subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
It's a good thing in the long term.
-
Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.
Did Imran Khan **** Pakistani cricket
- Thread starter ma1978
- Start date
Chin Music
State Vice-Captain
Pakistan would develop a fine team in the mid to late 90 after Imran had retired. They would intersperse this with periods of chronic incompetence and then develop fine teams as time went along. That seems to be just the way it rolls and would have probably happened with or without him.
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
This ignores the fact that Imran was a team builder. He had a direct hand in building that 90s team he left behind.
Let's see.
There is no way Pakistan develop a Wasim, Waqar or Shoaib who were directly inspired by him to become fast bowlers. In Waqar's case, Imran selected him himself while watching him on TV.
Abdul Qadir, perhaps Pakistan's greatest spinner, was in the wilderness when Imran became captain and he fought the selectors to have him included. Same with Inzi. Mushtaq Ahmed was groomed by Imran to be an attacking leggie like Qadir.
Pakistan's decade as captain saw Pakistan win in England, India and the World Cup, as well as compete against the WI. Highly unlikely Pakistan would ever achieve that without Imran, especially without fast bowlers.
What is the reality? Pakistan under Imran became a top tier team by the mid-80s and they stayed like that for much of the 90s after he left, though inconsistency kept them behind SA and Australia as the decade went but still generally more competitive than the rest while playing below their potential.
Post 2003 with the retirements of Anwar, Waqar and Wasim and with Inzi as captain, you can say Pakistan largely retreated from Imran's s legacy of his aggressive brand of instinctive paternalistic cricket and were and have been mid-tier since, with the brief exception for Misbah in mid-2010s which lasted like a year before going back to mid tier.
Conclusion: Without Imran, Pakistan would always be mid-tier, jostling with England, India, SL and NZ for the 80s and 90s without fast bowlers to take them to a higher rung. They wouldn't enjoy that brief 15/20 year period of flirtation at being a top side. They would likely have sooner adopted a Misbah model of defensive home based cricket using local spinners to stay competitive at home while being mediocre abroad.
But I argue that Imran's influence and legacy has mostly gone since the 2000s except for somewhat of an impact on getting new fast bowling talent who lack Imran's grooming to have full careers.
Last edited:
Migara
International Coach
Way more than his share.
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
I am guessing the OP should have left out cricket from the thread title then
I read somewhere he liked the Australian domestic structure as he may feel it's best to churn and develop cricketers
He of course played domestic cricket for Worcester and Sussex
chris.hinton
International Captain
He hardly played any Domestic cricket in Pakistan
smash84
The Tiger King
Correct, he also played Shield cricket and has on multiple occasions credited it to Australia's success over the years.
So he wanted a similar structure in Pakistan.
Certainly
As someone said, he made a lot of crickets unemployed
Imagine if that happened here in England, condense 20 county teams into the 8 lol
Would ruin the romance of English domestic cricket.
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
The problem is Pakistan domestic cricket teams are run by private companies. This kills the level of competitive spirit by not having regional represented teams that compete.
So yeah, in moving to a new system you need creative destruction but Pakistan having regions battle each other would improve quality in the long term likely.
shortpitched713
International Captain
He cared about, and ****ed a lot of things.
Honestly, there's no way to put down the ****ing of Pakistan cricket on his shoulders though. There is too much ****ed up to begin with.
For one, cricket is not the national sport of Pakistan, in a meaningful way. It is a sport of the elite in the rich areas of Punjab and posh spots of Karachi. They are the only kids with any reasonable chance of possibly progressing to competitive willow on leather cricket. The gilly danda stuff on the streets is the closest that 98% of kids will ever get to competitive cricket ( inspite of however much passion they all have for the National team and local T20 that they consume on the TV screens and devices), as there is no pipeline. It is broken and ****ed. You can't put that on Imran.
Honestly, there's no way to put down the ****ing of Pakistan cricket on his shoulders though. There is too much ****ed up to begin with.
For one, cricket is not the national sport of Pakistan, in a meaningful way. It is a sport of the elite in the rich areas of Punjab and posh spots of Karachi. They are the only kids with any reasonable chance of possibly progressing to competitive willow on leather cricket. The gilly danda stuff on the streets is the closest that 98% of kids will ever get to competitive cricket ( inspite of however much passion they all have for the National team and local T20 that they consume on the TV screens and devices), as there is no pipeline. It is broken and ****ed. You can't put that on Imran.
Nah, it'd be great. Although the thought of there being another 2 chump counties existing gave me a momentary fright.
Coronis
International Coach
Would have been a better PM if he just pushed all the country’s resources to cricket tbh.