WHITHER PAKISTAN CRICKET?
Just when England had a firm grip in the 16th of the stipulated 20 overs in the International Cricket Champions (ICC) 50 overs One Day International (ODI) Trophy rain-reduced thriller at Edgbaston, they collapsed. Clearly the best team in the tournament, India deserved to win. Pakistan was quite embarrassingly eliminated in the knock-out stage.
According to guidelines laid down by the ICC, Chairman Pakistan Board (PCB) was to re-organise the affairs of PCB according to democratic norms. Nothing much wrong with the Constitution, it is just that Zaka Ashraf undermined the integrity of his own creation. A Governing Board consists of 12 members, 5 from regional associations are to be elected members of their respective regions, 5 are earmarked for departmental representatives (nominated not elected) and 2 seats for technocrats hand-picked by the Chairman PCB. Democracy has very little to do with the set-up, of the 12 members of the governing body a majority are nominated, not elected.
Making a further mockery of the process, Zaka Ashraf appointed members of the governing body from the regional associations himself. The regional associations included Larkana, Bahawalpur, FATA, Islamabad and Dera Bugti. According to Zaka Ashraf these are the cricketing hubs in Pakistan and not Lahore, Karachi, Sialkot, Faisalabad, etc. The departmental representatives in the governing body were selected and hand-picked favourites. The two technocrats selected, Intikhab Alam and Javed Miandad, are reportedly known “yes-men”.
To ensure that there was no dissent in any form, Zaka Ashraf called an Emergency General Body meeting without terms or references, without inviting other stakeholders he presented the new constitution to the general body. Surprises of surprises, the motion was passed unanimously. The governing body was told that of the two names he took to the President of Pakistan as Chief Patron of PCB, Zardari supported his name. Things had been going downhill since before Ijaz Butt, another Zardari appointee, Zaka Ashraf was truly the ultimate disaster waiting to happen. While one cannot blame this man alone for the total decline of Pakistani cricket, he did put the final nails in the coffin of Pakistan’s cricket, best symbolized by the insipid and lifeless performance of our team during the ICC trophy.
The well sponsored hugely successful T20 Championships in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka latter are witness to the fact that most of South Asia is essentially cricket-crazy. It is alleged that huge kickbacks were demanded in Pakistan from the sponsor corporate institutions, they were reluctant to pay. While the terrorist violence that has isolated Pakistan as a cricket destination did not help, India contrived to keep Pakistani players out of the IPL. Match practice with and against international players was crucially denied to Pakistan players for the last two years, many of whom are man for man better individual players than those today playing in the IPL. Zaka Ashraf fell over himself tying to appease the Indians, they shafted him well, not only by refusing to play any series in Pakistan but embarrassing us further by preventing Bangladesh from playing one that they had committed to.
To compound all this, the team selection left much to be desired. Having no pretensions of being a selector, even a school team would not include such passengers. Out of form Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal are still a threat to the opposing teams while “out of form” than “in form” Shoaib Malik and Imran Farhat respectively. Shahid Afridi was left out to accommodate Misbah’s close friend, Shoaib Malik. Umar Akmal, possibly one of the most talented players in the world today, was left out to ensure Imran Farhat’s place in the side. To add to all this, Kamran Akmal, whose place in the side as a wicketkeeper has always been suspect but makes his place as a tremendously aggressive opening batsman in the shorter version of the game, was dropped down the batting order to accommodate Imran Farhat. With Hafeez awfully out of form and Imran Farhat out of sorts playing in an ODI like a test opening batsman, the burden come down on Misbah and Asad Shafiq to shoulder. Misbah did it well but in his inimitable “test cricket” style, the nick name “Tuk-Tuk” has not been earned for nothing.
Reportedly Misbah instructed our temporary batting coach appointed from nowhere, Trent Woodhill, to get the opening pair and one-down batsmen to play defensively so that wickets could be preserved. Unfortunately down the order sure hitters in the Pakistan camp like Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzak (what about Ahmad Shahzad?) are now missing. Once our batsmen, all natural strokeplayers Imran Farhat included, started to play defensively, all the bowlers in the ICC tournament, without exception, including the part-time ones, dominated us at will. The results are predictable. Our players had a natural flair for aggression, Misbah has successfully got them psychologically into the shell he cannot himself seem to get out from. We played all the one-day internationals (ODI) like a test match. As a test Captain, Misbah has shelf-life left, he is a disposable aberration in any ODI or T20 team. Once the batsmen are dominated, they get bogged down, even against part-time bowlers. This happened to us in the matches against West Indies and South Africa, it was repeated against India. What especially rankled was the India-Pakistan game. Given that both India and Pakistan lift their game to another planet when they play each other, there was never any doubt the Indian team were better than us. Has that stopped us from beating them in the past? Winning or losing is part of the game, one can lose but not in this atrocious manner, we were humiliated.
Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended Zaka Ashraf as Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and ordered that an Interim Chairman be appointed until the case was decided. The govt appointed Najam Sethi, fresh from a fairly successful stint as Caretaker Chief Minister (CM) Punjab as the Interim Head PCB. He has been tasked to “restructure the PCB, its administration and review the cricket board’s constitution”. Hopefully he will get rid of a bunch of freeloaders and correct the glaring anomalies. Transparency International (TI) has challenged Najam Sethi’s appointment, why didn’t they speak up when he was made Caretaker Chief Minister Punjab? Najam Sethi’s first priority will facilitating team selection for the West Indies tour featuring five one-day and two Twenty 20 internationals. The interim PCB Chairman stated he would take up the case of first bowler Muhammad Amir during the ICC General Meeting in London from June 27 to June 29, one wishes him all success. We need Amir to head our wonderful pace attack.
It is not that we do not have world class bowlers and batsman, we fiddled our team selection and consequently our batting line-up, the result was predictable. The cricketers can perform to the best of their ability in the cricket ground, unfortunately we lose our games in the drawing rooms before we reach the cricket ground. We have the best cricketing talent in the world, if they are to perform to their potential, they need to be protected from the “corrupt of this earth”. Pakistan badly needs its cricket!
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