The Pashtun, Younis Khan, is the second Khan who went on to win a World Cup for Pakistan. And at once he emulated his more famous predecessor, Imran Khan Niazi, by announcing his retirement, if only from the Twenty20 game.

Younis, the most reluctant of captains, may have come to the conclusion that such a high may be impossible to attain again. He believed it best to go out on a high as Imran did on the night his ‘cornered Tigers’ fought back to win a World Cup from which they had been on the very brink of elimination.

It was Imran’s good fortune then that the England chase was rained off in the preliminary league in Adelaide, which is why Pakistan survived before regrouping to conquer the summit at the MCG. Imran did step on a few toes then because he spoke only of the cancer hospital he was to build in his mother’s memory, forgetting to thank his Tigers who made the win possible.

Younis may be a far less effusive Pathan than the Lahore-born and UK-educated Imran. But he did not forget to thank all his men and was gracious in his call to the world to start playing in his country again.

While that sounds like an impossible dream right now when barely three months have lapsed since the infamous attack on the Sri Lankan team bus at the Liberty roundabout in Lahore, the fact remains that the Pashtun’s warmth came through.

The Pakistan T20 skipper dedicated the win not only to his nation but also to the memory of late coach Bob Woolmer who died in unfortunate circumstances at the ODI World Cup in the Caribbean. Only the most unsentimental of men would have grudged the World T20 final at Lord’s involving the Sri Lankans and the Pakistanis. Of them, the Lankans were the ones who actually stared terror in the face as gunmen fired on them when Dilshan, who batted so coolly in all matches up to the final, was alert enough to galvanise the coach driver into zooming out of the danger zone.

A Pakistan team would not be living up to their name if they did not blow hot and cold, which is what the Younis-led side did too.

The start, featured by a crushing defeat at the hands of hosts England, was the kind that led to much wringing of hands except by the skipper who knew the true nature of the beast, which the T20 game is.

Only as the tournament progressed did the Pakistanis show a great deal of order in organizing themselves into machine-like precision. The start of the final showed how much the Pakistanis had planned.

One had to rub the eyes in disbelief during the chase. Cricket legend has it that the hot Cup chase addles the sharpest of brains, reducing batting geniuses to putty. Were these the mercurial Pakistanis who were now chasing like professionals, keeping wickets in hand unmindful of the asking rate and then accelerating smoothly to the wire? Brilliant.