Cricket Rules: ‘dekho! is ko take it easy lo.’

Owais Mughal

Pakistan’s eventful cricket season will come to end today when they will face England in the rubber-decisive 5th One Day International (ODI). And what a season this has been.

Down. Up. Up again. Way down. Up again. And, now, getting ready for a potential nail-biter to the end!

As of now 11 hours and 23 minutes are left before the fifth and final ODI game starts and I am feeling the excitement building already.

What do you say will happen in today’s game?

A season which has made the perpetually-habitually-allegedly bad guy Shoaib Akhtar look like a farishta as compared to what the novices have been accused of. And then there have been on and off ‘Butt-tameezian’ of Ijaz Butt. People are saying that Ijaz Butt was quiet when he should have been vocal (when the crises broke out first time and the team was looking for leadership) and he is vocal when he should have been quiet (i.e. 2 days ago).

Not all is doom and gloom though. One positive thing that Pakistan team can take heart from is their improving performance in the one day matches. Especially the last two games have clearly shown the fighting spirit of the team. And this performance came amidst a non-stop barrage of media gossips and accusations. Bravo to the team to have done well under such extreme pressure.

As now for the game history between Pakistan and England, these two countries have so far played 67 ODIs with each other. England has won 37 (56.92%) and Pakistan has won 28 (43.07%). Pakistan’s overall win percentage in ODI’s is 54.87% (722 matches) and England’s win percentage is 50.57% (541 matches).

Few hours ago I was discussing the idea of this blog post with Adil bhai and one thing we discussed was how we all have to learn that cricket is not the end of the world. If the cricket team wins tomorrow, it will be great and we can bask in the euphoria for a bit without reaching the cloud nine. It will bring a smile on faces that have not had much reason to smile recently. And that, of course, will be good. But even if the team loses, that is not the end of the world. There is too much more that is much more important in all our lives; individually and collectively.

So, let us enjoy the game. Let us hope for a win. But, let us remember, a game of cricket is just a game of cricket. No less. No more. As we have said before in a different context, ‘dekho! is ko take it easy lo.’

Credits: The word ‘Butt-tameezian” is the title of a book by M Younis Butt.