The outpouring of anger and the scorn being heaped on the Pakistan cricket team and the establishment following the loss in the first two games of the World Cup is a classic case of barking up the wrong tree.

Things are getting so irrational that the Lahore High Court has admitted a petition seeking an inquiry into the poor performance of the team. No less than the Prime Minister of Pakistan has been named as one of the respondents. One would have thought that the august court had more useful pursuits than taking up such a frivolous case.

In addition to the vicious criticism, there are medicines being prescribed by both experts and quacks alike.

None of these cures will work because the problem is much more fundamental and solutions like changing the batting order or sacking the PCB chairman will not make the performance of the team any better. Summoning chief selector Moin Khan back from Australia for 'visiting a casino' would not change much either.

Of course, if the team wins the next game, all the pundits will claim that it was their magic formula that revived the team.

Also read: Watch the cricket, block the critic

The poor performance of the cricket team — or the hockey or squash players for that matter — cannot be analysed independently of the problems of the country itself. To expect that Pakistan can do well in sports while it is doing badly in almost all the spheres of life is myopic and unreasonable.

There are some obvious and other not-so obvious correlations between the poor performance on the cricket field and the conditions in the country at large.

The obvious one is the spread of violence and religious extremism that has resulted in the refusal of foreign teams to play on Pakistan’s blood stained soil.

Besides the much needed exposure to playing more foreign teams, it is definitely not a morale booster for the players to see themselves as the pariahs of the sporting world.

Then there is the loss of some of our best players due to their involvement in match fixing for financial gains.

Why should it surprise us that young Mohammed Amir makes a few bucks while all those in power are bleeding the country to death?

Also read: Will Amir's return hurt Pakistan cricket? No.

The point here is to not to justify what the match fixers did but to recognise that unless the deeper malaise of greed and materialism entrenched in the country are tackled, the corruption in sports will not end.