COMMENT: Long live Pakistan Cricket

“Hello! Are you watching the match on TV? If not, turn it on and see the crowd — it’s packed! Tickets were impossible to get. Children, young, old — everyone is enjoying the match at Gaddafi Stadium. And yet you keep saying that cricket is over in Pakistan, that it’s the same with hockey.

Why was Rawalpindi’s house full? Mark my words – cricket runs in the DNA of Pakistanis. No one can take it away from us.

We have just beaten South Africa in a T20 series – a reason to celebrate indeed. But if we look at the last few years, our team’s performance has been quite disappointing, especially in big tournaments.

Perhaps that is why many of us began to feel that Pakistan cricket was coming to an end, that there was no hope left, that people had stopped caring about it.

But if we think calmly, this feeling is not accurate. Cricket is still Pakistan’s most popular sport.

Billions are earned through sponsorships. players have become millionaires. If there was no passion for the game, why would sponsors invest such sums? Of course, we need to work on improving the team’s performance — but we should also encourage our players.

The problem is that if we don’t like Najam Sethi or Zaka Ashraf, we start claiming that cricket was ruined during their tenure. Now, those who dislike Mohsin Naqvi are blaming him for everything. But actually, our cricket was like this even before he became president. It’s not like we won World Cups before him!

We don’t like a captain, so we start ripping him off. Everyone wants their preferred president, captain and players. If they don’t get it, nothing seems right. Certainly, Salman Ali Agha – as a player and a captain – has room for improvement. But before him, we always beat India except one or two occasions?

The real issue is today’s social media environment. It is so easy to manipulate public opinion now. Traditional media was still wary — but these days, pay a few thousand or a few lakh rupees and you can have an entire campaign run for you.

Previously, there was a “shadow” on the whole team — nothing happened without approval, and new players couldn’t even get in. Then came a story from England that overshadowed that “shadow,” but the influence of social media continued as before.

Look at Ali Tareen — he’s thinking of rebranding his PSL franchise because the annual franchise fee of Rs 1.8 billion is becoming unbearable. But social media described it differently – painting him as a hero who was punished for “exposing” flaws in the PSL system. No one asked why he was silent before, because this “heroism” only appeared when the Valuation was due.

Similarly, when Mohammad Rizwan was removed from the ODI captaincy, social media claimed it was “revenge” because two years ago he refused to promote surrogate bookies during the PSL. And the world believed it! No one asked: if this incident happened years ago, why punish him now? He hasn’t even been kicked off the team. Furthermore, no PSL or PCB sponsor today is a surrogate — so what’s the problem?

The point is this: whether it’s Mohsin Naqvi or Najam Sethi as chairman, or Salman Ali Agha or Babar Azam as captain — it doesn’t matter. What matters is Pakistan and the Pakistan cricket team. Focus on that. Put aside personal likes and dislikes. Find out what’s wrong and help fix it.

Even I, at times, write hard with passion. But then I remind myself — it’s cricket that has given me everything:. If the sport ever suffers, should I give it up or try to help in any way I can? All of us should think like this.

We just won a series — tomorrow, we might lose one. This does not mean that cricket in Pakistan is over. The real questions are: why is new talent drying up? How can we bring improvement? If we focus on these issues – and the board plays its part as well – believe me, solutions will come.