The 3-0 whitewash of England by Pakistan cricket team in the UAE has already gone down as a glorious chapter of Pakistan sports history. It is not about the margin and manner in which the series victory was attained, but for overcoming the untoward circumstances of spot-fixing saga and fragile law and order situation of the country, which has kept the sporting nation deprived to hold matches on their soil for years.
Bound to play their home matches at neutral venues because of security concerns, Pakistan’ cricketers never enjoy playing in empty stadiums and without the advantage of home grounds and home conditions. But it is really praiseworthy the way Pakistan cricket has adopted the UAE as a permanent second home. The UAE destinations are taken very much as like an extension of the subcontinent, nonetheless Pakistan enjoys the best ratio of success, support and spectatorship, compared to rest of the teams of the region.
Some beautiful comments by Mike Selvey of The Guardian (UK), I would like to share in this regard. He writes;
“The joy this will bring to the supporters of Pakistan
cricket will be untold. Many of those Pakistani migrant workers who attended
and enlivened the match after prayers on Friday were back at their jobs, but
there was still a passionate hard core, representing countrymen and women for
whom circumstance has deprived them of the opportunity to see their team on the
cricket grounds at home. Their game has been riven by scandal, the country
disrupted by terrorism. The cricketers are, in effect, migrant workers
themselves. Perhaps the manner in which Misbah and the coach, Mohsin Khan, have
got the players, all of them, to dedicate themselves once more to cricket and
cricket alone merely serves to highlight the iniquities that preceded when a
reputation as mavericks served as convenient camouflage for wrong doing. In
beating England twice, and so emphatically, they deserve every credit.”
For feedback: mascot.pk@hotmail.com
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