End of the road for Green Shirts

Mercifully, it’s over. Green Shirts have been sent packing from the ICC T20 World Cup which continues with all its fun and thrill — unfortunately not for the cricket-made Pakistan fans. The weather served Team Pakistan the final blow as the USA-Ireland game at Lauderhill, Florida on Friday was washed out without a ball being bowled. With just one win from three games, the Babar Azam men were expecting Ireland to beat the USA and reduce it to two wins from all its four games. A USA defeat would provide a chance for Pakistan to beat Ireland in its last pool match later today and qualify for the Super Eight stage. This match in now a mere formality.

The Men in Green had a disastrous start in the 20-team contest. They were stunned in their opening game by the USA, a first timer to an international tournament, and then caved in to the archrivals India in their second game, leaving themselves — like almost always — to rely on other teams to pave their way into the next stage. The sole victory they have clinched so far in the tournament is against the 23^rd ranked Canadian team — and that too in an unconvincing way. The paltry 107 needed to win the game were reached no later than the 18^th over for the loss of three wickets, including the prized ones of skipper Babar Azam and his deputy Muhammad Rizwan.

The Pakistan think tank needs to go to the dissection table. The performance of each and every player — however big — as well as officials and coaching staff should come under the microscope. Responsibilities must be fixed and action taken over the failure in the form of demotion in the central contract and expulsion from the national team in the case of players, and dismissal from the jobs in the case of officials and support staff. The most important of all is to set up a competitive domestic structure like in Australia, India and England. One wonders how many more debacles we need to come to this realisation.