My heart has always belonged to Pakistan’s cricketers but the PCB’s decision-making is breaking it
I failed the Tebbit test a long time ago. I was taken in by Shoaib Akhtar’s R-rated speed, then locked up by the madness of Shahid Afridi’s boom-boom-or-bust spirit. And so, despite spending most of my life in England, my heart has always belonged to Pakistan’s cricketers. Maybe there’s something there in wanting a connection to a family far away, some deeper diasporic stuff about a never-ending search for identity. Or maybe it’s really this simple: Pakistan have produced plenty of the game’s most captivating cricketers. When it all comes together – the ball reversing or turning both ways – it’s a ride you never want to get off.
The worrying part? It hasn’t clicked for weeks, months, years – and the grimness is reaching new levels, the last fortnight particularly depressing for anyone with an emotional stake in Pakistani cricket. It was clear that they would struggle on the tour of England, who rarely lose a Test series at home. Even with all that boozy drama, they’ve got Joe Root and Harry Brook taking turns as the best in the world. Chuck in Ollie Robinson with his 19th-century average and that seam attack has a sense of balance it missed last winter. Pakistan, on the other hand, have not won a Test series in England for 30 years and walked into this one having lost eight of their previous nine Tests abroad. The best-case scenario was that they would nab a game, as they’ve done on several trips to England this century.