* I have no intention to say that Pakistan is not a good team. I appreciate the Pakistan team. I am only trying to make an analysis of the performances by this team as the Pakistan team has come down from the second spot in the cricket ratings a long way.

The Pakistan cricket board had been having a lot of internal as well as external problems which affect the team considerably. The problems in the politics are reflected in their game also. The way in which the Pakistan cricket team is leading is not satisfactory.

Imran Khan, one of the greatest all rounders of all times, the one who earned the world cup for Pakistan in 1992 may not have expected this much decline in the class of Pakistan. The team has been facing the problem of inconsistency throughout the game.

A lot of youngsters came into the Pakistan team, but no one had the class of Imran Khan, Basit Ali, Aquib Javed etc. In the last ten years, this team was lead by about eleven captains. This lead to the destroyed future of a lot of players. But I have to say that after the last world cup, the Pakistan selection commitee has shown some brilliance and they are trying to develop a good team with youngsters.

But still they failed miserably in the last home series - both tests and One Day Internationals miserably against the neighbouring country India. Inzamam-Ul-Haq was the only person who gave consistent performance.

Except some big hits, the return of Shahid Afridi was very poor and the other batsmen had good starts, but failed to make big scores. There were no big partnerships too. Shoaib Akhtar’s performance was not up to the mark and he also had some injury problems. Mohammed Sami completely lost line and length. Umar Gul was able to make a good impact at the start, but failed later.

The fielding was not up to the mark as there were a lot of dropped catches. I think that there is no better bowlers than Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis who were the masters of reverse swing and variations. I have to say that the lower order performed better than the higher order when batting.

Yasir Hameed who got centuries in the both innings of his test debut against Bengladesh is not at the best of his form. Another one is Taufeeq Umar. These openors are an asset to the team, but the form is creating a problem here, a big one!

I think that politics should not be combined with sports as both are entirely different. There should not be any restrictions in Indian team touring Pakistan and vice versa. This leads to a better relationship between the countries. The war in the border should be alleviated up to an extent by these games.

THANK YOU FOR READING THE REVIEW. ANY COMMENTS ON THE REVIEW ARE WELCOME. PLEASE DON’T FORGET TO RATE IT.

Who is your favorite sports player in this field?

Saurav Ganguly