CRITICISM for the sake of it, is like a bite without the poison. This is what we have been having, not in small measures but in huge doses. Most of it of course directed to bemoan the presumptuous state of decline that has a lot to do with the way the game of cricket is run in our country. It is not all doom and gloom though as we are made to believe.
Distasteful and disgusting though, it has come across to those who passionately love this game as they turn the pages of the newspapers and read about the deeds and misdeeds of people at the helm, it surely must have made them painfully sick to the tether.
The autocratic and outlandish behaviour of some of the cronies hanging around the cricket board and its officials, the eccentricities of the subservient and ingratiating selection panel, the wheeling and dealing of the television rights and the mess-up that it eventually caused brought the whole affair to the boil.
Now that most of those who had become the target of the critics for perpetrating whatever they have been accused of, are of sight, it should be proper at least for the time being to let those who have been handed over the responsibility to settle down and run the show to host our guests, the Indians who are scheduled to visit our country for the first time in fifteen years. Reason enough to celebrate.
Coach, captaincy, manager, chairman and officials can all be sorted out once we are through and the Indians are gone. Blaming and bickering all the time and on all the matters of the game that grieves us, gives negative vibes.
What if Wasim Bari is brought back and Waqar Younis, Rashid Latif and Saqlain Mushtaq are recalled? Experience has no substitute and if they can do the job, why ignore them?
What if Ramiz Raja is a part of the commentators panel? Have we a better one?
And what is wrong if Wasim Akram is passing on his skills to the Indians or Sri Lankans, or for that matter anyone. Will that make them another Wasim Akram? Surely you must be joking!
Before joining the bandwagon, why can’t we have patience and wait for a while when the time is right and favourable? Don’t forget there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
For the moment, however, let us ponder on what the eminent poet and critic of the last century Edmund Blunden wrote in his book, Cricket Country.
“They vanish, these immortal players, and we suddenly realise with astonishment that years have passed since we heard a passing mention of some of them. At one point they seem as much a part of the permanent scheme of things as the sun which glows upon their familiar faces and attitudes and the grass which makes the background for their portrait; and then bless us, it is time even for them to go.”
CRITICISM for the sake of it, is like a bite without the poison. This is what we have been having, not in small measures but in huge doses. Most of it of course directed to bemoan the presumptuous state of decline that has a lot to do with the way the game of cricket is run in our country. It is not all doom and gloom though as we are made to believe.
