As Pakistani cricket fans, we are all very quick to turn around and point the finger at a number of excuses as soon as the national team starts performing poorly. The excuses could range to anything from the way the PCB is run to the inclusion or exclusion of player X,Y or Z in the team. We try to convince others, and more importantly ourselves, that we are the victims, as we are destined to support a team with so many re-occurring problems on and off the field.

By Talha Syed (21st November, 2013)

As Pakistani cricket fans, we are all very quick to turn around and point the finger at a number of excuses as soon as the national team starts performing poorly. The excuses could range to anything from the way the PCB is run to the inclusion or exclusion of player X,Y or Z in the team. We try to convince others, and more importantly ourselves, that we are the victims, as we are destined to support a team with so many re-occurring problems on and off the field.

None of us even take a single second to look at ourselves and see where the major problem lies.

The Pakistani cricket team allegedly faces more divides and ‘groupings’ than any other international sporting team in the world. We are constantly hearing rumours and reports about the team being split into X number of groups, or certain players in the team not getting along. However, is this something that should really surprise us?

Pakistan as a country has many divides – and it has almost got to the point where people like to be identified as belonging to a certain cast, cult or group rather than as a Pakistani. Not only are their divides – the different group of people look down on each other and look to cause harm to one another. This is the thinking which is dragging the country down into the dumps, and we can see a reflection of this amongst our cricket fans.

We have the group of Misbah fans who look down on Afridi fans as immature and childish. We have the Afridi fans who look at Malik as a corrupt and unstable cricketer causing rifts in the team. We have the Malik fans who despise Razzaq getting picked ahead of Malik. We have the Razzaq fans who feel that the Akmal brothers deserved to be dropped and Razzaq recalled. We have the Akmal fans who think Hafeez is conspiring against them. Then we have the Hafeez fans who think Misbah is trying to alienate Hafeez from the team.

Whilst all this is going on we have Hafeez and Misbah giving a joint press conference in which they are desperately trying to brush aside all the rumours started by the media and some fickle fans desperate for attention, since sooner or later they know that the rumours are bound to catch up with the team and affect their performance on the field.

In the past few weeks alone I have heard certain statements from so-called Pakistani fans on this forum, on FaceBook and people I know personally, that made me think “why would I want to play for a team with fans like this?” Let me give you a couple of examples:

• Afridi batted sensibly to become captain.
• Hafeez deliberately performs poorly under Misbah to sabotage Misbah’s captaincy.
• Misbah is too negative and should be dropped from the team
• Inzamam shouldn’t be the batting coach he is a fixer.

Now if I put myself in the shoes of any 4 of these players, I would be thinking to myself “why should I bother representing the people who are spewing out this garbage about me?”

When Afridi plays a stupid shot he deserves to be dropped for playing rubbish, when he bats sensibly he deserves to be dropped for conspiring against senior players. Hafeez is unable to perform and struggles against Steyn – instead of supporting and backing him, or even accepting that he has poor technique against Steyn, we blame it on team politics. The leading run scorer in the team – and in the world this year for that matter – Misbah - deserves to be dropped because the batsman who will take his place will score a 100 in every much at a strike rate of 150.

The Inzamam statement is the one that disturbs me the most. When I questioned the person as to how he could call a legend of the country a match fixer without any evidence his response was “Kya chumma doon legends ko? Jo sachai hai wo public jaanti hai” [“So should I kiss these legends instead? The public knows what the truth is”). Now why on earth would any respected human being spend his life to represent such people who would just drag his name through the mud at a drop of a dime?

When the fans themselves are so concerned and so desperate looking for politics and rifts in the team – how can we possibly be surprised when we hear reports about their being problems in the side?

In the past I have seen issues in other teams – such as KP VS Strauss – which were very public. However, everyone concerned – the players, the board and more importantly THE FANS – looked to brush aside the issue and move on. In Pakistani cricket, there does not even need to be an issue. The fans themselves will sketch out some elaborate Bollywood movie type script involving politics, love and hate within the team – never mind brushing aside an existing issue and moving on!

I have come across people till this day who say they like Wasim and not Waqar or they like Waqar and not Wasim, simply due to all the team politics which went on when the two players were in the team. Almost a decade after the legends retired some of our fans still can’t bury the hatchet and just accept that both bowlers were absolute legends and we were blessed to have them in our team.

We have far too many so-called Pakistani fans who are looking to create problems and drama, rather than just celebrating the good performances in the team, and backing the team during a rough patch. When as fans we can’t come together as one and support Pakistan, how can we expect the players to come together and play as one on the field?

It is this group of fans who are dragging the Pakistani cricket team to the point of no return. I have seen people make some pretty strong statements in the past, such as player X, Y or Z are a cancer within the Pakistani team. In my opinion – it is this group of so called fans who are more concerned with name on the back of the shirt rather than the golden star on the chest, who are the real cancer in Pakistani cricket.

Discuss!