#pakistan: Celebrating defeat!

For all those who know what Pakistan cricket is, it is hard to digest the showers praised on the national cricketers these days.

The team, lost cheaply in the World Cup semifinal and is being greeted as the ‘victorious’.

There is also no doubt that the Pakistan players under performed in the semifinal and gifted away the match.

And the Pakistan government and authorities are praising them as they have won the World Cup final. If we review the performance of the Pakistan team in the most crucial match of their lives, it is evident that they failed to adopt all the cricketing tactics despite that they are the best skilled. They simply exhibited poor fielding, dropped catches, played wrong shots and crumbled under pressure. India exploited all these failings and became the world champions.

But the irony is not that we lost but the way we are celebrating it and awarding the players for their blunders. Instead of making them to explain why the most senior players dropped easy catches, why the batsmen played wrong shots and panicked in pressure and why a most experienced batsman wasted 76 precious balls, the government is awarding them for their ‘blunders’ with cash awards.

If we are celebrating their defeat in the semifinals by showering millions of rupees, giving state receptions and lauding their ‘performance’, we may get down in the quarterfinals in the next event.