Green shoots and leaves

It was good and necessary to find these two pieces in the papers today, one by Michael Atherton and the other by Gideon Haigh.

Both focus on the meaning of Pakistan to cricket. Athers can probably be forgiven a few loose sentences at the top ('they break the laws at will' - do they? And who are 'they'? Some of them? All of them?) because his piece has heart. Gideon Haigh's, as usual, has brains as well.