The Pakistani cricket team has resurrected the self-belief and self-respect of a beleaguered nation with its stellar performance in the World Cup.
Despite coming from the subcontinent, I belong to a rare species that isn't crazy about cricket. In a region where cricket is like religion and players like Sachin Tendulkar are elevated to iconic status, one could never quite get the hang of the game, let alone get hooked to it.
I still find it hard to see people spend an entire day glued to the television, or worse, skip work to suffer the heat and dust of a South Asian stadium for a cricket match. It's even more vexing when it comes to Test cricket. How can anyone, for God's sake, spend four to five days chasing a ball?
A legacy of our colonial masters, cricket has become a magnificent obsession across South Asia. Just about everyone, from stuffy television pundits to the man in the street, is forever debating the nuances of the game.
It's never just a game, especially when India and Pakistan are playing. It becomes a virtual war, a reflection of the many the twins have fought since they parted ways 64 years ago. More than the Indians, it's the Pakistanis who go all hyper when they take on the bigger neighbour, turning it into a do-or-die battle and often emerging victorious.
It's as though they're making up for the areas in which they can't match the big brother — in size, numbers and in other ways. No wonder they've produced some of the fastest bowlers and finest hitters of the ball.
In the past few years though, Pakistani cricket has been steadily going downhill in sync with the general state of affairs in the country. From one leadership crisis to another and from one controversy to the next, the former champions have been going through the worst phase in their history.
That has changed with this World Cup — and how. It's been an absolute treat even for the uninitiated like me to watch Shahid Afridi's boys take on the mightiest of opponents and shred them to pieces.
This World Cup has been all about Pakistan's thumping march to glory, a team that was nowhere in the reckoning when the whole affair began.
Fighting spirit
The last two encounters have seen Pakistan at its boldest and brightest. First it dismissed the Australians, the reigning world champions, at 176 beating a side that hasn't lost a single match since 1999.
Then it was the turn of the formidable West Indies to be thrashed in a one-sided contest that Pakistan won by 10 wickets in Dhaka. A better gift to the nation, on March 23, Pakistan's National Day, wasn't perhaps possible.
I don't know what's in store in the days ahead. Like all cricket fanatics, albeit I am not one, I am keen to watch India and Pakistan battle it out in the semi-final tomorrow. What a thriller it promises to be! The two sides haven't played each other in years, especially in each other's territory.
Understandably, the Pakistan team is being lustily cheered on by a rapturous nation back home. Given the depressing mess on all fronts, it hasn't been the best of times for Pakistan.
Breaking down
Fighting the monsters from the past and repeatedly betrayed by their politicians, coupled with the breaking down of institutions and perpetual humiliation by ‘allies', Pakistanis have been losing all hope and faith in their future as a nation. I've seen close friends desperately look for their children's future in faraway lands.
What do you do when your country is ravaged daily by mindless violence and drone attacks and you are accused of sponsoring global terrorism? What do you do when those who should be behind bars take over the reins of power?
Last week, a day after the US ‘diplomat' who shot dead two young Pakistanis in cold blood walked to freedom, 46 people were killed in another drone strike by the folks who call themselves Pakistan's friends.
The politicians and powerful army couldn't move a finger.
No wonder cynicism has become second nature to most Pakistanis today. Open the opinion pages of any newspaper or tune in to a television network and you're overwhelmed by the doomsday predictions of all those eggheads.
And to think this nation is just 64 years old!
Amid this sense of desolation comes the brilliant performance of the Pakistani team. With their endless feats on the field, Afridi's boys have lifted the dark blanket of gloom off their nation.
Following the stunning victory over Australia, delirious crowds burst out on the streets to celebrate like there's no tomorrow. After all, they haven't had much to celebrate in the past many years.
Never before has a sport got so entwined and identified with a nation's honour and well-being.
The game of cricket has become a metaphor for a nation's quest for dignity and journey of self discovery. By consistently winning on cricket pitches across the region over the past couple of weeks, Afridi's eleven have nearly made up for all the bad news on other fronts. They have unleashed the fighting spirit of a besieged nation, rediscovering its self-belief and self-respect.
Whoever thought the temperamental Afridi could evolve into such a fine leader of men! It's a delight to watch the mercurial Pathan raise both hands in utter defiance every time he claims a scalp. If only Pakistan had leaders like him and running the Islamic republic was as simple as leading the cricket squad!
Aijaz Zaka Syed is a widely published columnist based in the Gulf.
