DADDY DEAREST: Daughter pulls at Shahid Afridi’s heart-strings, and the fans’, too.
Misbah-ul-Haq may well have been echoing the sentiments of millions of cricket-mad Pakistanis at home and around the world when he described Pakistan Super League as “Apna World Cup” (our own World Cup).
The significance of Misbah-speak in the context of both the recent past — near-pariah status in terms of international cricket at home — and the future of Pakistan cricket — pregnant with great promise in the wake of a terrific PSL debut — is unmissable.
PLAY TIME: Former England star Kevin Pietersen with Umar Gul’s daughter.
That Misbah himself led the unfancied Islamabad United to title glory in the twilight of his career — a la Imran Khan, his distant cousin — offers almost Gulzar-like symbolism. Islamabad is the seat of the Federation that presides over Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta — all provincial capitals!
There will be time for a critique in true sporting fashion. Abdul Qadir, the Ghulam Ali of leg spin in the ghazal sense, for one, did raise a number of multilayered questions recently surrounding the end product — especially the poser about how many local batsmen of decent capability has the PSL thrown up? — but let’s not read the riot act for the sake of one just yet.
COOL COUPLE: Time-out for Mr & Mrs Misbah-ul-Haq.
The colourful scheme of things that the PSL turned out to be has taken Pakistan by a feel-good frenzy, even tremulous pride. After all, Pakistan cricket has looked barren for so long that even the Thar Desert in Sindh province seemed a little less parched at the worst of times.
After the unfortunate attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team in 2009, Pakistan were left bruised in spirit and continent-hopping with no place to call home. PSL will have done much to revive Pakistan cricket’s fortunes even though it is some distance from its avowed mission of bringing the troops, and paraphernalia home. But it’s a start.
BONDING: Coach Sir Vivian Richards having a word with Sarfraz Ahmed, captain of PSL runners-up Quetta Gladiators.
This space is too little to encapsulate what happened in the frenetic last three weeks of PSL. While the action was breathtaking on the field, no less endearing was it off it either.
From that colossus of the post-War pantheon, Sir Vivian Richards, jumping like an Olympian hurdler to celebrate Quetta Gladiators’ sensational chase down of a 200-plus score (it has happened only once in 8 editions of IPL) after an Afghan (Mohamed Nabi) scripted perhaps, the greatest T20 last-over assault to Mohamed Amir’s eyeball grabbing hat-trick and the fervent Calypso appeal of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell and that irrepressibly, lovable character Darren Sammy to the who’s who of Pakistan cricket pitted against each other (Ahmed Shehzad vs Wahab Riaz, Misbah vs Afridi…you get the drift) in what had only seemed like a figment of imagination until now, there it was!
Off the park, if Kevin Pieterson was playing with Umer Gul’s little darling on his lap, Afridi’s daughters were winning hearts on the telly — with a rare glimpse of Mrs Boom Boom in the stands, too.
GLAM QUOTIENT: Zainab Abbas, a sprightly new face of the broadcast team, celebrates her birthday with the old guard.
If rival keepers Sarfaraz Ahmed and Kamran Akmal — remember who replaced whom and how — were both happy in a single frame with Moin Khan as if calling Ripley’s attention, Zainab Abbas, the fetching super bilingual new face of Pakistan cricket speak, was amply providing the kind of soft image the country has craved for so long.
So what’s the take home then (a record 55% of Pakistan was glued to the idiot box for a Karachi vs Lahore round robin rendezvous, according to one estimate)?
The best thing PSL has done is to have returned the smile to Pakistan cricket. There’s an unmistakable newfound confidence that says ‘we may have been denied our due (think IPL) but we’re here, we have the smarts and we matter’.
This brings one to the next best thing that has happened: bonding. Not only has a neat spread of national team players worn different jerseys for the city franchises but have been afforded a unique gelling experience with some of the world’s best players in the format and an array of topnotch coaches on the international circuit.
The same bonding may bode well on another level, too. It will have hopefully, worked some space in the minds of the hitherto reluctant international stars about playing in Pakistan, sometime in the future.
While there’s no disputing the colour of money, don’t be surprised if the cheese will move enough for some of them to take a punt a couple of editions down the road.
Najam Sethi, the head of Pakistan Cricket Board Executive Committee and the man behind the PSL’s stunning debut, told an interviewer the other day that when he broached the subject with Kevin Pietersen, for instance, he agreed to come to Pakistan.
Darren Sammy and Andre Russell have also given similar vibes if security can be ensured.
For now, the fare is restricted to little more than a television sport for cricket-starved Pakistanis at home. But make no mistake, it will have done enough to fire the imagination of the young. Quick fame, rolling greenback, and reasonably short route to the national colours is bound to lure their lot.
Expect the competition to hot up even further from the next edition when franchises will have wisened to the right mix. Sethi says there’s already tremendous pressure from entrepreneurs willing to buy more teams.
The format is such that aspiring players — and even those like Saeed Ajmal trying to make a comeback — are forced to think on their feet, and often out-of-the-box. The new verve is already evident with the likes of rookies Mohammad Nawaz and Ruman Raees (injury later forcing his exit) making such an unbelievably quick impact as to find a place in the Asia and World T20 squads in less than a week of the PSL getting off ground!
If this was not enough, the selectors were forced to change already announced squads because the likes of Mohammad Sami and Sharjeel Khan also made a telling impact as the PSL progressed.
Pakistan may be in the middle of a mini revolution here. A little peace, and the possibilities will be endless!
Art collector new face of Pakistan cricket’s revival
The new verve in Pakistan cricket is possibly best highlighted by who owns the winning Islamabad United. Amna Naqvi is the Founder and Director of Gandhara Arts and AAN Collection — believed to be the largest collection of Pakistani visual arts with works from third century BC Gandhara civilisation — art collector, avid reader and traveller.
In what is considered to be a male preserve, her entrepreneurial savvy is also evident from her choice of captain — Misbah-ul-Haq — against the run of play; as well as Wasim Akram as Director and Dean Jones as coach.
She also signed up the most polished and celebrated role models in Pakistan’s resurgent entertainment industry, Ali Zafar and Fawad Khan, as ambassadors for Islamabad United.
The two have also earned their spurs in Bollywood, the world’s biggest film industry.