A joke and a conundrum called Pakistan Cricket Board

Raju Korti
If as an avid cricket administration follower you tend to believe that governing boards across cricket playing nations, including our own BCCI back home, are self-styled and run by whimsical people, look at what is happening in Pakistan. The Pakistan Cricket Control Board (PCCB) leaves no stone unturned to jealously guards its reputation as a  long-standing joke, its chairmen replaced with every change of government. The embers of the unseemly controversy refuse to die down even after a regime change and barbs keep flying thick and fast. The unceremonious chucking out of former player and commentator-turned Chairman Ramiz Raja is a case in point.

In Pakistan, nothing seems to go right in any sphere of life as murky politics creeps in at all junctures. Cricket is no exception. It is a virtual free-for-all with players, organisers, governing bodies and self-proclaimed experts constantly engaged in leg pull and rabid criticism of each other. It is as confusing as it is amusing to know who is with whom and who opposes who. The abysmal state of affairs has now taken on the hue of a civil war.

Ramiz Raja is pissed with the way he has been shown the gate and to an extent, one sympathises with him. That is no way to ask the board chairman to eff off especially when he has had a fairly decent stint in different capacities of the game. But Ramiz, normally a subdued man, has lost his cool and his intemperate outbursts have expectedly not gone down well with the board's new management committee which is now headed by journalist Najam Sethi. One wonders whether Sethi, who has had three brief stints in the past as the president/chairman, knows what he has walked into given the mercurial atmosphere that obtains in Pakistan cricket.

The 3-0 whitewash at home from the Englishmen in the recently concluded series signed the death knell for Ramiz although in all fairness, it is befuddling how a mere change in administration can turn teams into winning outfits. Sethi has been brought in by changing the Constitution which happens in Pakistan at the drop of a hat. As Ramiz let loose a verbal fusillade at Sethi on social media platforms and TV, the PCCB swung into action and decided to sue the sacked chief . "The PCCB believes former chairman Mr Raja's comments are aimed at tarnishing and damaging the impeccable reputation of present chairman Mr Sethi, adding it reserves its rights to pursue legal proceedings to protect and defend the image and credibility of its chairman and the institution", the board said in a statement.

That begs the question, what image and what credibility are they talking about when the history of the board is replete with bizarre and arbitrary functioning, its administrators chosen and thrown out for reasons anything but plausible. Right since the mid-50s the PCCB has been in a state of flux, turmoil and wrangling with a series of ad hoc committees named to run the administration.

Since its revamp in the 70s, PCCB has seen the domination of businessmen from Lahore and Karachi with a couple of army officers thrown in to tinker with its Constitution. Earlier, its military head Ayub Khan had made a record of sorts imposing three vice presidents, he himself being one of them, setting the trend to run the board by proxy much like the way the entire country is run by the army in the guise of elected representatives. The match-fixing allegations in 1999 turned the entire establishment topsy turvy. The wheel keeps turning a full circle and Sethi who was hand-picked by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif after dissolving the existing board, also exited. 

Random and irrational changes often made at the instances of vested interests in the powers that be have had debilitating consequences on the players at all levels of the game. The structure of domestic cricket in Pakistan has seen a non-stop roller coaster ride since the country found an independent identity on the world map in 1947. Historically, school and club cricket has also suffered as the top tiers bleed with inadequacies. The games hardly got the marketing boost, unlike in India (the other extreme end) and matches were/are rarely televised due to lack of quality cricket and lack of interest in departmental cricket. Like the proverbial question "egg first or the hen", it is debatable whether these shortcomings were because of lack of interest or it was the lack of interest that saw no efforts at promotion. The tiered structure of administration has never had the time to settle down and bring about any reforms which is a pity for a country that has produced some of the greatest talent in world cricket.

Ramiz's exit is the latest in the string of controversy-dogged Pakistan cricket. He was thrown out at 2 in the early morning by Sethi through a tweet and according to him, he was not even allowed time to take his belongings from the board office. "It was as if I had committed some crime and I would take some incriminating evidence from the office. What tamasha is this? They have come just to enjoy themselves. The new committee is not going to do do Pakistan cricket any good. This is nothing but political vendetta," he fumed, drawing parallels between his and Sethi's administration . While the words 'political vendetta' sum up the general state of affairs in Pakistan, at the roots of the bickering is also issues arising out of financial expenditures.

Since his ouster, Ramiz has been spitting fire at all and sundry including his own former team-mates Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, saying if he had his way, he would have bundled them out in the wake of the Justice Qayyum Committee report on match-fixing allegations in Pakistan. It is not difficult to put two and two together that Ramiz's provocative retaliation also comes from the uncharitable remarks Wasim Akram made against him in his book released recently.   

For good or bad, Ramiz no longer holds the reins. All his grandiose plans to rejuvenate Pakistan cricket have been effectively laid to rest. All he can do now, without any fear of reprisals, is to vent his frustration at India. While there will not be many tears shed for him, one can only wait and watch -- and perhaps guess -- where does Sethi go from here. In Pakistan, tables turn disconcertingly often to turn the sympathiser to sympathised and vice versa. Bring on Ramiz Raja or Wasim Raja, it doesn't matter, Apathy, caprice and high-handedness are the king in a country on whose chessboard the King gets reduced to Pawn and the Pawn catapulted to the King every now and then. The story continues.

Breathing uneasy in Mumbai's choke studio

Raju Korti
It probably might be the most understated exaggeration to say that in an underdeveloped country don't drink the water and in a developed country don't breathe the air. But when you live in a country whose recognition keeps swinging between developed and underdeveloped and more so in a grotesque urban behemoth like Mumbai, you are screwed anywhichways.

For the past few days, the quality of air in Mumbai, expressed in terms of Air Quality Index at over 300, has gone from "poor" to "very poor." Between 280-300 it is just a shade better than worst emergency. Put simply, the greater the level of air pollution the greater the health hazard. In the case of Mumbai, the natural advantages of a healthy environment are put paid to by sheer human apathy. 

As a city blessed with a coastal landscape one would perhaps argue that it is the recipient of a healthy Ozone layer. Insensitivity towards coastal regulations, growing particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide have left this financial nerve centre gasping for breath. The deterioration in air quality during this time of the year is not a new phenomenon. In the thick of what Mumbai believes is a winter, a thick blanket of smog and haze play havoc with the citizenry, giving rise to ailments that are eventual death warrants. To attribute the downslide in the Air Quality Index to seasonal changes alone is a travesty of truth, to put it mildly. All other apprehensions in the wake of this hazardous climatic anomaly are conveniently brushed under the carpet with an assurance that the city will breathe easy once the situation eases in a few days.

The fact is Mumbai will reel from poor air quality till end February. The two months are enough to create more chronic patients of asthma, bronchitis, lung infections and many such attendant health risks. Covid was just a red alert that wearing masks was not just a passing phase but a grim reminder that they are now a compulsion.

An estimated 275-300 vehicles are added on to the congested streets of Mumbai every day. While some of these are emission compliant, most spew toxic fumes. Navigating through the city's expressways and arterial roads gives one a first-hand experience of the terrible quality of air they are forced to welcome into their lungs. At this rate Mumbai will tip Delhi with reasons to spare.

For someone like me, living in downmarket suburb of Borivali is a blessing in disguise since the Sanjay Gandhi National Park is close by and the advantages of fresh air far outweigh the dangers of leopards streaking in human habitation. Elsewhere in other pockets, the AQI keeps oscillating between 228 and 280 what with a spate of construction activity queering the pitch. Those who point out to the industries opting out to outskirts forget that vehicular emission and bio-fuel emissions from an uncontrolled and politically patronized slums are a much bigger threat. Climate jargons on weather disturbances are Latin and Greek to people who couldn't care less about the disservice and impairment of the environs they wantonly cause.

Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, the agency implementing environmental legislations believes that the onus of bringing down the AQI in Mumbai rests majorly with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai for whom the health of its coffers is far more important. The civic body seems to have paid little attention to the Mumbai Climate Action Plan which has both short-term and long-term initiatives to mitigate environmental degradation. There has been next to nothing efforts to reduce landfill waste, shifting to zero emission vehicles, boosting biodiversity and, little monitoring. They find solace in their complacency that Mumbai is much better than Delhi.

Someone in the civic body seems to know that unlike Delhi, which is landlocked, Mumbai has a seashore. The sea and land breeze are known to clear the city's pollutants. It also has the added advantage that sea water is CO2 absorbent and has a large tract of forest cover although it is neutralized by the concrete jungle that the city obtains through construction and infrastructure development activity round the year. 

The Maharashtra government tries a crooked trick to control vehicular pollution by allowing potholes to remain unattended but hardened Mumbaikars wouldn't be deterred. As long as Delhi and Kolkata hog centre-stage, everything is hunky dory. As more virgin lands and their greenery get outraged with an endless flurry of new developmental activity, the noose gets tighter. For most people protecting the environment is a luxury and a glorified fad but that is an outdated 20th-century worldview from a time when industrialization was thought of as an end goal, waste as growth and wealth a thick haze of air pollution.

You can choke on that!

(PS: Death by suicide has gained currency. How about Slow Death by Pollution?)

For IFFI jury head Nadav Lapid it was 'kahin pe nigaahen kahin pe nishaana'

Raju Korti
For the past few days I have been watching with a fair bit of amusement the controversy triggered by Israeli film-maker Nadav Lapid after he unequivocally described "The Kashmir Files" as a propaganda-driven and vulgar film. Lapid said this while being the head jury at the 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

Lapid pic courtesy Cannes fest 

"The Kashmir Files" written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri centres on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the wake of militancy in Kashmir in the early 1990s. The movie was screened at the IFFI on November 22 under the Indian Panorama section. The issue loaded with political overtones, expectedly snowballed into a controversy. As India's ally, the Israeli government was embarrassed that Lapid described the film a "series of cinematic manipulations". The backlash, coming as it did on the Indian soil, was understandably swift and strong. Among the first to condemn his remarks were Israeli ambassador to India Naor Gilon and its Consul General to Midwest India Kobbi Shoshani. The damage was however done.

The prologue to the unsavoury episode had its own twists with IFFI International jury member Sudipto Sen terming Lapid's comments as the latter's "personal opinion" and the former vehemently denying it. Stung to the quick, Agnihotri said he would quit film-making if intellectuals including Lapid were able to prove that events depicted in the film were false.

Lapid has since offered "total apology" if his remarks had been misinterpreted, claiming he had no intentions to insult the Kashmiri Pandits or those who had suffered. There may be some substance in his conclusion that the film was pushed into the IFFI with a political agenda but assessing a film from cinematic point of view and as a political activist are two different things. The 47-year-old film-maker has a fair reputation that precedes him. Without being prejudicial to his remarks and the rationale that he has given, it is surprising that Lapid, who lives in France, chose to say what he did when by his own admission he had little clue about the situation in the militancy-ridden state.

For the record, Lapid is entitled to his views both as a film-maker and an independent person. Apparently, which part of his psyche prompted him to say that is not clear but that is not the issue of my discourse here. What surprises me is how anyone with such a strong sense of conviction can apologise after making a categorical statement he knew would raise political hackles. It is not as if Lapid could not have judged the sensitivity of the issue that he was addressing from a prestigious global platform like the IFFI. To make matters worse, he also tempered his regrets by asserting that he stood by his view nevertheless.

The film-maker's assessment has to be understood from his own political affiliations. He was among the group of influential film-makers that protested against the launch of the Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund. According to them Lapid's competition entry "Ahed's Knee" at the Cannes Film Festival had a singular goal of actively participating in whitewashing the Occupation in exchange for financial support and prizes. The Fund's official mandate is to distribute grants to Jewish settlers residing in the West Bank and to productions by Israeli citizens filmed in the West Bank. In one of his interviews, Lapid had said the Israeli collective soul is a sick soul.

I reproduce a paragraph from that interview. "Something in the deepest essence of the Israeli existence is false, is rotten, It's not just Benjamin Netanyahu (currently angling for the prime minister's chair). I think this Israeli sickness or nature is characterized by young Israeli men muscular, smiling, who don't raise any questions and don't have any doubts. They are extremely proud of being Israeli. They have a totally dichotomist vision of existence -- Us versus all the others."

Given this backdrop and his perception one wonders if Lapid wanted to embarrass his own government by speaking about an issue more than he wanted to rub the Indian political sentiment the wrong way. If that is the case, then clearly, the plot was lost and it backfired badly. I wonder feathers would have been ruffled if he were to express his views on some other platform purely in his capacity as a film-maker. The Kashmir Files was not the target. It was actually the shoulder to fire at the Israeli government.

It is difficult to believe that a person of his conviction would take a somersault and apologise and also when he had some charitable things to say about the other films screened during the festival. Few in India are aware of Lapid's anti-establishment stance (in his native country) and not pulling his punches when it comes to criticism. What has happened in his case is the recoil has been worse than the shot. 

Intended or not, even if one makes an allowance for his views, Lapid has not done justice to his reputation as a dedicated film-maker. More so when one of his own films has propagated and preached similar thought. Politics and propaganda are inseparable whether it is Agnihotri or Lapid. He would have had my thumbs up if he had stuck to his views -- whatever their political flavour -- without apologising. By expressing remorse in a couched manner, he has put his foot in the mouth. Badly enough for even the IFFI to take his name and pic off their website.