Okay, so for your answer:
Like you, I wasn't born here either. I barely visited as a child, and now that I'm living here, I feel like a complete alien. It's like I don't belong here. Guys, I do NOT want a lecture on this.
You seem to have read my post on how I got into cricket. If not, long story short: No one in my family watches cricket. Nobody. I used to love baseball as a kid, so I
tried to watch cricket when I came here, but it was far too different for my taste. I would still linger on a channel long enough to watch an over or two while surfing, but barring the initial couple of games, I never got round to watching it. This was around 2009.
Fast forward to the India series, 2012. It was winter break and having nothing to do, I happened to chance upon the first game, as it was starting. For some reason, I felt so attracted to it that I couldn't stop myself from watching the next game, and the next, and so on and so forth.
Junaid Khan (paired with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, to an extent) has to be the main reason for me to actually start following the sport, but he's not the reason I still do today.
Now, I watch cricket because it gives me a chance to feel close to Pakistan, as you said. When I'm watching a match, I honestly love Pakistan more than you can imagine, and I love that feeling soooo much! I believe I wouldn't be able to give up on cricket, ever, at least not until I develop this sense of being Pakistani on my own.
So yeah, I'm pretty much in the same boat as you.
I didn't need to go into so much detail, maybe, but since you and Haz had an essay contest yesterday without me, I decided to write one of my own.
And I still love JK.