However, the worst was yet to come. An ordinary show against the Kangaroos in Abu Dhabi and the disapproval of the PCB with regards to allowing their players to play in the African version of the IPL elicited even more gloom for the fans and the players. When after winning the T-20 World Cup in England, skipper Younus Khan made an appeal to his fellow cricketers from other nations to not to be afraid about playing in Pakistan, it seemed that a world champion status and the captain’s suave words might turn around the fortunes of the beleaguered nation and an almost helpless PCB. But once again, the ‘ayes’ did not come.

Following losses to Sri Lanka, New Zealand and a maladroit performance at the Champions Trophy semi-finals, the team only spiraled into deeper trouble, when the sport met the abominable face of politics, with members of the political circuit raising voices about the alleged involvement of skipper Younus Khan in match-fixing. Subsequently, the right-handed thirty plus batsman was sacked, as the ‘Men in Green’ prepared for what was to be just the perfect example of what the word ‘trouncing’ means. Pakistan lost eight straight games down under, many of which were unforced defeats. Critics, who called it the darkest hour of Pakistani cricket, were proven wrong when no Pakistani player was even contemplated during the third IPL auction and very recently, when colossal figures of Pakistani cricket including three former captains: Younus Khan, Mohammed Yusuf and Shoaib Malik were suspended on charges of malpractices. Others who came under the ire included prolific players like Umar Akmal, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shahid Afridi.

With the country losing civil order and the rule of law becoming more and more irrelevant by the day, the citizens of Pakistan might well have lost their only source of joy, with their cricket team down in the dumps and one feels only more exasperated when the though of the recent performance of the Pakistani Hockey team passes the mind. One does not know whether the nation will ever be able to regain its lost credibility, but the near future seems to be too dismal to be sanguine and with the passion of the nation being thrown into the doldrums by a crazy and unprofessional cricket board, the only source of rejuvenation might also have turned too meek to bring about any change of sorts.