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MOST Pakistanis following the stuttering, shambolic progress of our cricket team in the World Cup probably have the familiar sinking feeling I do.
And when we compare it with the fluent, confident campaigns of our South Asian rivals, Sri Lanka and India, we can only look on with admiration tinged with envy. Clearly, this is easily the worst collection of cricketers to ever wear the green Pakistani uniform.
So what’s happened to all the talent we are supposed to possess? Where are the successors to Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad and Inzaman? Not long ago, we seemed to have a factory churning out excellent fast bowlers and spinners. Now, we appear to have only bowlers with illegal actions, or those who break down with the frequency of a 1951 Morris Minor.
Every cricketing country passes through phases of decline when players seem pale shadows of the giants they have succeeded. But given the ramshackle state of our domestic cricketing structure, the prospect of finding and nurturing new talent seems remote.
My son Shakir blames much of this on what he calls the ‘uncles’, the ageing collection of well-meaning but incompetent people who run cricketing affairs. But I suspect there’s more to our decline than individual or institutional failings. After all, when just about every sector of our society is rapidly sliding downhill, can we expect cricket to be an exception?
Another thing to note about our cricketers is that hardly any of them now speak English. Obviously, there is no direct correlation between cricketing skills and command over English. But Indian and Sri Lankan players from mostly similar backgrounds hold their own very competently in interviews with foreign journalists.
When every sector is sliding, can cricket be an exception?
This difference reflects the disastrous decline in educational standards in Pakistan over the last few decades. Ever since schools and colleges were nationalised during the first PPP government some 40 years ago, the quality in state institutions has been falling. Many of them were once first class centres of learning, but as a result of nationalisation, provincial education departments became overstretched, and the schools and colleges they supervised suffered in terms of sports budgets, maintenance and overall efficiency.
Graduates of this deteriorating system went on to become teachers with predictable results. Even many of our private schools and colleges have poorly trained faculty who encourage rote learning. And apart from knowledge, a good education also instils self-discipline.
The result of this spreading contagion is before us in the form of falling standards everywhere. I know it is common for the older generation to be critical of the young, but in our case, this can easily be quantified. A few years ago, the Federal Public Service Commission published an analysis of the results of the annual examination it conducts for entry into the higher grades of the civil service. It made for sobering reading; nothing I have come across recently seems to suggest the trend has been reversed.
If you think I am exaggerating, just switch on your TV and tune into any of the chat shows that so preoccupy us. The ignorance and intolerance on display are staggering. When I went to school in Karachi, what I learned on the playing fields was as important in retrospect as what my (excellent) teachers taught me. I had Christian, Hindu and Parsi friends, and nobody ever asked if we were Shia or Sunni. Ahmadis were just kids like anybody else. I will be forever grateful to the good priests at St Patrick’s School for those early lessons in tolerance.
Recently, Ahmed Shahzad, the Pakistani opening bat, tried to convert the Sri Lankan star batsman Dilshan to Islam. If only he could learn a sounder technique from the Sri Lankan, he would do himself and the team a big favour. But this streak of religiosity has been visible in our team for a long time, reflecting the rapid Islamisation of the whole country.
There was a time when the Pakistan team used to be one of the favourites to win the World Cup. No longer: now the odds against us winning are 200-1. Similarly, our economy was growing faster than our neighbours’, and PIA was held up as an example for other airlines to emulate. Younger readers will find it hard to believe, but there was a time when Pakistan was considered a success story in the developing world.
Much of the subsequent mediocrity can be traced to an excess of religious zeal and military meddling. But we should not let politicians and bureaucrats off the hook. They, combined with the business community, form one of the most selfish elites anywhere. Their sense of entitlement borders on the criminal as they enrich themselves and their immediate families at the expense of the country.
So next time you see Ahmed Shahzad get out for a duck, spare a thought to what lay behind that tentative swipe outside the off stump.
Published in Dawn March 7th , 2015
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