For some time Pakistani cricket has been obeying every sub-clause of Murphy’s Law, which states that pretty much everything that could go wrong has done precisely that.

The scars left by the match-fixing scandal of the mid-1990s remain deep. Terrorist attacks have confirmed Lahore and Karachi as the game’s least desirable destinations. Bob Woolmer, the highly respected national coach, was found dead in his hotel room shortly after a shock loss to Ireland at last year’s World Cup. The investigation into his death, in which foul play was at first wrongly suspected, led to wild conjecture and further distress. Almost inevitably his successor, Geoff Lawson, the seventh coach in a decade, did not remain in post too long.