Pakistan is all out for 72 in the 32nd over and beaten by 491 runs. Is there anything worst than dismal? Yes: This performance was poorer than miserable. This was the highest defeat in terms of runs for Pakistan and fourth in the history of the game.

It has been learnt that coach of Pakistan Bob Woolmer has asked for psychological help. So what is the psyche of Pakistan players at present? There are various ways to look at it.

I look at it like this: It seems Pakistani players have not realized that it is summer in Down Under and not winter of Pakistan. In summer, ripe mangoes have to avoid getting hurt by falls, as descend to ground defectively dents mangoes. Indeed summer in Pakistan brings delicious mangoes.

Although Pakistan team is in Australia for the past three weeks, it seems by their performance that players are thinking they are still in Pakistani winter with no mangoes in sight. The way Pakistani batsmen orchestrated a procession at Perth on the fourth morning, it can be taken as an example by many protesters of different causes world over. It also reminds us that summer is here in Down Under and our ripe mangoes fell awfully on ground to damage the whole team.

Yes: Imran Farhat (14 tests), Younis Khan (30 tests), Inzimam-ul-Haq (97 tests), Yousuf Youhana (54 tests) and Abdul Razzaq (31 tests) have enough experience at International level and for them to contribute merely 129 runs in ten innings together during the whole test match means the Mali (Garden Care-Taker Pakistan Cricket Board - PCB) is not doing a careful job and good ripe mangoes are unnecessarily falling down.

Let’s see if psychological help will make things easier for Pakistani players or totally confuse them. I remember back in 1978, a Pakistani team visited England during the first half of British summer, when main players had gone to play in Packer. That team fared almost as badly, but they still used to try a little harder than these lads. Present Chairman of Selectors Waseem Bari and Manager of this side to Australia Haroon Rashid were part of that team and know it better than anybody else.

Some how over the years, Pakistani team has become a one-day side. As the overs near 50, they somehow begin to think that it is time to hit and get out. Let’s look at the first innings at Perth. Between 40th and 50th over, two set batsmen destined for a century partnership, namely Younis Khan and Abdul Razzaq, slogged to get out. During that time, for the addition of merely three runs, four batsmen returned to the pavilion. Nothing notable can be said about the second innings. It is a famous statement of commentator Richie Benaud that it is a cardinal sin if a team gets all out for less than the allotted fifty overs in a one-day match. What can we call a team, which on record is considered as the third best test matches team, gets out in thirty two overs in a test match? Pathetic indeed.

Another psyche the Pakistani players may be facing was staying on fast pitches of Western Australia for three weeks. May be that was too much for them to bear and they wanted to somehow reach Melbourne in a hurry to get out of the misery that had struck them on the speedy Western Australian playing fields. In Melbourne, Pakistan has played seven test matches winning two and loosing three. The pitches of Melbourne are usually not totally alien to Pakistanis, when compared with Perth, where the extra bounce and afternoon draft from the lake creates all kinds of nightmares for any intentional player. As such Pakistan players may feel more comfortable in Melbourne.

If Pakistanis did the same at Melbourne, then PCB needs to seriously work hard in finding test match talent, as is being advocated by Imran Khan. We are into the fifth season of the First Test Match Championship Decade. There is still some time left to catch up and become serious about this coveted inaugural championship.

If we look at the formulation of Pakistan's team, Abdul Razzaq is coming in at number six. Unfortunately Kamran Akmal’s outings at number seven to the crease during the three weeks in Western Australia have created serious doubts if he can at all bat, although in the past, he has opened the innings for Pakistan in a few one-days. He needs to spend many hours inside the practice net to improve his batting; otherwise he will soon loose his place to a batsman, where Younis Khan can become the wicket keeper (Rashid Latif or Moin Khan may as well make another come-back).

We all remember Imran Khan and Wasim Akram used to come in at number seven and eight respectively in test matches followed by batting wicket keepers like Saleem Yousuf and Moin Khan. This is one aspect that Pakistani selectors have to go back to review the talent around Pakistan and try to discover.

Pakistan team’s formulation should be such that Abdul Razzaq comes at number seven and has another all-rounder at number eight, followed by a keeper or spinner, who can bat a bit; for ten and eleven positions, we already have Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Akhtar as reliable tail-ender batsmen.

Last question is was McGrath totally unplayable when he took 8/24? Yes: He was superb excellent. But if the outstanding Pakistani batsmen facing him had shown some more spine, courage, dedication and concentration, we could have seen a more competitive performance, like Javed Miandad, Asif Iqbal, Ijaz Ahmed, Imran Khan and Saeed Anwar used to do in the second innings in Australia. Loss by around one hundred fifty runs would not have been that bad. Loss by 491 is indeed shameful.

Pakistani players need to recover from this setback at the earliest, as they have to play very important and hectic cricket in Australia, India and West Indies till June 05, 2005. Melbourne test match starts on Boxing Day December 26, 2004.