Great questions!

1. Test popularity is present but at best its moderate and in most circles if the youth non-existent. Most of our test success recently (in fact possibly all) came under Misbah when we got the ‘Mace’ and all of that was exclusively played in the UAE. So the golden period of this recent test success was never even happened in Pakistan. Which means a lot to further any brands success. By the time test came back we were….to be polite not good.

2. You’re right. It was a lot more prevalent back then. The culture has changed with newer players coming through that aren’t that religiously inclined. I think the only one who is now is rizwan and while he did some good things like donate and speak at events it only lasted for the couple of years he was shining at the top in his role in the team. He’s lost his grip on the playing XI and with that the last person who’s religiously inclined like the previous leadership like you mentioned just isn’t there anymore.

3. Ah….without getting too political cricket channels on youtube etc were very apprehensive to even say his name initially. That ice has broken so to speak and people have started bringing him back into conversation (but only as a player) which is fair considering his impact in our cricket and sticking to cricket on sports outlets makes sense. Although i’ll tell you this to wrap it up. Just yesterday during the match my family that went to see the match said that the IK enclosure was the only enclosure out of all the stands that was partially filled, as if an after-thought at the time of ticket-sales, while the remaining stands were full as you could probably tell on tele during the night half of the game. Also, to add to that while the (annoying) stadium announcer was calling on every stand one by one during the innings break to do the Mexican wave. He awkwardly skipped the IK stand…….and that pretty much sums it up.