Why I wouldn’t stop supporting the Pakistan cricket team...

Because I’m not a fair-weather fan...

Because the joy of victory is not as sweet, when the defeat doesn’t kill a part of me every single time...

Because the euphoria that rushes through my veins when Wahab’s searing yorker rearranges Yuvraj’s stumps isn’t as manic, when the pain that impales my soul every time Misbah dead-bats a ball isn’t so unrelenting...

But there’s also reason to support the Pakistan team beyond this search for exaggerated euphoria.

After Pakistan’s exit from the world cup in arguably dubious circumstances, the clichéd question “why do we even follow Pakistan cricket” has reared its head once again. I am inclined to agree that the pain probably isn’t worth it; especially when the occasions on which we are disappointed have been a lot more frequent of late; but that doesn’t mean that I will – or for that matter I can – stop supporting the men in green.

I cannot…

Because every time someone dons Pakistan green and descends into a playing ground, he or she – to me – represents Pakistan. It stops to matter if the contest is a lost cause, it stops to figure if the odds are heavily stacked against us, it even stops to be of consequence that the players in green may want to lose themselves… When there’s a bunch of guys in the field wearing shirts bearing “Pakistan”, you’ll find me cheering on that team with all my heart.

It doesn’t matter if our team has spot-fixers, match-throwers and injury-fakers because when they are on the playing field… they are Pakistan; and mind you, they are like the rest of us Pakistanis – sometimes passionate, at other times disloyal… sometimes brilliant, at other times an epitome of stupidity… sometimes inspirational, at other times a cacophony of disarray… Like our flawed cricket team, our country also has its fair share of vices with its perennially flawed leadership, its hopelessly corrupt bureaucrats, its blood-sucking corporations, its mugs, its thieves, its shady police, its dubious army and what not. When this doesn’t stop me from loving Pakistan… from supporting it and from praying for its success; why should the blemishes of our cricket team deter me from according it the same kind of loyalty.

I wouldn’t stop supporting the Pakistan cricket team because when I see people fighting over ethnicities, geographies, languages, political alliances and idols, cricket is the only thing that brings all of us together for the support of the men in green in unison (even if it only lasts as long as the team performs well). And I wouldn't stop supporting the Pakistan cricket team because when nothing gives us even the slightest of hopes; the reverie that our team may win the world cup put me and my compatriots on cloud nine.

Go Pakistan!!!

P.S.: For those of us who think that the team performed as well as it could have and all is hunky dory, the article may seem pointless, but this is for those who have YET AGAIN made a resolution to never watch a Pakistan cricket match ever in their lives.

P.P.S.: I know that the ball that Wahab Riaz bowled to Yuvraj Singh wasn’t exactly a yorker, but who cares…