Satisfaction is at its lowest ebb!
By Khurram Mahmood
Pakistan cricket captain Mohammad Yousuf is satisfied with his team's performance in the recently-concluded Test series against Australia. Losing a tri-Test in a whitewash was nothing that Yousuf could claim as anything unprecedented: certainly earlier Pakistan captains can also claim such 'achievements'. But to be satisfied with the performance is something that one should consider rather seriously.

Even allowing for all the traditional hostility that exists between India and Pakistan, the fact that not a single bid was made by any of the IPL franchises for any of the eleven or so Pakistani players who were on offer is farcical and has completely demolished the credibility of the IPL. Indian television stations say that the Indian government had given instructions that nobody was to take on any Pakistani player and if that is true, then the IPL is even more to blame. If that indeed is the case it should have taken action to exclude the Pakistani players from the bidding instead of inviting them -- even delaying the auction to make sure the Pakistanis could participate -- and putting them through a sham procedure that only humiliated them.

It is perhaps inevitable that at international level, sport and politics cannot be kept in two entirely separate compartments for nation states, regrettably, are defined in political and not in sporting terms. Thus when Pakistan and India play each other it is inevitable that that even at the official level there will be some reflection of the political history that has divided the two nations. This is quite different from a pure cricketing rivalry like the one between England and Australia. As Ritchie Benaud famously remarked, England and Australia fight their wars on the same side, unlike India and Pakistan.

But the IPL is not international cricket; the teams participating in the League do so as clubs, not international nation states and therefore for politics to be reflected at this level of the sport is extremely disappointing. Soon after Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falklands we had many Argentinean footballers playing in the English Premier League and one can only wish that India and Pakistan could bring some of that maturity into their sporting relations.

That nobody would bid for any Pakistani player is cricketing nonsense. Whatever may be its performance at the Test or ODI level, Pakistan are holders of the Twenty20 World Cup and in Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir and the Akmal brothers have some of the finest and most exciting players for this form of the game. There could therefore be only a few possible reasons for the manner in which Pakistani players have been snubbed by the IPL and, as we understand it, the Indian government. One could be the almost rabid bias that affects every aspect of Indian thought when it comes to Pakistan at an organisational level. Individuals from the two countries have the best of personal relations but when it comes to organisations, particularly governmental organisations, all reason and logic goes clean out of the window.

It has also been mentioned in the Indian media that some bidders had reservations about the availability of the players. As far as the Pakistnis are concerned, this is nonsense. They had already completed all the documentation and had obtained their visas for India. So they were clearly available for the tournament. The only other reason is the reportedly professed one, which is apprehension regarding the safety of the Pakistani players. Even if we give the Indians the benefit of the doubt and accept that this was the real reason, the Indian government has given out completely the wrong signals by this act, adding an entirely new dimension to the phrase 'shooting oneself in the foot'. There were just 12 places that were vacant for this year's bidding and at most out of the eleven participating Pakistani players, three or four could have been chosen through the bidding process.

Now if the Indian government is unsure of its capability to provide foolproof security to three or four Pakistani players, how on earth can it argue that it is capable of providing security to 1.1 billion Indians? Perhaps even more importantly, how can it provide security to all the teams that will be coming to India for the World Cup, the highest profile tournament on the cricketing calendar? More specifically, how will it provide security to the Pakistani squad which, although is not scheduled to play the earlier round matches in India, would find itself in that country if it makes it to the semifinal or final. Entire unwittingly perhaps, the Indian government and the Indian cricket authorities have provided the most compelling argument to take the World Cup away from India.

That, of course, will not happen purely for commercial reasons. But the Pakistan government and the Pakistani cricket authorities have a clear job on their hands which is to involve the ICC immediately with a view to ensuring that the Indian Government through the ICC is ready to provide water tight guarantees to the entire Pakistani squad for their security in case Pakistan is required to play any of its World Cup fixtures in India. This is no more than what the Pakistanis have been repeatedly asked to provide for visiting teams who have refused to visit Pakistan even when such guarantees have been provided.

Now we have a situation in which the Indian government itself has expressed its apprehensions about providing security for a very limited number of Pakistani players who would, if they were there, not be representing Pakistan but Indian regional club sides. The purpose here is not to scupper the World Cup in the subcontinent but to express a genuine and, as it now seems, a very reasonable concern for the safety of our players, a concern which the Indian government and the Indian cricket authorities have both admitted, for the IPL is, after all, no more than a subsidy of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

For that matter, the security aspect does not just concern Pakistan. In fact, if the India government's take on the issue is to be accepted on face value, then Pakistan itself is behind all the terrorist strikes in India and if that is the case, then the Pakistan team and Pakistani players should be the ones who are in the least danger as there is no reason why Pakistan should target its own players. But of course, governments say things they do not mean all the time. The fact of the matter is that the World Cup is such a high profile tournament that any terrorist organisation would like to target it for the publicity it would get.

In this regard, perhaps the players and side most at risk would be the Australians given the strength of feeling in India against Australia for the attacks in that country on Indian students. The Shiv Sena has already said that Australian players would not be welcome in Maharashtra -- the main cricketing hub of India -- and they are not to be taken lightly. The Australian authorities have not considered the matter yet but no doubt it will not pass under their radar.

All this has landed the ICC in a right pickle and for once they will have to do something for the glorious inactivity which has been the hallmark of most ICC responses while being guided by purely financial considerations, just wont do this time around. The situation is far too serious for that.

I was fortunate to be in London on that fateful day when Pakistan threw away the recent Sydney Test. I would say that I was fortunate as I missed the agony of seeing this potentially good side go down in flames. First we did not have the ability to finish off the Aussie tail and then not the grit to make an entirely attainable score. It was even more painful when all my many cricketing friends and contacts were reminding me of the fighting qualities of the England Team in saving their Test Match against the South Africans.

Incidentally they genuinely feel for the fact that Pakistan is unable to host visiting teams. It is all very well to have our small moments of glory in winning fun cricket that is the sum total of the One Day or the T20 versions.

The acid test of a team is at the Test Match level. Let our players beware the fact that whilst their glory can be and usually is stolen by their incompetent managers in the shorter version of the game, it has but little value. It is the longer form of the game in which the glory remains with the team. They should not forget this even whilst they weave their intrigues and settle scores with one another or with the selectors and blow their chances on the occasions when glory is at hand. The last Test Match was just more of the same.

Reading the comments made by the coach and captain following the debacles does not improve matters. Just fortunately I was glad to not see one by the Manager. Let me hope that good sense assisted him in keeping silent and not that I just missed it. The Coach is full of inane comments which state the obvious; "We did not bat well", "We must have regular fielding camps" and so on. One must ask this gentleman whether this is not what he should have thought of before the Tour. He has now been with the team for enough time and cannot excuse himself by such lame statements. Or are these pearls of wisdom put forward just in case the poor suffering followers of the game back home missed the obvious and they need this genius to put it in perspective!

The Captain who I believe is reasonable at his job but for the fact that he is not attacking enough in his approach laments it all by saying "The followers of the game should not have high expectations from an inexperienced team". Well! Fancy that. The most inexperienced part of the team is the bowling and they have been excellent at putting the Australians to the sword.

The batting including he and some other shining lights were actually chosen for their experience whilst better players were left behind only because it was considered that they lacked experience. We really must stop making pathetic excuses. The team appears to be fractured in their unity. There are obviously many divisive interests at work. We still have the remnants of the 'Inzamam' cult; the problems of the Malik cult, the new 'Kamran and his Brother cult' and of course those that are missing Younis for his relatively straight approach to the game.

The Manager and Coach, in spite of their vast experience have just not been able to weld the team together. I seem to have read that Kamran was nursing his young child whilst the Begum rested during one of the Tests. Adorable though this quality may be surely he was in Australia not to manage a nursery. What standards does our PCB set?

Pakistan Cricket today I believe suffers from some major shortcomings all of which must necessarily lie on the head of the present Chairman and his three predecessors. Thousands of lines have been written on this subject so I shall not bore the readers with more of the same. I would however put on record that their response to any criticism is like water off a ducks back. Their attitude also suggests that those in office have enough muscle to ignore it all. This is best exemplified by the comment by the current Chairman that if the Patron desires he would resign and not argue it! How quaint! His Three Star predecessor in a recent interview was able to glibly avert all questions put to him and blames it all on his successors.

What price the throw away award of the Television Rights during his tenure! It was a sorry sight to see him put his previous benefactor to the sword in the hope that this might assist him in his push for the job once again. Perish this thought!

Finally the icing on my cake was the doubtful privilege I had of running into the Renal Cricket Expert ex-Chairman in Abu Dhabi. During my conversation with him I realised the kind of expertise that is needed to get into and get away with being appointed to the head job in the PCB; it requires a cricket wise naive Patron who can not only be convinced that great deeds will be achieved but who also through this appointment provide fringe advantages politically in the local milieu and or internationally. The getting away requires a glib tongue, a total lack of good intent towards cricket, a desire to make as much hay as possible and of course the fact that no accountability exists in Pakistan. What took the cake was the Doctor's reply to my question on the subject of the Supreme Court taking notice of his wrong doings, and I quote, "There is so much misinformation about and everybody thinks that they are the experts".

malikgilani2002@gmail.com

Satisfaction is at its lowest ebb!