Pakistan Cricket Board must market their team

Pakistan’s series against England is bound to be a special one in many ways. Decades ago when these two teams clashed in the seventies and eighties, fans were assured of witnessing top class cricket. Pakistan was then made up of players knowledgeable of the England conditions since most of their top players were English county cricket’s top performers. Unfortunately, in the current team, only Younis Khan and Azhar Ali have played in more than one Test in England.

It is unbelievable that their captain Misbah Ul Haq, who has played in 61 Test matches, hasn’t played a single Test match in England! This surely points out to something seriously wrong somewhere ... either in the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) scheduling of matches, or maybe due to the recent avoidance by some teams of playing Pakistan. At one time, Pakistan was one team that every country hoped to play against due to the sheer talent in the squad. Today it is a team confined to playing only in the Asian region, and their home series are played mostly in the UAE, given the refusal by teams to tour Pakistan due to security reasons.

Under these circumstances, the PCB should seriously consider launching a campaign to market the image of their team.

During this upcoming tour, it is very likely the match fixing scandal that rocked the team during their 2010 England series will be discussed, and cricketers like Graeme Swann and others would condemn Mohammad Amir’s return to cricket following the lifting of the ban for his involvement in the scandal. It is under these circumstances that the PCB should launch an image building exercise.

In today’s cricket, it is important to market one’s team.

The big demand for playing a series against India is not only due to the huge television viewership or their players’ skills alone but the image that the media has created out of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Similarly, Pakistan too should highlight the aura of Younis Khan who averages over 50 in England. Unfortunately, Pakistan is reluctant to laud his deeds in Test cricket like other nations do about their players.

Sarfraz Ahmad and Wahab Riaz are all extremely talented and PCB must find ways to project them.

The PCB has proved that they have people who can market cricket when they successfully staged the Pakistan Super League in the UAE.

Projecting players’ skills adds to their confidence too. Sadly, the usual trend is that the moment Pakistan loses matches, critics, led by their former players, tear apart the team.

Little do they think that it is a team struggling for exposure, deprived of international series in front of their home crowd.

The series against England will be a big challenge and it is vital critics resist from demoralising their players.