THROUGH THE COVERS: Experimentation and more of it
By Zaheer Abbas
THERE are times when one fails to figure out what is keeping Pakistan Cricket alive. Of course, first and foremost, there is the Almighty who keeps all of us going. The next — and probably the last — thing, I guess, is the passion of the youngsters.
In most other countries, cricketing authorities and management bodies also contribute to the effort by taking professional decisions and by executing them with competence rather than on the basis of personal preference and bias. But, frankly, we are not such a nation.
Cricket, naturally, is an extension of our national life, and all the malaises that affect our existence as a nation — nepotism, corruption, inefficiency, incompetence, whimsicality, misuse of authority and so on — affect our cricket management, too. It has to. After all, as I said, it is but an extension of our life in general.
That may be the reason behind what is going on in cricketing circles in the post-World Cup phase, but should that be the reason also to sit back and relax? Let’s be inefficient because society in general happens to be the same. Let’s be capricious because most people in authority behave the same way in our society. Is that the way the mind of the sitting management of Pakistan Cricket Board work?
The PCB boss was in Karachi recently where, as usual, he talked to the city scribes. Going by the account carried by newspapers the next day, Lt-General Tauqir Zia was clearly trying to address some of the issues that I had raised in one of my recent columns, more specifically about the PCB decision to bring together three hot-headed individuals and put them in charge of the national team.
To his credit, the general did not deny the fact that the three concerned have a history of showing tantrums in public and that they do not have the ideal temperament that is required to be in such key positions as the captain, the coach and the chief selector. But, having conceded that much, the general went on to say that the three have been given clear-cut areas to work on, and that any or all of them would be thrown out if there was any rift in the setup. This is amazing stuff.
First, you put incompetent people in charge. Then you concede that they are not best suited for the jobs assigned to them. And then you threaten them with dismissal! Why put them in charge, in the first place? Besides, is there any end to this ongoing experimentation at the highest level? Mind you, it is all happening at the cost of national pride, which gets deeply affected every time the team turns in an insipid performance. Cricket, after all, is one of the few things we, as a nation, take seriously.
And talking of insipid performances, it looks like the PCB is being made to believe that the team is doing well, and that there is light at the end of the tunnel. This I say on the basis of what the captain, the chief selector and some of the PCB executives themselves have been telling the media in recent weeks. The fact is that the way things are being conducted, the days ahead may not be that rosy. We are only moving ahead on the path of making a fool of ourselves on the international stage.
It is just our good fortune that we were not scheduled to face any serious side after the World Cup, and such an assignment will not come up for a while. A tour to Australia or South Africa or the West Indies, or even a test tour to England would have proved the worth of this setup that has been cobbled together for apparently non-cricketing reasons.
THERE are times when one fails to figure out what is keeping Pakistan Cricket alive. Of course, first and foremost, there is the Almighty who keeps all of us going. The next — and probably the last — thing, I guess, is the passion of the youngsters.
