12 May 2004	Wednesday	21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

A PROVEN formula for inaction is the committee-system. It can go by other names, a commission, an inquiry, an investigation. The underlying philosophy is that two heads are better than one and that there should be no rush to judgment. On the face of it, it seems fair.

In practice, it is a way, an honourable way of avoiding responsibility, justice being seen to be done without it actually being done. This is what has happened in the case of Shoaib Akhtar. He has been issued a mild warning. Whether his injury was real or faked has not been resolved. The report of the medical commission has not been made public as yet.

The warning issued to Shoaib applies to every other player. A player who represents his country is expected to demonstrate 150 per cent commitment, he is expected to abide by team discipline. Shoaib's injury would have been accepted at face-value had Pakistan won the Rawalpindi Test instead of being routed by an innings.

India was well on its way to a huge total when Shoaib took a tumble. At first, he appeared to have injured his wrist, which was strapped up, but apparently he also suffered a side-strain. Doubts were cast when he batted without any show of pain.

The injury or the nature of it should have been dealt with, there and then, on the spot. The team management should have shown far more concern than they did. To appoint a medical commission was a resort to the committee-system.

If a person has a headache, he is told to take an aspirin because the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. One doesn't appoint a commission. The best way of dealing with a player with an attitude is to quietly drop him from the team as happened in the case of the West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

The message was received loud and clear by him (Chanderpaul) and he was reinstated in the one-day team. Commitment is something that comes from within. It cannot be commanded. It's like patriotism. It's an inner feeling. When the Pakistan team loses, I feel pretty rotten, as do countless others because there is in us a shared sense of belonging. There is no law that says that we must be patriotic.

I was pleased to read the interview of the PCB chairman in which he said that he wanted to do away with ad-hocism and that a new constitution was on the anvil. Constitution is a pretty heavy word and it conjures the image of some sacred document and seems inappropriate for a sports body.

Why not a simple rules of business that lays down how an organisation will be run, the sort that clubs and gymkhanas have? The idea should be to make it simple, free of judicial clap-trap. But a constitution or whatever is no guarantee that the performance of the national team will be improved. But even more than that our venues will become spectator-friendly.

We like to think that the India tour was a huge success. It was to the extent that it went off without any incidents of rowdy behaviour and visitors from India came and were received warmly. But ask an average cricket fan and he or she will tell you that watching the matches entailed many hardships. Many complained of a lack of drinking water and the horrible conditions of toilets.

This is something basic. It is at this level that we seem to fail. A cricket fan buys his ticket, often at great inconvenience and an occasional lathi-charge and then discovers that elementary facilities are not available. Watching cricket with one's family should be fun and not an endurance test.

Muttiah Muralitharan is now the holder of the record of the most Test wickets but even he would have wished that he had achieved this milestone against stiffer opponents. Zimbabwe is the midst of a major crisis and its white players have downed tools, gone on strike and left the national team high and dry.

I am not familiar with root-causes of the dispute but prima facie it appears to be racist. The present Zimbabwe team would be hard pressed to beat a decent club team. The pain of the 20-year-old Tatenda Taibu, Test cricket's youngest captain, is plainly visible.

Having said that, Muralitharan deserves the warmest congratulations of all cricket fans. It is a stupendous feat and he achieved it in only 89 Test matches. It couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Murali has had much to endure, his bowling-action has repeatedly been called into question and it goes to the credit of the Sri Lankan Board that it has stuck by him and fought his case.

Particular mention must be made of the former captain Arjuna Ranatunga who took on all comers and he himself was on the receiving end of much taunting. When a very happy Murali was asked by a television reporter how he felt on breaking the record, he made a point of naming all the captains he had played under and thanked them.

When he was asked what his next goal was he made a telling point. He said that he wanted Sri Lanka to win the next World Cup. He said that cricket was a team game and records count for nothing if the team doesn't win.

I can think of a number of players, past and present, who think otherwise. But good luck to Murali. I love to see him bowl but I enjoy his batting even more. He is a cricketer who is an adornment to the game, someone who gives cricket a good name.

Shane Warne will be breathing down his neck and Australia will be touring Zimbabwe so Murali's record may be short-lived. Even Matthew Hayden may be thinking of recovering his batting record.