I have a dear, elderly friend. Last night, we watched Pakistan bat against England.
Before long, Misbah ul-Haq joined Younus Khan. We saw these two unique batsmen share a partnership.
They are unique because of how they don’t really seem to feel scoreboard pressure. They are unique because of the shuffling styles that they employ against bowlers.
They are unique batsmen because they are unique people.
I couldn’t spend all night following Cricinfo ball-by-ball commentary. It meant there would have to be a point where I would have to farewell my friend and go to bed. While it was still OK for me to be there, we talked about many things, cricket included.
He talked about how, when he was younger, he had been unable to face the more important school teams because he couldn’t afford the necessary creams. Younus and Misbah are just two of many Pakistan players who have been denied the chance to play in their home country because international teams can’t tour Pakistan due to security reasons.
It means that on the rare occasions I get to see Pakistan play, I savour it. There are other reasons too. They are about the only Test team left that don’t really believe in a fifth bowler in the Shane Watson mould.
They have Mohammed Hafeez, who is better than your average part-time off-spin bowler, but generally Pakistan’s bowling is left to the four bowlers who in the team for their ability to bowl. There is a clear delineation between batsmen and bowlers not seen anywhere else in the Test cricket world.
I knew it was time to go to bed when Younus got out. But while I was going, Pakistan still had Misbah to steer them out of the night. When I woke up, the sky was a pale blue. Then I looked on Cricinfo, and saw that Misbah had scored a century.
He had taken his team from night to pale blue. He’s been very good at doing that throughout his captaincy. Few players can accurately claim that cricket owes them more than they owe cricket. Misbah is one such player.
Few captains also have to take their teams out of a period of darkness. Suffice to say Misbah had to because of the spot-fixing scandal. It is not dark anymore.
There are figurative dark spots, but Pakistan cricket will survive if moments of figurative night, such as at Lord’s when Younus got out, are not successfully turned into pale blue.
Few captains have had any success in Australia. The only Test captain who has had repeat success took over the captaincy of his Test team in not-too dissimilar circumstances.
Obviously Hansie Cronje’s captaincy had been much longer and meaningful than Salman Butt’s, but Graeme Smith and Misbah’s situations were not unrecognisable. Neither man was an unquestioned part of the team.
Misbah wasn’t in the team at the time of Butt’s betrayal, and Smith had only just made the South African team.
Surely it’s not just coincidence that Misbah’s career will probably end in Australia, the same place where Smith found a way to succeed on his last two tours? It would be a script worth of a great leader if it happened that way, though it is easy to see their fielding and batting preventing such an end.
Often in victory you can end with a single image of victory that reflects what you think is a perfect image of the sort of leader someone was. For example, my favourite image of Michael Vaughan is actually a still (in my memory) from a video just after England had regained the Ashes at The Oval.
There was always a bit of the English footballer in Michael Vaughan. He was arm-in-arm with Andrew Flintoff, who always triggered the English footballer fan in the English crowds, and Pietersen, who was that something different.
Misbah’s push ups after his hundred felt appropriate. A promise to army guys. Even in his celebration, it was an act of work. One of the non-negotiable pre-requisites of great leadership is to also be a great servant.
By that measure, Misbah ul-Haq is truly one of the great captains.
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