I don't remember when was the last time I was so excited about a cricketing tour other than 2016. Can even recollect the days before it, the whole world was playing all kinds of cricket and our cricketers were spending time in Abbotabad under the watchful eyes and tough regimented training of quarter masters and drill instructors.
All we had were videos of Sharjeel Khan running up and down pma training ground facilities, the push ups, the boys running around in circles with speakers blaring national songs in the background. It was all that we had - a training camp - and maybe now when I look back with the benefit of hindsight, it was all that we really needed at that time.
Controversy of all sorts was surrounding the team, a bad showing here, a bad showing there, players seething against a coach, media trying to find scapegoats and getting all sorts of weird agendas through and then we had a coach ousted and a new one was just trying to get his feet in. We seem to always be just a foot away from sliding into quicksand (in cricketing terms) and this was the time when we were almost waist deep in it.
And then comes the major fact that we were going back to England after all that had happened in 2010. The fact is, England had graciously allowed us to play our home matches in England, that's something that's too hard to imagine in today's money driven cricketing world. A cricketing board letting another cricketing nation compete its product in its own turf (albeit for a fee but the goodwill necessary to create such a transaction far outweighs the cost).
And then the double Butts struck us, like lightening that wasn't supposed to strike but it did and not just once but twice. One fixed on the spot and cost us our bowling attack, the other peeked into bookie circles and claimed that the English players had fixed the match. This was defiance of the kind that's hard to fathom, and harder to rebuke and leaves you clueless as to what kind of officials have ruled us.
It was like ignominy after ignominy, a painful loss in Lords where of all the people, Broad had put our bowling to sword. We rave about Asif and some writers make him seem larger than life, but here was Asif, unable to stand against a number 10 batsman and we suffered one of the most scarring loss of all times. It was painful, unbelievable, and most of all, it made you wear the Balotelli shirt with just one little difference, "why always Pakistan?"
Roll a few years from that time to 2016 and things had changed but much was still to change.
Respect - an oft used word but still - was completely at stake when our team walked out on Lord's turf in 2016. We even had within our ranks, one of the perpetrators in Amir and the cricketing world was divided in opinion, again. 4 days later, when the whole team was being put into position by Younus and was doing pushups in front of the grand stand, we had respect from even those who had laughed at us and now even the worst critics of our team were smiling with us. It encapsulated Pakistan, and every pushup was in Nasser's words, true representation of Pakistani cricket, "One minute down, one minute up."
That match of 2016 will be remembered not just by us but everyone, and a bold prediction, its legacy will only grow. You don't have a 42 year old captain score a century everyday, you don't see a prodigal 19 year old come back from a wilderness lasting almost 6 years, now almost a man, to take the last wicket in the test to ensure victory, you just don't get that kind of script written even in fiction.
The 2018 match, beautiful as it was, and emphatic as the victory was, will be sandwiched in the memories somewhere for most of us. A lot happened, but nothing really memorable to the level of 2016 did. We've won five matches in Lords, but even the most ardent of cricketing fans don't remember all of them. The one that Wasim and Waqar won in 92' was brilliant and no mean feat by any stretch of imagination, the one in 96' was a last ditch effort where we won on the last day thanks to a superlative Mushtaq, I don't even remember which was the first match that we won here but I'm assuming it would be a good match. And that's basically my point, this match due to recency effect feels more important now but when dust settles and some time passes, it'll be moved to the back of our collective cricketing memories.
The 2018 win will be a glorious beautiful sidenote for me. A great win, and something to look forward to in terms of recollection, but overall just a sidenote.
But the 2016 one, that's the real deal. That was the summer of Pakistan, that glorious marvelous wonderful sublime summer of 2016 which ended in us ruling the test cricketing world (even if it was for a few days).
That my friend is what legends are made of.
