The recently held women’s cricket series between Pakistan and India has raised many a question
There we have it. The Indian Under 21 women’s cricket team scores four straight wins against the Pakistan Women’s Under 41 (or was it 14?), and the series is dubbed, very succinctly by the hacks as a ‘whitewash’, even though the official/captain of the Pakistan team, Shamsa Hashmi has called it the “first big step for her team”.
What in the world is an official-cum-captain? In fact, to rephrase the question, why is the official also the captain? Wasn’t this a bone of contention among the ‘other group’ of women cricketers who are not in the picture right now? Surely if it was not ‘on’ for them, it should not have been so in the case of the ‘officially sanctioned’ Pakistan team taking the field against an international side.
Just because the players selected to represent the country are young and inexperienced, and the official appointed to run the women’s wing at the PCB had played cricket at some point in her career, does not mean that she should be given the captain’s job. She should not have been in the team at all.
After all, I am sure if some day our key bowler is not available due to reason of lack of form or fitness or there are inexperienced players in the national team, we will not see board officials like Saleem Altaf and Zakir Khan turning their arm over simply because they had done so in yesteryear. So why make a mockery of every aspect of women’s cricket when the stated objective of the PCB is to give it credibility and official acceptance?
In fact, right from the time a women’s wing was created, the board has been wrong-footing women’s cricket, making a mockery of the entire process of the establishment of the administrative set-up, right down to the selection procedures which have hardly been above board.
True to its penchant for reinventing the wheel, the ICC-IWCC merger gave the PCB the green light to take the wind out of the sails of the other ‘groups’ already involved in the promotion of cricket amongst women in Pakistan, irrespective of their legitimate status or otherwise. And lo and behold, we have a women’s wing at the PCB, whose officials are appointed on what criteria, no one knows, since no advertisement appeared in newspapers seeking persons experienced, or even interested, in handling the affairs of women’s cricket in Pakistan.
This once again went against the laid-down PCB policy, and promise, or transparency in all its appointments, though seems to have been missed by members of the Senate committee that seems to have taken up the cudgels against the senior functionaries of the PCB by questioning their every move.
It gets better and better. Trials are held, tournaments conducted, team selected to take part in the series against the Indian Under 21 ... but not an Under 21 team mind you. Thanks to the magnanimity of the Indian team which does not object to the fielding of ‘overage’ players. Probably because it was sure of the superiority of its players.
But what happened to the players who had performed during trials and tournaments. Those who headed the averages, and those who belonged to cities other than the one where the PCB headquarters is located, making many disgruntled elements reinterpret the acronym of PCB to mean the Punjab Cricket Board. Especially because the entire series was planned there. What was the point of holding trials and the tournaments if top performers were to be ignored and sidelined and girls who had not even participated were to be accommodated?
Women’s cricket has never had it easy in this country, given the peculiar cultural environment we live in. Parents have been reluctant to let their girls take up sport, and whatever interest we witness in the field, and there is tremendous interest, is due to the hard work put in by the associations in Karachi and Lahore preceding PCB’s entry into the fray.
This was possible only through painstaking efforts at establishing trust and credibility amongst the players and their guardians, and meticulous attention to detail by the one body that was able to earn international recognition as well as respect for Pakistan through its performance and administration, only to be dubbed as the “Karachi group” by detractors. Whatever other spats they must have had on other issues, at least questionable selections never really plagued them.
This is something the PCB needs to really guard against if it is serious in its intention to promote women’s cricket in Pakistan. It will have to ensure transparency in appointments, procedures and selections so as not to scare away the interested players. Controversies that keep rearing their heads like the one we just had about the flouting of authority in the case of appointment of the coach, which was also cited as one of the reasons for the whitewash, should be avoided.
Also, will someone please clarify the announcement about the Asia Cup. As far as men go, Asia Cup is convened by the Asian Cricket Conference. Who is convening the women’s Asia Cup? There is no umbrella organization that can sanction it. It certainly has not been announced by the IWCC. So who is organizing it?
Claims about signing memorandums for ‘fair deals’ for women will sound no more than hollow ones if we witness any more whitewashes.
There we have it. The Indian Under 21 women’s cricket team scores four straight wins against the Pakistan Women’s Under 41 (or was it 14?), and the series is dubbed, very succinctly by the hacks as a ‘whitewash’, even though the official/captain of the Pakistan team, Shamsa Hashmi has called it the “first big step for her team”.
In fact, right from the time a women’s wing was created, the board has been wrong-footing women’s cricket, making a mockery of the entire process of the establishment of the administrative set-up, right down to the selection procedures which have hardly been above board.
