Cricket board reposes confidence in Waqar for World Cup: SWINGING DRIVES

There was never really any doubt that Waqar Younis would lead Pakistan in the World Cup. There was a lot of kite-flying and because the PCB maintained a silence, this kite-flying acquired a measure of credibility. It has been the PCB’s policy to appoint a captain on a series basis. It has adhered to this policy.

It makes sense since form and fitness are of paramount importance and Waqar is no spring-chicken and is a high-risk when it comes to injuries. He is not alone in this as younger fast bowlers are falling by the wayside and are being patched-up and sent into battle.

India rested Zaheer Khan in the one-day series against the West Indies, Mervyn Dillon pulled out of the tour of Bangladesh, Chris Cairns is still not fit to bowl, England seem to lose a fast bowler per match Allan Donald is being kept wrapped in cotton-wool and Zimbabwe had all its pace attack unfit, Muttiah Muralitharan is recovering from a hernia operation and Shane Warne has done his shoulder and is doubtful for the World Cup and our own Shoaib Akhtar has returned home to nurse a gammy knee.

The PCB chairman has now confirmed Waqar as captain and hopefully the only kite-flying that will be done will be during the forthcoming basant.

I think that Waqar will be the first to admit that he is no Imran Khan, Imran had the special gift of getting the best out of his players, even those he may not have personally liked. Like all humans, he had his likes and dislikes. He never allowed this to influence the way he handled the team.

Waqar has never concealed that he is uneasy with Wasim Akram in the team. That, at least, is the perception and the selection of the playing eleven on tour has been whimsical. But he has done the job and led from the front and picked up wickets and given Pakistan the breakthrough. He has even started to make a few runs. The PCB has reposed confidence in him. This should cheer him up.

The team management had asked for Saeed Anwar for the Test matches and the selection committee has sensibly refused to panic. Saeed should have been on the South Africa tour from the onset. There is no doubt that he was short of match-practice. But he is a near-certainty for the World Cup and he needs to get into the groove by playing domestic cricket. Pakistan will need his experience in the World Cup. He has time enough to get in the right frame of mind.

We knew that the tour of South Africa would be a hard one but the margin of 4-1 is not a proper reflection of the difference between the two teams. Pakistan bowlers did everything asked of them but the batting seems to show no sign of the toughness that is required against quality opponents. The running between wickets left much to be desired, a sign that reflects not enough homework is being done on this vital aspect of the game. Running between the wickets is about judgement but it is also about communicating with one’s partner. There are only three calls, yes, no or wait. Simple words that do not put any stress on the mind and are unambiguous, not subject to interpretation, nor a basis for negotiation.

While we are focused on the World Cup, a Test match comes around that is far more gripping than anything that the one-day version can dish out. Such a Test match was the one that was played at Hamilton between India and New Zealand.

New Zealand won it in a tight finish. The first day’s play was washed out. But two days and a session were enough to get a decision. The wicket was certainly lively and the ball seamed but it was certainly not dangerous. Far too much was being read into it, the fault lay not in the wicket but in the lack of technique that was needed to cope with the moving ball. Far too used to batting-friendly pitches, this one had some juice. It was a low-scoring match, too much for batsmen of either team.

In the days when wickets were not covered and we would get ‘sticky dogs’ there were batsmen who had developed special skills to play on them. I would like to see more pitches like the one at Hamilton. Batsmen have it far too good. They have all the protective gear while the fast bowlers can bowl no more than two bouncers per over.

New Zealand were without Cairns. He is expected to play as a batsman in the one-day series. But probably will be fully fit for the World Cup. With the West Indies beginning to re-group. New Zealand the West Indies are two ‘outsiders’ that look most threatening for the World Cup.

The West Indies will have Carl Hooper and Dillon back but there seems to be no news about Brian Lara, beyond, that he is unfit. But no progress report has been forthcoming. But not just the West Indies but cricket needs Brian Lara, still a prince among batsmen. But in Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels, they have two batsmen in the mould of Rohan Kanhai and that is high praise.

Sibte Hasan omnibus on the move again

THERE are many progressive and non-progressive readers of modern Urdu literature who have not studied Marxism through Marx. In fact many ideologues of the Progressive Movement could not study Marx due to the simple fact that the complete works of Marx were published, for the first time, in the ‘60s of the last century.

It was, thus, through commentators of Marx e. g. Webb & Starachey etc. etc. in English and Bari Alig, a well-known translator and author of Company Ki Hukumat, and many monograph writers the common reader came to know what Marx and Marxism was. The scholars may have reached out a little more but the non-availability of the full Marxian corpus was a hindrance for all - scholars and common readers alike.

So Marx was dished out in selected works which were available before the ‘60s but it was through discussion of Marxism by Marxists throughout the world that Marx’ message became quite common.

It is, however, a fact that Syed Sibte Hasan’s books from 1970 onwards created a great deal of awareness of Marx and Marxian thought. Perhaps no other Urdu author has been so attentively read - from cover to cover - even in far- flung areas of Pakistan - as Syed Sibte Hasan. It could be said without any fear of contradiction that Sibte Hasan’s books - some of them have gone through 13th edition - have made Marxian thought in Urdu more popular than any other writer’s work. He has been read more than Marx in English, to say the least.

Two recent works Pakistan Ke Tehzibi-wa-Siyasi Masail - Ahmed Salim’s compilation of Sibte Hasan editorial writings in Lail-o-Nahar and Pakistani Adab - and Shahid Naqvi’s pen-portrait of Sibte Hasan in his Baidar Shuain have once again attracted our attention to the writings of Sibte Hasan. It is sheer coincidence that all of Sibte Hasan’s works, including Pakistan Mein Tehzib Ka Irtiqa, Maazi Ke Mazar, and Navaid-i-Fikr have been made available by Maktaba-i-Daniyal. The main feature of the above mentioned Sibte Hasan works is that they have been properly referenced and annotated by Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed who has provided a rare example of his devotion to Sibte Hasan by remaining steadfastly associated with most of Sibte Hasan’s posthumous works. Now with the better produced and thoroughly referenced new editions he has ensured that the common readers of Sibte Hasan works were equipped with the works Sibte Hasan drew upon. It has not been a common practice for Urdu scholars and critics to provide references and footnotes to their books and articles. There are very few writers who could escape from this observation. Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed has augmented the importance of Sibte Hasan’s works manifold and the new vintage makes Sibte Hasan’s works useful. Maktaba-i-Daniyal deserves compliments for having made this labour of love possible. The works of Sibte Hasan were running into 12th and 13th editions without referencing and annotation till now and their popularity was not abated. Let us see how the new look Sibte Hasan Omnibus is received by the new and old readers.

I would like to say a few words about Ahmed Salim’s compilation of Sibte Hasan’s editorials in Lail-o-Nahar and Pakistani Adab. The first part deals with the democratic era and Lail-o-Nahar picks up the threads from 20 January, 1957, and we see Lail-o-Nahar laments the fact that the country as conceived by the Quaid-i-Azam was entirely different from the country as we find it after ten years. Sibte Hasan, in his editorials, is time and again impressing upon the leadership of the country that it has wilfully gone back on the pledges it has made up till now. As we know Pakistan had suffered incalculably by having a Constitution - the 1956 one - on the basis of parity of representation - which had stripped Bengalis of the majority. Not only that but by virtue of having a West Pakistani Prime Minister and West Pakistani President - Chaudhry Muhammad Ali and Iskandar Mirza - the fabric of nationhood was torn apart and all that came to pass after the 1958 martial law - which perpetrated itself for 11 long years - made Shaikh Mujibur Rahman come out with his six points.

Sibte Hasan’s editorial writings throw light on the subsequent events and it appears that his was a voice of sanity. Be it the political developments or literary and cultural issues facing the nation we know that all the issues - one-unit, land reforms, population explosion, provincial autonomy, Yum-i-Shaukat-i-Islam, and the impotence of Islamic bloc it appears that we have been condemned to have re-run after re-run and the subsequent events do not give us any indication that they would be treated differently. We do not appear to be a people for whom history goes on repeating itself.

We have almost the same time-worn solutions for the time-worn questions. We have to have a special place in the galaxy of nations as being a people who have no inclination to benefit from history.

Of all the Sibte Hasan works Pakistan Mein Tehzib Ka Irtiqa is, most probably, the most controversial. Sibte Hasan is of the view that India had to go through the colonial phase for as a sine qua non for its economic development it is almost the same prescription which some of the Marxian writers had advanced in favour of the French subjugation of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Syria and Lebanon. However, in the case of India, Marx had lamented the barbarities which were committed by the East India Company. Marx seems to be accepting the fait accompli with a pinch of salt. There was no other alternative course. History, he thought, was destined to pass through the inexorable grooves it had to go through. Marx, however, saw a beaconlight at the end of the long dark tunnel of colonial interregnum. This view of Marx is entirely different from his views on the French subjugation of the Maghreb. Even then it is not acceptable that should anticipate their subjugation as the rule of the thumb. This writer had taken up the issue with Sibte Hasan and had pleaded that there were two or three examples in the world where modernity and development were also the destiny of those who did not undergo the colonization of their minds or territories.

Needless to say that Sibte Hasan had stuck to his guns. He had every right to do so but Shaikh Ayaz, in an interview with me and published in this paper, had also disagreed with Sibte Hasan and questioned the propriety of enslavement for the sake of economic development.

However, there is very little to differ with Sibte Hasan. His articles compiled in Navaid-i-Fikr, Theocracy, Secularism, Islami Riyasat, Wadi-i-Sindh Ka Socialist Sufi and Ghalti Hai Mazamin were the pieces of an outstanding merit and think that one ought to find the echoes of these writings in the far-flung areas of the country. The progressive outlook still in the ascendant in those areas because a writer like Sibte Hasan proved that he could be an effective writer through his lucid style and clear-headed views which did not have any blinkers to conceal his message. His narrative was not like a Swiss Cheese — with a lot of holes in it. He was a straightforward gentleman and he believed in talking straight.

Isn’t it a virtue worth imbibing by at least all of those writers who want to reach out the common readers.