Commentary Fixing

APRIL 2000 - Radio Pakistan’s PR Department (didn’t know they had one) has published a long letter in The News on April 2nd, defending PBC’s actions and taking me to task for making baseless accusations about some cricket commentators and PBC policies. In the meantime, Syed Ehtesham ul Haq, one of the favoured ones with PBC, has filed a law suit for defamation and demanded a paltry sum of Rs. 10 m to satisfy his honour. Tut, tut.

Responding to the kind of letter PBC has patched together is not usual, but since cricket and cricket commentary touch the lives of most Pakistanis, there is a need to correct some of the many inaccuracies made in the PBC PR Defence Blitz. But before that, let it be stated very clearly that any reference to Syed Ehtesham and the DG PBC being of the same racial stock was not to cast a slur on the Biharis, who are fine and upstanding people, but to point out how racial ties continue to be used to favour people out of turn and grant them undeserved perks and privileges. To twist this and portray it as racial hatred is evil and merely shows what type of people we are dealing with. We are all aware of how people in power bestow largesse upon others simply because they speak the same dialect or hail from the same village or caste or province.

Now for the anomalies. Firstly, my brother never headed the Committee. The committee took its decisions by consensus. There was no chairman. It was a committee of equals. The committee’s task was simple. To improve the quality of cricket commentary by getting the best qualified people and to clean up the rather messy stables where two legged speaking species were roiling about causing a rapid and headlong decline in the standards of cricket broadcasting. Only ‘Outstanding’ category commentators in English & Urdu were to be considered for tests and ODIs both here and abroad even if only one was available (as happens with other countries). Only if none were available, were commentators to be picked from the lower ‘AA’ and subsequently ‘A’ slots. There was never any question of random selection as happened later and still continues. It is a lie that Iftikhar and Chisty were not available. Iftikhar was, and broadcast the World Cup for PBC. Chisty appeared for a Dubai radio station and also went to Australia. His posting in Sri Lanka is a red herring designed to confuse the real issues. Shehzad Humayun was not the only one left as claimed by PBC. Only Tariq Rahim and Rehan Nawaz were ‘AA’ so from where did Brig. Retd. Pervez Asghar pop up ? He was ‘A’ and did not deserve to be included although I know he loves the game dearly and is a very old friend.

For the record, Jim Maxwell and till he died, Alan McGilvery did radio commentary for ABC for years and years, not because there weren’t any others but because they were the best. Richards of Radio NewZealand has been on radio for 30 years and more- alone. There are no free loaders here. BBC, supposedly PBC’s role model, for years were led by John Arlott, Brian Johnston and Don Mosey. No one else. Christopher Martin Jenkins and Jonathan Agnew were excellent replacements and took over at the appropriate time. Even Henry Blofeld, who is good, is not considered good enough to squeeze in. Here, people who were altogether deleted by the committee still romped in. Zakir Hussain Syed, Tariq Raz and A.R.Zaidi are so bad they are in no category at all, yet the first two lope off for cricket to the 1999 Commonwealth Games. Tariq Raz makes it to Dacca in 1999 and A.R.Zaidi to Sharjah the same year. And who is Dr. Mohammad Ali and how did he end up doing the World Cup ? Truly, life is full of mysteries.

As for the ace, Syed Ehtesham, Omer never called the DG and confessed that they had ‘inadvertently missed’ him. The fact is that both Ehtesham and the DG pestered Omer to include Ehtesham. Finally, fed up, Omer queried Khalid to include him since the DG was nagging him non-stop. Khalid refused saying there would be no end to the ‘sifarshis.’ He was right. Both Omer and Khalid confirmed this to me two days back. Using any ‘sifarash’ is an old Ehtesham tactic. In 1991 he claimed Radio Pakistan was victimising him on political grounds because he was a ‘jiyala.’ Ms Bhutto promised to help. In 1994, he repeated the act asking her to have him installed as a commentator. Is he so bad ?

As for the ‘malaise’ plaguing radio commentary which I failed to address, if private parties obtain cricket broadcast rights for overseas tours, PBC is under no obligation to accept their terms if these are unfair. How does private enterprise become blackmail, as claimed ? It is precisely PBC’s ineptitude, bureaucracy and inability to compete in an open field that’s opened the doors for entrepreneurs to step in, like at the Sahara Cup in 1997. PBC can only blame itself.

But the biggest bombshell is PBC’s self-created scandal. PBC, whose credibility and quality were famous at one time has resorted to a massive fraud on a national scale since the 1999 World Cup. Having roped in heavy sponsorships, it was unable to arrange live broadcast for most of the matches. Instead of levelling up, it covered up by posting a team of the DG’s loyal brigade (no prizes for guessing names) in PBC’s Islamabad studios where equipped with sound effects tapes and crowd cheering recordings, ‘live’ cricket commentary from matches being played in England was ‘manufactured’ and broadcast to an unsuspecting nation. Syed Ehtesham ul Haq, A.R.Zaidi, Mohammad Idrees and Rehan Nawaz were the performers who viewed TV coverage and staged live radio broadcast! This is so shocking that most people will not believe it, but it is true. The same deceit continues and the current ‘live’ broadcast from West Indies on radio is not coming from Barbados but ‘manufactured’ locally in the Karachi studios. No decent network in the world can stoop to such brazen fraud and the DG must be asked to explain. Can you imagine commentators like Omer, Iftikhar or Chisty to name a few, who would ever be part of a plan that cheats sponsors and fans alike? What about the sponsors’ money ? PBC has never revealed the truth. In the DG’s book, those who play for him, win his patronage. This must stop. As for the self-righteous, Syed Ehtesham, he should look into a mirror before breaking out in a rash.