle of the innings, they tumbled. Pakistan capitalized on the situation. They bowled well. But, the result was not different for Pakistan. Harbhajan Singh stroke the winning 6 for India on the 2^nd last delivery of the match. Pakistan lost the match, also the opportunity to qualify for the finals.

So, what went wrong for Pakistan?

I think the disastrous tour of Australia is still taking its toll. Pakistan Cricket has been facing some serious problems since then. Some senior players were banned. Videos leaked showing evident that Pakistan players were dangerously involved in grouping and some players taking oath to snatch captaincy from Younis.

I think all this is still having great impact on Pakistan Cricket team’s performance.

We have criticized Pakistan cricket players and Pakistan Cricket Board in our articles. But I think Pakistani team is now giving their hard work. Let’s hope if things become better for them in England tour!

Your Turn Now! What do you think is the reason of continuous defeats of Pakistan Cricket team? How Pakistan can change this? How do you see India Vs Pakistan Match? Or Anything Else…Tell in your COMMENTS!