THESE are sure early days for Bob Woolmer, the man who has been hired to make things happen positively. The characteristic debacle against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup would have certainly given him some idea of what he is up against. Pakistan would be playing India today, and may actually revive their chances in the competition. Though the chances are minimal, no one denies the fact that the potential is very much there. The argument here is that even if they outmanoeuvre the Indians, it would not correct the basic problem of this team, which is inconsistency, and a lack of gameplan. Pakistan remains the most consistently inconsistent side in world cricket. Period.
As on-the-field activity took its routine pattern, some of the utterings up in the commentary box caught my attention. Certain comments by a Pakistani expert were really interesting. For instance, he said Woolmer would be a disappointed man, and then added that it was up to the players to make or break a coach.
This was dead right, of course. A coach is as good as his players. But the problem is that if our dear expert is aware of the equation, it brings into question the PCB decision to change the coach and retain the players. If the same set of players had failed to produce results under Javed Miandad, why did the Board expect a change of fortunes under a different coach? And, of course, the expert happens to be a leading light within the PCB setup, and, so, is morally bound to answer the question. Would he? I have my doubts. Maybe it would be a good idea for the Senate committee, which is grilling the PCB bosses these days, to put this question to the chief executive officer, who would at least have to come up with answer.
Talking of the committee proceedings, I find it a matter of some satisfaction that someone somewhere in the corridors of power has woken up to the mess. And if newspaper accounts of committee proceedings are anything to go by, the senators are really asking all the right questions, from audit to ad-hocism, and from appointments to shameless debacles.
I only hope that the proceedings would not go off the track, and the senators would stick to their gameplan of deciphering the root cause of all the various ills that seem to have gripped the cricketing administration in the country for the last almost five years.
Nothing like succeeds like success, goes the cliche. But it does not hold in the case of PCB, where even blatant failures have meant success for some of the officials. They continue to rule the roost with almost zero accountability for their decisions and deeds.
The committee, for instance, may ask the PCB to explain what is being achieved by spending money on Barry Richards and Greg Chappell. They were great players, but that is not the point. The thing that everyone wants to know is that what Pakistan has achieved, or hopes to achieve, through this interaction. The case of Geoffrey Boycott is very much with us, and we know for sure that the only beneficiary of that deal was Boycott himself.
Generally when such questioning takes place, the respondents often find it easy to blame the predecessor and claim that they are trying to put things right. In the case of PCB, we have at least one key official who has retained his place — a key place, for that matter — in successive administrations, and, thus, provides the running thread. He is in an ideal condition to answer all such queries to the satisfaction of all concerned.
The Senate committee is the nation’s great hope at this point in time, and it would be a matter of utter regret if, for whatever reasons, it lost interest halfway.
THESE are sure early days for Bob Woolmer, the man who has been hired to make things happen positively. The characteristic debacle against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup would have certainly given him some idea of what he is up against. Pakistan would be playing India today, and may actually revive their chances in the competition. Though the chances are minimal, no one denies the fact that the potential is very much there. The argument here is that even if they outmanoeuvre the Indians, it would not correct the basic problem of this team, which is inconsistency, and a lack of gameplan. Pakistan remains the most consistently inconsistent side in world cricket. Period.
