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The term ‘cornered tigers’ has a luminous halo around it as far as Pakistan cricket is concerned. The team had lost it all at the 1992 World Cup in Australia … all except hope and self-belief. It turned things around by somehow keeping the door ajar with nothing but a toe. Instead of letting the door getting slammed shut in their face, the lads pushed it open and then stormed their way, all the way, to the top. They ruled the world. They became the world champions in the face of massive adversity.
And when that happens, nothing succeeds like success. The story becomes part of the folklore. And the characters involved get a fabled existence. Being on the top of it all, Imran Khan is the man who kept the dream alive and made everyone share his dream. No wonder they were called ‘Imran’s tigers’ by the international media covering the World Cup.
To this day, more than a quarter of a century later, the ‘cornered tiger’ narrative is alive and kicking. And Imran Khan remains the touchstone on which any national captain is, and will always be, tested. There may be a couple of others with better statistical claims, but nobody can even come close to the status enjoyed by Imran Khan. Such is the force of the fable.
Imran Khan did it at the 1992 World Cup in Australia. In Pakistan of 2018, his leadership will be tested yet again
Now the same Imran Khan has a chance to live that dream all over again; only on a much bigger scale with much more at stake and amid much more adversity. Time and again he will wish for that rain that had helped the team out of the tight corner against England without which there would have been no ‘cornered tiger’ narrative worth a recall. But, for sure, Khan has done enough in the last over two decades of his political life to deserve the benefit of the doubt.
As Khan would know already and would know with yet more clarity in the days and months and years ahead, he will be a ‘cornered tiger’ again. This time he will be cornered by the enormity of the task and the weight of expectations.
As captain, he was averse to the idea of paying heed to anything anyone had to say on anything. In fact, he had the guts to ask the then BCCP secretary to leave the dressing room when, technically speaking, the former was standing on property that belonged to the BCCP itself. And, that gentleman happened to be a Pakistan Army colonel … retired of course. Khan, this time round, may not find himself to be the master of all he cares to survey.
But all this is in the future. As the reaction to Khan’s victory suggests, it has been taken, and rightly so, as a victory for Pakistan sports at large. Never in the history of electoral politics has any sportsperson made it as big as Khan. There have been many who switched over to active politics and made decent progress, but Khan is in a league of his own on the global scale.
The closest case is that of George Weah, the current president of Liberia. He was a top-notch footballer on the international circuit with his peak being the year 1995 when, within a year, he was named African, European and World Player of the Year — an unprecedented achievement in the world of football.
After a long and uncertain battle in politics, he was elected president in January, making 2018 a good year for international sportspersons doing politics.
Incidentally, even though football has a much wider following and is a lot more competitive than cricket, Weah could never play in a World Cup because the Liberian national team was never good enough to qualify. His name remains among the small group of most noted players who never played in a World Cup.
In contrast, Khan played in five World Cups because the team was good enough to contest, and lifted the trophy because, again, the team was good enough to go that far.
If you go back in time, Khan in 1992 was well past his shelf life as a fast bowler, which was his basic identity in the game. He managed his ‘cornered tigers’ with self-belief and, for once, the fairytale happened. It is always good when that happens. No debates.
In cricket, Khan was the administrator, the selector, the coach and the captain all rolled into his exalted existence. Hopefully, he will get this liberty in his latest undertaking and will not have to spend time and energy looking over his shoulder.
He has already made a smart start. His post-election ‘acceptance’ speech was way better than his words at the World Cup 1992 post-victory ceremony. It would be nice if he could take one step further and ask his fans and followers to curb their dictatorial streaks over social media, for they are over-zealous without realising that they are putting their own hero — and the country’s prime minister-designate — into an ever-tighter corner.
As should have been the case, improving Pakistan’s image abroad is one of the main items on Khan’s agenda. His own followers on social media are adding to the negativity. Just see the trolling of Hannah Vaughan Jones of CNN and Peter Brookes of The Times, and you would know the kind and magnitude of negativity they are causing. Just a polite word from Khan would take care of at least one hassle in his way forward.
One can only hope that someone in his close circle would point it out to him and, for a change, Imran Khan would actually listen to the advice.
Likewise, one may also hope that the affairs of the PCB would not be among the first things Khan would consider stepping into.
Regardless of the manner in which the incumbents may be performing, cricket surely does not represent a priority area for someone trying to set things right at the national and international level. Pakistan of 2018 is surely much different from the World Cup of 1992.
Published in Dawn, EOS, August 12th, 2018
