POSITIVE CRICKET

BY Muhammad Arshad Tariq,
Since 2005 on Sunday England Cricket Team reached Pakistan to play three Test Match Cricket Series headed by its Test Team Skipper Ben Stokes. Earlier England played T-20 series two months ago in Pakistan but had refused to play TEST CRICKET at that time.
First test match started on December 01, 2022 at Rawalpindi Stadium as per the schedule despite concerns on security issues due to current prevailing political situation in Pakistan as former world cup legendary hero of Pakistan was attacked while marching towards Islamabad for his political motives.
English skipper Ben Stokes was of the view that having Reg Dickason who had been the security man of England team for many years, they think and trust that they are in solid and trustworthy hands. Dickason was very positive from the begging and had looked forward for a good cricket ahead for the cricket lovers around the world and particularly in Pakistan.
A positive gesture had shown by visiting guest team Captain, who was here with his team for cricket business by winning the Test Series with the announcement that they will donate first match fee to the flood affected people of Pakistan. He further added that they will visit the affected areas and shall document their experiences to the world that how recent pas flood had affected the lives of people in those affected areas.
It seems that English team is not only here to paly and win the Cricket Series but the “ HEART” as well.
On the other hand skipper of Pakistan Cricket team had said that this series has provided them a great chance to qualify for the final of ICC World Test Championship, he was determine to make the series as a decision full event. While comparing the two teams Babar Azam was of the view that team coach is Muhammad Yousuf who had scored many runs against the English team therefore they will lean from his experience. Babar Azam was confident of his bowling side and had believed that with the combination of “BAT and BOWL” Pakistan will be looking forward to win the series. Babar Azam had felt the honor of leading PAKISTAN team and very much confident for the positive out come of the series.
More over more than hundreds of cricket fans and sports journalists had arrived to cheer up their team and cricket.
It was an amazing moment when the British High Commissioner Christian Turner reached Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium by ridding typical Pakistani Riskshaw to witness the match was being played after 17 years. Before leaving and having ride on Rikshaw he had recorded a video in local Pindi Language and wishing both the teams but expressed his feelings that English team had played and won the T-20 in the recent past.
Here again we have to understand that not only cricket but they are here to win the “ HEARTS” of Pakistani people in the world and in Pakistan particularly among “Raja Gee” the local Brand.
After winning the toss by the visiting captain Reg Dackason decided to bat first and when match had started from the first ball and the over delivered it was quite eminent that on a flat wicket of Pindi Stadium English openers had shown their team’s mindset made aggressive by the their skipper that they were here to play positive cricket.
England made runs like a bullet train it was moving and within a day and some early hours of play on the second day of match they scored 657.
Pakistan response was also very positive and strongly replying the the first inning score Pakistani openers were quite professional but was not on bullet train they passed their journey on motorway we can say by giving a positive strong a bit slow reply if we compare with England first inning score within a day and couple of hours bating. However, its not a criticism on the team bating. Pakistani team got out by scoring 579 rungs by giving 78 runs lead to the victors. It was looking to be a draw match apparently but as was said by the English team leader they tried to score as many as runs they could score before the close of 4th day.
A brave move by the Reg Dickason was registered when declared and offered Pakistan to bat on second inning and go for a win, it was 343 runs to be scored by Pakistan which was achievable in all sense. It was a brave decision because letting Pakistan team to bat for a day and some hours of 4th day was a brave offer by offering Pakistan to come ahead and go for an achievable target because of the track and cricket conditions. All was in favor of Pakistan, home ground with flat wicket, home crowed and the target seems to be achievable within the time available as per wicket and ground behavior.
There are few captains who could took such bold decisions but it is very clear that ‘GREATER IS THE RISK , GREATER IS THE PROFIT’ and Dickson has proved to be aggressive captain.
Without any doubt a dead match was turned alive by a brave decision for which cricket lovers had seen a “POSITVE CRICKET”.
Pakistan team couldn’t show the professional reply chasing 343 runs on a flat track they could only manage to secure 268 runs and lost the first test match by 74 runs. Earlier England had defeated Pakistan by six wickets in the year 2000 at Karachi.
Reg Dickason showed his professional ability of captaincy by taking such bold decision of playing positive and brave cricket which will be remembered in the history of cricket that how he made one dead match alive and turned it in to his favor. This is what we call
“ POSITIVE CRICKET”