Who’d be a Pakistan supporter? We might find it hard going sometimes as England fans, but can you imagine for a moment what it must be like in their camp right now?
Due to terrorism, Pakistan can’t play at home, severely compromising their effectiveness. Their tour of Australia ended in a whitewash and acrimony. Captains resign every ten minutes. The PCB arbitrarily awards life bans to their best players. Their current batting line-up is mostly dreadful. The defeat at Lord’s was the heaviest in their history. And now this.
Whatever the truth or otherwise of these allegations, it surely can’t be the case that Pakistan’s cricketers are any more naturally disposed to corruption than any other nation’s. If they are indeed culpable, the reasons must lie in context, and the chaotic structure of Pakistani cricket. It’s worth noting that the alleged middle-man at the heart of this story is in fact English.
As we saw at the Oval, Pakistan bring something unique to cricket: a charisma and creativity we see nowhere else. The vast majority of their players, past and present, are noble cricketers, proud of our game.
This crisis threatens to blow Pakistani cricket – already a very fragile entity -to smithereens. The rest of the cricket world cannot stand around and just watch this happen. Perhaps for its very cricketing survival, Pakistan needs our support.
