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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Breaking the shackles


A few months back i read an article on cricinfo by younis khan (pakistan skipper). He like many other pakistani cricketers were shocked by the terrorists attack on Srilankan cricket team. Younis vouched for a point " if you let cricket die in pakistan it will end up in flourishing extremism (he was careful to avoid the term terrorism) " Never in criceketing history you would see a captain pleading to the whole world in such a benign manner. And yes he absolutely had a point, in a country robbed by muslim fundamentalists and high end extremism a young man (probably of our age) has nothing but cricket to chose to claw himself out of sheer poverty. Take for example yousuf youhana or abdur razzaq and many more, pakistan cricketers have been always from a very poor background but the most talented, less trained and sparkling characters. Its like you love them or hate them but you cannot ignore them.

Before the T20 world cup i personally felt srilankan's were the favourites with their all round ability, but as pakistan started nibbling victories as every other cricket fan it was clear they have arrived to the party. And younis khan had a big part in it, in the loss to india in the warm up matches he was to his best in addressing the issues and areas to be worked upon. We could see younis (he is no where near a t20 player) adapting to the game and rallying his troops. We have seen all kind of captaincies from pakistan the charismatic and lion hearted 'Imran Khan' to silent giant killer 'Inzamam' style. But younis is a new breed and full of jokes and energy on/off the field.

When the whole world speaks about dhoni and his street smart captaincy style. Somewhere we missed yet another wonderful captain in our brother nation. Hats off to younis and the whole team, the victory could mean a lot to pakistan public and a generic antidote to the blind fundamentalists grazing in pakistan.

PS: As for indian cricket fans, yeah we are a bit disappointed but i guess team india was mentally fatigued and could not spring up any ideas as such. Technology can keep one fit 365 days for continuous cricket but human beings need a break for their brains to recuperate the pressure and travel. With BCCI and a greedy indian cricket loving public its time to bring in Artificial Intelligence to Indian Cricket... coz we never cant get enough.

2 comments:

Me said...

younis khan deserves a pat on his back and your blog does that part in every sense

Anonymous said...

dhoni younis and sangakkara..all form an exciting group of vivacious clan of captains from south asia.

Love to hear what you think!
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