The enormity of the whitewash at home against Bangladesh was shown in the Second Test at Kanpur. Not only did India whitewash them, but they beat them in the 2nd Test after losing over two days to rain. Or was the Bangladesh cricket team showing gratitude for how India won the 1971 War, and was the captain Najmul Hasan Shanto, cementing his place on the same page?
However, there seem to have been some mixed signals. Babar Azam has resigned as captain of the Pakistan cricket team, as is perhaps right and proper. Only there’s a catch: the captain of the Test team, Shan Masood, is hanging on to the job like grim death, Opponents of the Cuptaan should remember that. You never give up, even if they have to carry you kicking and screaming out of PM House.
Babar Azam should never have been made captain. He’s too ugly, not to mention that he didn’t go to the right school. And he is not known to have an illegitimate daughter. The point is not whether you have one or not. Until you scream to the world, you don’t have any chance of getting onto the same page. I don’t know if Shanto of Bangladesh has similar problems.
But perhaps Babar is merely paving the way. There was a police-protesters clash outside CM House, with the protesters trying to get in the CM House. The police won. Not really a big deal, because the protesters were visually impaired. Well, a lot of them were blind. They were demanding jobs. None of them were demanding the Pakistan white-ball captaincy, but maybe Babar saw what the protesters couldn’t, which was the writing on the wall. That a disgusted selection committee was about to replace the entire cricket team with blind players.
Of course, the regulation ball makes no sound, as the one used in blind cricket does, but blind players can’t very well do worse than the present players. Even with the ball making a noise, the sighted players would probably still miss. Ans what would happen to the blind players? They would lose. Big deal. What are our so-called sighted players doing?
Of course, the visually impaired should also demand jobs in the police. After all, the Punjab police has a khwaja sirah in its ranks, so it should be able to handle the visually impaired. It might not go very well if a cop couldn’t tell the difference between a criminal and a colleague. Would it be a case of the blind leading the blind?
I wonder if Iran has learned anything from our cricket team. I mean, it sent over another barrage to Israel and killed no one. That was what happened the last time. Meanwhile, Israel keeps on picking off Iranian top commanders, as well as allied leaders like Ismail Haniyeh and Hassan Nasrallah. Iranian commanders seem to have stronger nerves than Babar Azam. None has resigned from anything.
The PTI is still trying to get Imran Khan released by trying to stage a sit-in at D Chowk. The man of the hour, the future Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Ali Amin Gandapur, was said to have been detained. There is fear that he may have been arrested for the case against him for the possession of foreign liquor (or at least a bottle used for foreign liquor) and some Kalashnikovs.
Ali Amin is Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif’s boss. So he must have prompted Saif’s invitation to the Indian Foreign Minister to the PTI’s rally. First, he wanted to have relations with Afghanistan; clearly, he feels restricted, and sees his talents better used in diplomacy.
