Tuesday 23 / April / 2024
Regardless of the outcome at the Old Trafford in Headingly this week where England is tipped to bounce back, Pakistan pressing up at Lord’s last Sunday was more than a victory at a game their fans probably love more than themselves!
Lording it over at the home of cricket this time transcended the sport itself although the entire global cricket fraternity was watching the opening Test primarily for the near-fairytale return of Mohammad Amir, the young fast bowler from Pakistan who was banned for half a decade after being found guilty of spot-fixing at the hallowed turf back in 2010.
But the transcendence referred was not limited to Amir finding his feet again. This was much bigger than him. The Lord’s triumph was also about the resilience of a cricket-mad country that has long been reduced to a pariah status — and not just because a terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009 put an end to international cricket at home. It was also a rejoinder to the so-called Big Three of the International Cricket Council, who have virtually left Pakistan out in the cold to fend for itself — in that the world needs Pakistan cricket to flourish, not just survive, for its own greater good, not just Pakistan’s.
The Lord’s victory therefore, symbolises a never-say-die mien that is truly, madly, very Pakistani in its avatar: defiant, flamboyant and fiery. It owes almost entirely to the methodical Misbahul Haq, Pakistan’s greatest unsung hero in the game, and perhaps, even beyond.
Some 1,252 days after an impressionable Amir was lured into stepping over the line by corrupted captain, Misbah presided over a redemption that has forced the world to sit up and take notice. Handed charge at 36, when he was actually considering retirement, the Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision at the time was dismissed as a counterproductive and backward move.
Even before Misbah, 42, led with a dream hundred on what was his debut at the home of cricket in the Test arena, becoming in the process the oldest Test centurion in 82 years, most of the English media were already acknowledging him as a leader worthy of his stature. The ‘redemption’ rhapsody is bound to ring louder with the result at Lord’s.
Pakistan and England have a history of bad blood involving highhanded administrators, players flying off the handle, umpires getting into the act, fans going berserk and even pitches being blamed for ill-intent.
Even when it seemed slightly more kosher this time around, England captain Alastair Cook seemed eager to ratchet up the summer heat on Amir, by almost egging on the spectators at Lord’s to get under his akin!
In the end, it seemed of little consequence, because while England focused on Amir, who did not quite set the stage alight — though he did fittingly, deliver the knockout punch that ended the hosts’ resistance on the fourth day — leggie Yasir Shah rattled the pickets on an unresponsive track to steal the thunder.
But it is a measure of respectability Misbah has brought to his stewardship and how he has restored Pakistan’s pride that for the first time in living memory, the notoriously bad English press has resisted any whining thus far, and sportingly lauded the Pakistan captain’s yeoman services as a leader.
The appreciation has not been restricted to just connoisseurs of the game. Even fans have acknowledged the good. Consider the appraisal of these an English fan on the Guardian’s website following Lord’s Test outcome:
“This match was a redemption story, but not that of one player, as the press has made out, but of Pakistani cricket as a whole. Pakistan slunk away from Lord's six years ago in disgrace, annihilated on the pitch and derided by the crowd after turning the hallowed ground into a gambling den. Today, they left the field in triumph and to universal acclaim, even affection, after a skilful and engaging performance in a game played in good spirit. It's a testimony to the work they've put in to clean up their act and overcome the other misfortunes that have dogged their cricket, most not of their own making. It's a cliché to say a certain victory is “good for cricket,” but this one certainly is. And good for Pakistan too,” he opined.
Apart from providing his compatriots hope in what are decidedly dark times in general, not only for Pakistan but the world at large, Misbah, the cool, calm, collected captain chose to provide a bit of mirth by pioneering a new form of celebration — the military salute and press-ups — in appreciation of a regimented fitness that may catch on.
More importantly, by dedicating the victory to Abdul Sattar Edhi — perhaps, the world’s greatest humanitarian — who passed away early this month to much grief in Pakistan, Misbah only raised the bar of his own immortality in people’s reckoning.
- The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad.
