World T20 shows Pakistan cannot be written off, says media

Pakistan’s World Twenty20 win was a slap in the face for Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, who had engineered the murderous attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March and against whom the military is now preparing to launch a full-scale offensive, an editorial in a leading English daily said Tuesday.

Another editorial said the victory “dispelled the misery and the sense of despondency we see today everywhere in our country”, while a third leader said the triumph was a “clear message” that Pakistan cannot be written off “come what may”.

Pakistan emphatically beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets at Lord’s Sunday to claim their first international cricketing trophy since Imran Khan led them to victory in the ODI World Cup in 1992.

“The terrorists were symbolically killing Pakistani culture. The match at Lord’s has symbolically pushed the enemies of civilisation back and regained for us the ground we had lost at home,” Daily Times said in an editorial headlined “What cricket has come to mean”.

It noted that the Pakistani team “was symbolically led by a Pashtun, Younis Khan, one of the three in the team whose mother tongue is Pashto, the same spoken by warlord Baitullah Mehsud who has proved to be the scourge of the Pashtun people before threatening the very existence of the state of Pakistan”.

“The second symbolic challenge to Baitullah Mehsud was the bowling of another Pashtun, Umar Gul, who ended up with the biggest haul of wickets in an international Twenty-20 match. The victories in the two matches in the run-up to the final could not have been possible without him,” the editorial said.

Then, there was all-rounder Shahid Afridi, “whose co-tribesmen are suffering under the savage rule of a local warlord in Khyber, lifted himself from a long trough of indifferent batting to shine with two consecutive fifties in the semi-final and the final against West Indies and Sri Lanka. His bowling was to be the mainstay of Pakistan’s overall performance in the tournament”, the editorial contended.

The Sri Lankan team was virtually the same that had survived a militant ambush March 3 while on its way to Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium for the third day's play of the second cricket test against Pakistan. Six players and the team's assistant were injured in the assault, which led to the immediate cancellation of the tour. Six Pakistani policemen and two bystanders were also killed in the attack

According to The News, the significance of the victory “goes beyond the cricketing field".

“The triumph, the joy that accompanied it, the end to a long cricketing drought in terms of trophies dispelled the misery and the sense of despondency we see today everywhere in our country,” it said in an editorial headlined “A victory at last”.

In this context, it noted that even in the refugee camps in the northwest housing civilians fleeing the military’s anti-Taliban operations, “displaced people gathered around tiny television sets to watch the final from Lord's. They celebrated the victory with citizens everywhere in the country. For some hours, some days, the events on a green field many miles away permitted them to forget their own many anxieties and ordeals”.

According to Dawn, the victory “sends a clear message that we will not be written off, come what may”, even while Pakistan’s cricketers were resigned to the fact that they will either have to play their ‘home series’ at offshore venues or not play at all.

“So how are things any different now?” the editorial asked and provided the answer, albeit with an anti-India slant.

“Pakistan’s victory tells the world that we can win wherever we might have to play. Even in India, which with its deep pockets, now virtually controls the ICC (International Cricket Council). It will take some doing to crush Pakistan’s spirit.

“We will not simply go away and sulk. We can triumph in the face of adversity,” said the editorial, headlined “Power of passion”.

Last updated on Jun 23^rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm IST--IANS