Cricket; They broke jaws of victory (THE NATION- January 11, 2010)
Pakistan's defeat at Sydney by Australia has left many cricket fans flabbergasted. Pakistan was cruising nicely for what looked like a certain win in the first 3 days of the match and then we crumbled, as always, on the fourth day to give Aussies a win that also gave them the series. 

Winning and losing is part of the game but what has pained the cricket enthusiasts is that our performance in the first and second Test was much below par and below all expectations. They say catches win matches but like many such instances in recent times, especially in Tests, our fielding let down everything. Despite having no dearth of all-rounders, Pakistan played with out one in both of these tests, even though it was obvious that playing one or two would have strengthened our ever unpredictable batting. These unfortunate lapses in team selection and field have brought us to this situation where our cricket-crazy people are crazed with grief today.

AMIR IKRAM

Lahore