The flight of Icarus?

What will it take to forget about the 2017 Champions Trophy victory and focus on causes which have bogged our national cricket team with series of embarrassing losses? The 3-0 ODI defeat by New Zealand this year should have awakened us to the ground realities. In ODI matches, good performance in fielding is vital. The team’s coach and captain must be actively involved in planning strategy before the start of game and must study the weaknesses and strength of the rival team, and the captain must avoid shouting during the match in a language which the rival team is familiar with. Discipline should be enforced during tours and there shouldn’t be off-the-field activities for players at least 36 hours before a game.

The team management should revive visible loss in confidence of star batsman Fakhr Zaman and others who are not performing well with bat and poor fielding. Bowlers need to retain element of surprise, exploiting weaknesses of batsman. Amir Khan seems to have lost his line and capacity to deliver yorker on UAE pitches which are otherwise not favorable for fast bowlers. Shaheen Afridi is a good find, but fielders missing his catches would only frustrate him.

Malik Tariq Ali

Lahore

*****

The performance of Pakistan’s cricket team against the arch-rival, India, in the ongoing Asia Cup has disappointed the entire nation. The team performed bad in both matches against India who won the two matches with an impressive margin.

Pakistan failed in almost every department – from batting to fielding. Pakistani openers and middle-order batsmen, except Shoaib Malik, failed to give a tough time to bowlers. The PCB should ask the team management to explain what went wrong on the field so that corrective measures should be taken in a timely manner.

Imtiaz Junejo

Hyderabad