CHAIRMAN Shaharyar Khan seems to be groping in the dark as so far it seems that he has not been able to work out a plan to run Pakistan Cricket Board on professional lines. In his three months as Chairman, he has so far failed to inspire any substantial improvement in the running of cricket affairs in the country.
Simply making tall claims of transparency and accountability is not good enough, and practical steps are required to rid the PCB of its chronic problems where people are more interested in their selfish needs rather than the betterment of the game.
Shaharyar Khan is shying away from the facts. He is trying to be diplomatic, which is not the need of the hour. He has got to be ruthless to clean the Board first. Whether he likes it or not, the biggest problem and the root cause of all the evils is none other than the Chief Executive Officer of the PCB, Rameez Raja, who is being entrusted with all sorts of responsibilities. In fact, Mr Shahryar has made Rameez the ‘King Pin’ of Pakistan cricket which is by far his biggest mistake. Taking account of history, even the Board chief would realize that it was Rameez who was behind the downfall of Tauqir Zia.
Tauqir’s biggest flaw was his choice of Rameez whose bloated ego destroyed cricket in the country. In the process, even Tauqir’s good intentions were thrown out of the window.
Mr Shaharyar has reposed full faith in Rameez as he has been entrusted with the administrative, marketing as well as the development of the game. He is even in charge of the Academy. To add to it, one just cannot help wonder why Rameez was present at the meeting between Shaharyar and the newly appointed Chairman of the Selection Committee Waseem Bari, himself a flop. It should be remembered that Bari was part of the group that selected the World Cup team that failed even to qualify for the final round.
Waseem Bari, it seems has to work under the shadow of Rameez. In fact Bari should have been given independent charge. He could have, at best, had a one-to-one meeting with the PCB Chief to exchange views on the over-all policy of the Board if any, with Mr Shaharyar. But one point that it makes clear is that the Chairman wants Rameez to be associated with everything. Which eventually means that one can write off any hope of Pakistan cricket’s revival.
It seems that Mr Shaharyar’s priorities are not clear. and that does not harbour well, especially since the Indian tour round the corner. Time now needs to be devoted towards the much anticipated Indian team’s tour and subsequently, preparation of the Pakistani team. For as the team stands today, it will hardly be able to put up any respectable fight on the showing on the tour Down Under. From fitness to fielding, the team faced all sorts of problems in New Zealand which probably tells part of the story why we failed in the One Day series.
Even the maestro, Javed Miandad, failed to come up to the expectations of the countrymen. On the New Zealand tour he failed to inspire any improvement in his specialized field, batting. Pakistan failed to show any brilliance in chalking out a strategy for every game for which he has a reputation. The overall performance of Javed Miandad was below par and failed to produce anything worth mentioning, considering the amount of money that he is getting for the job. What was Miandad doing when the Pakistan skipper decided to go for the fifth day when Pakistan had every chance of wrapping the Test series? The risk was not worth taking keeping in mind the rainy season in New Zealand.
One would also like to know what was the role of team manager, Haroon Rashid who remained at best, a highly paid member of the team, good for nothing?
Mr Shaharyar should conjure up the courage to question the performance of everyone in the Board. Pakistan cricket cannot be run on past reputations. If someone is good he should be hired by the Board and those who fail to deliver should be shown the door. There is no place for those who are good for nothing and this point should be made very clear.
With the appointment of Wasim Bari as Chairman of the Selection Committee and recall of all the discarded players who had failed to perform in the World Cup, including Mr Shahryar who was the manager of the team, Pakistan cricket is back to square one. The way Sharharyar is going about, one can only say that Tauqir’s policies are being recycled and Shaharyar is working under the shadow of the ousted PCB chief.
