Pakistan Cricket Board’s Incompetence reaches a new level
The bombshell dropped by the leakage of the probe committee proceedings has once again highlighted one thing that the current regime of Pakistan Cricket Board will go down as perhaps the most incompetent cricket board ever, even by our very own wretched standards!
The most ironic part of the video, covering Shahid Afridi’s meeting with the cricket board is that at the end of the session, the head of the committee the Chief Operating Officer of the Board, Wasim Bari asks Afridi to keep the proceedings of the meeting a secret, and refrain from speaking to the media.
After listening to the COO, Afridi added his wittiest remarks “Sir, it is not the players that leak information to the media, many times it is the Board itself”.
To which Bari, answers let us unite to ensure that this does not happen again, smiles at Afridi shakes his hand and the all-rounder leaves the room.
Whilst I initially laughed at the occurrence, few minutes’ later depression had sunk in when I realised that the game that I am such an ardent fan of, is clouded by such incompetence and ineptness of the players and administrators alike!
Ever since the footage appeared in the media, the shell shocked PCB has tried to put a brave front claiming that this was all mud slinging, and would bear no fruit as the Australian tour is well and truly behind them and the punishments and fines have already been imposed on the players.
They have not realised that the International Cricket Council has launched its own investigation based on the footage, and the accusations of match fixing that many officials have labelled against Kamran Akmal in particular.
Moreover what is clearly puzzling is that the then coach Intikhab Alam and his assistant Aaqib Javed besides the manager on the tour Abdur Raqeeb have all raised their fingers at Kamran Akmal and doubted his intentions in the second test of the ill-fated tour in Sydney.
Yet the wicket-keeper continues to represent the country, and in fact was in top form in the T-20 World championship realising that the tournament was make or break for his future.But the question is that if the officials who accused the wicket-keeper of possibly having match fixing links, failed to prove their allegations then why no action has been taken against them!
Why did the PCB brush aside the issue, with out giving any reasons as to why heavy fines and bans were imposed on the players!
The PCB concluded that no evidence of match fixing was found, yet the assistant coach Aaqib Javed in particular remains adamant that their was something horribly wrong with Akmal, yet fails to provide any concrete evidence.This means that the management can come and accuse the players of any wrongdoing and get away with out proving any of their allegations, knowing clearly that no action would be taken against them.
So should we actually blame the players, or the management for their shoddiness?
Is it the PCB itself that is a toothless tiger, or the players who can not be governed by anyone?
And then their is another player in the whole affair, the twin standing committees on sports, from both the upper house Senate and the lower house the national assembly.
The politicians who are part of the two committees, keep crying foul yet no one actually listensto them, when the media asks them why their suggestions of removing the incompetent Board fall on deaf ears, they retort that perhaps the Patron in chief of the PCB who is the president of the country, does not find enough time to look into the cricketing affairs.
Thus all their moves and plans are words that perhaps never would be put into action.
At the end of this all I allow my self a loud laughter, as this circus unfolds, yet my laughter is soon replaced by tears and heartbreak as I see the death of my beloved game in my country right before my eyes!
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