For better part of its life, Pakistan Cricket has been a rollercoaster touching peaks of success one day only to taste the depths of ignominy without much of a delay. Before you have finished celebrating the team’s success in snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, there is always a thought at the back of the mind that it will not take long for the boys to shoot themselves in the foot. That being so, the quick transformation from the ecstasy at Lords to the sorrow at Galle should have surprised few.

While one can put off dissecting the team performance till the end of the Test series, there were a few souls who couldn’t wait that long. Abdul Qadir was one. The former chief selector didn’t waste a minute in going public with his thoughts about mala fide selection policy. He had recently found the egg on his face in the wake of team’s victory at the Twenty20 World Cup, so it was understandable that he didn’t want to delay his outburst this time because the second test was to start in a few days’ time and nobody, including Abdul Qadir, cold predict how the team would play; or where exactly the rollercoaster would be this time: on a high or a low. Also pitching in with his load of rubbish was Shoaib Akhtar, the man who at one point in time used to have the potential to develop into a decent bowler, but the showman in him never allowed the individual to make the most of what he had. His recently published remarks have caused considerable humour among cricket followers who must thank him for giving them something to laugh about in the wake of the Galle disappointment.

For starters, he said he was fit! One wonders what his definition of fitness happens to be, but it has been a long time since anybody in the world saw a professionally fit Shoaib Akhtar on any field of play anywhere in the world in any format of the game. The last time he turned out for Pakistan was just 10 weeks ago during the one-day series against Australia in the UAE. He cut a sorry figure. He was terribly overweight. There was so much flab bulging out of his trousers that he was struggling to keep his shirt tucked in. He was huffing, puffing and panting like a sprinter who had been made to run the marathon by an angry coach. Read more…

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Though India got knocked out of the World Cup, it can still boast of being the inventor of IPL. In many ways, the IPL is the reverse image of the World Cup. While the World Cup is all about nationalism, the IPL is about internationalism.

Along with the Internet and other transnational inventions, IPL, which puts club above country, could represent yet another step taken towards the eventual emergence of a borderless world. In that sense, IPL is a product, and also a facilitator, of what American science writer Michael Shermer calls 'evonomics': a synthesis of Darwinian evolution and free-market economics as outlined by Adam Smith.

Darwin's theory of natural selection sought to replace the top-down idea of a divine creator, or God - through whose 'intelligent design' (a concept greatly in vogue even today in the US and other parts of the Christian world) all created things were formed - by a bottom-up approach which proposed that species evolve through successful adaptation to the environment. In other words, it's not God but genetic competition ('good' genes survive, at the expense of 'bad' genes) which makes us what we are. Read more...

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The Twenty20 carnival has come to its end with a new champion. Pakistan have dethroned India as the defending champions. They had missed it by a whisker in 2007 but they did it this year. Somewhat like Roger Federer clinching French Open after a hobbling and struggling defending champion Rafael Nadal made an early exit.

I know it aches many Indian hearts but it’s an undeniable fact. And seriously, it could not have met a better end.

Ponder over it and everything falls into place. It was March 3 when Sri Lankan cricketers, who had toured Pakistan because India declined to go there post-26/11, were attacked in Lahore. That was something unimaginable. Cricket and cricketers were never attacked in the sub-continent.

With other teams being reluctant to visit Pakistan and PCB’s internal conflicts, the cricket has taken a severe beating there. This win has probably come as a fresh gush of wind that has brought smiles alive on terror-struck faces. Read more…

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The history of sports is filled with romantic stories of improbable triumphs. Pakistan’s T20 World Cup victory against Sri Lanka on Sunday is the stuff of folklore. Someday, someone will make a film called, Chak De! Pakistan.

For, this emphatic eight-wicket victory wasn’t just about what Younis Khan and his men achieved on the pitch. We must not forget the circumstances in which it came about. Pakistan had played little international cricket in recent times. They had also performed poorly in its early games. But the team bounced back to fashion a triumph that will surely lift the spirit of a nation ravaged by a brutal internal strife.

Only the petty will argue that Pakistan didn’t deserve to finish first. A World Cup isn’t always won by the best team. In the 1982 football World Cup, Brazil was arguably the best side. It didn’t even reach the semis. Surely neither India nor Australia were the best teams when they won the ODI World Cups in 1983 and 1987 respectively. They won because they performed better than their rivals when it mattered. Read more...

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It is surely a match made in heaven.

Just a few months after terrorists ravaged the soul of sport, it can’t be anything but divine intervention that Pakistan and Sri Lanka should be meeting in the T20 World Cup final on Sunday night.

Frankly, however, it doesn’t really matter who takes the trophy home now: both countries, indeed both teams, have endured so much in the recent past that they need the balm of victory to assuage their pain and trauma.

Interestingly, though, very few had given either of them even a ghost of a chance at the start: the Pakistan team, without the nourishment of quality cricket, had looked emaciated; Sri Lanka too was scarred by the attack and only a fool would have parted with his money to bet on it. Read more...

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It’s a tale of two nations whose trysts with violence have made headlines the world over.

Both have battled terrorism and internal strife over the last few months. One was attacked while touring the other, causing the latter to be banished from cricket. One has just emerged victorious against what was widely recognized as among the world’s longest surviving terror outfits while the other has been grappling with religious extremists and issuing ambiguous statements about the extent of inroads the dreaded Taliban have made into its territory, raising apprehensions of the outfit of bigots eventually taking control over their nuclear arsenal too.

And the two will now fight it out for the T20 World Cup Trophy, for once in many months, making headlines for the right reasons. Deservingly.

For both countries the win will mean much more than sporting laurels. For Pakistan as a country there has been little to feel good about since Benazir Bhutto’s assassination last December. Read more...

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About a fortnight ago when I wrote the blog, Why Pakistan must win Twenty20 World Cup, I was flooded with colourful abuses. An overwhelming majority of respondents labelled me "unpatriotic."  Many appeared convinced that India was going to win the World Cup and that Pakistan will be knocked out in the first round.

They had their reasons, I guess. Some were political and had little to do with cricket. But for a variety of reasons, many genuinely believed that Pakistan wasn't going to put up a good show. To begin with, Younis Khan and company hadn't seen much of international cricket in recent times. That apart, none of them had played in IPL2. Even in the practice games, the team hardly inspired confidence.

So how come Pakistan is playing Sunday's final while MS Dhoni's million dollar boys nurse their wounds. Let us try to analyse:

1. Unlike us, Pakistan improved with every game: Younis Khan and his men looked rusty in the warm-up matches. But rather than being dismissive or cocky, they worked on their shortcomings... Read more...

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Farewell then, South Africa. An excellent campaign ended in failure – and within seconds, the choking accusations had begun. As sure as night follows day (but without even the intervening buffer of evening), as sure as headache follows headbutting a lamppost, as sure as, in my experience as a father, throwing food on the floor leads to the mother of your children saying, “Don’t throw food on the floor – you’re 34 now and supposed to be setting a good example,” as sure as all of these things, South Africa were accused of choking on the big occasion.

In all sports, when a team or player has acquired a reputation for choking, fairly or unfairly, any failure is habitually deemed a choke. South Africa’s track record of flunking big knock-out games goes before them, which is understandable, given the spectacular firework displays they have put on when exiting recent tournaments – all the more magnificent for the fact that the team habitually plays with studied focus and almost scientific precision. Seeing South Africa implode on the cricket field is thus akin to watching a normally sedate accountant turn feral and start barking at a filing cabinet after losing his favourite pencil. Read more…

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Harsha Bhogle writes in the Indian Express that a good team doesn’t become bad overnight. He says that it was the batting that let India down, and that there were no easy bowlers to target in the World Twenty20 unlike the IPL. He doesn’t think fatigue or injuries were the major reasons behind India’s abysmal show.

Being on tour for long periods is part of the job now and players must rest and train to counter that. It is a personal responsibility and one that is non-negotiable. South Africa have been one of the best teams in this tournament, and one of the sharpest in the field, and they went into the IPL after draining back-to-back Test and one-day series against Australia. Most of their players were at the IPL too. If India’s players are fatigued they need to look within.

And in a scathing piece on exchange4media, a website that focuses on the media and advertising, BV Rao slams the over-the-top, less-than-nuanced coverage of India’s defeat by the country’s news channels. Read more…

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“I just blew him a kiss,” smiled Shahid Afridi, when asked about his on-field exchange with Jacques Kallis. It was a kiss that sent Pakistan to Lord’s, as Afridi won an old-fashioned battle of allrounders.

Afridi decided to spread love as he killed South Africa’s chances of lifting this World Cup.

Pakistan’s talisman was the difference today. A fact agreed upon by both captains, thousands of spectators at Trent Bridge, and millions of viewers at home. Halfway through this tournament Afridi changed his approach to batting. Encouraged by his captain, he has decided to take a couple of sighters instead of launching into a reckless assault.

Younis Khan’s greatest trick has been coaxing the best out of his unpredictable matchwinner, especially as they have clashed at times in the past. In the last three games Afridi has produced a complete allround game, and the results leave Pakistan standing tall today. Read more…

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