Pakistan Cricket Management’s Ordeal: Zulqarnain Haider, a Runaway Wicketkeeper
The Pakistan cricket team, which has been tainted with one controversy after another, faced another debacle right before the 5th and the last One-Day match against South Africa, after finding out that their wicketkeeper
Zulqarnain Haider was missing from his hotel room.
On the morning of 8th November, when the team management went to Zulqarnain Haider’s room to call him to join the team which was leaving for the Dubai stadium, he was found missing from his room. Such a thing has never
happened before in Pakistan cricket, but then again, there is always a first time for everything.
Later, the Pakistan management was able to trace the whereabouts of the runaway wicketkeeper, who was on a flight to London.
The arguable question that one is led to ask is,
how in the world did Haider manage to get his hands on his passport in the first place, since it is the policy of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board to keep the passports of the players in the custody of the team management.
It has been revealed that Zulqarnain Haider had asked for his passport just the night before his disappearance, which he was given without any questions asked. The team manager should have inquired the reasons for which the player
needed his passport but this was not done and now Pakistan cricket is in another predicament.
A statement on Haider’s Facebook page stated that he was leaving Pakistan cricket because he had been getting threatening messages from someone to lose the final match against South Africa.
Such threats apparently scared him and he chose to leave the team, fearing for his and his family’s wellbeing.
Team manager Intikhab Alam refused to give any public statements on this matter, while confirming that Haider had gone missing, “I cannot make much comment on this, but I can only confirm that Haider did not come with the team
to the ground and we are looking for him.”
Zulqarnain’s brother Raza Haider, however, claimed that he was informed by Zulqarnain that after the fourth One-Day in Dubai he had received some kind of threats afterwards, but he had no further details about the identity of the
person who was threatening him.
Zulqarnain Haider, who made his International debut in February 2nd, 2007 in a T20 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 at Johannesburg, has not been a regular member of the national squad mainly due to the presence of wicketkeeper
Kamran Akmal in the team. Haider had to wait three years to make his first Test debut, when he was called for a Test against England on 6th August, 2010 at Birmingham. However, he was sent home after playing just a single Test because he sustained
a finger injury. Haider was not happy with the decision by the team management to send him back so quickly.
The series in the UAE was going to be his first full-fledged series, since Kamran Akmal has been ruled out of the tour. However, now things have changed as the wicketkeeper has taken a drastic step by walking away from cricket.
The Pakistan Cricket Board should try hiring some foreign coaches for the team management now, as
clearly Pakistan’s management has no idea how to tackle the art of managing its players. The responsibility of the disappearance of a national player totally rests on the shoulders of the Pakistan team management in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033.
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