Black Sunday

The day started normal. Woke up late. Got fresh and went for coffee with a friend. Chatted for a couple of hours. Came home. Put on the TV to see how Pakistan is doing in the 2nd inning. See them struggle. Comment on their Jeckyll and Hyde syndrome on Twitter. Then see some really strange Tweets. People are abusing Mohd. Aamer. Sidin is tweeting that no balls should be banned. Thought that dig was a week overdue. Then read on Cricinfo. SPOT FIXING ALLEGATIONS. I shrug. This is Pakistan. A heavy defeat leads to nutcases crying "fixing". Then see people whom I trust abusing Pakistan. Jarrod Kimber, Pakistan's biggest Australian supporter writes his most emotional post till date. You can see his tears dripping from each word. What the fuck is going on?

Still in denial. Think this team has made Test cricket more compelling just on its own. Cannot be true. Tweet about maintaining calm. Get a heated response on Twitter. Heated response on cricket is usual. But this was from Venkat Ananth. Something is not right. I still Tweet my support for Aamer. He is too precious a lad to go waste this early. Then I log on to Bored. Then I get hold of the NOTW link.

Blackout.

I see the ugly nature of cricket. Two of the best fast bowlers of the current times, two bowlers supposed to cary forward the legacy of fast bowling, whoring their souls for a fistful of dollars. I read the comments which the commentary team passed. They are incredulous. But they, like me and countless others gave these two the benefit of doubt. We needed concrete proof. Sadly, we got it.

Why would they do it? Asif, one can understand. Doping, fights with the Rawalpindi chindi, affairs and tifs with TV starlets, you can see him do such an act. But Aamer? The boy has "great fast bowler" written in his destiny in bright neon colours. Why does he have to do it? Do these fellows not have enough trust in their talent that they have to make money like this?

The story of the Pakistan tea of late has been akin to a Greek tragedy. I do not intend to recap it. Just will say that the last thing Pakistan needed as a team and a country (ravaged with floods, encroached by extremists, led by a dalaal) is this. The last thing Test cricket needed was this. This has been a Black Sunday.

For Pakistan. For cricket.

P.S. : The grand old man of cricket nails it:

What happens if a bowler runs up and bowls a ball which is correctly called 'no-ball' by the umpire?
Will fans turn to one another and raise their eyebrows or just shake their heads and think about walking out of the ground.