SO far so good. That is all that can be said of the One Day series between Pakistan and South Africa, which, at the time of writing, stands at 2-1 in favour of Pakistan. A lot of people would have been surprised by the way things did go in the first two contests in which Pakistan showed a sense of purpose that was missing in the recent past.
But there is a big reason why things changed in the Pakistan camp; the PCB has stopped fiddling around with the team and has apparently shelved its misplaced idea of distributing undeserved, unearned caps to all and sundry.
While the world knows it for sure, those in the PCB hierarchy are doing their best to play up the so-claimed rebuilding card for the outfit that is taking on the South Africans. Two of its top officials, the chief executive and the chief selector, happen to be on the television commentary team — the former specializing in how best to survive while struggling with command over language, idiom and expression — and they keep talking about the ‘rebuilding phase’ and the ‘new-look, young’ side. The fact, however, is that things are to the contrary.
Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami have done the trick so far in terms of bowling, and both of them have been around for quite some time. Sami is young in age, but by no means is he a fresh talent. In batting, Inzamamul Haq, Yousuf Youhanna, Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzaq have carried the workload, and Shoaib Malik has played the least number of One Day Internationals among them all, some fifty of them. Only PCB can label him as a ‘fresh talent’.
The only exception, of course, is Yasser Hameed, who has really given a god account of himself against the South Africans after, of course, making it big against the Bangladeshis. Umar Gul is the only other soul to have graduated from that series. The rest — Inzamam, Yousuf Youhanna, Yunus Khan, Rashid Latif, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Shoaib Akhtar, Sami, Mushtaq Ahmad, Saqlain Mushtaq and even Mohammad Hafeez — have all been around for various lengths of time.
Before someone tries to put a spin on what I am saying, let me explain that I am not against what the PCB is doing against the South Africans. By playing senior, experienced and seasoned players, they are doing just what they should have done. There can be little argument about that. What is wrong — and blatantly so — is their claim of a supposedly successful rebuilding effort. They could have made such a claim only if they played guys like Salman Butt, Farhan Adil, Yasir Ali and Junaid Zia, which they have not done, and the entire nation is very grateful to them for having resisted the temptation of continuing on the wrong path. All I request them to do now is to stop trying to make false claims.
Come to think of it, isn’t it ironical that in the last few years, Pakistan has never played for the present. First the PCB did a number of things in the name of preparing for the World Cup, and when the team met its logical fate in the shape of an ignominious exit from the premier tournament, the PCB started doing a number of things in the name of rebuilding the side. This, I think, is a shoddy way of keeping off the pressure. If the team wins, nothing like it; but if it loses, ‘what the heck, we are playing for the future!’
SO far so good. That is all that can be said of the One Day series between Pakistan and South Africa, which, at the time of writing, stands at 2-1 in favour of Pakistan. A lot of people would have been surprised by the way things did go in the first two contests in which Pakistan showed a sense of purpose that was missing in the recent past.
