Pakistan's captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, has just turned 39 and he was asked at his side's introductory media conference ahead of the Champions Trophy how he would celebrate it. "Just going for practice," he said.
There have been more exciting birthdays, but there have been few more wisely spent. What Pakistan need more than anything is a quiet time in their first appearance in England since a spot-fixing scandal in 2010 ended with three of their players serving custodial sentences and their reputation once again dragged through the mud.
This is a tournament where for the sake of Pakistan's cricketing future they need to rebuild the respect of the many as well as excite the passions of their committed supporters.
Even as Misbah tried to give an impression of solidity, one of his greatest attributes since the day he took charge, the headlines were again suggesting that all was not well. As he sat down, attention centred uponthe suspension of the PCB's chairman, Zaka Ashraf, by the High Court in Islamabad pending investigations of what Justice Shaukat Siddiqui called a "polluted" election process.
