RevSportz Comment
Those that were there won’t easily forget Bob Woolmer’s final press conference. Minutes after Pakistan’s shock three-wicket defeat against Ireland, the World Cup new boys, in Jamaica, he came into the small room and took his place behind the microphones. Though he was sweating in the heat, he looked almost ashen, a man drained of every joy.
Before taking on the Pakistan job in 2004, Woolmer had worked with the International Cricket Council’s High-Performance Programme, whose aim was primarily to improve playing standards in the Associate nations under the ICC banner. And though he was clearly smarting from the slipshod display that had sent his team out of the tournament, Woolmer didn’t lose sight of the bigger picture.
“Playing against such teams can be a banana-skin, and you saw that today, with Bangladesh beating India as well,” he said in the most subdued tone of voice. “I think you can say that March 17, 2007, will be a historic day for cricket.”
Nearly two decades on, Pakistan are once again on the receiving end of such a result. Starting with the loss to Bangladesh, making their World Cup debut, at Northampton in 1999, this marked the third time that Asia’s one-time cricket powerhouse had been embarrassed by debutants who were also regarded as rank outsiders.
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We often talk of the DNA of sporting teams. Since the glory years under Imran Khan in the 1980s and early 1990s, Pakistan cricket’s biological fingerprint has mutated to include an alarming tendency to collapse under pressure. It doesn’t even need to be a Virat Kohli at the other end. Even a Nitish Kumar will do. When it gets hot in the kitchen, Pakistan get roasted.
The Sabina Park debacle of 2007 was especially notable for the identities of the conquerors. Kyle McCallan was a Physical Education teacher. Trent Johnston, who captained the side and performed the chicken dance when he took a wicket, had left New South Wales in Australia and ended up as a salesman flogging fabrics halfway across the world. Jeremy Bray too had spent his formative years in Australia. Andre Botha, like Adrian Birrell, his coach, was a journeyman cricketer from South Africa. Eoin Morgan and Boyd Rankin were still relative unknowns, and the only Irish cricket some fans had heard of, Ed Joyce, was turning out for England.
And yet, Pakistan lost. Just as they did at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Thursday. This time, they lost to Saurabh Netravalkar and Harmeet Singh, once India Under-19 stars who had failed to make the cut back home. Netravalkar had been India’s leading wicket-taker in the 2010 edition, while Harmeet had been part of the group that lifted the trophy two years later. Back then, his left-arm spin had managed to get even Ian Chappell to wax lyrical.
Those two were captained by Dallas by Monank Patel, who nearly had his contract torn up in January 2020 after turning up for a team meeting inebriated while the team was touring the UAE. Netravalkar was captain at the time, and both Patel and Steven Taylor were lucky that the authorities didn’t throw the book at them.
Each of those who played for the USA has a similar story, of thwarted dreams followed by redemption in a kit that they thought they’d never wear. And on the other side, you had Pakistan – winners in 2009, and beaten finalists in 2022. Their players had posted on social media from an army-style boot camp that they had been part of in the build-up to this tournament. But apparently, lugging stones up a hill doesn’t help score runs or take wickets against opponents who are just that bit hungrier than you are.
Pakistan’s performance could have filled an entire bloopers reel. It had everything – ugly shots, full tosses, a catalogue of wides, overthrows, missed catches…enough to make you wonder which was the elite side, and which one the interloper.
Fortunately for the players, Gary Kirsten, their coach, was part of the South Africa side that Woolmer guided. Kirsten will deal with this setback in his quiet understated way, a world apart from the hysteria and angst in the Pakistani media. Some of Woolmer’s final words in public come to mind. “I’ve had bad days before, the worst of them was at Edgbaston in 1999 [when South Africa tied with Australia, and missed out on the final],” he said.“Things like this happen in cricket.”
They do indeed. Pakistan just need to ask themselves why it so often happens to them.
Also Read: The Indian Connection in the USA’s stunning upset of Pakistan