Pakistan’s World T20 campaign started off on the wrong foot when the players did not know till beyond the very last minute whether they would be competing at all.

The Pakistan Cricket Board wanted an assurance from the Indians that their team would be given special protection, a level above that afforded to other teams, because the Pakistan players, unlike the others, faced very specific threats.

Reasonable as the request was, there was no way that the Indians were publicly going to accede to it so the PCB should have sought other avenues to redress their anxieties in this regard.

One would have thought that the obvious port of call for them to revert to was the ICC and it is difficult to understand why they did not refer their concerns about security to the world cricketing body.

After all, the World T20 is an ICC event and as such, the ICC should be responsible for determining that security levels are adequate for all the competing sides.

The ICC, of course, does not have the resources or the powers to be making security arrangements directly and that has to be in the hands of the host country.

But the ICC does – or should – have the ability to make its own assessment in this regard and then advise the competing countries accordingly.

That would put some responsibility on the ICC in selecting the hosts for its tournaments too and where there is a doubt that the host in question may not be able to supply the desired level of security, for whatever reason, the suitability of that country as a host should be carefully reconsidered.

Regrettably, this was not the only score on which the ICC was lacking. The ICC should also have an input in determining the venues for the games from all points of view. Here in England, World Cup games have been allocated to minor venues like Bristol while county games are being played at Lord’s.

If a host cannot give an ICC event precedence over its own domestic schedule then I would argue that it does not deserve to hold a world event.

Even in this World T20 in India, venues like Dharamsala, picturesque as they undoubtedly were, were clearly not ideal given the weather to be expected there at this time of the year.

Furthermore, it also seems that the ICC had little or no input in the preparation of the wickets which led to surfaces of very varying calibre being served for the matches, some of them very obviously favouring the home side.

Of course, in large countries like India and Australia, given the variance in weather conditions, there will a difference in the surfaces prepared but the width of the spectrum needs to be much narrower than was the case in this tournament, with some pitches being featherbeds while others were square turners.

I also think that the ICC made a grave mistake by not having the UDR system available in this event.

It should not be the case that one country dictates on these issues and there were some crucial mistakes made, mistakes which could well have determined the outcome of the match.

It is an absurd situation to have when people sitting thousands of miles away and watching a game in their living rooms know exactly where a mistake has been made but because the ICC has decided to play the tournament under a particular set of conditions, these glaring mistakes cannot be rectified. I cannot think of any other sport that is played in similar circumstances.

Pakistan’s abject performance in this event and in the Asia Cup T20 preceding it has disappointed many of its fans and frustration leads to some pretty silly things being said.

The truth of the matter is that this Pakistan side simply is not good enough – and the voices raised in praise of the ‘amount of talent in Pakistan’ are, perhaps, voices raised more out of patriotism than any cricketing knowledge.

My simple question is that if there is so much talent around, why on earth does it not manifest itself.

And if the ‘system’ is responsible for not being able to bring the available talent to the forefront, how is it that this same system has produced world-beating sides in the past and even today, this very system produces fast bowlers of the highest international calibre but that the last batsman of genuinely international calibre — Younis Khan — made his debut for Pakistan a decade and a half ago.

Given that situation, Waqar Younis is right when he says that cosmetic changes will not do.

In fact, it is not easy to say what exactly will do. Perhaps a much greater emphasis at the grass root level is required but this will not produce results overnight and we exist in a culture where anything that is not guaranteed to produce immediate results is thrown out.

It would be reasonable to say that is time for Afridi to go because it is getting increasingly unclear how he holds his place in the side.

Perhaps Sarfraz or Wahab may be considered as Pakistan’s next captain for the limited overs version; I am impressed by Wahab Riaz’s undoubted commitment and zest and these two qualities go a long way at any level in any sport.

I do feel that the side needs someone with much greater media savvy than Waqar Younis to handle that side of things.

His press conference immediately after the New Zealand game in which he waded into those who had been wanting to go higher up the order and now had produced little when given that chance, was shocking.

Although no names were taken, the veil on it was thinner than any one of Salome’s seven and such matters should go no further than the dressing room.

His theatrics at begging for forgiveness with folded hands in front of TV cameras was also quite unnecessary.

If he really did something so outrageous that he needed to beg for forgiveness with folded hands, we should all be told what it was.

If he tried his level best, which I am sure he did, what was he begging forgiveness for. If he was apologising for disappointing the fans, I think it is the fans who should be having another look at themselves.

Pakistan is not the world’s seventh ranked team because that is the number that someone pulled out of a hat, and if the fans expect wonders from a side that is fundamentally incapable of providing it, it is not the coach who should be begging forgiveness for that.

In this regard, the media may also have a role to play in not hyping up expectations to unsustainable levels. And while that plea may fall on deaf ears, the PCB should not be affected by this false and unreasonable hype.

I was very disappointed to see members of the team creeping back home to different destinations in small groups, as this was some batch of criminals coming back after having done something unspeakable.

Even when we lost to India on my last tour, we returned as a team and that is the way it should be. In fact, if there are any criminals in all this, it is those who raise expectations to levels that just cannot be fulfilled.

The PCB itself should perhaps be concentrating less on media stunts like the one which made them send Imran Khan to Kolkata before the India-Pakistan encounter.

Great a cricketer and captain as Imran undoubtedly was, his greatness was not based on any magic potion that he carried around in his pocket.

As he himself said later, cricket matches are not won simply by talk; they are won by performance on the field of play.

It was a bit of tamasha that led nowhere, as it was bound to, something that could easily have been done without.

Watching Imran talking to the lads on TV, I certainly did not get the impression that members of the team management were clicking their heels and dancing with joy.

I think it will be difficult to raise the standard of cricket in Pakistan unless international cricket returns to Pakistan and that, unfortunately, is not something that the PCB can do a great deal about.

Certainly, holding the PSL in the UAE, no matter however successfully, will not contribute towards that end in any way and therefore, as a start, the next PSL should be held in Pakistan even if it means some of the big names stay away.

It has to be shown that high profile cricket can be played in Pakistan and if we do not lead that effort, no one else will.

The writer is a former Pakistan captain

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2016