ON the eighth of May, this year, a bomb ripped through a Pakistan Navy bus, killing eleven French nationals, who were working on the Agosta submarine project. But as sad and damaging as this incident was for the image of the country Pakistan, the bomb also killed the second Test between Pakistan and New Zealand.
It was indeed a very sad day for Pakistan cricket. The touring New Zealand team which was to start its last Test that very morning, and was staying at the hotel right next to the blast, called off the tour and retreated back to their country in haste. Their departure caused great disappointment to PCB officials and cricket lovers of Pakistan. But more importantly, they also took away with them the prospects of any other cricket team visiting and playing in Pakistan in near future.
As a cricket enthusiast, I am not much concerned about the loss of revenue to PCB. However, the incident was more than sufficient to discourage foreign teams from playing in Pakistan. The question that arises now is that what to do, and how to deal with this situation? Should we sulk and moan over this tragedy and wait for the outcome of the forthcoming ICC conference in June? Or perhaps, prepare ourselves to play home series matches in a third country?
Dacca, Sharjah and Tangiers are being suggested as probable venues. Still, before suggesting another option, allow me to express my contempt for playing a ‘home’ Test series in a third country.
Recently we experiment with this option when we took on the West Indians in Sharjah. Though we won the series, we failed to achieve anything in terms of revenue, experience or promotion of the game.
The aim of playing a home series has always been to provide local talent, an opportunity to play high-class cricket, gain experience from international matches, besides providing cricket enthusiasts an opportunity to watch international stars in action. It also helps in the development of the game amongst youngsters. Monetary benefit to players and cricket organizations is an added advantage, but is a second priority and should remain as such.
The very idea of Pakistan playing Test matches against Australia in Bangladesh, UAE or Morocco is ludicrous, to say the least. It is as unacceptable as it would be to USA to play the Davis Cup final against Australia, in Pakistan.
Considering the above factors I suggest that the time is ripe for the PCB to launch a vigorous “Play in Pakistan” campaign. By dispatching cricket emissaries to all Test playing countries, we should try and convince them that Pakistan is not a terrorist country and such odd incidents of terrorism have never been against the sportsmen of any country.
We are a sports loving people and watch with interest all sporting events of international stature, be it the Olympics, World Cup hockey or football, or tennis at Wimbledon or in New York.
This campaign would only succeed if selection of our cricket diplomats were done purely on merit. Emissaries who can exercise influence in these countries and are generally world-renowned figures.
These men should be asked to offer their services irrespective of their present relationship with PCB. Imran khan, Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbass, Javed Burki, Majid Khan, Mr Arif Abbassi and Air Marshall (retd) Nur Khan are some of the names which are appropriate for such a mission.
These personalities should be supported by some experienced and senior media people who have worked with foreign media agencies or represent them in Pakistan. This campaign should also be fully supported at the government level through foreign missions of Pakistan in those countries. It will be advisable that PCB should refrain from inducting ‘nobodies’ of cricket who maybe their favourite or are on the payroll of PCB. To maintain the standards of cricket, favouritism should not be allowed to prevail.
Such campaign should be launched in earnest and should begin from Australia and New Zealand, who are reluctant to visit and play in Pakistan in the near future. This campaign is likely to produce positive results if carried out with sincerity and with a bit of good luck.
