Stumped Again

DECEMBER 1999 - Why can’t we leave cricket alone ? Every few months some kind of epileptic fit has the Pakistan Cricket Board in spasms and large scale surgery is immediately ordered, only for the same emergency procedures to be adopted again within weeks. In forty days, those whose divine judgment rules cricket affairs have decided that there is a dire need for more changes and more changes have been immediately ordered. Out goes the ad hoc Board (when will we ever get rid of ad hoc things here ?) and in comes another ad hoc Board.

It is of course not possible to even begin to assess what good Dr. Zafar Altaf and Shafqat Rana had done or not done for cricket. I wish the army could show the same speed in tackling hundreds of other pressing matters that lie at its well-polished doorstep. While accountability, the great Pakistani bug bear has gone into hibernation, cricket seems to have the GHQ up at all hours of the night. Dr. Zafar Altaf and Shafqat are old hands at the game. They have been around for just about as much time as Pakistan cricket. If they are be sacked without even getting an even chance, something is stinking. The appointment of Inti is of course no great surprise. There are only so many rabbits you can pull out of an old hat. If it had not been him, they would undoubtedly have found someone else. Inti too is an old pro at the game. He has played enough musical chairs in his time, to know that it is touch and go all the time since reason has little to do with such moves.

It is really just a fast a farce. Mud is about to board a flight out of UK and take up his assignment as Pakistan coach when he is given the bump off and Inti gets the nod. Not that Inti or Mud are not qualified to do the job but what is so wrong with Mud and so right with Inti or vice versa ? And in any event, why couldn’t Zafar and Shafqat continue? And where did Yawar go wrong ? And what are Brig. Nasir’s supreme qualifications ? How will he do a better job than Yawar ? Perhaps the Pakistan team should be provided the names of their new officials every morning.

I have avidly devoured the new PCB chief’s press conference and his first outing at the stadium. I understand the Lt. General is a keen cricketer. He even delivered one full over. The nation has been assured that it was good quality stuff. So please educate me. What does this prove ? I have played for my school, college and university teams in my time and was just about as wily a leg spinner as old Qadir, but how does this qualify me to sit in authority on cricket ? All the more when it is no longer a ‘Well, good shot old boy,’ game but hard as nails with huge sponsorships, big time money and international marketing opportunities. It is all the more disturbing that Lt. Gen. Tauqir Zia is a full time serving General. Is there nothing important for him to attend other than cricket and its strange politics ? Surely, the country needs his services elsewhere.

The General’s first observations about Pakistan’s cricket affairs haven’t left me speechless. Comments like promotion of the game at the grass roots level are as old as Bashir the head ground man at Gaddafi. The General says he is ‘getting to know the PCB affairs’ and has promised ‘drastic changes.’ Strike me down if everyone who has walked up the steps of Gaddafi, hasn’t made the same earnest promise with the same sorry end. He also says that the affairs of the Board can be easily settled by ‘putting the right man on the right job.’ This is revolutionary thinking. Is one to understand that those who were so far running PCB were not the right people on the right job? If Dr. Zafar Altaf and his Secretary, Shafqat Rana had already played havoc with the Board, can we please receive a copy of what these two were up to? We are all agreed that while Mr. Mujeeb ur Rehman was running riot with our cricket establishment, the players, the national icon and whatever else possessed his feverish mind at any given moment, cricket was indeed in dire straits. But replacing one set of administrators after another is a bigger disaster than Mujeeb was, and he was a BIG disaster. We have anointed our fifth coach in this calendar year. What kind of madness is this? Are we aiming for another silly record ? And who is responsible for playing ducks and drakes with the only sport in which we still have some world respect ? Hockey and squash are distant memories. If we continue to fool around with cricket, we will soon be fighting to overcome Scotland.

The General is by all accounts a man with good intentions who wants that the game should be organized and allowed to blossom. No one has any arguments with him on that account, as indeed with his Chief Executive who is also learning the intricate art of cricket at a higher level. What Pakistan cricket desperately needs is some continuity, not an administrative merry go round. Cricket’s supreme officials should be those people whose credentials are above reproach and who are free of any other official encumbrances so that they can devote their full energy and talent to lift up the game. Serving generals, should not serve cricket. Neither should judges, bureaucrats and politicians. Even the President should not be the Patron of the game. We all know he neither has the time or inclination. Let him pass ordinances instead. Cricket needs people on a full time basis, confident that they are not here for a few hours and victims of the whims of Islamabad. Neither should the game’s officials be the victims of player-failure or political upheavals. Mark Waugh has made 15 runs in 15 matches. Should the Australian Board have been eliminated by a firing squad ? There is a way to do things. We should start now.