Daily Times

Sir: The world cup season is over for us. Our team said a tough and unwilling goodbye to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. The examination of Pakistani cricket is over and now it is time for our examination as a nation. Now is the time when we have to show our love and respect to the green shirts who did a great job in the tournament. Considering all the stress and the controversies surrounding the Pakistani cricket team before the world cup and the tough times that our team has been through, a performance like this should be really appreciated and such an exhibition of hard work and talent deserves applause from each and every Pakistani.

World Cup 2011 was a tournament that saw some great and memorable performances by the Pakistani players. Let us not forget the lion and leader of our team, Shahid Afridi, for his extremely promising and consistent bowling and high-spirited captaincy, Muhammad Hafeez for his outstanding overall performance, Umar Gul for his superb bowling throughout (except for the last match), Misbah for being slow but steady, Akmal brothers for their efforts and some great contributions in all matches and also Asad Shafiq and Wahab Riaz for emerging as promising players.

Let us not forget the way we played throughout the world cup: the way we defeated the defending champion, Australia, after their consecutive 34 wins in world cups; the way we outclassed Sri Lanka on their home ground and, above all, the way we blew the West Indians away in the quarter finals. Let us always remember World Cup 2011 as a tournament that was a reflection of the Pakistani cricket team’s strength, unity, discipline and hard work. Let us not think of it as a team that lost against India in the semi-final but think of it as a team that belongs to us and that overcame loads of stress and pressure and made it to the semi finals. Let us welcome our team back home with open arms and prove that we really mean it when we say Tum jeeto ya haro suno! Humain tum sai piyar hai (Whether you win or lose/ We love you regardless!). Long live Pakistan and long live the Pakistani cricket team.

ATIQA MATEEN

California, USA