There is a video on Iftikhar Ahmed’s Instagram page, of Pakistan cricketers climbing up a hill carrying big rocks over their heads. The exercise was from an army-style boot camp that the team underwent as part of their preparations for the T20 World Cup. Ultimately, though, core strength doesn’t win you cricket matches. You need to score runs and take wickets, and Pakistan were found wanting on both counts as a ragtag bunch of players representing the United States of America (USA) pulled off the biggest shock in cricket history at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
Such upsets are not new for Pakistan cricket. Back in 1999, Bangladesh – playing in their first [50-over] World Cup – shocked Wasim Akram’s team in a group-stage fixture. But then, there were two mitigating factors. Pakistan were already assured of a place in the next round, and Bangladesh, though new to the World Cup, had a long tradition of cricket, with Dhaka having hosted Pakistan’s first home Test back in January 1955.
Eight years later, at Sabina Park in Jamaica, with Cotton Eye Joe, the Rednex tune, blaring from the stadium speakers and hundreds of fans in their Saint Patrick’s Day finest swigging their Red Stripes and singing Molly Malone, a bunch of Irish part-timers beat Pakistan by seven wickets. It was a defeat that sent Pakistan tumbling out of the competition, but any recriminations were sadly overshadowed by the tragic death of Bob Woolmer, their coach, a few hours later.
Again, it was Ireland’s first World Cup appearance. But there too, there was a proud, if unknown, cricket history. At Sion Mills in 1969, Ireland had skittled a West Indies touring side that included Clive Lloyd and Clyde Walcott for just 25. Ed Joyce, the opening batsman, had just switched allegiances to play for England, and Eoin Morgan and Boyd Rankin would soon follow.
But what happened in Dallas was simply unprecedented. Monank Patel, the USA captain whose half-century set up the run chase, was nearly thrown off the team in January 2020 after being part of a trio that turned up to a team meeting drunk. Steven Taylor, the opener, lost the vice-captaincy after that incident.
Saurabh Netravalkar, the left-arm pacer whose superb spell of 2-18 restricted Pakistan to under 150, didn’t even head to the USA in 2015 with cricket on his mind. The highest wicket-taker for India at the Under-19 World Cup in 2010 had given up on his cricket dream and flown across the Atlantic to study Computer Science at Cornell.
Gary Kirsten was part of the South Africa side that Woolmer coached in 1999, when they exited the World Cup after a heart-breaking tie at Edgbaston. These days, the man who won the 2011 World Cup with India, is holding the coaching reins for Pakistan. The Dallas game appeared to age him in just the space of four hours.
"I'd like to sleep on my future as coach," said Woolmer on that long-ago afternoon in Jamaica, the last time most would hear him speak. "I've had bad days before, the worst of them was at Edgbaston in 1999. Things like this happen in cricket."
Sadly for Pakistan, it seems to happen to them more often.
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