I wrote this a few hours after Pakistan won the 20/20 World Cup in 2009.

Stand-up for the Champions!

Moahmmed Ammar Bin Yaser

When the Pakistan team was leaving for England to participate in the T20 World Cup, it was unimaginable. Something like a distant dream that we fans never thought was possible. How could we? After all it was the world cup!

With contenders like India –swaggering their new-found IPL confidence, Sri Lanka (a squad armed with a deadly bowling attack), South Africa and Australia; chances for Pakistan’s relatively young and inexperienced side to make it beyond the super 8 phase of the tournament naturally looked dim.

And to add credence to all the glum expectations, the team started as it always does: in an unsure and dishevel manner, still struggling to find its feet. They lost a couple of warm-up matches, one against India which invited a lot of criticism. In the opening phase of the event, naysayers, in home and abroad, began darting cavil prophesies about the outcome of the competition. A majority of the home critics billed Pakistan as underdogs - a team that went abroad to make a laughing stock of the country, nothing else. These were tough times… but the team under the exemplary leadership of Younis Khan quietly stood their ground.

There even came a time when Pakistan was struggling to make it to the Super8 and fans at home began what they are best at - heaping abuse at the captain for his boys for ‘incompetence’. But the players were quiet, and focused. They knew their strength and as the team qualified for the super8, we saw an entirely new face of the squad, equipped with the will to succeed, which thankfully remained resolute in the rest of the tournament.

From our ‘92 world cup and other major titles won, we know that Pakistan never gets the perfect start, and when it does the journey doesn’t last for long. Our team always takes time to settle down, and gain momentum, as the assistant bowling coach, Aaquib Javed remarked in an interview with a private channel: “what is important is that the team acclimatize to the conditions fast and perform at its peak on crucial matches.”

That’s exactly what was required, and thankfully happened when Pakistan outplayed South Africa andSri Lanka in the semis and final.

Semi Final

In the second last match of the tournament, Pakistan came out of the trench with extraordinary sprit. The captain Younis Khan looked poised and determined. The game was expected to be the toughest one, as it was against the unbeaten South Africa, a side bubbling with confidence borne out of their relentless winning streak. Many Pakistanis thought this was the end of the dream we all silently dreamt. But Younis and his boys did the unthinkable. Shahid Afridi played a superb knock and Umar Gul contended the South African batters with his unplayable Yorkers. And we were through to the finals.

That was the moment when the dream that appeared too far-fetched a fortnight ago looked reachable. It was the grand finale. We didn’t know what Younis told his team in the dressing room, we didn’t know what preparations they made for the three hours they’d spend in the field but we knew what we wanted and suddenly we wanted it with all our hearts.

The Grand Finale

The day broke. The whole nation impatiently waited for the sun to disappear; the government issued special instructions to the electric supplying authorities across the nation not to fiddle with wires on that day. Things were hotting up; they ought to be, something special was about to unfold.

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first. And in the first thirty minutes into the game, we knew the champions’ cup would be boarded on a flight to Pakistan! Our bowlers did their job remarkably. Abdul Razzak and Mohammed Amir uprooted Sri Lanka’s batting line-up, striking the unbeaten side so severely in the first few overs that they never recovered. Afridi clicked again, scoring a half century and took the winning run; ceasing the moment in the lens of history forever.