People associated with
sports in Pakistan would like to forget the year 2004,
which may be called one of the blackest years in history
as the performance of the country's athletes remained
disappointing in almost all the premier games - cricket,
hockey and squash - as none of our teams could win any
major title despite claiming untiring efforts by their
(foreign) coaches and other concerned officials.
Our teams led down their fans in particular and the nation
in general but the happiest thing was the revival of ties
with arch-rivals India in the field of cricket, hockey,
polo, golf, badminton and other sports.
Though the Pakistan cricket team's performance in the
One-day Internationals (ODI) seems to be better in view
of its success rate, as it won 15 of the 27 matches it
played during 2004, while only 12 games were lost. Of
them nine matches were played against arch rival India
and Pakistan emerged triumphant in six matches while India
bagged the remaining games.
The Pakistan team had participated in three tournaments
abroad but failed to lift the title of any of them. The
Asia Cup was held in Sri Lanka in July and the team could
not even qualify for the final and crashed out at the
knockout stage. Then a tri-nation tournament was staged
in the Netherlands featuring Australia, Pakistan and India.
Dubbed as 'chokers' the Pakistani cricketers succumbed
to the pressure of the final and conceded the game and
title to the world champion Australia. Then cricket's
mini-World Cup, the ICC Champions Trophy, was held in
England in September. The nervous Pakistanis again fell
flat in the semifinal at the hands of the West Indies.
Pakistan had organised a three-nation tournament at home,
also involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in October. But
our cricketers could not remove the label of 'chokers'
and were beaten by Sri Lanka in the final in front of
a home crowd.
India toured Pakistan after 15 years to play a five-match
ODI series in addition to a Test rubber. With the slogan
'win the hearts' the Pakistani players did well by winning
the hearts of even the Indians across the boarder by handing
over the limited overs series 2-3 after having been beaten
1-2 in the Tests. However, they improved their tarnished
image outside the country and were successful in nine
of the 17 matches of the quicker version of cricket. Pakistan
cricket saw a new coach South African Bob Woolmer replacing
Javed Miandad in June this year though cricket circles
in the country strongly criticised his appointment that
promised him a handsome salary and perks.
Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was the top performer
in the batting department. He reached the mark of 260
ODIs and in the calendar year scored 911 runs, which included
two centuries and six fifties. He also reached the landmark
of hammering his 73rd fifty, the highest number of half-centuries
in the world.
Three players Salman Butt, Bazid Khan and Rao Iftikhar
Anjum made their debut in One-day Internationals in the
year 2004 while Shoaib Malik showed an all round performance
scoring 895 runs in 27 matches and taking 34 wickets,
the highest number of wickets captured by a Pakistani
bowler in 2004. He was followed by Mohammad Sami, whose
number of wickets was 33 in 26 matches while speedster
Shoaib Akhtar got 31 wickets in 23 matches.
The most glorious day of Pakistan cricket in the year
2004 was November 13, when Pakistan overwhelmed India
in their backyard and the occasion was the Indian Cricket
Board's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations.
Pakistan put up a lackluster performance in the Tests
too. In the home series against India, held in March-April,
Pakistan lost the three-Test rubber 1-2. The two-Test
home series against Sri Lanka in October was drawn 1-1
with Sri Lanka winning at Faisalabad and Pakistan in Karachi.
Three players donned the Test cap for the first time.
They were fast bowler Riaz Afridi, medium-pacer Naved-ul-Hasan
and left-arm fast bowler Mouhammad Khalil.
If November 13 was a glorious day for Pakistan cricket
with regards to its One-day International version, December
19, 2004 was perhaps the most disgraceful day for Pakistan
in its Test history when our team was humiliated by world
champions Australia by a record 491 runs before lunch
on the fourth day of the match, which witnessed Aussies
danger man Glenn McGrath wiping out the Pakistan batting
line-up with his career-best figures 8-24. Australia scored
381 and 361-5 while restricting Pakistan to just 179 runs
in the first innings and then demolished them for a pathetic
total of 72 in the second innings to bag one of the heaviest
victories in the history of Test cricket.
The performance in hockey was also not encouraging as
except winning the rather lowly-rated Azlan Shah Cup and
the eight match 'Test' series against arch-foes India
4-2, the team could not win any world reputed title despite
appearing in the Olympic Games in Athens and the Champions
Trophy at home in Lahore.
Despite making a preparatory tour to Europe prior to the
Olympic Games, Pakistan finished at a dismal fifth position
in the Olympiad. Their performance in the 26th Champions
Trophy was also far from appreciable as they finished
with only a third position. Spain were responsible for
their debacle on both occasions, at the Olympic Games
as well as the Champions Trophy. Spain routed Pakistan
in the league match of the Olympic Games by 4-0 to block
their way for the semifinals while they restricted Pakistan
to the play-off match for third and fourth position in
the Champions Trophy. However, the match only had academic
interest as Pakistan beat India a second time in the Trophy
to climb on the podium with a bronze medal.
It was a record-setting year for penalty corner executioner
Sohail Abbas, who broke the record of 267 goals, established
by legendary Paul Litjens of the Netherlands. He also
became the all-time top scorer of the Champions Trophy
when he scored his 33rd goal to break Mark Hager's nine-year
old record.
Sohail along with his captain Waseem Ahmed decided to
quit the international hockey. Pakistan's junior hockey
team lost the Asia Junior Cup to India in Karachi during
the last year.
The year 2004 was a dark one for Pakistan squash. For
the first time in the chequered history of Pakistan's
squash no Pakistani players featured in the main rounds
of the World Open and British Open. While the former players
were involved in off-field wrangling - to oust Rehmat
Khan from the post of the Pakistan junior team coach -
the current players lacked commitment and capability to
counter the world's best at the top level.
Pakistan hosted the several times delayed IX SAF Games,
the biggest regional sporting extravaganza, in March-April
at Islamabad.
Pakistan gave a record-setting performances in the field
of boxing and football. While our boxers grabbed ten of
the eleven golds at stake to steal the limelight, the
Pakistan football team sprung the great surprise of the
SAF Games stunning their superior-ranked rivals India
by an odd goal to nil to lift the final trophy.
The biggest sporting extravaganza of the year 2004 were
the Olympic Games, staged in Athens, Greece, their natal
sod. Pakistan had also participated in the mega event
with a selective contingent of 45 persons comprising 26
athletes and 19 officials. Pakistan appeared in five disciplines.
While participation in two disciplines - boxing and hockey
- was on merit as their players reserved their berths
after shedding sweat in their respective fields in the
qualifying rounds, the appearance in three disciplines
- athletics, swimming and shooting was owed to wild cards.
