| Cricket playing at Minto Park in Lahore | Music | 00:00 |
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| SARA: This is cricket, Pakistani style. It’s hard to tell where on match starts and the next one ends. Every weekend, thousands of players compete for space here at Minto Park in Lahore. It’s designed to have only three pitches but there are hundreds. The enthusiasm is irrepressible despite the recent terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team. |
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| Model Town Cricket Club. Practising in nets | Away from the crowds, the next generation of Pakistan’s elite cricketers are already practising. This is Lahore’s Model Town Cricket Club, one of the best in the country. | 00:48 |
| Waleed Arshad practising | Fourteen year old Waleed Arshad is one of the hopefuls, competing against millions of other boys to one day play for Pakistan. | 00:58 |
| Waleed. Super: | WALEED ARSHAD: I want to be the captain of the Pakistani side. I want to lead the side and make it win the World Cup, at least for one time. It is my dream. And Inshallah, hopefully I will do it. | 01:07 |
| Waleed practising | SARA: Waleed Arshad’s talent and tenacity have already won him a place as a junior at Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy. He wants to spin his way into history. | 01:18 |
| Sara and Waleed | WALEED ARSHAD: At the last moment of delivery I change my hand and it comes off the back of the hand, so this is a doosra and the batsman doesn’t see that it goes the other way. | 01:29 |
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| SARA: And what about after cricket for you Waleed, what are your dreams? | 01:37 |
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| WALEED ARSHAD: Obviously my priority is to represent the national side, then certainly I have plans to join politics, but after cricket. Cricket is my first priority. | 01:40 |
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| SARA: So you might be bowling a few doosra in politics as well? WALEED ARSHAD: Yes, obviously. | 01:50 |
| Gaddafi Stadium | SARA: For now, it’s one dream at a time. If he makes it big as a cricketer, this will be his home ground, Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium. New grandstands are already being built for Pakistan to host matches for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. But last Tuesday’s [recent] terrorist attack just a few hundred metres from here, may have changed all of that. | 01:54 |
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| WALEED ARSHAD: We were all praying, | 02:17 |
| Waleed | the whole nation was praying, Oh God please save the Sri Lankan team. | 02:18 |
| Attacked umpires’ bus | SARA: Outside the stadium there’s a stark dose of reality. This is the umpires’ bus, which was shot up during the attack. It’s still in the car park. Last week’s bloodshed has shocked the people of Lahore. | 02:22 |
| Akbal. Super: | AGHA AKBAL: [Sports Editor, The Nation] The news spread like wildfire so to speak and I have not seen Lahore drenched in so much gloom in recent past. | 02:37 |
| Agha Akbal watches cricket match | SARA: Agha Akbal is one of Pakistan’s most respected cricket journalists. He believes grass roots cricket is unstoppable in Pakistan, but he concedes that moving Pakistan’s home games offshore to neutral venues will be costly. AGHA AKBAL: It will hurt the pride, | 02:47 |
| Akbal | it will hurt PCB’s finances and it will definitely hurt the development of the game at the highest level. But, I don’t think that it will make too much of a difference because Pakistanis are too keen on cricket. They will keep on playing cricket in the streets and everywhere. | 03:06 |
| Men watching match | SARA: Cricket has become an obsession for the rich, the poor, the young and the old. Strong performances in the 1970s gave Pakistan’s cricketers hero status. | 03:26 |
| Akbal | AGHA AKBAL: When Pakistan performed well and afterwards, people adopted cricket as if it was the next best thing after religion. | 03:38 |
| Cricket match | And they really, really followed it very, very passionately so cricket provided a sense of identity. It really, it really became big. | 03:47 |
| Prayers at mosque | Music/Prayers | 03:53 |
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| SARA: Along with Islam, the game has become part of the fabric of Pakistani culture. The people of Lahore can’t imagine their city without it. | 04:01 |
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| MAHMOOD: We are worried. We are worried about our reputation. | 04:14 |
| Mahmood. Super: | We are nine million people living in Lahore and yes we claim we are very peaceful, we are very friendly, we are very hospitable people. We like other people to visit us, to play with us, to be with us, to do business with us. | 04:18 |
| Police honour guard | SARA: The Lord Mayor admits there were serious lapses in security. He says Lahore needs to earn the right to host international cricket again. MIAN AMER MAHMOOD: We have to prove that we are | 04:37 |
| Mahmood | more safe than past, and every Lahori is working on that. You can go to any street of Lahore and talk to anybody, they are worried and they want to improve the image of our city. | 04:48 |
| Ilyas photos | SARA: Former test cricketer and now selector for Pakistan’s junior teams, Mohammed Ilyas knows the business of cricket better than most. He says if international cricket disappears in Pakistan, the members of the International Cricket Council will also feel the consequences. | 05:02 |
| Ilyas. Super: | MOHAMMED ILYAS: The subcontinent is the most biggest market in the world. Think about it. Biggest market in the world. Bigger than Australia, bigger than South Africa, bigger than England. Because all market, its main market is subcontinent. If no team come in sub-continent the ICC will be in big trouble. | 05:19 |
| Mohammed Ilyas hitting ball with Imran Farhat | SARA: Mohammed Ilyas’ son in law, Imran Farhat, has already played for Pakistan. He believes it’s up to cricket administrators to keep young players engaged in the game so they’re ready to finally play at home again. MOHAMMED ILYAS: There is nothing like playing at home, | 05:48 |
| Ilyas | and I tell you what, I don’t know about today’s youngsters playing for Pakistan to me, and my colleagues who play with me, I thought they were the greatest honour anybody can do... represent his nation. Nothing like a star. Nothing like it. | 06:03 |
| Slow Motion Waleed | Music | 06:22 |
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| SARA: Waleed Arshad is coming of age in a nation, which has been fractured by violence. His dreams of representing his country remain firm, but just what kind of country it will be in five years time is uncertain. AGHA AKBAL: Since 1947, | 06:25 |
| Akbal. Super: | when this country came into being, there were so many who thought we would be wiped out, but we are still there 60 years later. | 06:41 |
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| Music | 06:47 |
| Young men play cricket | SARA: The people of Lahore are still in mourning. They are waiting for the time when their young cricket stars will be able to play at home. | 06:55 |
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| Can you imagine Pakistan without cricket? | 07:03 |
| Waleed | WALEED ARSHAD: I can’t imagine Pakistan without cricket. Pakistan will be without politics, but not without cricket. | 07:06 |
| Cricket at Minto Park | Music | 07:12 |
| Credits | Reporter: Sally Sara Camera: Wayne McAllister Editor: Wayne McAllister | 07:20 |