Hard though it is to believe in light of recent humiliations, Pakistan once boasted a cricket team worthy of the name: a side good enough to field Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir in the same bowling attack; to call themselves world champions in both international white-ball formats; and perhaps most impressively of all, to build a sporting fortress so secure, it could not be breached for more than half a century.
We speak of the National Stadium in Karachi, where the Pakistanis pieced together a 34-Test unbeaten run between 1955 and 2000 – a remarkable record in anyone...