Not morning people: Team gets rude wake-up call before Bangladesh series

Players grumble about being forced to dress up in suits so early in the day.

KARACHI:

It was at five in the morning that the tired players were woken from their sleep rudely by their loud alarms. Rubbing their eyes and mumbling to themselves and anyone who would care to listen, they left for the tour of Bangladesh looking decisively displeased with the inconvenient flight timing.

Having travelled to Karachi from Lahore on Sunday, the players had less than 12 hours before they were on their flight to Dhaka.

In their view, the Pakistan Cricket Board could have opted for a better time for the flight as they were forced to get up at five and grab a hurried breakfast before leaving for the Jinnah International Airport at the crack of dawn.

Neither were the players too happy with the new rule that they need to travel in formal clothing, which has been enforced by team manager Naved Akram Cheema.

“The weather is so hot in Karachi and it won’t be much better in Bangladesh, but yet we’ve have been asked to wear  formal suits,” one of the members told The Express Tribune. “This is one thing we don’t like about Cheema. On top of that, the shirts we’ve been provided are of poor quality and not appropriate for the hot weather. Then we have to wear a coat and tie as well. We like travelling casually in jeans and shirts — after all we are athletes, not models.”

However, despite the complaints, the team looked good and sharp in the suits.

In order to avoid the wrath of Cheema, a strict disciplinarian who places particular emphasis on meeting deadlines, the players could be seen groggily helping each other with their tie’s knots.

When the team was about to leave after settling in the bus, pacer Wahab Riaz had to rush back to his room to get his tie and the bus had to wait for a couple of minutes before heading to the airport — making him look almost as silly as he had made Shane Watson look in the World Cup quarter-final.

Before the departure, skipper Azhar Ali repeated his words that the young team is capable of playing good cricket and beating Bangladesh.

“We’ve got new players in the side but they are certainly capable of beating Bangladesh,” said Azhar. “People will see us play good and positive cricket, which is a demand of the modern day game. As I’ve said earlier, we need to match the pace of international cricket because the dynamics are changing fast and quick.”

Responding to the claims coming from the Bangladesh camp that the minnows have the capability of beating Pakistan, Azhar said he would rather reply on the field and let their game do the talking. “We will reply to them on the ground,” he said. “We have good team spirit and everyone is eager to do well.”

Hopefully, defeating the Bangladesh team would prove less difficult for these players than getting out of their beds on time.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2015.

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