NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Following the Pakistan cricket team has often been a veritable health hazard for their supporters, pledging allegiance to a supremely talented but highly fractious bunch that would veer from the sublime to the ridiculous in the blink of an eye.
Even at the start of this decade, the team functioned more like a secret society where any newcomer would struggle to breathe in a dressing room polluted by air thick with suspicion. Not so long ago, local media would report stories about senior players holding clandestine meetings at a former captain’s residence to take an oath to betray the incumbent.
A former coach would call the players “mentally retarded” and a captain would blame poor fielding on team mates busy ogling girls in the outfield.
Of course, any players named denied the allegations. Even for such a disjointed side, the 2010 spot-fixing scandal would mark a new low, culminating with the imprisonment of the then captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif for agreeing to bowl deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s test against England.
