The Pakistan cricket team not only made it to the semi-final of the World Cup against many odds, it also brought us all together, something that our so-called national leaders with their petty agendas and stunted vision have failed to accomplish despite the fact that it is, primarily, their responsibility. In fact, to promote their narrowly defined self-interest, our political leadership has actually been fanning divisiveness. Bereft of any ideas for common good that bind people together, they mouth misleading parochial rhetoric to add to their personal political weight. Compare this to Afridi and his team mates who, through their performance during the tournament, made divisions of caste and creed, ethnicity and sect, class and age, gender and politics, evaporate into thin air, and had citizens across the length and breadth of Pakistan cheering for one team. It matters little that the Green Shirts lost a crucial game at Mohali. What matters is that they'd healed a nation. And for that, we cannot thank them enough. Even if you judge them purely in terms of the game they'd gone to play, they did well. They were number one in their group, and in getting there, they'd created history by defeating a team that had not lost a World Cup match in years. The Pakistan team not only punctured the myth of Australia's invincibility, but also brought joy to their fans as they thrashed West Indies in the quarter-final. They earned every bit of the support and love showered upon them by Pakistanis of all hues, as the tournament progressed. These positive feelings were not there from the start. In fact, burdened by scandals and bogged down by stories of mismanagement at PCB, they were not sent off as heroes. People had very low expectations from them and it was not uncommon to hear Pakistanis speak ill of their own team. With every passing match though, the ill-feelings dissipated and, as if yearning to believe in something positive, people embraced them and we saw the ranks of Green Shirts' fans swelling. One found people who were, until a few days ago, casting aspersions on the players and doubting the team's ability, passionately cheering for the same team. It was a sign of utter failure of those in charge of our destiny, the fact that our national team could not take their countrymen's support for granted and had to literally earn it bit-by-bit. It is also a sign of patriotism of the Pakistani nation that even when nothing seems to be going right in their country, it takes just a glimmer of hope, just one positive sign, for them to reaffirm their love and allegiance to the country. Of course, it would take more than our cricket team to solve our crisis of nationhood. The problem is that those who are supposed to be concerned about it, those who occupy state palaces and are fattened by the taxpayer's money to do something about giving a sense of unity and commonality of interest to the citizens, those who should be creating a society where people feel a sense of ownership and belonging, the irresponsible, inept and corrupt political players infesting the smelly corridors of power are busy playing short-sighted petty games for personal benefit. Do they not know that they are damaging something that they are paid to protect? It is obvious that they know it very well. They just don't care. The Pakistan team was not only battling against international cricketing giants at the World Cup. They were also battling the curse breathed upon our nation by our self-obsessed power-hungry leaders, who seem to have no clue about their responsibility. Consider this: On the eve of the big match in Mohali, our Interior Minister tells our team that he would be monitoring them for any hanky panky. A few days earlier, the same Minister had told the world that a terrorist travelling from a Pakistani airport would have bombed one of the venues of the World Cup, and as it transpired later, he had made that statement without proper investigation. Let's not forget that this Minister was convicted of corruption and pardoned by my President so that he could continue in office, not because he's good at what he's supposed to do, but for doing things that he's not supposed to do. Consider this: Video-game buffs in Virginia, USA, use unmanned aerial vehicles, remote-controlled flying toys, to bomb thousands of innocent unarmed civilians in our country to death. These fellow Pakistanis, attending funerals or weddings, studying in schools or resolving matters in jirgas, who are bombed to death by these remote-controlled toys, include children, the elderly, and women who know little more than the home and the hearth and raising children. And those who are supposed to protect them, provide cover to this deathly game. Consider this: The members of our team had travelled from a land where dubious foreign agents kill our fellow citizens in cold blood, and those in charge of our destiny subvert the law to rescue those killers. Consider this: Our team is made up of ordinary Pakistanis who must suffer the burden of a parasitic elite that gloats on unearned filthy wealth as they, the batsmen and bowlers in our team, and their uncrowned families, are subjected to spiralling prices of fuel, electricity and everyday household items. Consider this: Pakistan was disallowed by the ICC mafia to co-host the World Cup. The brahmans of cricket singularly targeted and punished Pakistani cricketers for a disease that plagues the entire cricketing world, for playing in the hands of bookies and billion-dollar gambling dons that have reduced sportsmanship to unethical profiteering. Consider that for years our team has not played an international match on its home ground. Consider that our Prime Minister needs to piggyback ride on the success of our cricket team to talk to his Indian counterpart, but wouldn't do anything meaningful to stop this crusade against the game of cricket in Pakistan. When you consider all this, and a lot more that's not right about how our leaders are managing our affairs, you begin to understand the tremendous odds stacked up against our team and the miracle that they performed in the face of it all. Sportsmen who represent the country are not isolated robots that are not affected by what goes on around them generally. And obviously, the ability of any team is not divorced from how affairs are being managed or mismanaged by official bodies that are meant to bring out the best in them. When you consider all this, you are compelled to thank the Pakistan cricket team with even more gratitude.The writer is a freelance columnist.