THROUGHOUT the Test series we set the criterion that if the match enters the last day, the moral victory should go to Bangladesh. It happened only once, in the first Test, and the two others ended on the fourth day. The series was pocketed 3-0. Going by such tokens, Pakistan would have every right to feel comfortable and confident for the assignments ahead. But for a moment, try to be honest and see if Pakistan has gained anything during the series.
The PCB boss, Tauqir Zia, tried to be honest in public when he said that even a club-level side would have delivered a better performance than what the national side had done. Hats off to the General for being so uncharacteristically honest and straight, and that, too, in public. But allow me to be honest on my part as well; the General only told the half-truth when he criticized the team.
The other part of the truth — that proved to be too bitter a part for the General to swallow — is that the General himself is responsible for the downward slide in the national setup. After all, he is singlehandedly responsible for all that goes on in the world of national cricket for he is not a sleeping partner among those who are running the show; he is the one who actually calls all the shots.
The kind of uncertainty that he has caused in the players through a strange selection policy is the root cause behind all the mess. Sure enough, he has a servile selection committee at his disposal that feels more than honoured to carry out what the boss wants. Captain Rashid Latif’s remarks in the media about how difficult it was to train and guide a new bunch of players in each of the three Tests. He was dead right on this count.
I even saw a report in the media that said there was a heated argument between the chief selector and the coach over some selection matters. I voiced my surprise over the exclusion of Yousuf Youhanna in my last column, and it was quite evident during the third Test that his absence made a whole lot of difference, and had it not been for the experienced Inzamam, Pakistan would have been embarrassed by the Bangladeshis.
In its infinite wisdom, the nexus involving the PCB chief and the slavish chief selector is pursuing the policy of generating four players of equal calibre for each slot. And this they want to do not through tough domestic assignments, but by experimenting on the international level.
Till now, I thought it was, at worst, foolhardiness on the part of the two. But just I was writing these lines I heard the party named for the five One Day Internationals against Bangladesh, and that has changed the perspective somewhat. The inclusion of Junaid Zia, the son of PCB supremo Tauqir Zia, must have raised many an eyebrow in the country. My gut feeling when I heard the news was that it at least explains the great penchant for introducing youth at the national level. If one has already distributed countless caps, no one would mind if one cap goes to the boss’s son. I am not sure if the General would really stoop so low, but I have shared my feelings with the readers in the spirit of being honest.
The way the team has performed in the recent home series does not at all augurs well for the upcoming assignment against the infinitely more formidable South Africa. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
THROUGHOUT the Test series we set the criterion that if the match enters the last day, the moral victory should go to Bangladesh. It happened only once, in the first Test, and the two others ended on the fourth day. The series was pocketed 3-0. Going by such tokens, Pakistan would have every right to feel comfortable and confident for the assignments ahead. But for a moment, try to be honest and see if Pakistan has gained anything during the series.
