• Home
• Video
• Books by Ikram Sehgal
• About

Playing Cricket?

According to Anurag Thakur of the Hamachal Pradesh Cricket Association, exiled spiritual leader Dalai Lama, who made Dharmsala his home after fleeing China’s Tibetan Province a failed in an uprising against the Chinese, was to inaugurate Pakistani’s first three-day cricket match against the Indian Board President’s team. All very innocent on the surface but given that the Chinese consider Dalai Lama a rebel, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) President (and former diplomat) Shaheryar Khan did well to put an immediate stop to this nonsense. The question arises, knowing Chinese sensitivities, what were the Indians upto? Manipulating the Pakistanis into a serious faux pas with China is certainly not cricket. The next minefield, during the replacement (of the Test) one-day match at Ahmedbabad will Pakistan cricketers have to shake hands with the Gujerat’s Chief Minister (CM) Narendra Modi, given his orchestrating of the massacre of Gujerat muslims only a couple of years earlier? The cause for concern is if this is not Indian State policy, who is trying to queer the diplomatic pitch? And why?

Cricket is just not an ordinary sports event between the two countries, it has connotations a beyond the accepted norms. The acute disappointment of Pakistani team losing both the test and one-day home series notwithstanding, the spontaneous Pakistani crowd reaction and the warm welcome given to the Indian team as well as the visiting Indian spectators in city after Pakistani city, cut into the animosity built upto fever pitch by virulent anti-Pakistani propaganda in India in the last few years. The Indian masses watched in disbelief on prime time TV the hospitality and warmth of the “hated” Pakistanis, all portrayed as bearded fanatics in movie after movie churned out by Bollywood. If  not  into  outright   love  and  affection   the  tide   was   turned somewhat, into one of cautions co-existence. What the visit of the American ping-pong team to China did for US-Chinese relationship in 1970, cricket has contributed to   sustained composite dialogue between India and Pakistan, the resultant Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) auger extremely well for permanent future rapprochement.

The inadequacies of our cricket team cannot be blamed on Shaheryar Khan alone. We have glaring weaknesses in not having viz, (1) a sound opening pair and/or (2) a credible bowling attack (either fast or spin). We have plenty of talent and individual brilliance but lack a cricket format that institutionalises the building of sound cricket expertise. Our players perform in bits and parts, capable of flashes of individual brilliance but susceptible to sustained periods of mediocrity, making them the most erratic performers on the international cricket stage. We have individual players who can turn a match on its head on their day, regretfully the golden “day” comes after months. To compound an inherent mediocrity, what about a Selection Committee that chooses Imran Farhat, a natural one-day opener, for the Test side and Taufiq Umar, a reasonably sound opening batsmen in Tests, for the one-day series. And destroying the youthful confidence of Yassar Hameed by forcing the natural one-down batsman Yassar Hameed to open in one-dayers? And how many more chances will they give Muhammad Hafeez, a mediocre player at best? Bob Woolmer is certainly one of the best coaches in the game but he is not a magician, he can only deliver if the ingredients given to him are of the required quality. With my limited cricket  knowledge  I  may  be  forgiven  for  trying  to  impersonate  a Selector but this is general knowledge, for the most part almost 90% of the team select themselves.

Those who should be permanent part of both the Test team   and   the  one – day   side  include, viz (1) opening batsman Salman Butt (2) one-down batsman Yassar Hameed (3) Yousuf Youhana (4) Inzamam ul Haq (5) Shoaib Malik as a batsman (6) all-rounder Abdul Razzak (7) wicket keeper Kamran Akmal (8) Fast Bowler Shoaib Akhtar (i.e. if he can get rid of his problems of (a) attitude and (b) fitness) and (9) Fast Bowler Muhammad Sami. Those who can make it into both the Test teams and one-day side,  include viz  (1) Shahid Afridi (2) Rana Naveedul Hassan (3) Younis Khan and (4) Danish Kaneria. What we really need are replacement fast bowlers, viz (1) Shabbir Ahmed and (2) Umer Gul, who should remain fit and available for selection. Razzak has begun to show some consistency in both batting and bowling but we need to find another genuine all-rounder somewhere, Azhar Mahmood has not lived upto his promise. Taufiq Umar should only be considered for Tests and Imran Farhat only for one-days. Let’s face it, only Inzamam and Yousuf Youhana, Razzak as well as Shoaib Akhtar (when fit and not having an attitude problem), are really world class at the moment. If any of them are out of the side, due to injury, we are already in trouble. Salman Butt and Yassar Hameed have the potential, if properly groomed, in both versions of the game. This is the best Pakistan has, unfortunately it is not good enough.

Individual brilliance does not represent the vast reservoir of potential that exists. What is needed is a truly well constituted PCB, capable of organizing cricket according to a format that taps the available talent without hindrance and develops it into world class according  to  a  well  laid-out plan. Somebody has to win a game and someone has to lose, what is important is showing grace in winning and courage in losing. Losing, without a fight, has become synonymous with our cricket team, the competitiveness that is the essence of any confrontation seems to be missing. 

Departmental teams notwithstanding, the need is to cultivate local potential in each area/region, not possible the way the present competitions are structured. Where is the emphasis on schools and colleges to act as nurseries? Emerging cricketers rise to first class cricket equally viz (1) on the basis of their own talent and/or (2) their luck in being noticed at that level. A hands-on sincere approach along with extensive cricket knowledge and a successful record in corporate ability is extremely necessary. A few of our outstanding cricketers are still capable of giving useful input, e.g. the Mohammad Brothers, Hanif and Mushtaq,  cousins  Majid  Khan  and  Imran  Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aamir Sohail etc. While nobody understands the game in the cricket field better than Javed Miandad, all around, whether in the field and/or outside in the cricket and/or corporate world, only one Pakistani is world class (and respected as such internationally), Imran Khan.

Though Tauqir Zia successfully organized the PCB into a viable economic entity, the grooming of cricket talent for the present and the future fell short of expectations. While the President may not like Imran Khan’s politics, and there may be quite a number of people in Pakistan who don’t, Gen Pervez Musharraf has publicly shared with the general public two of Imran Khan’s attributes, viz (1) sound knowledge of cricket as a game as well as command of cricket affairs and (2) his organizational skills symbolized by the world-recognized Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital. The President as the Chief Patron of PCB should give Imran Khan a mandate for one year on an ad-hoc basis so that the entire cricket format can be re-vamped on a more practical basis and a sound strategy for harnessing our enormous talent devised.

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.