Lol, and what has Pakistan done with 1/6th of India's population? How many medals does Pakistan have?
Let me guess, now you would come back with the excuse that Pakistan has a poor domestic infra. You are running in circles at this point.
To be quite honest, before IPL there was roughly the same amount of “talent per capita” in both India and Pakistan (refer to my length post earlier about how talent essentially means population size and cross-evaluating that against the system that develops the talent per capita).
Back then, India had 7 times as much talent as Pakistan but largely due to population size, otherwise our systems were quite similar. India had a much better batting setup (school cricket and club cricket) and we had a lot more kids trying to be fast bowlers.
Even in the 90s, India actually had some very good batsmen, you just didn’t have a culture for fast bowling. Plus half the team including the captain was fixing matches.
00s onwards India has begun playing based on potential. Your system was **** compared to Australia and England but still decent enough, and the 1 billion population allowed India to compete very well. Once money came in and the structure began to develop, India has taken off in the 2010s and never looked back.
I guess what he’s trying to say is that, India has underachieved for a large portion of its history which is very, very true.
Pakistan, despite a lack of structure, has actually overachieved for a large portion of history. We have just as many malnourished kids as you guys do per capita, but you have a population 7 times the size of ours and yet Pakistan has been Squash champions for 3 decades, Hockey champions for two decades (and even now we have the record for most World Cups) and had one of the best cricket teams in the world in the 80s and 90s. In other industries, the music scene in Pakistan was quite like no other in Asia, even despite the lack of opportunities we give to artists and performers. That’s what these older cricketers refer to as “jazba” and “junoon”. It is truly remarkable what we were able to do.
I take no shame in admitting that Pakistan, without any real systems in place, had absolutely no business overachieving that much for two decades. Our absurdly horrible performances across all sports and industries in the 00s and 10s was simply a regression to the mean — law of averages, kickstarted by terrorism, crime, and corruption in our government, which sent Pakistan into a shell.
Now, we perform as per the system, no more and no less. We truly deserve the sad state of affairs our cricket, hockey teams are currently in, simply because we we are getting back exactly how much we are investing into the infrastructure.
I hope this puts things into a little better context. I know Indians look at these statements of “jazba and junoon” and think it’s nonsense, but the truth is, it represents a proper fighting spirit and character that has propelled this nation to punch above its weight for large portions of its history. It’s for this reason that I’m a proud Pakistani, and continue to be proud when someone like Mohammad Waseem (the boxer) emerges out of total obscurity from Balochistan, where we don’t invest jack, to get coached by Jeff Mayweather and become the world flyweight number 1. We barely have any proper boxing competitions in Pakistan but this kid had a genuine passion and somehow made his way through.
There are many stories like this and if you read into it a bit more you would be very surprised. Hai jazba junoon tou himmat na haar — this is almost a second national anthem for Pakistan after the qoumi taraana. I am a proud patriot because I see how passionate a people we are when we set our mind to doing something.
Alhamdulillah, we’ve wiped out terrorism and brought cricket back to our blessed country. We’ve finally found a political leader who doesn’t want to steal money and run away abroad. We’ve begun rebuilding our industries and economy, and people have begun visiting the beautiful northern reaches of Pakistan as tourists and appreciating the natural beauty that this land has.
We have begun generating the money to invest into our cricket structure. We have a competent team at the helm of our cricket board. We’ve begun reorganizing domestic cricket. We’ve begun investing into other sports. The music industry is starting to boom again. Our film industry is professionalizing, and young indie artists are emerging across all walks of life from painters, to film makers, to rappers.
We are a passionate people, and we yearn for the era that we used to overachieve. I am a rational person, and I know that it will not be that easy. Professionalism is necessary. We need the right structure and the opportunities.
But that is the talent present in Pakistan. It’s an attitude of fighters, of overcoming all hurdles to make it to the big stage, of representing your country, of passion, of love, and of peace. I hope this makes sense.
