It is despicable Sohail is spreading such negativity about someone who is considered as one of the greatest captains.
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to your story “Imran Khan damaged Pakistan cricket: Aamir Sohail” (June 16). According to Sohail, Imran is responsible for the current malaise afflicting Pakistan cricket. He should be ashamed of levelling such baseless allegations against a man who drastically transformed our cricketing paradigm. He is ignorant of the fact that Imran made our batsmen practise with wet tennis balls on cement tracks to prepare them for bouncy, fast pitches overseas. Can he name one Pakistani captain, who employed such innovative methods to help our batsmen, who were only acquainted with the lifeless tracks in Pakistan?
Sohail probably has a very crude idea about ball tampering. Pakistani bowlers mastered the art of reverse swing in the 1980s and the same phenomenon helped England win the Ashes in 2005. Imran retired from the game after leaving behind a world-class team. It is despicable that Sohail is spreading such negativity about someone who is now considered, by the cricketing fraternity, as one of the greatest captains to have played the sport. It is understandable for Sohail to vilify Imran after joining politics but using politics to dispute the great man’s contributions to the sport is ludicrous. Imran introduced the concept of neutral umpires and brought players like Saeed Anwar, Inzamamul Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed and Waqar Younis into the team. That’s his contribution to Pakistan cricket.
What exactly is Sohail’s contribution to our cricket other than throwing away his wicket in the quarter-final of the 1996 World Cup against India after having a brain explosion?
Waqar Hasan
Published in The Express Tribune, June 18th, 2013.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
