The
Cricket Column
The
Many, Many Questions PCB Must Answer
By
Zafar Altaf
PAKISTAN
Cricket Board (PCB) has been active in Karachi, rather proactive
in many ways. My recent visit to Karachi notwithstanding, the
PCB has just commented on the resignation of Rashid Latif saying
that he is, and was, very immature.
That
is an astonishing statement from the person who himself was responsible
for Rashid's elevation to the highest post. Psychologically it
means that the PCB and its cohorts do not like any one in high
position for a long time.
They
did this to Wasim Akram and started whispering campaigns against
him. The two fast bowlers, Wasim and Waqar, went on a conflict
course. Cricket writer Zafar Samdani has been mentioning that
all was not well in the PCB and that splinter groups are performing
in every way to dismantle what Skipper Kardar had achieved and
Imran Khan had consolidated.
It
was even more surprising that Shahid Kardar went to this dishonored
function to honor those that are in no conceivable way equal to
each other. How is Dinshaw to be put in the same category as Kardar
and Imran? Again why and how my good friend Shuja the Butt in
the same category? Is it bribery to keep your mouth shut or else
- the hidden hand will punch you just as it punched Shakeel and
Raja [not Ramiz for his time is yet to come]- to what ends idiots
can go.
The
rumblings of cricket aside, the Karachiites are talking about
the money that changed hands because of the South Asian tour of
Pakistan. It seems that the PCB were asked not to have Karachi
on the agenda. Having created a faux pas on the site they then
asked the satta wallas (gamblers) of Karachi to make
or lose money by putting up odds on the venue of Karachi. A considerable
amount of money they alleged went either way because some one
had leaked out that eventually the match venue would be changed.
So who made money and whose reputation got tarnished in the process?
Questions that seek answers. The Karachi Cricket Association was
incensed at what had happened and they started protesting. Now
when I saw a photograph in the newspapers I was able to identify
some who had suffered for the cause of cricket in Pakistan. Munir
Hussain and Siraj were the most prominent. They are no fools and
they have been working for the cause of cricket in Karachi. The
playing side has always been ably handled by Sallahuddin Sallu,
who has now become an institution for he has attitudes that go
well with cricket.
His
basis for trust and his basis for working for the cause of cricket
are immense. They got to him also on the basis of newly acquired
relationships and Sallu was silent for sometime. They knew that
power could not stifle him and they knew that the only way would
be to appeal to him through newly acquired relationships. Who
were the other faces in the picture? Were they the losers of the
gambling stakes? Besides there are a number of activists who seek
a rationale for what is happening?
The
sages in the PCB are really lean shanks. Rashid Latif was made
to say things that he would not have liked to say or else? Waqar
Younis and the diplomat who wanted to be manager and who so strongly
eulogized the PCB chairman is silent. Why? Is he not getting any
benefits? They had a pre-World Cup press briefing in which they
used the rhetoric of Gogi Pehlwan and Bholu brothers. We will
do this and we will do that and in the end they did nothing.
The
post World Cup briefing stated how well they had done and how
wonderful was the PCB? How wonderful does it look now? PCB is
a transparent body? Is it not? If so let them answer what is the
basis for their development and who has the contract for all the
civil works that have been undertaken. Also there are rumblings
that they were in league with Shahid Afridi’s elder brother
Tariq and that relationship went sour and hence the sins of that
contractual agreement fell on the younger brother’s cricketing
ability.
Why
are there so many crossed lines in the PCB? If no answer is coming
then some one sooner or later will take cognizance of this activity
and those who are collaborators will have to pay for the sins
of commission and omission. So far a one to one corruption system
has let these people go. Life is not about linear actions but
about complex systems. It is a pity that once in a while persons
like Imran, in the interest of the game, have tried to help the
PCB. When the core is rotten nothing will come out of it. But
Imran is a positivist and seeks the same kind of purity of thought
as he himself gave to the game and its management.
There are other doings in the game that will have far reaching
consequences. It takes a man to understand that it is the policies
that matter not the designation and not holy words. The Ten Sports
channel has been paid a hefty sum by the PCB? Am I right or wrong?
If I am wrong my apologies. If I am right the channel must state
that it was not so. They must also say that the only three people
who can go on that channel are ramiz, haroon rashid and aamir
sohail. I have given them small caps because they have turned
out to be small people.
Cricket
produces giants and there is nothing wrong with that but those
days are gone. Money makes idiots of us. Yes? Cars do the same.
Ladies [?] of easy virtue do the same. The occasional binge of
PCB chairman and Javed Miandad who went glorifying the World Cup
performance may kindly be replayed so that the world in Pakistan
know what sages we had and have. Ever heard of analyses and synthesis?
Conflicts of interest? How far can greed go?
There
are other issues that are at stake. The fight between the selectors
and Rashid Latif is now in the open. Can some one throw some light
on that? How much is the money in the coffers and how has it been
spilled?
The PCB may get away with it in the short run but in the long
run it will be difficult to answer some of the questions that
will be raised. The PCB will be raided for what it has done to
the game. Its judgment in player terms is one thing, its judgment
in organizational matters is another.
Now
that the PCB chairman has retired from the army will he take a
salary? No PCB chairman has ever taken a salary in the past so
the answer given to a National Assembly question is meaningless.
They have not utilized the perks of the board either. It may be
worthwhile to make the finances available to the public, the salaries,
the money spent on the massage to the thought process and the
money thrown around for good or bad reasons.
We
know by now that the PCB is capable of no wrong what to talk of
Sins-spiritual or temporal. There is much more to cricket and
to sport in general - it makes a man of us. But then manhood to
some is dependent on the productive side, to others it is how
one conducts oneself according to the rules provided by not man
made laws but by laws given by the Almighty. Man made morals and
laws are so insignificant before the other set of laws that one
must have a pretty good censorship going. Otherwise one is bound
to go the gutters sooner or later. Savvy.
The
writer has been Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board, Secretary of
the Board, Manager Pakistan Cricket Team and Chairman of Selection Committee
