Pakistan have confounded the critics, their own fans and even themselves in going from a team that looked anything but world beaters, to well, world beaters. Becoming the T20 World Champions is nothing short of stupendous given they couldn’t bat, bowl or field against England, key components you’d have to say in any World Cup winning side, especially at this format.
Comparisons will inevitably be drawn to the victorious 1992 side and how they lurched from being almost out of the tournament one minute and holding the trophy aloft the other. However, I’d hate to see a precedent set whereby professionalism is allowed to take a back seat in favour of the age old notion that talent will win you everything.
Indeed, I was taken aback somewhat by the sheer methodicalness of their victory on Sunday. In fact, I am trying to rack my brains in trying to find a game of a similar stature that Pakistan have performed so admirably well. They had sought to work out prior to the game on how to bowl to the Sri Lankan batsmen and in particular Tillakartne Dilshan, who had terrorized bowlers throughout the tournament. To see Dilshan worked out so comprehensively was deliciously satisfying.
Add to this that I cannot remember a catch being put down or many major misfields. As if this was not enough, having restricted Kumar Sangakkara’s men to a paltry 138 Pakistan undertook a run chase without any major mishaps and comfortably reached the target with eight balls to spare and more importantly with eight wickets still remaining.
The fact is that chasing in a World Cup final is hard, only two other teams have ever accomplished the feat (Sri Lanka in 1996 and Australian in 1999) and the only minor chink in such a fantastic performance would be that they excelled in their roles of slight underdogs in the final and so was spared the burden of being favourites.
Strangely, the highs of becoming World Champions have quickly become muted - perhaps the very nature of the format and its infancy will not lend itself to sustained celebrations as there was in 1992. The fact that we will only be World Champions for a matter of a few months have also kept the brevity of the celebrations in check.
It would be nice to think Pakistan’s victory was for the Pakistani fans and the nation in general, however the victory has only gone to highlight how patronizing and hypocritical some have been in their treatment towards Pakistan.
Many have come out to say how Pakistan’s achievements is one in the eye of the terrorists after that attack, yet shurely standing shoulder to shoulder and saying we will continue to play in Pakistan would give a greater statement of intent than any World Cup win on foreign soil. No one will tour and the 2011 World Cup will still not be played in Pakistan.
IPL have already said they would welcome back Pakistani players but they were quick to exclude them in the first place. Perhaps most heinous of all given what has happened in the last few months, President Zardari is quick to hop on the bandwagon, (Majed’s blog highlights the hypocrisy of this all)
So let’s savour the victory for now. We came, we saw and we conquered, but at what cost?
