Pakistan cricket has had a long history of their star players, captains and officials complaining vociferously of being pushed out of the game unjustifiably, their grievance often accompanied by claims that temporary dip in form was held against them. I can think of very, very few (and hardly any during the last 20 years or so) who went on their own terms, accepting they couldn’t give their best anymore or for responsibility of defeat if they were leading.

Abdul Hafeez Kardar went gracefully at the age of 33, immediately after leading Pakistan to an innings win against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 1957-58. He had played and led Pakistan for less than six years and won a Test against every Test-playing country in the very first series they played against each.

Wasim Raja bid farewell and took up a commentary job when he wasn’t selected for the series against Sri Lanka in 1985 despite having toured Australia a few months earlier.

In between perhaps the most shocking retirement was that of Asif Iqbal. At the age of 33, he announced shortly after coming close to winning the January 1980 Kolkata Test (though losing the series 0-2) that “it’s time to go gentlemen”. In the last three and a half years he had averaged 45.43 in 24 Tests with 7 hundreds, five of which were outside Pakistan (3 in Australia, and a century each in West Indies and in New Zealand). In 1979, he had averaged over 50 in Tests.

Then of course there was Imran Khan who had called it a day in 1987 at his peak when he was supremely fit at the age of 35 and returned only because he realised that his dream of building a cancer hospital could become reality only if he continued to play to be able to raise funds.

During that extended period of just over four years in which he played another 18 Tests he had a batting average of 61 (and over 100 in 1990) scoring more than a thousand runs; his 51 wickets were taken at an average of under 26. Yet he chose to go when he could have continued at least as batsman.

I was reminded of all this when Michael Clarke last Saturday called it a day from Tests and as captain when just 18 months earlier he had led Australia to a 5-0 Ashes triumph, and is still only 34. Yes lack of form over the last year and a niggling injury were troubling him but the point I am making here is how many Pakistani cricketers of his stature, especially captain, taken a similar decision had they just won a World Cup just four months back and scored some runs in a 405-run win two Tests earlier in the series?

When Clarke lost the previous Test at Edgbaston after winning that second Test at Lord’s, he said at the post-match conference that his team were playing with ten men, indicating that because he wasn’t scoring runs he held himself as the man responsible, even though the rest of the Australian batsmen, including the mercurial Steve Smith, had flopped as well. Heard such a hard hitting, specific fault identification from a Pakistan captain?

After Clarke twice failed at Trent Bridge even though every other specialist batsman scored less than him in Australia’s first-innings capitulation of 60, he didn’t wait for an opportunity to redeem himself in the final Test at The Oval where the pitch and conditions are always batting-friendly and he may just score a hundred. And if Australia win it under his leadership the series result would read 3-2 against him. To so many captains that would be a respectable loss. But Clarke didn’t wait because he felt he had let down his team, selectors, Cricket Australia and country. When was the last time our legends who so despicably run down the system and condemn the PCB and selectors over ending their careers, did in an internal review of this kind?

I don’t believe that age should be a concern as long as fitness levels and form are there. For example both Misbah and Younis Khan would still command a Test place in most leading sides. But the manner in which Waqar Younis cried blue murder after being sacked as captain and player after a disastrous 2003 World Cup campaign for some atrocious selection and field management comes to mind, or Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood pining for more chances when they took hardly any wickets in the two years leading to their departure and when recalled did nothing of note.

Mohammad Yousuf still feels he was given a raw deal when left out of the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007 when he was an atrocious fielder and failing to accept responsibility for the horrible tour of Australia in 2010. I remember he yelled his way back after being left out on fitness grounds in 2010 and when flown to the UAE pulled a muscle in training. Only then did he let go but till today complains of being mistreated.

It’s a shame because players like Yousuf, Saqlain, Mushtaq, Waqar and Wasim are legends and have played some fantastic cricket. But they just wouldn’t let go and instead of looking at the harm they were doing to the team balance and themselves when they let down their country in their twilight years they would insist on being persevered with.

It is this attitude that forces the hand of administrators and they then don’t get appropriate goodbye games. But were they to go like Clarke, any management would have given them a blazing farewell.

When Pakistan messed up in selection in this World Cup Waqar failed to take responsibility for not playing Sarfraz Ahmed as opener and wicket-keeper, saying he played the best team. Compare this to what Australian coach Darren Lehmann said a few days back and after skipper Clarke had taken full blame for the Ashes defeat. Lehmann said he and chief selector Rod Marsh should take the blame also for the Ashes loss for not picking a fifth bowler at Trent Bridge.

Then came the ultimate act of decency earlier this week when the Cricket Australia high performance manager, Pat Howard, the least visible of the Australian management and someone most of the fans would not even think of blaming, stepped up suddenly and put himself forward as the first person to be held to account in a post-series review saying his job was up for review!

He said his fitness programme for Ryan Harris (who pulled out of the England tour before the first Test) must have been faulty and that he should accept responsibility for backing experience in selection (even though those batsmen he backed had hundreds in English conditions).

I now ask, did we hear anything from the people who picked an unfit Nasir Jamshed for the World Cup, or worked on the fitness programmes of Junaid Khan or Sohail Khan or who let Ehsan Adil and Rahat go on tour only to be sent back for breaking down?

How the Australians have handled defeat that is a lot less shameful than what we have experienced is something the PCB administrators, selectors, medical panel, coaches, captains and our senior players should consider next time there is a disaster such as the World Cup or a guttural tour that we have witnessed so often. Be accountable in defeat and you will command respect that you today demand.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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