YOU know what is common between the makers of two recent releases, the ‘Rebel Called Shah Mehmood Qureshi’ and Patiala House, an Indian film that has its share of the rebels and the reformed?

The two were guilty of getting the timing of their run-up and their spurt wrong and they were not sure of the wares they were selling.

Even in less enthusiastic times, the patriots would have found it difficult to silently accept, let alone appreciate and like, the sight of a man with Indian origins crossing over and playing for England.

The task is impossible against the backdrop of the World Cup drums that thrive on an unprecedented synchronisation of sentiment and market for an impact that would have woken up Majid Khan in first slip. Patiala is wrongly pegged and the target audience would have been happier and would have felt far more secure with a reversed storyline: a man with a British parent, preferably mother for certain egoistic considerations, returning to his roots to bring glory to fatherland India.

Call it parochial if you want or call it narrow-minded, an England victory in an international cricketing event is the last thing Akshay watchers would wish to see at this point in time. Indians these days usually don’t err in exploiting a moment for profiteering; they seem to have failed to respect tradition in this case.

Our very own Syed Noor may not have that many hits to his credit of late but he sure has been trying to keep the old spirit alive. He has been in the forefront of an unsuccessful campaign to block the running of Indian films in Pakistan, and much before the legions of nationalistic Pakistani observers unearthed the conspiracy behind the detention of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan at the Delhi airport, Mr Noor was up and about and pouncing on actor Veena Malik for her self-exposures during an Indian reality show.

If these stands of his were based on pure Pakistani principles and conventions, he has added to his reputation as a real opportunist with a new film that he plans to complete in a few weeks’ time.

The Noor film celebrates a ghazi who kills a man to freely express his love for the Prophet (PBUH). In his remarks to the Christian Science Monitor, Mr Syed Noor denies any links with his production and the murder of Governor Salman Taseer.

Obviously, long years of popular filmmaking have so enriched Mr Noor’s subconscious that he now doesn’t need a conscious effort to recognise an opportunity when it presents itself. It comes naturally to him. Needless to say, he is free to express himself, just as you and I can invoke our freedom to read into his work and the parallel it creates.

The religious and anti-Indian stuff have always sold in Pakistan, even if these two varieties are now receiving tough competition from anti-American refrain. But cricket sells most. Thus even as an angry former foreign minister hopes to ride the public wave in his first public appearance in his hometown after being ousted from the cabinet, he could have timed his move better.

In the event Mr Shah Mehmood Qureshi arrived to address a rally in Multan on Saturday, the opening day of the 10th edition of the World Cup tournament.

Some people did turn up to listen to him as he spoke, not in his mother tongue nor in the public idiom but in his usual accentuated manner which he had perfected for effective communication in Islamabad and other capitals of the world.

The attendance could have been bigger and one of the factors behind the smaller-than-desired crowd must well have been that the inaugural World Cup game was on just at that time.

In any case, Mr Qureshi didn’t know what he was selling. He made it known he had an issue with the US, yet as he pleaded for a non-discriminatory relationship, he stopped well short of an outright, populist attack on Americans.

He did try to club the US together with India and with the extremely sellable energy crisis in Pakistan, but even here he appeared to be struggling to emerge out of the diplomatic mandate and language he had carried as a foreign minister. All he could divulge to the people was that the Americans were selling nuclear technology to India but refusing the same to Pakistan.

That was not a start worthy of agencies for change, was it? A much more promising beginning to what Pakistanis are more concerned with right at this point has been provided by a certain Mr Bal Thackeray. The religious and patriotic sells, and sells more if tinged by cricket. From his standpoint, the World Cup was too big an opportunity for Mr Thackeray to let pass.

Thackeray, actually a man who spoke on his behalf, reminded Pakistanis that they will have to seek the permission of the Shiv Sena godfather for playing the World Cup final in Mumbai on April 2.

There were a few ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ in the middle, but simply the thought must have made Thackeray a popular household name in the cricket-crazy Pakistan for the first time ever.

Our experts are giving the side few chances beyond the quarter-finals, implicitly conceding that the team is good enough to get past Canada and Kenya and Zimbabwe. Some doubt even that and to hear a voice speak about the possibility of a place in the final is a real boon.

Against expert comments, let it turn out that way, and not just for reasons related to cricket and the notions about the pride of nations. The 11 Pakistanis on the field on April 2 would be a better representation of you and I than the 10 young men associated with the Mumbai spectacle in November 2008. The Saeeds and Ajmals of the Mumbai attack must make way for the ‘doosras’ of Saeed Ajmal.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.