Star Light, Star Bright

FEBRUARY 2004 - As his teammates carried him aloft on their shoulders against the backdrop of the legendary Sydney Cricket Ground, their faces bright and triumphant, all that Steve Waugh could do was drink it all in. This adulation from his mates, the thousands who stood up to give him a standing ovation and the millions who were watching the cricket broadcast was a wonderful send off to a man who had given so much to Australia. There was a tinge of sadness too, because everyone also understood that here was an era coming to an end, that perhaps it would be a long time before another Iceman would arrive, that whatever that next icon would become, he would never quite be what Steve Waugh was. Inside the commentary box, some world class broadcasters including some great ex cricketers solemnly watched the proceedings, each one happy to witness history in the making or unmaking one might add, since Waugh wrote his own history.

Among the handful commentators – and not without a touch of irony, sat Wasim Akram. As he was to record a little ruefully later, he never got a send off even remotely resembling the one that Steve Waugh had received. In fact he reportedly said, that when he left no one even offered him a cup of tea – in a country where people drink 120 thousand tons of the brew annually. Wasim is human after all, although his test and ODI record places him in the company of immortals and in his heart he must have felt utter desolation watching Steve Waugh’s glorious exit and comparing it with his inglorious exit. After you have achieved all the great milestones and in Wasim’s case, set up some very, very hard ones for anyone else to achieve, deep down you crave recognition, not from the world but from your own people. Wasim may have earned a great deal of money during his long career spanning 17 action-packed years and perhaps his lustre wore off a bit when charges of match fixing remained affixed to his name although a court had exonerated him, but at the end of the day, he too needed a dignified and generous send off. Of course it was not to be and that should surprise no one because that is the kind of people we are.

Though Wasim’s record is well known, it deserves repeating. 104 tests and 414 wickets. That averages out to 4 wickets in every test he played. Good God is that an achievement or that commonplace? He took 5 wickets in no less than 25 tests and 10 wickets in as many as 5 tests. He was a mean bowler who gave a miserly 22 runs before claiming his next victim. No great shakes as a batsman, he still pulled off just about 3,000 test runs including a great double century. In the ODIs, he was lethal. With his diabetes dogging him year after year, he played no less than 356 matches for Pakistan. If nothing else, can you imagine the level of commitment and physical excellence that would induce you to perform as a strike bowler and as the deadly machine of destruction that he invariably was, when the innings would be ending? 356 matches in about 17 years and 104 tests thrown in! And how many times did we see him limping off the field after bowling a few overs as we usually see his unlikely successor acting out far too often for comfort? Yet, when he reported unfit on the morning of the match against India in Ban galore, the whole country accused him without a shred of evidence of having thrown the match. It was the likes of yahoos like Aamir Sohail who were brain dead and forgot that cricket is not a game you play with muscles but very much with your brains in the right place. Wasim picked up a staggering 502 wickets at about 23 runs apiece, taking 4 wicket 17 times and 5 wickets half a dozen times. No one is in the 500 club. Oh there will be soon enough, but it will always be a privileged club and Wasim one of its great founders. His first class career earned him over 7,000 runs and over 1000 wickets. He scalped 5 wickets in a match 70 times and 10 wickets 16 times and again, his average here was a little over 21 runs per victim. Could one ask more from a player?

But our shoddy treatment of Wasim at the hands of a general who should never have been allowed to rape cricket in the first place aided and abetted by a coterie of self-serving, corrupt, inefficient and pea-brained men who saw nothing wrong in groveling and sucking up to his ego as long as their little lolly pop was sugary sweet and who were happy to dump Wasim unceremoniously when the time came to honour him. That Wasim’s last days in international cricket fell into the hands of thieving back stabbers and envious has beens, is a matter of chance and opportunity. He never got the opportunity for a graceful goodbye and they never let go of the chance to dump him. Leeches are known to behave the same way. So, no teammates carried Wasim on a parade before an emotional, applauding house. No Prime Ministers moaned about his departure and no Presidents shed a tear at the end of a career that brought Pakistan so much glory. The Board of Cricket or whatever passed for that den of inequity, made a few noises, a few half promises and in the end, gracelessly fell silent. When Wasim was accused of coaching the infidel Indians, a charge that was ridiculous to start with, someone even went to court with an injunction against him. Rightly Wasim said that he was free to coach anyone he wished to and that the Board in Pakistan hadn’t even bothered to put in a formal request. In any event, since when is coaching a player from another country, a matter of high treason as was being touted here ? Good God, this is the same country where Dr. A. Q. Khan, the nation’s pride and joy has been selling nuclear secrets for money that will make your hair stand on end. Only in Pakistan, can the President of the Republic go on national network and glibly announce that we should let the good doctor enjoy his money. Geez as Bush would say. In a country woefully short of role models, Mr. Jinnah, his late lamented sister, Imran Khan, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Sattar Edhi and a handful of few men and some women, there should be national rejoicing when the gods send someone special down here. Of course we do just the opposite. Instead, we build our heroes from cow dung. We made a Field Marshal who should not ever have received that coveted title. We made a greedy, self-serving metallurgist into an icon, then discovered he was ridden with termites. Now expediency and the desire to save many medal-coated skins rules the day and conveniently, the entire sorry business has been efficiently mired in conflict, double-dealing, half truths and all the lies that we are so good at manufacturing.

In a few days the Indians will be here after far too many years lost to the wilderness of our pointless posturing with one another. There will be another test season upon us and while one hears that the series is to be named after Kapil and Imran – I think that’s great, it is a pity that Mr. Shehryar’s transparent Board is still bumbling about catching woodworms from the decaying edifice of Pakistan’s cricket. I think it doesn’t need too many brains to figure out that it is time this nation paid its debt of gratitude to one of its most illustrious sons. Wasim Akram. Allan Border said that were he to have a second life, he would like to return as Wasim Akram. Need one add to that ?