THE Pakistanis are out of the ICC World T20. A poor campaign has thus come to the inglorious end it deserved. Early this month, with all the pre-tour security jitters put to rest after assurances from the Indian government at the start of the high-profile event, the players were required to focus on cricket and win three games out of the scheduled four to bag a spot in the semi-finals. Instead, they failed to measure up, winning just one game against the beleaguered Bangladesh side and losing three. The hard truth is that Pakistan did not have the wherewithal — in terms of temperament or tactics — to do well. Either batting first or chasing the target, the Greenshirts never displayed the required gumption. There seemed to be no game plan; what one saw was defensiveness followed by panic. The batting was thoughtless, the bowling wavered and the fielding was atrocious. Skipper Afridi, under fire for his own sketchy form and batting order blunders, fell short of motivating his teammates. Pakistan’s dressing room, too, appeared restive despite the presence of half a dozen coaches as rumours of internal strife and bloated egos became rampant.

Up until the beginning of the new millennium, Pakistan’s cricket team, while living up to their reputation of being mercurial and unpredictable, could still produce match-winners such as Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Aamir, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Asif and others. Regretfully, the cupboard appears quite bare today. The game suffers as it is bereft of competent administrators and professional, match-winning players who were once the fulcrum of Pakistan’s batting and bowling. As most critics would agree, the 15 representing Pakistan at the ICC World T20 were perhaps the best available in the country, give or take a few. Distressingly though, their best was not good enough. Players such as Ahmed Shehzad, Sharjeel Khan, Umer Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan and Khalid Lateef are indeed skilful but they lack the temperament and the mental strength to win pressure games at this level. That is the challenge they need to take on instead of moaning and groaning about the lack of cricket at home and the alleged discrimination of selectors and coaches. In the end, there is not much that the PCB administration and tour management did right in this campaign. And since they don’t seem to have an effective remedy for the many ills plaguing Pakistan cricket, the situation warrants an overhaul.