Rawalpindi cricket stadium, 7th December 2003: Pakistan has just stopped New Zealand at 228 runs in 50 overs while claiming six wickets; the visitors have fallen short of the required run total by 49 runs. This was the last game in the series between the two nations, and in front of a packed home crowd, Pakistan has completed a whitewash and won the series five to zero. A truly dominant display, one that was sorely needed after Pakistan failed to make it to the super sixes stage of that year’s World Cup. New Zealand themselves reached the super sixes stage but were unable to go any further. In August of that year, New Zealand sat at the 5th rank above Pakistan in the One Day International (ODI) rankings, two places above the Asian nation.
The rankings were a fair assessment of New Zealand at that time, a quality side which consistently performed like a team that should be mid-table in the top ten rankings. The way Pakistan came crashing down in the rankings in 2003 was also a great articulation of Pakistan as a cricketing nation. Sitting at third in the world in the ODI rankings and qualifying for the world cup, Pakistan failed to live up to expectations during the tournament. Later, they followed up with performances such as the loss to South Africa in the ODI series, making them plummet to the bottom of the rankings. Pakistan still performed admirably in the Test format of the game; winning one and drawing one test match against South Africa during the same visit for the African nation to win the series one to zero. However, one could not hope but to expect more from a team boasting players such as Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Shahid Afridi, and Wasim Akram, to name just a few. Yet, Pakistan failed to live up to its own potential. New Zealand had their fair share of top-class talent, Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum, to name just a few. Still, they had nowhere near the depth of quality that Pakistan possessed, so it was fitting that Pakistan saw the challenge of the Black Caps to end the year.
Well, what happened after? For starters, the game of cricket saw the advent of a format that would forever change the landscape of cricket – the introduction of twenty overs or T20 cricket. Although the game had seen its introduction in 2003, up until the match between Australia and New Zealand in the February of 2005, it was a regional competition held within nations for counties or clubs. As for what the next 18 years held for New Zealand, as already mentioned, they played in and lost the first-ever T20 match to Australia. However, what followed suit is a testament to the hard work of everyone involved with New Zealand cricket. Up until this point, the Island nation had only won one major ICC trophy and the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy (Now known as the ICC Champions Trophy) in Kenya.
Slowly and steadily, the Black Caps had now seen a rise in their own stock. By doing nothing particularly eye-catching or audacious, they found themselves in a completely different situation, almost two decades later. They reached the world cup finals in 2015 and 2019, losing to Australia and then, in rather heart-breaking circumstances for their fans, to England, respectively. They beat India in the final of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship, which ran from August 2019 to June 2021, becoming the competition’s first-ever victors. They thus sat pretty at the top of the ICC ODI and Test rankings and third in the T20 rankings. New Zealand ascended to the pinnacle of the sport by climbing each step on the staircase to the top, one at a time.
Let us now turn our attention to Pakistan. Surely, they could not get any more ‘mercurial’? And surely, they would have come up with a system that more regularly comes up with results and gets the best out of its homegrown talent? Well, if you know anything about Pakistan as a nation, let alone as a cricket team, you know that obviously, this is not what happened. In fact, the situation spiraled out of control. Whilst they were on the field, Pakistan showcased the same style on the pitch, a glimpse of brilliance followed by moments of chaos. As a result, the social and political climate of the field spiraled out of control. After losing to archrivals India in the 2007’s final of the first-ever T20 world cup, Pakistan was eyeing to bounce back and claim victory in the 2009 edition of the tournament. The tournament was scheduled to take place in June of 2009, and in March, Pakistan hosted the Sri Lankan cricket team. Nobody could have foreseen what came next.
Pakistan’s own domestic safety was compromised with a string of terrorist attacks plaguing the nation. Suicide bombings had become rampant to a point that was never seen before for the nation. The Sri Lankan team was constantly escorted by security but in spite of this, a shooting took place on the morning of the third day of the second Test match in Lahore. A group of terrorists opened fire on the team bus, wounding 5 Sri Lankan players and tragically killing six security personnel alongside two civilians. It was one of cricket’s darkest days, with the only silver lining being that all 5 injured players made a full recovery and continued their careers. The ramifications for Pakistan were far more long-lasting. The country did not host another series against a foreign nation till 2015 with Zimbabwe. They also did not host a Test series till 2019, a full decade after the terrorist attack in 2009.
Given such a horrific event happening in Pakistan a few months before the T20 World Cup, the players of the national team would surely be unable to deliver a performance worthy of their talent. Yet, Pakistan ended up winning the T20 world cup. The Pakistan cricket team has always delivered results when they had no right to, when the odds were stacked against them, and when the whole world doubts that they can even compete. It reaches for glory beyond its grasp while simultaneously failing to maximize the potential of each player.
Britain’s Prime Minister, in the Second World War, Winston Churchill, once famously defined Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Pakistan is similar; if the riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, was also somehow trapped within a paradox of its own creation. For reaching highs after hitting such lows, Pakistan had to come crashing to new lows again.
In 2010, during a Test series away to England, three members of the Pakistan national team were convicted of taking bribes for spot-fixing. The act of spot-fixing, with regards to cricket, refers to prearranging the outcome of certain balls with bookmakers to fix proposition bets. So even if it may not affect the result of a game, it does compromise the sanctity of the game and create a fixed betting environment. Pakistan lost two of its best bowlers to suspensions due to this scandal. Amongst these two was Mohammad Asif, one of the best bowlers in the world at the time. The second, a young up-and-coming superstar, Mohammad Amir, who had to wait six years to return to the national team. The years that followed had their fair share of drama, highs and lows, and a constant rollercoaster of emotions for all the supporters of perhaps the most unpredictable side in the history of world sports. Pakistan had more players banned for corruption-related scandals. The team had players whose bowling actions were deemed illegal. However, Pakistan won the champions trophy in 2017 against archrivals India. In this final, Amir, previously accused of spot-fixing, took out the top 3 Indian batsmen. He is a man whose own journey is identical to that of the nation for whom he plays.
All in all, while New Zealand slowly and steadily found its way to the top of the game, Pakistan remained as erratic as ever. Now New Zealand, ranked 1st in ODIs and Tests while being 4th in T20, would beat Pakistan? Surely, would a nation ranked 5th in Test cricket, 6th in ODI, and 3rd in T20, be no match for a team that is so consistent? And the first match taking place in Rawalpindi; wasn’t this surely a sign for New Zealand to get revenge for what happened 18 years earlier?
Well, if you know anything about Pakistan as a nation, let alone as a cricket team, you would know it is never as simple as that. You would know that when all hope is lost, the team performs. You would know that, for a country that has seen very few good days in its existence, cricket is the only salvation the people have. You would know that for all the chaos, for all the erratic results, Pakistani cricket has always been beautiful and exciting. You would know that you never count them out. You would know that regardless of what the last two decades have held for New Zealand, it would not matter to Pakistan.
So, let us welcome New Zealand back to Pakistan for the first time in 18 years as favorites, let us greet them with open arms, and then let us pray our boys can show the world again one truth about Pakistan, its cricket team, and its people. The truth is that we may not have the facilities and opportunities other nations have, we may mess up a lot more than our fellow cricketing superpowers, and we may not have the odds in our favor. But we never needed any of this to become champions… and that is what we have always found ourselves becoming: champions.
