Shoaib's saga of conspiracies and injuries
No doubt he is a match winner on his day but Pakistanis have been waiting for that fortunate day for a long time. However, it seems now that such a day would never come
By Khurram Mahmood
Pakistan cricket has the pride of producing world-class fast bowlers regularly from its inaugural Test against India in 1952. From Fazal Mahmood to Umar Gul there is long list of outstanding pacers.

A tale of lost opportunities
By Waris Ali
The fear that the Younis Khan-led team may come out as ultimate losers, which was expressed despite the fact that they had won the first One-day International, proved absolutely true. Skipper Younis Khan also had the same fact in his mind when he said, "We knew that Australia will come down hard on us."

Just days after asking Pakistan Cricket Board's lawyers to send a legal notice to the International Cricket Council (ICC) that is loaded with information suggesting that India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are unsafe destinations for the 2011 World Cup, Ijaz But left on a "goodwill tour" of South Asia on May 15 in a bid to mend fences with the neighbouring boards.

The idea behind the trip is to once again garner the support of the so-called Asian bloc that deserted Pakistan when it needed it the most – at the ICC Executive Board meeting in Dubai where Pakistan were deprived of their status as co-hosts of the 2011 World Cup.

Officials with detailed knowledge of that meeting and about what happened before and after the Dubai moot will tell you how senior officials from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh shunned PCB representatives ahead of that controversial ICC verdict which announced that Pakistan is an unsafe place for World Cup matches.

Pakistan's cricket chiefs, acting on the advise of Ehsan Mani – a former ICC president who is now masterminding PCB's response to ICC's 2011 World Cup ruling – are desperate to carry out extensive damage control with the help of back-channel communications with their counterparts in other Test-playing nations especially in South Asia.

Anybody who has carefully read the nine-page legal notice sent by Britain-based law firm DLA Piper to the ICC on PCB's behalf, would have serious doubts about the likes of Somachandra de Silva, Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee, and Sharad Pawar, senior Indian official and now ICC vice-president, receiving Butt with open arms in Colombo and New Delhi respectively.

The PCB chairman will really have to do a lot of convincing in Colombo, New Delhi and Dhaka to ensure that Pakistan are not pushed towards further isolation. Cricket officials in those three South Asian capitals must be aware of the details carried in the legal notice, directly underlining the volatile security situation in their countries.

In a nutshell, the PCB in its legal attack on the ICC has given this clear message that if Pakistan can't host any World Cup games then the sport's governing body should also treat the other co-hosts similarly because those countries are also "extremely volatile".

There are several pages in that notice that suggest in clear words that there is a high general threat from terrorism throughout India and that the situation is equally serious in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The underlining message is 'look if Pakistan is a dangerous place then what's the logic behind having the World Cup in the rest of this volatile region'.

If there is any method to this madness, it's quite well-concealed.

Let's be frank. Pakistan had the right to fight a legal battle after being thrown out of the list of World Cup co-hosts without being given the opportunity of a fair trail by the ICC – an otherwise impotent body that seems to grow teeth only when it's dealing with Pakistan.

But whether it's wise to further alienate other regional boards by targetting the security situation in their countries is a different question.

The PCB may have managed to do just that. By raising questions about the seriousness of the security situation in the rest of South Asia, the Board has told the ICC to wrap up World Cup preparations in this region and instead set up shop in Australia and New Zealand – the alternate venues for the 2011 World Cup.

Such a policy is unlikely to be welcomed by the three surviving World Cup co-hosts. It's simply a bad move that might need a lot of damage control – a job which Ijaz Butt and his team doesn't seem capable of performing in the best possible manner.

However, fears that the PCB move to question the security situation in the entire region might deepen Pakistan's isolation is a long-term issue. What's more pressing for the Board is to win its legal battle against the ICC that has reacted sharply to the notice.

In its notice, the PCB has claimed that the decision to remove Pakistan as a co-host was legally flawed and contravened ICC articles and the 2006 agreement that awarded the competition jointly to Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The Dubai-based ICC, in its response, has tried to make it clear that it had not decided to remove the PCB as a joint host of the event, but only that the matches assigned to the PCB should be played outside Pakistan.

"We are naturally disappointed that the PCB has chosen to pursue its grievance with the ICC through legal channels but, having received correspondence from its lawyers, we have now responded," Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, said in a statement.

"We used our response to clarify inaccuracies and misunderstandings in the PCB's claim, including confirmation of the fact that the agenda and the Board papers for the recent ICC Board meetings did very specifically raise the question of whether the World Cup 2011 matches assigned to the PCB as joint hosts should be relocated outside of Pakistan.

"We also pointed out that the ICC Board agreed only that the matches should be moved away from Pakistan, not that the PCB should be removed from its position as a joint host of the event itself.

"The suggestion the ICC Board was not empowered to decide that matches should be moved away from Pakistan and that such a decision was 'legally flawed' is also incorrect and without foundation."

He also insisted that concerns over security were paramount.

"We need to deliver a tournament that is safe, secure and, above all, successful and it was on that basis that the decision was taken that matches could not be played in Pakistan," stressed Lorgat.

"We hope the PCB realises that by attempting to pursue the matter through legal channels, it will result in the diversion of funds and resources better served to ensure a safe, secure and successful tournament in 2011, something that will benefit all our members, including Pakistan."

Senior PCB officials will be complete fools not to realise the financial costs of a legal battle with the ICC.

While the ICC has over the years become a cash-rich body, same is no more true in the case of the PCB. Our Board has suffered huge losses in recent times because of the refusal of top teams to come and play here and will have to spend precious funds if its case against the World Cup decision snowballs into a full-blown legal battle.

One has this feeling that neither the PCB or the ICC will want to fight such a battle, at least not on a long-term basis. There is a big possibility that the two parties will agree on a compromise sooner than later.

One possibility is that the ICC's Executive Board could meet again soon to resolve the matter and may allow Pakistan to host its share of 14 World Cup matches on neutral venues like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Pakistan successfully used those two cities in the United Arab Emirates to 'host' their one-day series against Australia from April 22-May 7.

Sources in both the PCB and ICC say that it's a viable option considering the fact that Pakistan are desperate enough to regain their status as World Cup co-hosts and will happily give up their demand of staging matches on home soil if given the option of hosting them on neutral venues.

Also the geographical location of the UAE centres goes in favour of this option. Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi are within a few hours away from other World Cup destinations like Mumbai, Colombo and Dhaka and traveling won't be a hassle for competing teams if they are included in the list of World Cup venues.

One conspiracy theory floating in our cricketing circles suggests that secretly both the PCB and ICC had decided to go for this option even before the legal notice was prepared by Pakistan.

The theory suggests that initially the two parties decided against ruling in the favour of neutral venues for Pakistan's share of World Cup matches in a bid to avoid a possible backlash in Pakistan.

Whether that's true can't be proved but one thing that's certain is the fact that our cricket is certainly in incapable hands.

It was once again proved at that fateful meeting of the ICC Executive Board last month in Dubai where it was decided to strip Pakistan of its share of World Cup games. During that meeting, instead of protesting against the decision, Ijaz Butt decided to abstain from voting. It was a careless move as the final vote during that meeting was recorded as a unanimous one and if the ICC decides to throw a counter punch at the PCB over its legal notice then it will certainly get a lot of help from the fact that its Executive Board "unanimously" decided to move World Cup matches from Pakistan.

Reports have also suggested that in spite of clear instructions from the ICC, the PCB was unable to come out with a plan for alternate World Cup venues.

The poor management skills of the PCB top brass is also evident from the fact that it has decided to avoid the media in the wake of last month's ICC ruling.

Before writing this piece, one made repeated efforts to hear PCB's side of the story over its legal notice to the ICC. However, senior PCB officials were either unavailable or decided against taking calls made by this writer.

The Board's elusiveness didn't come as much of a surprise because in recent times senior officials have been avoiding media men, at least the ones who have been raising serious questions about the working of the Board, like the plague.

The problem, however, is that such elusiveness will be just as effective as Butt's decision to stay away from voting during the ICC moot.

Khalid Hussain is Editor Sports, The News, Karachi

Email: khalidhraj@gmail.com

The attack on Sri Lankan Cricket team was the last nail in the coffin of Pakistan's already rocking sports boat. This brutal act made every one sad, but the worst had yet to come. It did not take long when on 25th of April 2009 a "toy bomb" killed eleven children in a village of lower Dir. Sport which is a right of every child as per the UN charter has been virtually eroded from international, national and local scenes of a nuclear state blessed with enormous human resource.

The sport history of Pakistan is studded with many achievements to cherish and many heroes to worship, however the gradual decline in sport standards owes much to the incapacity of sports bodies their dirty politics, poor socio-economic conditions of the masses, inappropriate knowledge of sport as a specialisation and industry and above all the lack of will of the decision makers to use sport as a tool of development, education and social change in the society.

Today Pakistan stands alone in the eye of storm with the scourge of terrorism engulfing its social fibre. The famous Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times" seems relevant in today's context but fortunately this situation is not new to the history of mankind that has witnessed many seasons of unrest and uncertainty. We know that in every adversity there is a silver lining which if identified correctly by its leadership has the capacity to change the fortunes of nation. Needless to say that solution may come from anywhere and can be simple yet out of box. However, the first step to nation building is admission of faults and sincerity of purpose. We have to admit that education, health and social sector was and is the most neglected area of our national development paradigm. Whatever may be the reasons, time and history has always proved that it's not the investment in armies but in youth that ultimately shapes the future of nations.

From Pluto to Aristotle and from Chairman Mao to Nelson Mandela all great leaders used the power of sport to unite the country and empower its youth for social change. The first letter written by Mao from his office to the party workers indicates the effective use of sport as a powerful catalyst to awaken the opium eating society. Mandela has been an undisputed leader of modern times who used sport to unite the rainbow nation for the achievement of national objectives in post apartheid period.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto knew about the power hidden in the folds of sport for all and education but could not capitalise on it as he was over whelmed with the Chinese communist model without understanding its complexities. General Zia-ul-Haq had a different stand point on the issue. Despite getting a massive economic and military aid of 12.7 billion dollars he separated the ministry of sport from education. This was a devastating policy decision that initiated the process of slow death of sport in education institutions of Pakistan.

Thanks to Cricket and its management which in its private capacity survived and promoted the game otherwise by now all the sport grounds in the country would have been occupied by the land mafia.

As Mandela said and practiced, sport has the capacity to transform the lives of individuals and societies. It bolsters physical, psychological, emotional well being and development. However, few developing countries including Pakistan have marginalised sport, viewing it as a relatively low priority among a host of needs and goals.

The United Nations, the International Olympic and Paralympics Committees, non governmental organisations all over the world and leading corporate entities have banded together to think and implement strategically about sport for development and peace. The UN task force on sport for development and peace was thus constituted which in its 2003 report constituted that sport offers a cost effective tool to meet many development and peace challenges, and help achieve the MDGs (Millennium Development goals).

On November 3, 2003, the UN General Assembly passed resolution 58/5 encouraging governments to use sport to advance their development and peace process thus declaring 2005 the international year of sport and physical education.

Many developing nations took advantage of the UN initiative and governments as well as the private sector launched innovative and interesting programs with far reaching social effects. In Egypt a successful initiative was taken by the government in collaboration with UN agency to use sport for teaching reproductive health and literacy training. In Zambia, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe sport is now extensively used as a tool of effective social change. These countries are using field and court invasion games like football, basketball, hockey, rugby and netball to promote values of team play, cohesion, discipline and sense of community amongst the youth.

In Uganda the "Kids League" has been formed which is operating in Karamoja since 2006. Karamoja's complex historical dynamics characterised by inter-clan rivalry, violence and cattle raiding (Rassa Giri) has militated against childhood development thereby compromising children's rights to education, peace and health. A sport project by an education trust targeting visually challenged girls in Rajinder Nagar, Delhi has met success and the GOAL project in India in collaboration with International Federation of Netball is using the tool of Netball to strengthen and empower the women of India.

According to UN Article 2 of International Charter of Physical Education & Sport, Physical education and sport is an essential element of lifelong education in the overall education system of any country and according to its article 10, national institutions play a major role in forming a decentralised plan of action in the framework of life long education. Does Pakistan seem following the UN resolutions on sport? Our sport officials are very much interested to attend international conferences on sport and development but they neither have knowledge nor the will to exercise sport tool for national development. Their only excuse is lack of tangible facilities and inability to see sport at large beyond the grand Cricket greens and hockey stadiums.

Millions of youth have been displaced because of on going operation in Swat and Dir districts. Surprisingly no enlightened sport body in the country has come forward with a sport program to mitigate the sufferings and psychological trauma of youth and children in the camps through sport. In the present situation there is an immediate need to form a high level body in the Planning Commission or Senate Standing Committee on sport (if existing) to ponder and then formulate a comprehensive frame work followed by dedicated actions to bring sport back in the folds of education. The government needs to make a firm commitment and look beyond rhetoric to follow the UN charters for the development of sport and education. I am sure that the decision makers in the government are better aware than me about the potential of sport in education for producing the future leaders, however it depends if they want to give common man a chance to step into the domains of leadership by empowering and developing their faculties through education and sport or would like to confine the sacred cow of leadership for the elite educated in foreign institutions.

We owe much to our next generation. There is a need to think out of box and come out from the fixations of large cricket grounds and hockey astro-turfs.

Cricket despite being our national pastime does not have the capacity to fulfill the aspirations of entire country's youth. We are a nation of 170 million and we must stand and respond to the challenge of international conspiracies that have closed the doors of global sport on our sport loving youth. Let us make the best use of the time and opportunity given to us by God in the form of present adversity. Let's use sport in IDP camps, in moderate madrassas and take sport back to education institutions and communities where it belongs to, with a larger agenda of social change and have faith that sport can offer many new opportunities and hope to our youth. It would be far more prudent to establish a "knowledgeable broad-based sport culture" than a "Taliban culture" by substituting "toy bombs" with sports gear.

The actions have to be well thought and sustainable before it's too late.

The second edition of Twenty20 World Championship is scheduled to begin in England next month. The 27-match event will commence at Lord's with a match between hosts England and minnows Netherlands on June 5.

India will defend their world title which they won two years ago in South Africa. Pakistan, the runners-up of the previous Twenty20 World Cup, got ideal preparation for the grand event when they thrashed second string Australian cricket team in the one-off Twenty20 game by seven wickets at Dubai. Remember, Australia are yet to beat Pakistan in Twenty20 Internationals. They also lost their previous clash against Pakistan during the World Twenty20 in 2007.

After the Twenty20 triumph in Dubai, Pakistan settled the result sheet in a way against the Aussies. In all six international matches -- five ODIs and a solitary T20 game -- were played in UAE between Pakistan and Australia, who won the ODI rubber 3-2.

The thumping triumph against the Aussies would definitely lift Pakistan team's spirits ahead of the World Twenty20 event.

Though Pakistan remained cricket-starved during the last two years mainly due to security problems, they enjoyed clear edge against all opponents as far as number of Twenty20 world records and rare distinctions are concerned. Pakistan cricketers produced as many as half a dozen T20 world records against Australia in Dubai.

The victory against Australia was Pakistan's 13th out of 17 Twenty20 matches they have played since this popular brand of cricket was introduced some four years ago.

Pacer Umar Gul, all-rounder Shahid Afridi and wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal were the real architects of Pakistan's moral boosting Twenty20 victory against Australia.

Umar Gul, who became the highest wicket-taker (24) in Twenty20s, missed the best-ever T20 bowling figures by just one run. Gul's impressive figures against Australia were 4-0-8-4. His figures were the second best in a Twenty20 Internationals behind New Zealand pacer Mark Gillespie's 4-7 against Kenya at Durban in 2007.

Afridi and Gul played key roles in restricting the high-flying Aussies. Gul began his bowling with a wicket on the very first ball dismissing opener Shane Watson. Afridi jolted the Aussies further by taking two scalps on the first two balls of his opening spell. From 42 for no loss in four overs, Australia went to 73 for 5 and 108 all out.

With his first wicket, Gul levelled the tally of most Twenty20 International wickets with Daniel Vettori. Gul returned for his second spell to dismiss Nathan Hauritz (two), Brett Lee (nought) and Marcus North (20) to improve his previous record (4-13) in a Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka last year.

The world record of most four-wicket hauls in a career also belongs to Gul. He has performed the said feat on three occasions now. Sri Lanka's Ajantha Mendis has done it twice so far.

Out of his 24 wickets, Gul captured 11 wickets while bowling out the batsmen which is most by a bowler in T20s so far. South African Dayle Steyn has eight such wickets in his kitty.

Afridi, with a three-wicket haul, also left New Zealander Daniel Vettori behind in the race of T20 wickets. Now Pakistan have two bowlers -- Umar Gul (24) and Shahid Afridi (22) on top of the table. Afridi also shared the distinction of most wickets in a calendar year with Canada's Harvir Singh Baidwan. Both bowlers took 14 wickets each in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

In his T20 career, Afridi bowled three maiden overs so far, which is also a rare performance. Only four other bowlers have performed that feat so far.

Akmal -- apart from his devastating knock -- also stumped out Australian batsman Callum Ferguson in Dubai, which took his number of T20 dismissals past former Australian stumper Adam Gilchrist (17) thus giving Pakistan another record. Brendon MacCullum with 16 dismissals stays at number three.

Kamran had also 10 stumpings in his career so far which is more than any other wicketkeeper. The record of most number of stumpings in an innings also belongs to Kamran Akmal who stumped three Kenyan batsmen at Nairobi in 2007. Zimbabweís Tatenda Taibu is the only other wicketkeeper who did so in T20s so far.

The victory against Aussies, gave Pakistan the best-ever Twenty20 Internationals winning percentage among all Test-playing nations. Pakistan played 17 matches with only three defeats which gave them excellent winning ratio of 79.41 followed by India (62.50), Sri Lanka (61.53) and South Africa (61.11).

Though Australia and New Zealand played most number of T20 matches (21 each) so far but their winning ratio remained not-so-impressive at 52.38 and 42.85 respectively.

Pakistan's three defeats came against India, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Pakistan's impressive performance in T20s can be gauged from the fact that they have 100 per cent win record against as many as eight opponents -- Australia, England, Canada, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Kenya, Scotland and Zimbabwe -- which is better than any other country. In this peculiar race, the next best is Sri Lanka with a hundred percent winning record against five nations.

Pakistan played eight T20 matches without defeat in 2007 which is also a world record. South Africa and India had a sequence of five matches each without defeat.

In 2007, Pakistan's eight batsmen reached double figures during their match against Scotland at Durban which is also a rare feat.

In the batting department, New Zealand's Brendon MacCullum has scored most number of runs (582 in 21 matches) in this form so far but the next two places in this chart are occupied by Pakistan's Misbahul Haq and Shoaib Malik respectively. They have scored 422 and 383 runs respectively. Misbah struck unbeaten 66 at number six batting position in a T20 match against Australia in 2007 which is most by a batsman so far.

As far as T20 partnerships are concerned, Pakistan had two world records in its kitty. Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik gathered 101 runs for the 4th wicket stand against Sri Lanka in a match of inaugural T20 World Cup at Johannesburg in 2007. On another occasion, Malik in company of Misbah, piled up 119 for the 5th wicket partnership against Australia during the same event and ground.

Young opener Ahmed Shahzad also played his part in enhancing Pakistan's world honours in the shortest form of the game. He became world's youngest cricketer to play a Twenty20 International when he took the field against Australia in Dubai. He was 17 years and 165 days old when he played against Aussies. Bangladesh's Mushfiqur Rahim was the previous youngest T20 cricketer. He was 18 years and 88 days old when he made his maiden T20 appearance in Khulna against Zimbabwe in 2006.

After watching Pakistan's brilliant record in almost all the departments in the shortest form of cricket, one can expect that the green flag-bearers will offer good cricket in the World Twenty20 Championship in England.

Email: ghalibmbajwa@hotmail.com

A tale of lost opportunities

The fear that the Younis Khan-led team may come out as ultimate losers, which was expressed despite the fact that they had won the first One-day International, proved absolutely true. Skipper Younis Khan also had the same fact in his mind when he said, "We knew that Australia will come down hard on us."

Sandwiched between Pakistan's two meaningless victories, their three consecutive losses to Australia proved that the Australians were the ultimate winners. But the world champions' victory is indebted more to Pakistan's below-par showing than the Aussies' own struggle, and the third one-dayer proves well that Pakistan lost the match and the Aussies won it, only by virtue of Pakistani team's losing spirit. The post-defeat outcry that it was a result of lack of planning and poor performance is meaningless; such faults must have been pointed out well on time when the series was still in progress.

The first ODI saw Aussies play an uncharacteristic innings marked by no fifty and seven single-digit knocks. The Pakistani batting saw just two single-digit knocks. The low-scoring match witnessed a humble batting show on the part of target-setters Australia, thus confining the chasers to the paltry target of 168 runs. Interestingly, what to speak of a century, not a single fifty could be scored by any batsman from either team.

The second game witnessed one fifty, one duck and one single-digit innings from the Pakistan side whose weak target of just 207 runs was achieved by four Australian batsmen when five overs were still to be played. Their cause was helped by an all-round performance from comeback star Andrew Symonds. With their tight line and length and cool-minded target-chasing technique, Australia came back strongly and beat Pakistan by six wickets.

The 33-year-old, on a comeback trail after being dropped due to several breaches of discipline, took two wickets in an over to help Australia restrict Pakistan to 207 before scoring 58 to anchor the run-chase at the packed Dubai Sports City Stadium. For Pakistan, opener Salman Butt top-scored with a resolute 57 runs while Shahid Afridi hit a 40-ball 41. In the final overs, Shoaib Akhtar hit four boundaries and a six during a fiery 14-ball 25.

The Australian innings in the third match comprises one duck and one single digit knock and one fifty, while Pakistani innings comprises one duck and four single-digit knocks without any fifty. The Aussies lost only seven wickets compared to Pakistan, who were bowled out before playing their quota of fifty overs.

Standing in for regular captain Ricky Ponting who was rested for the series along with Michael Hussey and Mitchell Johnson, Michael Clarke's 66 runs knock and then three wickets put Pakistan into a losing position. Sadly, Pakistan lost all 10 wickets in the space of 76 runs -- including first four wickets in the space of 12 runs -- thus ruining a marvelous opening stand given by Salman Butt (48) and Ahmed Shahzad (40).

The fourth one-dayer was a story of characteristic Australian batting which had strong grip over the match throughout the game when Michael Clarke struck a sparkling hundred, well supported by Watson (85 not out) to form a 197 runs partnership for the third wicket.

It was Kamran Akmal's aggressive batting, producing the only century in the series from the Pakistan side, which overshadowed Shane Watson's hundred and earned a meaningless victory for Pakistan in the dead rubber. Akmal's unbeaten 116, for the fourth wicket partnership of record 198 runs with Misbah-ul-Haq (76 not out), played a key role to meet the 251-run target. Watson's unbeaten 116 was the cornerstone for Australia's 250-4 in the final one-dayer. Akmal had earlier managed 19, eight and one runs in the last three games.

Former Pakistan Test cricketers Moin Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz blamed poor planning and indiscipline. Sarfraz Nawaz expressed shock that Umar Gul was not in the playing eleven for the decisive fourth match. Sarfraz's displeasure proved true in the last Twenty20 match in which Gul recorded the second-best figures in Twenty20 cricket to help fire Pakistan to a seven-wicket win over Australia in the one-off match. The 25-year-old fast bowler took 4-8 in his four-over spell, combining with leg-spinner Shahid Afridi (3-14) to restrict Australia to a modest 108 in 19.5 overs. They were the second best figures ever in a Twenty20 International, behind New Zealand pacer Mark Gillespie's 4-7 against Kenya in Durban in 2007.

Pakistan captain Younis Khan remarks that his team's defeat will make them a better side is an absurd statement: victories boost morale, defeats do otherwise. Younis refused to accept that resting the in-form Gul for the crucial match on Friday was a mistake. "We had to play Shoaib Akhtar," said Younis, referring to the bowler who was rested for the third match.

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam also offered same absurd justification that the team would learn from its defeat. "The problem is poor batting, you can't win against Australia by scoring 200 or 225," he said.

No doubt, the Aussies are great cricketers, but Pakistanis are also shocking losers, and this is the factor which worked here. Indeed, the Pakistan cricket team has been disappointing the nation by losing matches from seemingly winning positions, and this is a conclusion well supported by its cricket history in the last two decades. Twenty years ago, the Imran Khan-led Pakistan cricket team badly lost to Australia in the semifinal of the Reliance World Cup 1987 when they failed to chase a gettable target of 268 runs on home turf.

In the 1996 World Cup hosted by Pakistan, Wasim Akram bluntly refused to play in a key match of the knock-out stage against India, leaving the team in the lurch and eventually paving the path for the defending champions' extremely disappointing exit from the tournament.

In the next World Cup, Pakistan were all out in 39 overs and gave Australia a lowly target of 132 runs.

The story of the 2003 World Cup is even more heartbreaking. The national cricket team set a new example by 'managing' an early exit from the tournament by losing to Australia, England and India.

In the 2007 edition of the biennial spectacle, Pakistan fell to minnows Ireland and were bundled out of the event.

Pakistan also disappointed their fans by losing to India in the final of the inaugural World Twenty20 Championship in South Africa in 2007.

India scored 157 runs for the loss of five wickets, a target which all the Pakistani team could not achieve as the ten players failed to play all the 20 overs. While the Indian total depended on the 75-run knock by Gautam Ghambir, none of the Pakistani players could score a fifty.

While the 63-run partnership in the Indian innings speaks of stable batting by Indian players, the highest partnership in Pakistani innings was confined to 34 runs only. While Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi were the batting specialists and expected to lead the innings, they shocked the nation by returning to the pavilion by scoring merely 10 runs collectively.