Amid chocked ears and closed eyes, men at the helm ot our crlcket affairs, as mentioned, are such strangers to reality that lessons are never learnt as history of failures repeats over and over again.
Weak reflex action, lack of physical fitness and non-commital attitude glaringly expose our fielding loopholes to crashing defeats over and over again. Blunder adds to lacklustre fielding over the years is muddling with the ball, missing and picking, turning the arm long and around and throwing with an extra run or two gifting a good 50 to 60 to the obviously winning team. On the contrary almost every other team has mastered the art of picking and throwing all in one action saving those vital runs that make big difference in the end.
Let alone problems in physical fitness, alarmingly pathetic is mental alertness. Of late even our fancied wicketkeeper captain lost mental composure by not taking a review of an opponent’s run oit which even camera and commentators justified time and again. As captain sets the trend in being mentally lost, batsmen follow in mentally panicked run outs.
While our opponent batting plunders due to our fielding loopholes, our batting blunders due to lack of training and composure. Who would coach them how to negotiate nasty rising deliveries and how would they learn to stay composed and calculated at the wicket to a respectable or a fighting total??
When it comes to bowling in such form of exhillirating World Cup cricket, it is nagging line and lenght that counts for speedsters, seamers and spinners alike. Bur what can accurate bowling do amid fielding loopholes, dropped catches, lack of confidence and commitment???
Now something extremely difficult and almost impossible indeed? Can some patriotically feeling and realizing faultering and blundering cases of national cricket voluntarily quit in supreme national interest with most urgent and very insightful stop gap solutions within the same.set up?!
By Parvez Jamil
