Hassan Cheema

Despite being part of a dysfunctional set-up, he has managed to get the best out of himself and players partnering him

19-Aug-2014

Another series and more collapses - combined with the failure of the rain gods - meant Pakistan failed to win a Test series for the sixth time in a row. The return of Waqar Younis as coach was expected to take the team back to the early days of Misbah-ul-Haq's tenure, when they won five of his first seven series as captain. Instead, in a continuation of their performance over the last two years, they competed, even convinced, but couldn't win.

And in the midst of it all, another Younis Khan masterclass was wasted, in Galle. Yet, for two days, Younis finally got the adulation he deserves.

Younis is an odd beast by Pakistani standards. He doesn't seem to elicit the rabid fandom that the country's greats generate, nor is he subject to the vociferous, contrarian hate that every other player of his generation has faced at the tail-end of his career. Younis is different, he has always been.

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Have England lost their new-found identity?

Cook and his boys seem to have fallen out of touch with the relentlessness that took them to No. 1

Hassan Cheema

28-Jul-2014

Germany's equaliser against Ghana in the FIFA World Cup was probably the ugliest goal they scored in the tournament. Yet it was also the most revealing. A corner, flicked on by Benedikt Höwedes, the giant centre-back, was turned in by Miroslav Klose, the goal-scoring No. 9. There was nothing remarkable about it. Such a goal was once considered stereotypical of the "efficient Germans". A couple of weeks later a report suggested how Joachim Loew had finally relented to pressure and started practising set pieces again, after years of openly dismissing their importance. Germany had their identity again. And they won the World Cup with it.

To talk about identity in sport might seem outlandish. Yet Germany returned to winning ways because they started doing again what they had ignored, and what had once made them famous. They won because, in the words of every single B grade Hollywood movie about growing up, they realised who they were.

They are no isolated case either. In cricket, Australia's rise from the ashes could be linked to their return to "Australianism". The talk of trying to turn a generation of Shane Watsons into David Boons was mocked by many, including yours truly, yet their success over the last ten months has come from handlebar 'taches, bowling fast, batting hard, and threatening tailenders' arms. Basically Australianism.

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Chucking: the debate rages pointlessly on

For some reason, many among us seem unable to accept scientific explanations that account for so-called dodgy actions

Hassan Cheema

30-May-2014

A picture is worth a thousand words, the cliché goes, but sometimes a picture serves other purposes: it reopens a thousand debates, all of which have been done to death, and none of which are ever likely to change pre-existing biases. No wonder this stuff is so popular on Twitter.

One such picture doing the rounds on the interwebs is of Saeed Ajmal during his rout of Essex. And lo, Pandora's box was opened. Cue hysteria, name-calling, and those who said much without saying anything. It was time to discuss "mystery bowling" again.

But through all the bovine feces there was very little new information added. Here is what we know: the 15-degree rule applies to the flex, or the straightening, of the elbow while bowling, rather than to just the bend in the elbow. The pointlessness of using a single still photograph as evidence is apparent immediately.

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The Waqar silver lining

The one good thing that may come of the latest shake-up in Pakistan's cricket administration is that Waqar Younis returns to the coach's job

Hassan Cheema

06-May-2014

Seemingly unbeknownst to the rest of the world, and even the casual fan in Pakistan, the cricket in the country has gone through quite the clusterfuffle over the past month. The T20 captain resigned before he was pushed; the coach of that team has been rewarded for his failure by landing two higher posts; the musical chairs in the PCB has resulted in Basit Ali and Mohammad Akram becoming the guardians of the future of Pakistan cricket (which is probably the least disagreeable part of this reorganisation); and there is the latest edition of the "Let's change the domestic structure before people get used to it" game.

Once the dust had settled somewhat, the head of the six-member selection committee (which is a slightly odd notion in Pakistan in the first place) said to the media that the position of the captain who had led his team to four bilateral series win in five needs to be reconsidered because, in his words, "the captain should be liked in the media and by the people as well". This was followed only hours later by the head of the PCB saying that there would be no change in captaincy. Meanwhile the TV network that had once employed (or still employs) these two disagreeing gentlemen found the time to have a two-hour Misbah bash-athon in between these two statements. So fond are Pakistanis of the "cornered tiger formula" that the board seems to be actively trying to make sure that the team starts by being pinned back in a corner.

I'll postpone a rant over this shambles to another day, because the silver lining to this cloud may have the most significant impact on the Pakistan team in the short-to-medium run: Waqar Younis has been appointed the head coach of the Pakistan team.

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The home invasion

The Emirates have been a home away from home for Pakistan for three decades now. To see the IPL, which excludes Pakistan, being played there must feel like betrayal

Hassan Cheema

19-Apr-2014

A man dressed in Arab garb is sitting alone. Within seconds he's surrounded by Pakistanis of various professions, each begging him for a ticket to paradise, the visa for Dubai. It's a sketch from Fifty Fifty, probably the most influential Pakistani TV show ever. Like so much else in the show, that 100-second skit hits the nail on the head, encapsulating the viewpoint that everyone in the country had towards the Gulf in general, and Dubai in particular. The sketch is from the early '80s but it could have been shot at any time in the last quarter of the 20th century and it would have been part of the zeitgeist.

The Emirates, in the eyes of the Pakistani lower and middle classes, was the land of opportunity, the gateway to a better life - the Pakistani dream was to not be in Pakistan. But by the end of the century, Pakistanis were fond of the Emirates for a whole other reason. It had become the home of Pakistani cricket.

Now that may seem a bit strong to the defenders of the Gaddafi or NSK, but here are the facts: from playing their first ODI in Sharjah in April 1984, till April 2003 (when the ground went off the international circuit), the Pakistan national team played more at that small stadium in the desert (108 ODIs) than they did in Pakistan (92 ODIs). They even had a better win-loss ratio in Sharjah (2.24) than they did in Pakistan (1.69). Pakistan won 74 off their 108 matches in Sharjah, yet even the lone tie there is remembered fondly by a generation that would never see Abdul Razzaq the same way again.

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Haunted turns hunter

Saeed Ajmal was written off after Michael Hussey smashed him for 18 runs in an over in a World T20 semi-final. But he bounced back and how

Hassan Cheema

01-Apr-2014

Going into the 1950 FIFA World Cup, hosts Brazil were confident that it was their tournament to win. The 1940s had seen a deterioration of football in Europe (due to the Second World War), and Brazil had become the top dog in South America. A year earlier they had hosted and won the Copa America, beating Paraguay 7-0 in the final. The European empires were wrecked. The second half of the 20th century was going to be South American and Brazil was going to lead the way. Thus new stadia were built with the aim of capturing the attention of the world and showing them that the country was about to begin its golden age, starting with football.

In the final match of the tournament, Brazil needed a draw against Uruguay to win the title and were up 1-0 soon after half-time; but then the best laid plans of men and mice went awry. Brazil lost 2-1, Uruguay were crowned world champions for the second time. The ghost of Maracana - newly built for the World Cup, with nearly 200,000 spectators crammed in for the match against Uruguay - was born. And Maracanazo lives to this day.

The novelist Nelson Rodrigues described it: "Everywhere has its irremediable national catastrophe, something like a Hiroshima. Our catastrophe, our Hiroshima, was the defeat by Uruguay in 1950." As is customary, the Fateful Final became a metaphor for Brazil's failure to achieve their potential. Alex Bellos, describing the national psyche in the aftermath, said, "Brazil's downfall is its lack of moral fibre. The opposition is irrelevant. Brazil is always playing against itself, against its own demons, against the ghosts of the Maracana."

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The what-ifs of Wasim Akram's captaincy

His stats, and the list of great players who flourished under him, indicate he ought to be up there with Imran and the rest. But is he?

Hassan Cheema

20-Mar-2014

Last month I wrote of the Mount Rushmore of Pakistan captaincy, and the obvious question asked was who would be the fourth face carved upon the mountain. For all that Miandad, Misbah and the others have done, the logical choice for that fourth name was, of course, Wasim Akram - a name that brings with it baggage and question marks.

The story of Pakistan cricket, especially in the '90s, is one of what-ifs, and probably the greatest among them is: what if Akram had been the captain for an extended period of time. Under Akram that generation came possibly the closest it ever did to reaching its potential. Between April 1992 and April 2003 their win-loss ratio in Tests was 1.50 under Akram, and 1.21 under other captains. In ODIs the difference was even starker: 1.60 under him and 1.15 under everyone else. Quite simply, he was the best captain that generation had.

It's not just that he was so much better than his contemporaries, his numbers also speak loudly across generations - he has better win percentages in both formats than any other Pakistani captain about whom a case could be made for his being on the Rushmore, although that may have a lot to do with the fact that he also had the greatest collection of talent playing for him that any Pakistan captain has ever had.

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The contagious madness of Shahid Afridi

He frustrates his fans more often than not, but he is also an addiction, one that pulls at the heartstrings

Hassan Cheema

05-Mar-2014

You could almost feel the anger in Wasim Akram's voice. Shahid Afridi had attempted a trademark hoick with his team precariously placed at 117 for 5 against Afghanistan. The stumps had rattled and Wasim started to rail against Afridi, his refusal to learn, the fact that over 17 years of cricket Afridi had declined to listen to what had been told to him repeatedly, often by Wasim himself. You nodded along, as you often do when Wasim is commentating in a language in which he can articulate himself better than in English.

Yet three days later, all was forgiven. By Wasim, by Afridi's fans, and by his detractors. Just an average week in the life of Shahid Afridi.

There is a politically incorrect saying in Urdu that being a Pathan is not an ethnicity but a state of being that can affect anyone at any time. It comes from the slightly racist view that plain dwellers have of people from the mountains. That they are rugged and dim, and kill before they think. It's the sort of stereotype that myths of centaurs and berserkers were made of in ancient times. They are men's men, in every sense of the word, as another stereotype has it. Thus, whenever a Pakistani fan has to justify an Afridi brain-freeze, he looks for that stereotype - that Afridi is a Pathan, what else would you expect from him?

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The golden trio of Pakistani captaincy

Misbah has been a terrific leader but it's still not enough to knock off Imran, Mushtaq and Kardar off their lofty perch

Hassan Cheema

15-Feb-2014

Following the Test against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, the signature win that he needed, there has been discussion of Misbah-ul-Haq's record as captain, with some even suggesting he could possibly contend for the title of the second-best captain in Pakistan's history. Statistically there is certainly a case to be made, and the context provided by those who came before him can only exalt his work, but despite his achievements thus far, the Mount Rushmore of Pakistani captaincy already has three men, and none of them is named Misbah.

The first name, obviously, is Imran Khan. The second belongs to a man who, spiritually if not actually, preceded him: Mushtaq Mohammad. And the third might be the most important man in Pakistan's cricket history: Abdul Hafeez Kardar.

Back in 2011 there was a small debate over the renaming of Gaddafi Stadium following the Colonel's death. At the time Osman Samiuddin reasoned that it would be most fitting to name the stadium after Kardar. His argument then was based more on Kardar's work after he retired, but his playing career - or rather his captaincy alone - could have made a worthy case too.

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A victory most un-Pakistani

For all the talents that Pakistan's cricketers possess, the team has never been good at chasing. Which is why Sharjah came as a surprise

Hassan Cheema

02-Feb-2014

The pitch may not have been a "Bunsen" but it was still a fifth-day Asian wicket. The target was over 300. Pakistan had less than two sessions. Against them was Rangana Herath - once the scourge of Pakistan (and only Pakistan, a la Nuwan Kulasekara), but now the best fingerspinner in the world. And Pakistan still got home.

It went against history but more than anything it went against the team's character. For all the bravado, false or otherwise, that Pakistan's cricketers possess, their team has never been good at chasing. Only seven times in their history have Pakistan won by scoring more than 200 in the fourth innings. Only one of those instances was between 1984 and 2002 - or to put it another way, the greatest teams in the country's history only once managed what Misbah-ul-Haq's side pulled off against Sri Lanka last month.

The current players may have been brought up hearing stories of their predecessors' run chases and they may have grown up understanding the Maghrib chase like the back of their hands, but Pakistan are not a chasing team.

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