GOING by the criterion that we had set last week, Pakistan did well to finish it on the fourth day. But the way things proceeded on the first three days, specially on the first day, clearly betrayed the fragility of our own team. But, as I had said last week, we will have a comprehensive view of the proceedings once the series is over. For the time being, let’s set the same criterion for the third Test; if it is still on as you read these lines on Sunday morning, we will have to hand over the moral victory to Bangladesh.
On a related note, it has been painful to be a bystander and onlooker to the manner in which the PCB has gone about picking the team during the series. Pakistanis have always been active on the English County circuit. That is nothing new at all. What is new, however, is the frequency at which their availability or otherwise is discussed these days.
County contracts, county schedule, county engagements, they all have come to take precedence over national duty, something that always came first without anyone having to mention it even once. It was a factor that was beyond challenge. It was one of the easiest decisions that players active on the circuit had to make. If it had to be either the county contract or the national duty, no one had to spend even a minute over the decision. There were no two ways about it. Forget the players, even the counties knew it for sure, and used to make alternative arrangements.
Everything stands the same even today where players belonging to any other countries are involved. The only change in this regard has come where Pakistani players are involved. Who is available and who is not, is a key factor in terms of team selection. And when it comes to official policy, the PCB has a twin track, like it has in most other areas that fall under its purview: one set of rules for the blue-eyed souls; and another set of rules for the lesser mortals.
Shoaib Akhtar is a prime example, and, indeed, beneficiary of the whole process. The manner in which his participation in the home series against Bangladesh was arranged was a sordid episode. Had it been the other way round — leaving national duty to play a few county games — it might have been understandable. But, here, he was being simply asked to do what he should have done in the first place. I can’t recall when was the last time a national cricket administration entered into negotiations with a county. The PCB management is surely setting new standards.
The funny thing is that to cover up Shoaib’s absence from the scene, the board and its cronies in the selection committee are trying to give the affair a positive spin, claiming that they will have an opportunity to try fresh faces. This is really as bizarre as it gets.
Just as I was finishing the column came the news that Yousuf Youhanna has been dropped from the lineup for the third Test. This phobia of generating three to four players for each slot will take us nowhere. With South Africa due here in the immediate future, it was time to give players like Youhanna, Inzamam, Shoaib and others every bit of opportunity to attain prime form. Instead, the PCB feels it proper to cause confusion — more confusion, that is.
GOING by the criterion that we had set last week, Pakistan did well to finish it on the fourth day. But the way things proceeded on the first three days, specially on the first day, clearly betrayed the fragility of our own team. But, as I had said last week, we will have a comprehensive view of the proceedings once the series is over. For the time being, let’s set the same criterion for the third Test; if it is still on as you read these lines on Sunday morning, we will have to hand over the moral victory to Bangladesh.
