Now to the real deal
As a result of leading its group, Pakistan will now face the West Indies, the weakest of the eight quarter- finalists. If, as expected, we get through that match, our next assignment will be the winners of the India-Australia clash. Beating Australia once is fortunate; doing it twice in the same tournament may require a miracle. India, meanwhile, are the undeniable favourites and seem to be on a collision course with destiny. Conventional wisdom would say that Pakistan’s run should end in the semifinals.
But the very existence of the Pakistan cricket team, scarred by defeat and tarred by scandal, argues against believing in conventional wisdom. With the quarter-finals now ready to start, this is also a good time to take stock of the tournament so far. The biggest story of the World Cup has not been the players but the technology. The use and misuse of the Umpire Decision Review System has been the talk of the tournament. Both officials and players are new to the system and any problems that have arisen should be blamed on their inexperience and a need to tweak the rules rather than the technology itself. The tournament so far has also seen a burst of honesty from Sachin Tendulkar, who gave himself out when he knew he edged a ball, in stark contrast to Ricky Ponting who was involved in an ugly incident against Pakistan after refusing to walk. But then the World Cup is all about creating heroes and villains, something it has done to perfection so far.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 22nd, 2011.
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