Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Pakistan vs Australia Watch Score
Perspective is a handy thing। The last time Pakistan stepped out in colours, they were bowled out for 75 and it led to a change in leadership. The last time they stepped out for a Test match, terrorists attacked their opponents. A few days ago the world said to them, understandably, that they would not be coming to play for a while. So what importance an ODI and T20I series against Australia in the Middle East?
Au contraire, the context is precisely what makes this battle so significant. Younis Khan knows it and hopefully his team does too. This is more than just being the first ODI in four years between the two sides, the first contest of any kind in fact, other than a T20 game in 2007. Not testing yourself against the best regularly doesn't just possibly hamper development but it also says perhaps you aren't important enough to go up against them often enough.
This series thus provides Pakistan with a sliver of an opportunity to reassert itself as a proper cricket team and not a wandering freak show, a carnival, laughed at, ostracized and taken with as much seriousness as one might take Jim Carrey. If they do well, win a couple of games and maybe even the series, they say something serious to the rest of the world, something not about doping, or legal wrangles, or security concerns, or impending financial doom, or in-fighting. Simply, by doing well, they say we are around and we are not irrelevant.
