Tainted trio: The glass is half full

Perhaps the verdict will serve as a necessary push to improve our World Cup performance.

Khadija Husain February 03, 2011


So what if Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were banned by the International Cricket Council and indicted on corruption charges by British prosecutors? Everyone knew it was going to happen but were avoiding it like an ex.

Our thinking needs to be changed, and instead of being disappointed we need to see things in a positive way. We need to see the events that preceded the much-predicted verdict. Just as the verdict approached, Pakistan won their first Test series in over four years, their last victory was against the West Indies. And soon after that Pakistan also won their first ODI series after over two-years.

These victories came about because the spot-fixing scandal was the necessary shove the Pakistan team needed. We thrive under pressure and without it we are nothing.

A perfect example would be the ODI series against New Zealand again. Although we did win, it was very appalling to see our cricketers become lazy in their last ODI after gaining an unassailable lead. Even coach Waqar Younis had to admit it and said, “When you win the series, it’s hard to be motivated sometimes. Maybe you get a little lazy at times.”

Maybe with the verdict lashed out onto the trio we get that necessary push and we can prove batting legend Zaheer Abbas wrong who had earlier said that Pakistan were the underdogs at this edition of the World Cup.

But if you can’t see anything positive with this way of thinking, maybe you can see Pakistan as setting a precedent in cricket. Former captain Salim Malik was the first of a number of international cricketers to be handed a life ban for match fixing. He was alleged to have fixed matches on Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand in 1993, South Africa and Zimbabwe (1994-95).

We were also the only country among 13 other nations participating in the World Cup that announced the much prestigious role of captain, again a very predictable decision, over two weeks after naming their squad.

The necessary shove or the precedents? Take your pick. There isn’t much choice.

WRITTEN BY:
Khadija Husain A graduate from the Lahore University of Management Sciences
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ