A mixed year in sports.

 

Pakistan’s cricket team will take on Australia in the third and final Test match at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground today, looking for a rare win on Australian soil. It’s a dead rubber as the series was already lost when Pakistan failed to capitalize on a solid position in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in the last week of 2023. The 79-run defeat in Melbourne capped a disappointing year for Pakistan, not just on the cricket field but across the sporting spectrum. Apart from a few silver linings that came in the form of a few successes in squash and mountaineering, there wasn’t much to cheer about for Pakistan in 2023. Our cricketers fared decently during the best part of the year, winning relatively low-profile games, mostly at home, but flopped miserably when it mattered the most. They took the field in the Asia Cup as the top-ranked team in the One-day International format but failed to reach the final after suffering a catastrophic defeat against old rivals India. The Asia Cup was supposed to be hosted by Pakistan but the Indian cricket board used its clout in international cricket to make sure that the best part of the event, including the final, took place in Sri Lanka.

The Asia Cup was followed by the all-important ICC World Cup in which Pakistan began as one of the pre-tournament favourites. Beginning the event with back-to-back wins, they froze in front of 100,000 fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and were thrashed by India. The Pakistanis failed to make it into the semi-finals, a result that forced the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to make wholesale changes in the national cricket setup. New coaches and selectors were brought in. Shan Masood was named Test skipper and Shaheen Afridi given charge of the national T20 team after Babar Azam stepped down as Pakistan’s all-format captain following the World Cup debacle. Overall, Pakistan cricket was marred by controversies as the game of musical chairs continued to be played in the PCB. Another alarming issue was a sheer lack of player fitness with key cricketers like pace lynchpin Naseem Shah missing the World Cup due to injury.

Things weren’t much better for Pakistan in most other sports. The country continued to struggle on the hockey field and it seems that it might once again fail to qualify for the Olympic Games. Pakistan’s last chance to secure a spot for the Paris Olympics is the Olympic Qualifier in Oman but the team doesn’t seem good enough to secure a berth there after failing to impress much in the Asian Games. However, there was some hope for the future when Pakistan qualified for the quarterfinals of the Junior World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. It is important that we keep investing in the pool of young players because they are our only hope.

In squash, there were plenty of disappointments but a silver medal in the men’s team event in the Asian Games in Hangzhou and, perhaps more importantly, Hamza Khan’s title-winning triumph in the World Junior Squash Championship in Australia lifted the gloomy mood. In football, Pakistan made history by advancing to the second round of World Cup qualifiers after beating Cambodia 1-0 in Islamabad. In snooker, Ahsan Ramzan claimed the Under-21 Asian Snooker Championship title. Mountaineer Shehroze Kashif became the youngest man to climb 10 peaks above 8000 metres. Fellow mountaineers Sarbaz Khan and Naila Kiyani also provided plenty of good news throughout the year. Naila was one of several women who proved their mettle in 2023. Women cricketers like Muniba Ali made their presence felt at the international level. Kishmala Talat won Pakistan’s first ever shooting medal in the Asian Games. Without their heroics, 2023 would have been, truly, a year from hell for Pakistan sports.