Pakistan Cricket, like its Politics, is full of extra-constitutional authorities. More often than not, both are known to merge seamlessly. The renewed animosity between Javed Miandad and Imran Khan shows that on both the turfs there has been no love lost between the two. Having met both a couple of times, I can say without hesitation that of the two, Javed is much more cocky, devious and shrewd than the man who seems to be cutting a more and more sorry figure as the country's prime minister.
You may hate him as much as you want but as a player he was a wily fox who with his skill, perseverance and street-urchin cunning had an uncanny knack of getting under the skin of his opposition. He was too overbearing and therefore not a very positive influence in the team but then in the Pakistan team most players acted and behaved like parallel captains. At different times he was axed by the selectors, handed in his resignation and was even overthrown by his own players.
The fierce competitor from the streets of Karachi, however, has always been a big source of entertainment for his antics on and off the field. Remember the 1981 spat with Dennis Lillee and the mickey-making of Indian wicket-keeper Kiran More during the 1992 World Cup. While batting, he would entice the opponents into a shy at the stumps by continuing to stand outside the crease even when the ball was fielded and would rub it in with an impish grin. He was, as Ian Chappel said, an "archetypal champion if he is on your side and a bastard if he is an opponent."
In my blog on Imran Khan in 2012, I had said that with his crafty ways, Javed cuts for an ideal figure in Pakistan's turbid politics. He has vindicated my prophecy by taking on Imran Khan after years of cold war. It will be entertaining to find how this acrimony plays out in the country's sticky political wicket. Javed is rustic and insidious while Khan is charismatic and manipulative. Expectedly, the sparring has begun with Cricket as the ruse and Politics as the bottom line.
Javed has held Imran singularly responsible for the the ruinous state of Pakistan's cricket accusing him of appointing officials on Pakistan Cricket Board who have zero knowledge of the sport. He was obviously referring to the hiring of Wasim Khan from abroad as the PCB's CEO. But the righteous pretense dropped with "I was your captain, you were not my captain. I will come to politics and then I will talk to you. I was the one who led you all the time, but you act like the God now. It is almost like you are the only intelligent person in this country as if no one has gone to Oxford or Cambridge or any other university in Pakistan (sic). You don't care about the country. You came to my home and went out as a Prime Minister. I challenge you to deny this."
In keeping with his cultivated aloof image Imran hasn't chosen to respond to Javed's barbs. As captain of the Pakistan Imran was known to be a law unto himself. Every now and then he would shed that mask of snobbery when it suited him. Javed may have forgotten but in those days, Imran often unleashed the unrefined and abrasive Javed to get under the rivals' skin and unsettle them. I remember how he cackled saying he would appeal vociferously for an LBW decision even if he was fielding deep in the field. His exact words: "Miyaa karna padta hai." Those were the days when Pakistan had other greats like Zaheer Abbas, Sarfraz Nawaz, Mushtaq Mohammed, Majid Khan, Asif Iqbal among others but none came anywhere close to Javed when it came to on-field antics.
After the 1992 World Cup victory Imran used his cancer hospital as ladder for his political ambitions and despite being propped by the army, realized that his charisma was not enough to deal with hardened political adversaries. With Javed, it was similar story in the sense that he wasn't any less dictatorial and when the players revolted against him, he managed to survive by the skin of his teeth because the PCB threw its lot with him. I am not sure about Imran's role in the ouster of Javed as captain but his switch from being impartial to falling in with the rebels decided the outcome.
With loyalties fragmented, Majid Khan and Zaheer were left by the wayside and the mantle fell on Imran. Javed backed him in an attempt to unite the team but things soured when during the 1983 historic partnership of 451 with Mudassar Nazar, he was denied the opportunity of equaling Gary Sobers' Test record score of 365. Imran's surprise declaration the next morning left Javed frothing at his mouth. His moment under the sunlight was gone. The rift only festered with time even as the captaincy rotated between the two and none of them being any wiser. Javed became a symbol of pride for the Karachi lobby while Imran became a symbol of Lahore lobby. Curiously, neither had any direct role to play here. They were chosen by the lobbies to voice their own cases, causes and concerns.
Now that the acrimony between the two has spilled out into the open, the ramifications can only be guessed. Puppet though he may be, Imran has (so far) the backing of Army because of the Nawaz Sharif factor while Javed could pull strings through the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) courtesy in-;law Dawood Ibrahim. As political rivals this can lead to realignment of country's political forces which have always been volatile. It will be a test match where Imran will have to bat well and Javed will have to bowl well.
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