Pakistan cricket's World Cup woes reflect its soap opera politics

In Pakistan, the revolving door of cricket and politics is almost always in motion, writes Benjamin Ashraf [photo credit: Lucie Wimetz/TNA]

If pets are anything like their owners, the Pakistan cricket team must be like an anarcho state.

A Molotov cocktail of postcolonial pride and nuclear rivalry, support for Pakistan is not for the faint-hearted.

Just ask former World Cup-winning captain and playboy-turned-prime minister Imran Khan, who is in prison, coach Bob Woolmer, who died in suspicious circumstances after losing a match, or the team Sri Lanka cricketer caught in the crossfire while training at the Gaddafi Stadium. , named in honor of the Libyan dictator after he supported Pakistan's pursuit of nuclear weapons in 1972.

However, the sporting gods continue to renew the soap opera that is Pakistani cricket. It is just as well that the country was built along religious fault lines; Fandom requires almost monastic patience.

We've had our share of ups; God knows we've had our lowest points. The double defeat against the United States, the minnows made up of software engineers fleeing the subcontinent and India, its arch-rival, in which Pakistan snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, are the latest results that left the public perplexed.

The toll of Pakistan's premature exit has been overwhelming: boycotts, death threats, everything in between. But with the dust beginning to settle and another shock being absorbed, it's time for them to assume the role of the sport's most volatile outfit.

Pakistan and the psyche of the cornered tiger

As fickle as they are frenetic, Pakistani cricket fans are nonetheless a hardened breed.

Endless off-camera drama, a decade-long exile and a fake scandal unfolded amid the war on terror and an unhappy but enduring marriage between successive civilian governments and an authoritarian military.

The country and its cricket team can't seem to take a break. The constant vilification in the media has not helped. The quicksand of a sport which has seen the Pakistanis, Siamese twins and arch-enemy, India enjoy a monopoly and therefore despite their involvement where possible, has not been the quicksand of a sport either.

But, as the Pakistanis themselves will tell you, the blame game too often comes down to default in a country on the brink of collapse.

The outlook for 2024 doesn't look good no matter how you dress it. An import-driven economy dependent on remittances is flirting, once again, with an IMF bailout that even China's Belt and Road Initiative will struggle to resolve. Meanwhile, the military-mujahid experiment backfired, with monthly, if not weekly, consequences.

Pakistan has pawned its future without a receipt, even if its entrenched elite tells you otherwise.

The feudal strangulation of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Muslim Leagues (PLMN) transformed into stability and the chronic dependence of the economy on China, Saudi Arabia and the United States presented as pragmatics are just two examples of doublethink that would make Big Brother laugh with glee. .

It is in this less than stable status quo that Pakistan cricket resides. Mercurial at the best of times, the team has nonetheless given us moments of great pride, with World Cup victories in 1992 and 2009 and a Champions Trophy in 2017, now fables in 77 years of eventful history from the country.

But politicians know this and find cynical ways to exploit it.

More than a game

The best example of the connection between cricket and politics and Oscar Wilde's quote Life imitates art more than art imitates life was the 2024 elections.

Written in his Rawalpindi prison cell and broadcast via AI, former Prime Minister Imran Khan invoked every ounce of cricketing glory in his campaign speeches, calling on Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) voters to fight like cornered tigers, as he had done. taking Pakistan to their legendary victory in the 1992 World Cup.

Khan's opponents then were Australia, 32 years later it was his own country's military-political establishment and it almost worked.

Although the incumbent PPP-PLMN coalition prevented Khan's PTI from contesting the elections, Khan's use of, you guessed it, a cricket bat as a necessary election symbol in low-income areas Literacy helped galvanize candidates who became independent of the PTI towards almost folkloric success. .

This certainly ruffled the feathers of the coalition; they banned the cricket bat symbol not once, but twice. And without their final attempts, Imran Khan could have won, such is the influence of the willow on the subcontinent.

Today, the revolving door between cricket and politics is almost always in motion, with each taking inspiration from the other.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has emulated the state's bloated bureaucracy. 2,200 of the 2,800 registered clubs in the country are ghost clubs and the selection of teams reflects the favoritism that is rife in society.

For their part, politicians use the status of cricket teams as a weapon, portraying major victories as victories for Islam.

Written at the height of the West Indies' struggle for independence, CLR James Beyond a Boundary asks: What do they know about cricket, what only cricket knows.

A review of Rudyard Kipling's boast. What They Should Know About England, What Only England Knows, CLR expresses cricket as an extension of British colonialism and therefore a defining feature of West Indian history and culture.

In Pakistan, the Trinidadian Marxist has another classic example. And given that the team's World Cup exit ends on technicalities or the divine intervention of a washed out pitch, perhaps CLR James' question should instead be: what do they know about Pakistan, as God alone knows.

Benjamin Ashraf is the acting opinion editor of The New Arab. He is also a visiting scholar at the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan.

Follow him on X: @ashrafzeneca

Do you have any questions or comments ? Send us an email to:é[email protected]

The views expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.

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