The dismal performance of the Pakistan cricket team while facing first Zimbabwe and then the South Africans in the UAE subjected the players to a flood of criticism. Luckily, the recent victory of our team in South Africa has quieted the critics, but one should not forget that just a few days ago the print and TV media was loudly blaming players like Misbah ul Haq, Shahid Afridi, Hafeez, etc., for their poor showing and demanding major changes in the team.

One cannot deny the role of infighting between players and team disunity as well as dressing room politics in the bad performance of the team in the series which we lost recently. In my opinion, the blame should not be placed solely on the players, as there are four major mistakes the top officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have been consistently making. These mistakes have caused disunity in the team as well as having encouraged malpractices like betting and match-fixing.

• Firstly, PCB has a bad habit of not supporting a well-performing captain, especially when he complains about the non-cooperation or underperformance of certain players. Instead of taking action against the erring players, PCB officials end up succumbing to player pressure and changing the captain. In the past successful captains like Javed Miandad and Younis Khan have fallen victim to this and now it was Misbah ul Haq’s turn to see his captaincy threatened due to groupings in the team. Luckily the victory in the ODI series in South Africa brought him reprieve.

• Secondly, the practice of appointing a junior captain when there are other senior players available to lead and then expecting the seniors to play under this junior captain has always backfired. This happened in 1980 when the 23-year-old Javed Miandad was made captain, which resulted in a revolt by senior players. Similarly, the decision to make juniors captain, including Shoaib Malik, Salman Butt, etc., when there were already other senior players available has backfired badly and led to events including the fixing scandals.

• PCB’s third mistake is to hint or provide premature indications that some junior player is to be the future captain when he is still too raw. At a time when he should be concentrating on developing his game, his mind is filled with thoughts of captaincy. Mohammed Hafeez is an example of this and now the same mistake is being made with Azhar Ali and Umar Amin, as both are being labeled as future captains. It is not surprising that the performance of these two players has suddenly gone down and there is danger that, in the future, they may also be involved in player politics instead of developing their game.

• The fourth mistake which PCB officials have a habit of making again and again is not taking prompt action against players who have been guilty of indiscipline or criminal activities like spot-fixing, etc. Had the board acted upon the Malik Qayyum report in 2000 and taken proper action at that time, incidents like the 2010 spot-fixing scandal could have been avoided.

These repeated mistakes have resulted in the sorry state our cricket is in today.

PCB higher ups should make a policy to appoint a captain, whether for Test, ODI or T20, from among the senior players. Even among this set, the selected captain should be sincere to the team and not be involved in any indiscipline or player politics. Once selected, this captain must be backed by the PCB, which must also ensure that the players support him and give the team their best. Any player who deliberately underperforms or is found engaged in activities like match-fixing and betting should be kicked out instantly, irrespective of whether he enjoys or enjoyed superstar status.

If the PCB can’t follow these simple guidelines then, well, that’s simply not cricket.