Cricket - A Gentleman's Game........think again

“Tum jeeto ya haro suno hamain tum sy pyar hai” (whether you win or lose we love you)……wow soooo touchy ….such emotions…now do one more thing….sing bye bye 2015 World Cup.

Screen, projectors, face painting, green shirts, World cup songs (I think Josh Junoon by Ali Azmat was the most awesomest) was all I was hearing and seeing from the last couple of days. It seemed that “Mission Mohali” has blown away our nation's mind. Even the boring stuffed faced news anchors were wearing smiles and green shirts. Ahhhhh such sweet memories…..(tissue please). And then came the Day of Judgment….I mean the day that made us judge our team from a very different perspective.  

With thumping heartbeats came the first ball…..dot ball…..yahooooo go greensss and so the game went on and on and on. Indians gave us a tough fight with their batsmen and ironically our spinners didn’t performed that well. Instead our fast bowling came as a surprise package. Three cheers for Wahab Riaz is a must!!! But the fielding agggghhrrr pathetic just mere pathetic….zero points for that(ps: Tendulkar catch out is not included) So, I guess you wouldn’t be mad enough to miss the match so I am going to fast forward the events and come to Pakistan’s batting. Ahhhh… What can I say about that!!! We only needed 260 runs but I think they missed the zero there because they played like as if they need only 26 runs!!!

See I am not at all a cricket expert but anybody can tell that the team was not united…no game plan and zero enthusiasm to win the game. I really don’t know that why PCB is so impressed with Kamran Akmal’s clumsy fielding and Misbah’s meager batting that they were selected for the biggest cricketing event of the world.

Now why did we lose this match??? Obviously we weren’t good enough but how did that happen??? Pakistan was a favorite for the World Cup and suddenly they started playing street cricket...even that is better. Poor fielding by Pakistan, no good partnership, irresponsible shots, power play not taken at the right time. Why??? Newspapers confirmed that the match was fixed. Approximately 40-50 million dollars were transferred from Pakistan to Indian bookies. An Indian bookie on a Pakistani channel also confirmed this news and added that the whole team wasn’t involved in it. Instead the ones who were involved got 5-6 crores each. Sachin LBW not given by the third umpire was also kinda strange. Even the replay shown by the third umpire was not believable, there was too much diversion shown in the replay. The main catch came when the man of the match was given to Sachin….was Wahab invisible??

Now let’s list some of the main culprits….

Remember Zulqarnain Haider??? He recently has agreed to talk to TV channels about what really happened and he has revealed some astonishing fact (ps: well if you watch and understand cricket, they aren’t that astonisinting) He revealed that the famous “Akmal camp” was responsible for everything. Zulqanain was a good keeper+batsman so after he fled to Dubai who replaced him……our very own Umer Akmal. Remember the time when Danish Kaneria was mysteriously barred from joining the team — not dropped, just barred from joining his teammates in the Middle East and who did he blamed….Akmal camp. There have been several incidents reported about the Akmal camp. They were involved in the spot fixing scandal as well but nothing happened to them. For those of you who don’t know, Kamran Akmal’s sweet father-in-law is a famous bookie of Lahore having strong connections with the higher-ups. Umar Akmal would probably be much less of a temperamental drama only if he had a positive role-model but, as things stand, he too risks being tainted by the specter of match-fixing and we have already started seeing signs of it. Furthermore, PCB is talking about replacing keeper Akmal….can you guess the replacement…..sweet bunny boo bro Adnan Akmal. So, now it’s a family affair I guess.

Misbah Misbah Misbah….his bat was glued to the ground right?? And who can forget the million dollar smile on his lips when Pak was on the verge of losing.  Apparantly Misbah purposely made sure that he stays till the end, get the whole team out and then get martyred trying to save the match.

Lets not forget the famous lot of 40 innocent people who accepted Manmohan’s invitation. You guessed it right…..I am talking about our PM and his 40 member delegation. But I just can’t understand one thing...PM Gillani, Rehman Malik, Nawaz bros, Altaf hussain, Ishrat-ul-Ebad etc aren’t cricketers in any way and yet they bombarded Afridi with phone calls a day before the match….strange han….guess we know the reason now.

“I gave a warning that there should be no match-fixing. I am keeping a close watch on our cricket team. If any such thing happens, we are going to take action,” Rehman Malik…huh....security agencies should have kept a close eye on Malik rather than our team.

Our team has returned from India. The whole airport was filled with slogans of Pakistan Zindabad…such a beautiful sight (ps: I am saying it with all my heart..no sarcasm in that). All our nation open heartedly welcomed them. It’s a really positive sign because our nation is literate enough to distinguish the true culprits behind the defeat. Leaving aside the corrupt players,the pressures on our team has most of the time been the basic reason of our defeat and yet no pressure management training is given to our players. Several lobbies in the world are involved in demoralizing us but still we should thank Allah and the team that we reached the semi-final. It is the duty of every nation to stand up against the black sheeps of the cricketing world. I want to quote an sms which I received few days back:

“I am sorry to my nation,” said Afridi

Why sorry? You gave us hope by reaching to the semi-final

Why sorry? You gave us hope of bringing back the cup to Pakistan

Why sorry? You made an effort to unite the whole team

Why sorry? Because of you, our National Anthem was played and our flag was raised in India.

Dear Afridi, you are our hero and we will always love what you did for us.

Be united and demand the removal of black sheeps. Hats off to all the honest Pakistani cricketers who have and are serving our nation. Pakistan Zindabad