Pakistan cricket: a rudderless boat, heading into oblivion
Pakistani politics has always been a fascinating display of immorality, ineptitude and hollow rhetoric. The reason why military dictators have thrived in the land of the pure has to be the corruption that has taken root in the system and is now inherent
of the political process. Similarly, the PCB is more like a defunct medieval plutarchy where power is constantly abused, misused and in effect, the proletariat find themselves staring at what is now a failure of a cricket board.
This failure is not simply limited to the board, but has trickled its way down the hierarchy of the institution to spread its corrupt tentacles in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 cricket team as well. By abusing the power vested in them by the patron in chief of Pakistan cricket
who fortunately or unfortunately happens to be the President of the land of the pure, they have crippled the Pakistan cricket team. Like the government of the country that holds a begging bowl in its hands pleading for foreign aid, we now find the cricket
team desperately trying to function like a legless cripple.
Despite claims that the selection is based on merit we find Mr Imran Farhat in the squad alongside a certain Mohammad Hafeez. Now, it may be fair to mention at this juncture that Mr Farhat’s father in law happens to be a certain Mohammad Ilyas who not so
long ago happened to threaten certain officials in the PCB to include his son in law in the national side, or else face the consequences which just so happened to be a death threat, which consequently resulted in the PCB slapping a ban on him from entering
the Gaddafi stadium.
To see that Mr Imran Farhat has of late been included in the squad despite his absolutely poor form, just sheds some light on the amount of hypocrisy that is now reflective of the PCB as an institution. Mohammad Hafeez is just another example of a massive
selection failure - this particular opening batsman has an ODI average of 19 which is even worse than the batting average of the teenage fast bowler, Mohammad Amir.
The senior players in the team have consistently failed to justify their role in the side after they have gone on to depict that they lack the mental strength that could be found in the greats like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Javed-Miandad-c66580.
As one critic rightly said, the Pakistan batsmen are like a ‘poorly conceived salad of proven adequates and total novices [who] will do well to match in the four – Test series [Test series in England], the 708 runs they scored in one innings at Oval in 1987’.
He seemed to possess a certain psychic ability for his words surely echoed far and wide as the Pakistan batting crumbled throughout the controversy ridden series.
Many cricket fans out there particularly the Pakistan cricket fans have shown a certain amount of resilience, patience and tolerance with the sporadic wins and the consistent losses of their team. For simply this enduring quality, they must be handed out
an Oscar. Otherwise, their cricket team is in shambles.
They might be able to snatch a win or two in the ODI series, however that will hardly prove to be a promise for a better future ahead. Rather, it will just be like that rare moment where you happened to cross a road and looked the wrong way. Then you suddenly
realized that a car was nearly on you. So, what did you do? You did something very stupid. You froze. Your life did not flash before your eyes, because you were just too scared to think. You froze and pulled a rather stupid face.
The PCB and the cricket team have realized that a juggernaut is nearly on them, ready to run them over. In effect, they have pulled off a stupid face and now they are just too scared. Too scared to think, too scared to take action. On the other hand, the
fans must brace themselves for the South African juggernaut to run the team over unless of course a few of them in the Pakistan team have other plans – plans of running the South African juggernaut over. That in itself would require a miracle.
(The above is writer's own independent opinion)
Tags: