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Was there in ever a time in Pakistan Cricket...

LegendAli

Local Club Captain
Joined
Feb 21, 2012
Runs
2,547
We are so rubbish at everything we do these days that this thread is much needed IMO, have we done anything to write home/preach about other than the respective 1992 and 2009 World Cup runs?

Ever a time when we were consistently dominating?

We were consistently putting fear in the other teams heading into major tournaments?

We were consistently dominating teams whether it be in ODI's or Tests?

I don't bring up T20's because clearly this format was only created about 10 or so years ago and I know for a fact we've never dominated in this format, the exception being our 2009 trophy run of course.

To sum it up, was there ever a time in Pakistan Cricket we were looked upon or even comparable to Australia?
 
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"Hot favourites have played like hot favourites." Tony Greig or Bill Lawry said this after Pakistan beat Australia in the 1999 World Cup group match. That answers the last question.
 
Yes. Our best period of cricket was between Oct 1985 to Nov 1994.

We played 21 Test series, won 13 and lost only 2 - one away in Australia (yes, even that team couldn't beat Australia in their backyard) and away in the West Indies in 1992/93.

Pakistan were the only team to win a Test in the Caribbean in the 1980s and the only team to win a series in India between 1985 and 2000 so Test-wise those were the golden years.

In ODIs in the same timespan, we won the 1985/86 Austral-Asia Cup, 1989 Nehru Cup and 1990 Champions Trophy before the 1992 World Cup win.
 
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We are so rubbish at everything we do these days that this thread is much needed IMO, have we done anything to write home/preach about other than the respective 1992 and 2009 World Cup runs?

Ever a time when we were consistently dominating?

We were consistently putting fear in the other teams heading into major tournaments?

We were consistently dominating teams whether it be in ODI's or Tests?

I don't bring up T20's because clearly this format was only created about 10 or so years ago and I know for a fact we've never dominated in this format, the exception being our 2009 trophy run of course.

To sum it up, was there ever a time in Pakistan Cricket we were looked upon or even comparable to Australia?

The emergence of Wasim Akram saw Pakistan become a gun team, throughout his career Pakistan had the ability and belief to beat any team. Pakistan was the 2nd best team going around in the late 80's and early 90's after the ATG West Indies. The mid 90's saw the decline of the Windies, the emergence of South Africa and the renaissance of Australian cricket, but Pakistan remained a powerhouse.

From the mid-90's South Africa was the best odi team followed by Pakistan(Sri Lanka was the dominant odi team in Asian conditions for a period during this time but weaker than most in alien conditions), we were still a quality test side but behind Australia and South Africa.

The beginning of the new millennium saw the ATG Australian team firmly established as the best across formats. Pakistan, had ended their losing streak to South Africa, and were still considered the 2nd best odi team now behind Australia, as South Africa recovered from the shock of scandal. Pakistan had now become extremely inconsistent in tests but this was masked by success in odi's and a very strong overall team.

After the 2003 world cup, our famed bowling was no longer good enough for away test wins(Shoaib and Asif were either suspended or injured) but a very strong batting line up still made us a very good top tier odi team under inzi. After inzi, infighting and the icl damaged our odi and test team but we were a very strong t20 team from 2007 till 2014 often considered the best in the period because of a lack of a clear no.1 team in the format. After the loss of our bowling strength to suspect actions we are no longer dominant in any format.
 
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We are so rubbish at everything we do these days that this thread is much needed IMO, have we done anything to write home/preach about other than the respective 1992 and 2009 World Cup runs?

Ever a time when we were consistently dominating?

We were consistently putting fear in the other teams heading into major tournaments?

We were consistently dominating teams whether it be in ODI's or Tests?

I don't bring up T20's because clearly this format was only created about 10 or so years ago and I know for a fact we've never dominated in this format, the exception being our 2009 trophy run of course.

To sum it up, was there ever a time in Pakistan Cricket we were looked upon or even comparable to Australia?

Comparable to gun Aus team or current Aus team? If you are talking about past Aus team then it's a tall order. Apart from gun WI team no team is comparable to gun Aus team.
 
We are so rubbish at everything we do these days that this thread is much needed IMO, have we done anything to write home/preach about other than the respective 1992 and 2009 World Cup runs?

Ever a time when we were consistently dominating?

We were consistently putting fear in the other teams heading into major tournaments?

We were consistently dominating teams whether it be in ODI's or Tests?

I don't bring up T20's because clearly this format was only created about 10 or so years ago and I know for a fact we've never dominated in this format, the exception being our 2009 trophy run of course.

To sum it up, was there ever a time in Pakistan Cricket we were looked upon or even comparable to Australia?

Pakistan were excellent in T20Is until 2012, not sure about domination but with our bowling attack of Gul, Afridi, Ajmal and Hafeez the team was very difficult to score off and the likes of the aforementioned ARs and Umar Akmal were all performing with the bat too - Pakistan reached the first 2 finals of WT20 and the SFs in the 3rd edition but haven't done so since.

In terms of dominating, it was probably the Imran Khan era where we plenty of series against good teams in Tests and ODIs and of course the one and only World Cup in Pakistani history.
 
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