EVER since Imran Khan started his political campaign towards prime ministership, cricketing jargon has become his identity. In the public rallies that he addressed and the TV talk shows that he appeared in, he highlighted all his plans using cricketing analogies.

It appeared that he considered strategies employed in cricket to be an all-encompassing remedy to all the political ills faced by the country. His stature as a leading cricketer is not under debate, but one does hope that the prime minister would have realised after over two years in power that politics is a different ball game altogether.

Captaining 11 players in the field is not the same as managing and guiding the destiny of 220 million people. The presence of countless umpires and critics waiting for the faintest fault makes leading this team a thankless task.

It is time the captain set aside his habit of comparing cricket with politics and really led the nation to a bright future.

Haroon Rashid Siddiqi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2020