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Advice to Pakistan fans: Keep your expectations low

RidiculousMan

RidiculousMan

T20I Debutant
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Aug 6, 2023
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I'm writing this as a somewhat long time Pakistan Cricket fan. After seeing many disappointed young fans. I want to share my perspective and advice. Take it if you want.

Keep your expectations your with this team.

Why? Because the team and the players within the team are not of the quality to match the quality of the big teams (e.g. Australia, England, India).

Before the USA loss. I used to think that Pakistan is a mid table team. They are not among the Big 3. They are neither on the level of a Bangladesh or many associates nation. But that changed quickly. The loss against USA really opened up my eyes.

If you look back to the lead up to USA game. You will quickly realize that all was building up. Building up to blow up suddenly. The losses to smaller nations, C teams and then Ireland. That wasn't a fluke. That was the reflection of the system and the output that the system has been producing for Pakistan Cricket.

The disability in the Cricket Board. The quick chairman changes. The top leadership is absolutely responsible for how they brought Pakistan Cricket here.

I will say it again. Keep your expectations low from Pakistan Cricket. This is not just a coping strategy. It's not all gloom and doom.

It's the first step. Acceptance. Acceptance that your team and the system of Cricket Board is not up to the par. You need to see things for as they are. Only then you can trust what you are seeing and can devise solutions of the problems.

When you have your expectations lower. You have nothing to lose. You aren't disappointed with the results. It's just how things are. In the meantime enjoy Cricket as a sport. There are many other teams. There are even teams like Argentina who are creating all sorts of worst records in the world. But if they keep up with it. They will also rise one day. Just like Afghanistan is rising right now.

Enjoy PSL, or just invest less into Pakistan Cricket right now and find new things to do.
 
I dont think anyone here really had high hopes after losing to NZ C team, doing poorly against Ireland, getting mauled by England.
 
But but remember that 10 wicket win.

But... Remember how good ifti is as a finisher

But... We have the best openers in the world.

Lollll
 
I'm gutted. We lost the match because of chacha. Chacha scored 5 off 9 balls, and we lost by 6 runs. Even if the other batter had scored 12 runs off 9 balls, we would have won the game.
 
120 should had been chased. Even if there were cracks on the wicket, it should had been chased. There is no question about it.

Forget Pakistan, if this was an associate team, even they would had played better cricket.

I agree that from now on I would have to keep my expectations low, but still, i still cannot believe we manage to lose this game. Like it was not even possible. Kuldeep was not playing. Axar didnt get any spin.
 
I said so yesterday that bat or bowl first India will win it. Prior to the tournament also said that Pak will lose to a minnow side too. Losing a match to Ireland followed by the NZ Z side tells me our Cricket is on life support machine. Not kidding when I say that the likes of Ireland and Scotland will overtake us in a few years time we are that bad. We need to dismantle the whole thing then start allover again.
 
Why?
Why should the fans lower their expectations.

This team belongs to the people. This team is not Babar's , Rizwan's , Shaheen 's , Wahab's personal club.

They need to realise they are not meeting the standards. Kick out the lot of them. Start fresh.
 
Nah, you have to expect Pakistan to chase down 119 runs and win against USA.

USA did not even qualify. 119 was very low score. Team is playing poorly. Change the team. Pakistan has poor domestic setup but it can't be that bad to not have 15-20 decent players. A large populated country who plays cricket.

Even if Pakistan some how manages to qualify for the next round, some lessons needs to be learned by these two poor games.
 
Sycamore said:
Why?
Why should the fans lower their expectations.

This team belongs to the people. This team is not Babar's , Rizwan's , Shaheen 's , Wahab's personal club.

They need to realise they are not meeting the standards. Kick out the lot of them. Start fresh.
Click to expand...
Because then you'll save yourself from disappointed and you'll only be able to save Pakistan Cricket once you accept the reality.

If you do not. The wave will continue for a little bit until the next event where it crashes and the cycle repeats itself. Understand the problem. We had a lot of players replaced from 2022 WT20. Look what has happened now. Their replacements did even worse.

You cannot cut and chop players as a means for a reset or a fresh start. You have to identify the problem first and understand that real change comes from a leadership position. From up top.
 
RidiculousMan said:
I'm writing this as a somewhat long time Pakistan Cricket fan. After seeing many disappointed young fans. I want to share my perspective and advice. Take it if you want.

Keep your expectations your with this team.

Why? Because the team and the players within the team are not of the quality to match the quality of the big teams (e.g. Australia, England, India).

Before the USA loss. I used to think that Pakistan is a mid table team. They are not among the Big 3. They are neither on the level of a Bangladesh or many associates nation. But that changed quickly. The loss against USA really opened up my eyes.

If you look back to the lead up to USA game. You will quickly realize that all was building up. Building up to blow up suddenly. The losses to smaller nations, C teams and then Ireland. That wasn't a fluke. That was the reflection of the system and the output that the system has been producing for Pakistan Cricket.

The disability in the Cricket Board. The quick chairman changes. The top leadership is absolutely responsible for how they brought Pakistan Cricket here.

I will say it again. Keep your expectations low from Pakistan Cricket. This is not just a coping strategy. It's not all gloom and doom.

It's the first step. Acceptance. Acceptance that your team and the system of Cricket Board is not up to the par. You need to see things for as they are. Only then you can trust what you are seeing and can devise solutions of the problems.

When you have your expectations lower. You have nothing to lose. You aren't disappointed with the results. It's just how things are. In the meantime enjoy Cricket as a sport. There are many other teams. There are even teams like Argentina who are creating all sorts of worst records in the world. But if they keep up with it. They will also rise one day. Just like Afghanistan is rising right now.

Enjoy PSL, or just invest less into Pakistan Cricket right now and find new things to do.
Click to expand...
I've been saying this for a very long time. Aka usa would crush this team amd people called me a blind hater.

My reason was simple that 2024 pak is the weakest t20 side to ever play a t20 cup for Pakistan as even 2022 atleast had haris who was inform and had all bowlers fit and firing including shadab supraingly who turned up.

You can not expect victory from Babar and rizwan who have been out of it since 2022 or from usman, Saim, Azam, Chacha and the bowlers.

And frankly speaking imad is injured and will fly home soon, Dude can't run and is getting old, Amir is a has-been.

Bowlers are out of it.

The only hope I had was that at the very least, Pakistan would be competitive against USA which has been fulfilled but not in the way I hoped as the game was mostly USA chocking a bit and not am actual competition between 2 evenly matched teams. They were superior in batting, bowling, fielding, captaincy and mentality
 
Expectations should be high.

We are a proud cricket country with over 200 million people. The only sport played is cricket.

We have resources and generate money.

How the hell have we declined to such a level?
 
Sycamore said:
Why?
Why should the fans lower their expectations.

This team belongs to the people. This team is not Babar's , Rizwan's , Shaheen 's , Wahab's personal club.

They need to realise they are not meeting the standards. Kick out the lot of them. Start fresh.
Click to expand...

It's not even about them.

People just blame individuals. We have blamed individuals for the past 20 years.

Our cricket infrastructure is rotten. The guys responsible for this lot get away with the mess they have created while our fans bicker about sarfraz Misbah Babar etc
 
For once I can say Rizwan Babar fans are delusional and so were Azam and Imad fans.

Clearly all 4 are ridiculous, Babar might have talent but seems like a selfish individual.

Rizwan is good at keeping but that dumb shot he played today was preemptive and cannot be respected.
 
JaDed said:
For once I can say Rizwan Babar fans are delusional and so were Azam and Imad fans.

Clearly all 4 are ridiculous, Babar might have talent but seems like a selfish individual.

Rizwan is good at keeping but that dumb shot he played today was preemptive and cannot be respected.
Click to expand...
Just like the team, there is no unity in fans either, everyone is gunning after the players they don't like and want to sweep under the rug their favourite players' mistakes. Only thing we all need to agree upon is that is a mediocre team like WI of 90/00s, every player will have 1 good game out of 100 and will be a passenger in the team, nepotism has destroyed the country, what chance cricket had.
 
Sherazkhalid said:
Just like the team, there is no unity in fans either, everyone is gunning after the players they don't like and want to sweep under the rug their favourite players' mistakes. Only thing we all need to agree upon is that is a mediocre team like WI of 90/00s, every player will have 1 good game out of 100 and will be a passenger in the team, nepotism has destroyed the country, what chance cricket had.
Click to expand...
Yes and it’s absolutely childish to watch the groupism among fans to who was worst.
 
Rana said:
What happened now? Your world superstars who were better than Sarfaraz who you hate ain’t cutting it anymore for you?
Click to expand...
He was never a good player himself always hiding behind tail enders
 
Pakistan should focus on playing lower ranked sides and stick to being competitive against them. Should cancel our series against England as we have no chance of even drawing a test.
Pakistan, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh should regularly play each other for competitive test series.
Let SENA + India play each other without having to play these lesser nations.
Maybe even have a championship system where top team of lower ranked sides can earn the right to play the top teams.
I am so bored of meaningless series like Pakistan vs Australia.
 
Shan Masood in press conference after defeat in 1st Test Match against Bangladesh at Rawalpindi:

"As a team leader, to our fans and people, we apologize that we didn't give you the result that Pakistan deserves. We completely accept our mistakes as a team, and as far as effort is concerned, I don't think anyone of us was overconfident. Everyone has put in their 100 percent in the match, and everyone makes mistakes. We will raise our hands first to accept that we made mistakes in this Test match."
 
shah9425 said:
He was never a good player himself always hiding behind tail enders
Click to expand...
This is where you're wrong.

Hasan ali was a slogger and could hit a few. Their was zero reason sarfi should walk into a situation such as that and he knew it, if he walked Into that situation you would have eaten him alive saying, Oh look sarfi is a bottler.

Against england when Pakistan got 3-3 in , he came in and scored a 100, yes Pakistan lost but sarfraz had no reason to walk out and score for his team, if he was a coward like you proclaimed why didn't he send malik ahead of him? Why did he come out to bat as soon as hafeez fell? Or send imad in his place instead?

Similarly he agreed to bat at no 4 for wc 2019 and batted at said position multiple times however not every situation called for it.

Against australia in wc 2019, he did his absolute best to stay on, tried his hardest to not give tail enders the strike, Even got run out because of it.

I don't know people have an issue with sarfi. He has his flaws yes, especially that racist comment, but he plays for the crest on his chest? That's the definition of how a leader should be?

Has he ever said "Mein Khush nahi hoon, To mein malik ko bhejo ka"
 
This country, this team and its fans (myself included) fully deserve this humiliation.

NB: Shan Masood was saying that the cricket team would make the nation proud following Arshad Nadeem's heroics. 🤣🤣🤣
 
I’ve followed England since the ‘70s so I know a thing or two about low expectations. You need to combine them with a dark sense of humour. I still can’t get used to the idea of England winning regularly!
 
FearlessRoar said:
Shan Masood in press conference after defeat in 1st Test Match against Bangladesh at Rawalpindi:

"As a team leader, to our fans and people, we apologize that we didn't give you the result that Pakistan deserves. We completely accept our mistakes as a team, and as far as effort is concerned, I don't think anyone of us was overconfident. Everyone has put in their 100 percent in the match, and everyone makes mistakes. We will raise our hands first to accept that we made mistakes in this Test match."
Click to expand...
if that was his 100% so get ready to face further destruction in the next game..

but 1 thing i want to mention here proudly.. that our captain speaks english so well! :geek:
 
When John Kerry unveiled the AfPak policy after Obama took office, the idea was to treat Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theatre of operation. At the time, many in Pakistan were outraged—how could we be lumped together with our struggling neighbor? But fast forward to today, and it's clear: Afghanistan has either caught up with or surpassed us as a cricketing nation. When Afghanistan inevitably thrashes us in the next World Cup, someone like Naqvi will probably say, “The major surgery wasn’t enough we need a full organ transplant!” And then, of course, he’ll announce something like the Super Champions Cup—326 matches over four months, all to ‘gather data’ for the next squad. But in the end, nothing will change. The same cycle will repeat, and we’ll all be in denial just waiting for the switch to flip.
 
offstump said:
When John Kerry unveiled the AfPak policy after Obama took office, the idea was to treat Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theatre of operation. At the time, many in Pakistan were outraged—how could we be lumped together with our struggling neighbor? But fast forward to today, and it's clear: Afghanistan has either caught up with or surpassed us as a cricketing nation. When Afghanistan inevitably thrashes us in the next World Cup, someone like Naqvi will probably say, “The major surgery wasn’t enough we need a full organ transplant!” And then, of course, he’ll announce something like the Super Champions Cup—326 matches over four months, all to ‘gather data’ for the next squad. But in the end, nothing will change. The same cycle will repeat, and we’ll all be in denial just waiting for the switch to flip.
Click to expand...
Get off your high horse. This is just cricket mate. Afghanistan is still eons behind Pakistan as a country. No wonder hundreds and thousands of them seek refuge Pakistan like herd on a daily basis.
 
ExpressPacer said:
Get off your high horse. This is just cricket mate. Afghanistan is still eons behind Pakistan as a country. No wonder hundreds and thousands of them seek refuge Pakistan like herd on a daily basis.
Click to expand...
Ans that's the sad part.

A country that's behind pakistan is kicking 24/7 now adays
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My expectations are already pretty low since that 2023 world cup and since the day when Babar was made captain again, since Shan was made the captain of test team instead of being dropped for life.
 
BouncerGuy said:
My expectations are already pretty low since that 2023 world cup and since the day when Babar was made captain again, since Shan was made the captain of test team instead of being dropped for life.
Click to expand...
Yeah I don't believe that. It's not possible.

No one on this planet, including myself who has the lowest of lowest of expectations possible cpuld have predicted Bangladesh would beat us with a 10 wicket mauling. I was sure it was a draw.

I thought pakistan would lose to USA but because Pakistan has the tournament mentality of an 8 year old, but in a series pakistan would overall win.

Same case with Ireland, I expected Ireland to win atleast one game in pakistan tradition but overall lose the series which is what happened.

Theirs no way anyone could have expected that Bangladesh wouldn't just beat Pakistan but it would be pretty one sided. They batted better, bowled better, fielded better especially in slips and captained better especially in drs.
 
Pakistan have been in transition since 2003 WC (when most of the legends retired).

That transition became deeper with the current bunch of players.

I think Pakistan are now #7 in world cricket.
 
sweep_shot said:
Pakistan have been in transition since 2003 WC (when most of the legends retired).

That transition became deeper with the current bunch of players.

I think Pakistan are now #7 in world cricket.
Click to expand...
their actual downfall started after the sarfaraz ahmed era otherwise they were going good under his captaincy.
 
sweep_shot said:
Pakistan have been in transition since 2003 WC (when most of the legends retired).

That transition became deeper with the current bunch of players.

I think Pakistan are now #7 in world cricket.
Click to expand...
No, Pakistan were always consistently a mid card team but fans wanted more and were unrealistic.

Misbah era ruined everything, Sarfi era brought Pakistan back to mid class level amd Babar era has destroyed the team completely
 
My expectations are record-low atm. Not expecting any big wins from this team, instead, I am expecting this team to lose against a few other minnows as well.
 
White wash in a series is the worst feeling as a fan doesn't matter who you lose to. I stopped following cricket briefly when India got whitewashed 0-4 in Australia under MSD. India was in transition stage. Likes of Hilfenhaus, Siddel ran riot. Was a terrible feeling. We also lost 0-4 in England. Until the new guards started taking over i was not following Indian cricket passionately especially Tests.
 
sweep_shot said:
Pakistan have been in transition since 2003 WC (when most of the legends retired).

That transition became deeper with the current bunch of players.

I think Pakistan are now #7 in world cricket.
Click to expand...
PAK are now ranked #8 in Test cricket.
 
Is this the lowest we have ever been?
Crashed out of WC 2023 after losing to Afghanistan
Crashed out of T20 world cup 2024 after losing to USA
Just got whitewashed by Bangladesh at home in tests

We are an 8th/9th team in all 3 formats.
 
well at least when your this rubbish the only way is up? i think...
 
Minnowbasher said:
Is this the lowest we have ever been?
Crashed out of WC 2023 after losing to Afghanistan
Crashed out of T20 world cup 2024 after losing to USA
Just got whitewashed by Bangladesh at home in tests

We are an 8th/9th team in all 3 formats.
Click to expand...
Most definitely. We had bad times but were capable of beating a new Associate T20 side like USA at a world cup or Bangladesh in home/neutral venue Test series.
 
ElRaja said:
well at least when your this rubbish the only way is up? i think...
Click to expand...
Or it can stay the same and you never get up again. A bit like Sri Lanka and West Indies. They haven't really improved much in the last 10 years.
 
Even with low expectations, this team find ways to sink to new lows whatever the format.

Wouldn't be surprised if we have to play World Cup Qualifiers in next 10 years.
 
What happened to hockey a decade or two back is finally happening to cricket as well.

A reflection of overall state of country as well. Complete lack of professionalism, incompetence, lack of education, corruption, lack of merit, weak justice system, poor economy, etc.

Countries like Afghanistan and Bangladesh are doing better and we have been spiralling down.

Thank you R S.
 
Should try new team for england tests


1. Kush dil shah (cuptaan)
2. Usman khan
3. Iftikhar
4. Abdullah shafique
5. Haider ali
6. Sarfaraz ahmed
7. Imad wasim
8. Dahani
9. Aamer jamal
10. Mohammad ali
11. Abrar ahmed
 
Everyone wants to grow in life and but at some point little bit of realism must also be practiced otherwise everyday life could become miserable.

As an outsider, my biggest observation about PCT is that there is too much chaos at all levels and nothing happens in chaos except fluke.

Be it PCB Chairman, selectors, captain, coach it’s just musical chairs. No one gets a stable tenure. No ones job is secure. Let alone job but no ones image is secure as those who do not get the job or were just recently terminated hold grudges and pursue their own agenda against them to get back in power. In all of this, it’s just practically impossible to have a team that is consistently world class. It’s unrealistic to even expect big things.

Cricketers are also humans. Say whatever but these are the players you have and whatever you’re going to achieve will come from these players only and you can only hope the next generation is better.

Associate teams lose a lot yet they play the same teams for years.

I am not saying that Pakistan is an associate level team but if there’s one thing you can learn from them it is patience, trust, planning long term and above all not reacting to setbacks like mad people.
 
I used to support Manchester United while growing up, then ferguson retired, results started dropping, I still supported them, eventually I started working, got busy in my own life and stopped caring.

This is what happens to most fans they eventually lose interest in a bad team they become disinterested in sports.

The young Pakistani fans will realise this and eventually find a life outside cricket and stop caring. Once, enough fans stop caring Pakistan cricket will simply go the hockey route and the golden egg will be dead, then your government/army/PCB will realise their mistake but they would find some other institution to loot money from.
 
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