Pakistan Cricket - Everone's eyes on captaincy, where is the team?
There was a time when the Captain of the Pakistan cricket team used to be the role model for his men, both on and off the field. Not only did he command respect but the players were always ready to give their best in order to please the skipper who cared for them. Be it the first Test captain of the nation Abdul Hafeez Kardar or Fazal Mahmood or even Hanif Mohammad, they played with dignity and always had the support of their players.
But then came a time when players were selected and made skipper on the basis of the connections in the cricket setup. Javed Burki, a well-bred individual who was an average cricketer was chosen to lead the Pakistan side to England in 1962, a team that had Fazal Mahmood and Hanif Mohammad in the side. Pakistan failed to win a single match on that awful tour mainly due to Burki’s ineptness, something no one acknowledged except Mushtaq Mohammad, who was part of that tour and later captained Pakistan in the 70s.
Mushtaq Mohammad wrote in his autobiography ‘Inside Out’ that Burki was not only unfit as a player but also as a person since he laughed whenever a senior bowler of the caliber of Fazal Mahmood was hit for runs by the opposition. Although Burki himself had a good tour with the bat, the fact remains that his appointment was one of the many senseless decisions the Pakistani fans of the game had to accept.
Imran Khan, the most fearless of all captains in the cricketing universe, once said that he never understood the defensive approach of Intikhab Alam, his predecessor. But he always praised the attacking approach and man-to-man management skills of Mushtaq Mohammad, someone he says taught Pakistan cricket team how to win matches.
Imran himself led Pakistan to the World Cup glory, but since then the team has failed to play as one unit, the players have preferred individual records over victory and the PCB has made changing captains a joke.
Since Imran Khan’s retirement, Pakistan has been captained by many cricketers including Imran’s constant deputy Javed Miandad, who had deputies like Saleem Malik and Rameez Raja on his first tour in charge. But in 1993, after Pakistan’s dismal tour to Australia, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were named captain and vice captain for the difficult tour of the West Indies, and thus began the unstoppable musical chairs for captaincy.
Junior players like Moin Khan, Inzamam ul Haq, Rashid Latif, Aamir Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah Ul Haq and Shahid Afridi then got the captaincy but it never stuck to any one of them, although Younis deserved it the most. Nearly all the captains were removed either after a dismal tour or players’ refusal to play under them, a familiar sight still in Pakistan.
If one takes a look at the Australian side since 1992, they have had the least number of skippers. From Allan Border, the captaincy went to Mark Taylor, who was replaced by Steve Waugh and eventually Ricky Ponting. Ian Healy, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Michael Clarke also shared the responsibility on temporary basis but never in the presence of the designated skipper. That’s one of the reasons why they are the best side in the world and the green shirts are the worst.
One can only hope that sense prevails in the Pakistan team and cricket board soon, so they get to name a captain who doesn’t only deserve his place in the side but also commands respect to lead the team to success like the once legendary captains did in the past.
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