“TA MARD NA GUFTA BASHAD aib o hunerash nahufta bashad’. This sums up the situation so far as the matter of Mr Ejaz Butt’s continuation as PCB chairman is concerned. Let us talk of the chairman of the standing committee on sports in the National Assembly, Mr Iqbal Mohammad.
He told the National Assembly “we recommended that Ejaz Butt should be removed as PCB chairman but there was no action. I request Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to take notice of this issue”. Mr Iqbal requested NA Speaker Fehmida Mirza to step in and save the repute of the committee.
The committee is set to discuss Pakistan’s recent tour of England on Oct 12. An official of the NA committee said the matter relating to match-fixing would also be discussed. The committee has also summoned former captain Younus Khan. He is likely to speak his heart out about the reason for his expulsion from the side.
So far so good but in a television interview Mr Iqbal Mohammad said that in his view Mr Sarfraz Nawaz is the best available choice for replacing Mr Ejaz Butt. This alone exposes Mr Iqbal Mohammad’s knowledge of the game and comes in the category of “Ta mard sukhan na gufta bashad”. Mr Sarfraz Nawaz may have taken nine wickets against Australia some years ago but that does not make him suitable for appointment as chairman of the PCB. It amounts to saying that Iqbal Mohammad is so sick of Ejaz Butt as a thief that he would now recommend Mr Sarfraz Nawaz to replace him as a dacoit. Mr Iqbal Mohammed does not in fact say that Ejaz Butt has depleted the board finances from $3 million to $2 million but why so little. They should have gone by now and there is only one cricketer who can accomplish the deal.
The TV compere who was hell bent to secure Ejaz Butt’s ouster was probably thinking that Mr Iqbal Mohammad had gone too fast forward by suggesting Mr Sarfraz Nawaz’s name as chairman of the PCB. The compere devoted two full hours to debating the change in the PCB on Wednesday and Thursday and moved the debate in a manner which would leave no doubt in anybody’s mind that he was acting not only as a compere but doing somebody’s job.
When this becomes the situation the TV channel becomes counterproductive. He also said the TV channel was above all the voice of the people and made several callers talk to him live on his programme. And the refrain was get Ejaz Butt! Not all the callers demanded Butt’s exclusion but a few of them were literally wide off the mark and discussed issues which had no bearing on the matter in hand. Television is a cruel thing. When it falls flat it falls on its face. And that is what happened to Mr Compere notwithstanding his smiles which told the viewers: look it is simple. It is either me or Mr Ejaz Butt even if he has two federal ministers in his pocket. I am more powerful than the entire Federal Cabinet. You see I have one thing which no federal minister has and that is my TV channel. I have only one desire now and that is Mr Ejaz Butt should win the battle.
Even God permits the other party to be heard. And again if Mr Ejaz Butt has rubbed Mr Compere the wrong way he should do it some more until that smile is rubbed off his face. As for Mr Iqbal Mohammad my submission is: “Dear chairman of the sports committee there is more to it than bat and ball. Do not play the game which you can’t. I will submit to you that you might try your hand at gilli-danda”.
As for Prime Minister Gilani there is this saying that not cricket or you will be yourself accused of spot-fixing and the umpire will be constrained to say that is a no-ball.
As for Mr Asif Ali Zardari your judgment so far has been correct. You know where your off stump is and play accordingly. The wicket has undergone a change. It now behaves at will. Some balls rise off the good length while the others squat. One has to be very careful. Gone are the days of Mr Justice Cornelius. Nobody accused him of match-fixing while we lost to India 2-1 in the inaugural series and every body was happy that it had been a good series.
As for the recent tour of England nobody has considered it for one moment that we were playing against Australia and England at one go. It’s a good thing we won two T20 and two ODIs and two Test matches. For a team so badly hurt by circumstances we couldn’t have asked for better.