Why the game needs Pakistan to start winning
IT is not just the millions of cricket fans in Pakistan who are hoping their team can turn around their one-day results over the next year, but also television executives worried about the very real prospect that the country will fail to qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
Earlier this year the International Cricket Council’s chief executive, Dave Richardson, admitted that draws were organised so that Pakistan and India met each other in the group stage of global tournaments — the Champions Trophy next year will be the fifth time in a row.
The reason is clear. The match between the two countries at the World Twenty20 in March brought in a television audience in India alone of 83-million. That figure will top a billion worldwide and earn millions of dollars for television companies in advertising revenue, helping the ICC continually to increase the value of its rights deals.
But at the moment Pakistan are ranked ninth in the world and facing a real fight to reach the top eight before September 30 2017, the cut-off for automatic qualification for the next World Cup in England. They are 10 points behind eighthplaced West Indies.
It was a controversial move to trim the World Cup to 10 teams, and most of the criticism aimed at the ICC was for cutting the opportunities for associate nations, but it also means that for the first time a test nation might not qualify.
England are ranked fifth, a reflection of the low base from which they started after the last World Cup. Pakistan are paying for years of underachievement in 50-over cricket. They have won series only against Sri Lanka (twice) and Zimbabwe since December 2013. They have two series against the West Indies and six matches in Australia, probably the hardest challenge of all, plus the Champions Trophy next year to move up the rankings. A 5-0 whitewash by England looms today in Cardiff after they have been outplayed for most of this series.
Mickey Arthur, the Pakistan coach, took over just before this tour and has had little time to
Pakistan have won one-dayers only against Sri Lanka (twice) and Zimbabwe since December 2013
assess players on this trip or in domestic cricket in Pakistan. He says he has built up a good working relationship with Inzamam-ul-Haq, chairman of selectors, and that those in England are playing for their ODI futures.
Fifty-over cricket in Pakistan has declined, with several Twenty20 tournaments, culminating in the Pakistan Super League, taking precedence. But that should not hold back the national team. Fifty-over cricket has become an extension of T20, but Pakistan, who lead the test rankings, appear to be playing a game from a bygone era, most clearly exhibited with their pedestrian batting in the ODIs in England.