Yet, despite the tell-tale loss to New Zealand Board President XI, a nation feverishly consumed by cricket did not lose hope. While we are quite accustomed to the Murphy’s Law formula that applies to our cricket team, this fresh wound – the record-breaking defeat to West Indies – demands deep introspection.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), under the dynamic leadership of journalist-cum-politician-cum-manager Najam Sethi and ex-bureaucrat Shaharyar Khan, has some explaining to do:
Under which strategy did they leave out deserving players from the World Cup squad?
What lead to the selection of rookies to compete at an international arena? What miracle was the board hoping for?
Why Fawad Alam was not included in the World Cup squad will remain a mystery until the world ends. Any person with even a little cricketing knowledge would never write off Fawad Alam from making it to the ODI team.
The politics behind this was revealed by a PCB official to Dawn, who said: “I am deeply frustrated at the way personal preference is being given priority over merit. It was quite evident with the way Fawad Alam was dealt with. What is the point of sending your in-form player [Fawad] on an 'A' tour when an ODI series is taking place?” the official had said.
The left-handed middle-order batsman has been one of the leading scorers in the ongoing first-class championship, while also performing consistently on the international stage since his comeback earlier in 2014.
With a Test average of 41.66, 45.14 in ODIs and 56.73 in first-class, Alam has mostly got the short end of the stick during his career.
Why were the PCB's Board of Governors and top officials missing when key decisions began to backfire?
The pre-World Cup period was marked by surprise decisions and rumours.
Since the tournament has started, there has been one disaster after another.
Why PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan shied away from clarifying rifts in the team when fielding coach Grant Luden was compelled to tender his resignation, is another mystery.
The PCB's media manager lame attempt at issuing the template “team is united” statement, too, was rubbished when a select group of players was seen training separately with Luden.
Sadly, this is Pakistan’s worst-ever one-day international combination. Never in the game’s history, has Pakistan been so miserable. Someone has to take responsibility for the massacre of this gentleman’s game in the country.
And that is certainly not Misbah-ul-Haq.
It is unfortunate that a statesman like Misbah — who took over captaincy and saved Pakistan cricket from a siege at a time when the sport was facing its toughest time — had to lead a team of rookies in the game’s biggest competition.
No matter how much the board denies it, there were clear signs that Misbah — the sole performer in the team — was not being allowed to operate independently despite being captain of both ODI and Test sides.
