When you get a label, it can well and truly stick. When I got up this morning I went on line to check the cricket scores and while I was logged on, I had a quick look on my twitter account.
I noticed on my timeline that there was a few Pakistan fans remarking about Sri Lanka’s lack of urgency in attempting to set a total to give themselves the maximum amount of time to bowl out Pakistan and level the series.
There was conversations saying things like “no one will say anything because it is Sri Lanka, if it was us (Pakistan) we would be getting accused of this and that” and “it’s only Pakistan’s integrity that ever gets questioned.”
It’s an unfortunate fact, but it is probably true, people would be pointing a finger and questioning the motives had it been Pakistan playing in that manner.
It’s a shame and it’s not right and fair to say that about Pakistan, but the problem is that in the eyes of all the cynics Pakistan have to rebuild their reputation.
It did seem very strange that Sri Lanka didn’t try and press on when they got back out after the rain, and I do think that more than a passing eyebrow would have been wrongly raised if the boot had been on the other foot.
In my view Tillakaratne Dilshan was just very negative. He more than anyone should know what can happen in a session or two after what happened to Sri Lanka in Cardiff, and it was highly unlikely that Pakistan would attempt the run chase and risk drawing the series.
I think it was very poor captaincy, I know it would be a bit of an understatement to say that Dilshan hasn’t had the greatest of starts to his tenure as test captain, but he’s 35 now and it’s a bit late in his career to be worrying about his long term future in the role.
Congratulations to Pakistan on winning the series, it’s good to see them back competing with the top test nations.
It’s not for me to say, but I’d like to see them call the UAE home for the foreseeable future and settle in. If they could get familiar with the conditions they could start to gain a ‘home’ advantage again. Surely this is very important and if Pakistan can make their home here, they should be far more competitive, instead of every series feeling like an away one.
