Pakistan Cricket Board’s double standards breeding unethical cricketers
Pakistan Cricket board is one board in the World which can do anything, I mean almost anything absurd. They have this tendency of making strange, irrational and abrupt decisions.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman made allegations against the English players of fixing the fourth One Day International (ODI) in Pakistan and England series and then took them back by apologizing to the England Cricket Board over these allegations.
He also emphasized that he has solid proof of his allegations. One cannot imagine a kind of Board who doesn’t defend its players and acts late while its players are being humiliated and questioned by the English media and police.
We all agree to this fact that PCB did act late in this process and when English Tabloids and press were busy in making statements and proving allegations, PCB Chairman was not quick enough to conduct a press briefing that would at least comfort the players
for the time being.
PCB is a place filled with mismanagement. No one treats its players like the way PCB treats them. They have this tendency of putting the players on their head or placing them at the lowest level. We don’t see a middle ground where players should be treated
in a normal manner. During the current year PCB banned some of their most celebrated players, which include one exception like Younis Khan. The way he was banned was more of a question mark for everyone.
Earlier this year Younis Khan was banned from International cricket on disciplinary grounds. He was one of the seven players to be banned regarding
disciplinary charges after the team’s disastrous tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746. Other players were fined but Mohammad Yousaf and Younis Khan were banned for an indefinite period.
One wonders was their crime that big that they should be banned for life? For a player, who has played 63 Tests (Younis Khan) and the other who has played 90(Mohammad Yousaf) one thinks twice before implementing such penalties. But to ban your top players
and especially your Captain when he was not involved in any sort of cheating, doping and match fixing one wonders what kind of Management and Board these people are running.
Younis Khan led Pakistan to a World Twenty20 title in England last year. One was of this view that finally Pakistan Cricket team is acting as one unit and are moving on but sadly
chain of events led to something worse than before. Younis was questioned regarding the loss of the semifinal against New Zealand in the champion’s trophy in which Younis khan dropped the catch of Guptill. He was questioned severely over this
loss and was severely criticized. One wonders was that a big issue to lose one match as winning and losing is just part of the game.
Point is Younis has remained one of the top performers for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 in the last 7 to 8 years. He has played some memorable innings and has remained a
competent captain for Pakistan over the years. Following this mismanagement, Younis decided to step down as captain last November after he developed differences with team mates. Younis pulled out of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 tour last December and was
not selected for the Australian Test series. He was later selected for the ODIs and he played his last ODI against Australia on January 31. Afterwards he was
banned for an indefinite period by the PCB Committee on disciplinary grounds. His ban was a big surprise for fans all over the country as no one expected such a big punishment.
It’s like sentencing a person for life for stealing ducks from the pond. Rules, discipline should be there and if a person has done something wrong one should impose some heavy penalties or two to three month ban. This also highlights the
irrational and senseless standards of PCB, their inability to make correct decisions and using players as scapegoats for their personal reasons and
vested interests.
During this year we saw bans and fines for different players being lifted and one was wondering when Younis’s ban would be lifted. Unlike other players Younis was not in the
forefront to appeal against his bans and was not that flexible to reach the members of cricket board to lift his ban.
Later on when the spot fixing scandal surfaced and three of the top players were placed under the spotlight of allegations PCB felt the need for some experienced players to fill this gap. For PCB it was again to act in their interests to include Younis in
their camp. This again highlights this fact that like our political environment our Cricket board is also filled with people, who are
unpredictable and unreliable and can take such decisions which are related to their vested interests.
Whatever crime Younis had committed it was kind of harsh to ban a senior player for an indefinite period. Younis’s return to the team was dependant on how much
flexibility he showed with Chairman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 and the cricket board.
Most importantly Cricket board needed Younis for the upcoming tours and series. It was in their interest to get him back. On Wednesday, October 20 PCB
cleared Younis to play for Pakistan when he had a detailed meeting with the chairman. He was than instantly selected in the squad for the one day series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757.
Younis has been selected for the One day squad but this whole episode highlights the fact that the Board has made this a matter of their ego. Younis has returned to the team but his form is a question mark. In last 11 one day matches he
has scored 142 runs with a poor average of less than 13. But Younis khan is of the view that he wants to move on from his troubled past and
rebuild his career. He said that he is available to play in all three formats of the game and it’s for the management to decide to play him whenever they want.
One wonders what could have been the story if Younis Khan had not apologized to Ijaz Butt? For a player, who has given so much to Pakistan Cricket it would have been a big tragedy to retire without
playing further. A usually vocal Younis is now much more tamed and is not criticizing the Board anymore.
This shows that for a player who wants to regain his place and to have any chances of playing for Pakistan in the future he has to lay low. The threat to never be allowed to play for Pakistan in the future was a big one for Younis and he
is now emphasizing that to play for his country is his only desire and he is not interested in captaincy.
He is labeling his conflict with the board as a “misunderstanding” which signifies the fact that when a Board is
threatening and blackmailing the players, they become helpless and have no option but to bend their principles and values.
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