Pakistan cricket, a long-playing circus with clowns as heroes!

Raju Korti
The Pakistan Cricket Board and its players have fine-tuned the art of being in a state of permanent ferment. After their dismal performance in the World Cup, the Board was revamped only to consolidate the view that it is also a theater of the absurd. A clueless and lost 29-year-old Babar Azam who averages 47 Tests was replaced by 34-year-old Shan Masood who averages 28 in Tests. If you thought this was just keep-the-change, the real magic was performed by the new administration overhauled after the World Cup debacle.

The Board brought in Salman Butt who served a five-year ban and some time in jail after being proved guilty in a spot-fixing scandal during England's tour in 2016. However, this was so shameless even by Pakistan's standards that the Prime Minister's Office had to quickly cancel this decision. It also inducted former pacer Wahab Riaz as the Chief Selector along with Kamran Akmal and Rao Inftikhar Anjum on the panel. Perhaps the only intelligent piece of work here was Riaz had retired in August and the running joke was he would have selected himself in the national side. While Butt became a butt of public scorn, his partner-in-crime Muhammed Amir was fast-tracked into the side around the same time.

Butt, Kamran, Riaz and Anjum have all played together between 2004 and 2010 and with the exception of Riaz, all were found guilty of spot-fixing by the National Crime Agency in London and the International Cricket Council imposing bans on them. I have repeatedly reiterated in my blogs that while its Board works in a whimsical manner, its players act as parallel constitutional authorities. Between the players, there are cross-currents and animosities that surface every now and then,

To be fair to Salman Butt, he was a fairly good batsman and regretted his actions but the fixing taint put paid to his career. Waqar Younis recommended his return to the national team but Shahid Afridi, a confirmed braggart, thwarted his attempts. The same Shahid Afridi who conceitedly promoted his son-in-law 23-year-old Shaheen Shah Afridi as Pakistan's skipper for the T-20 format. The senior Afridi claimed that he had no role to play in his son-in-law's selection but in Pakistan, things are so blatant, you don't need to put two and two together. The deluge of public reaction in the midst of these developments, the cross-currents between the dramatis personae was sheer entertainment.

The PMO, run by a caretaker himself, had to admit in other words that Butt's appointment was an outrage. Neither PCB's (then) Chairman Zaka Ashraf nor Riaz had credentials to be in the Board. For the record, unlike Riaz, Ashraf has not played any first-class or List A cricket and was on the Board merely on his corporate experience. 

Instead of the much trumpeted overhaul, the Pakistan Board got more and more embroiled in machinations and insinuations. In my blog on December 31, 2022, I had written how the then Chairman Ramiz Raja, normally a subdued man, got into intemperate outbursts and in the bad books of the Board's new management committee which was headed by journalist Najam Sethi. One wondered whether Sethi, who had three brief stints in the past as president/chairman knew what he had walked into given the mercurial tempers that obtain Pakistan cricket.

I had also stated: "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 are run by whimsical people, look at what is happening in Pakistan Cricket Board. The PCB leaves no stone unturned to jealously guard its reputation as a long-standing joke, its chairmen replaced with every change of government. The unceremonious chucking out of former player and commentator Ramiz Raja is a case in point."

Now link this with the militant stand Ramiz has taken with the new dispensation and you will understand the point I am trying to labour over. The selection of Pakistan team for the gruelling Australian tour is going to be baptism by fire and it wouldn't be surprising that more heads may roll and/or become scapegoats. Their shattering 360-run battering in the first Test at Perth with captain Masood himself faring poorly and Azam continuing his mediocre run, has provided fodder to lose canons like Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar and mushrooming "experts" on the social media who are smarting like only they do.

Incidentally. nobody knows what exactly is the brief given to Mohammad Hafeez who took over from the disgraced Mickey Arthur as the Director of Pakistan men's cricket team. Since his appointment, he has been giving long interviews right, left and centre, justifying the team selection and believing that it can turn Pakistan's cricketing fortunes downside up. He has of course made some right noises but in Pakistan, right noises are smothered by those who want to muddy waters with their personal agenda and getting even with whom they nurse personal rivalry.

A couple of days before the Perth Test, he said he was thrilled to know that the Pakistan team is intent on defeating Australia on its own soil which is a pipedream in its present tattered condition. But trust Pakistan to put on not only a brave front but also go overboard. Before the World Cup, the Pakistan team kept parroting that it was in India to win the World Cup. Nothing wrong with that, of course, that it was unable to walk that talk. Hafeez's, as also some other player's conviction is mind boggling. They still boast that Pakistan can beat Australia in Australia (or for that matter anywhere!).

The run up to the selection itself was a towering absurdity. It is no secret there were dissensions within the team during the World Cup. Babar Azam chose to step down than being thrown out and the people brought in as part of this "overhaul" showed who is calling the shots and who is the director behind the scenes. The entire team has floundered badly and given the morass it finds itself in, the talk that it can still thrash Australia is a bravado only Pakistanis are capable of. Even the team's die-hard supporters are now finding it difficult to see Pakistan's resurgence.

Going back to my old blog: In Pakistan, nothing can ever go right in any sphere of life as murky politics creeps in at all junctures. 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 and amusing to know who is with who and who opposes who. 

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 been a non-stop roller coaster. School and club cricket at the top tiers have bled with inadequacies. Games have hardly got the marketing boost unlike in India (the other extreme end) and matches are rarely televised because of which, the players are compelled to pat their own backs. 

With such an abysmal state of affairs, little wonder the "best Babar Azam becomes Gobar Azam" in no time. 

Some thoughts about David Warner's swansong going off-key

Raju Korti
There is another reason for the Pakistan cricket team other than having to load their luggage and their rather unwelcome arrival when they landed on the Aussie soil. The retirement of David Warner is taking all the sheen away from the impending series. More so, after fellow cricketer and former team-mate Mitchell Johnson let loose a fusillade against him for seeking to bow out of Test cricket on his own terms despite persistent doubts of his place in the side. It is rather by default that an undermanned Pakistan which may not excite even the most ardent Aussie fan, might get a boost over what is being billed as Warner's farewell tour.

Warner who made his debut 12 years ago has evoked awe and contempt in similar measure either as a poster boy for his brilliance or for sins of commissions and omissions. Irrespective of the rumblings in many quarters about his performance in Tests in recent times, Warner has gone ahead with the customary Aussie bravado that he would go on his own terms and he would prefer the Sydney Test to be his swansong. Something unheard of across cricket playing countries elsewhere except of course India where pampered cricketers are allowed the liberty of a safe passage and retire when they feel like.

If his retirement is deflecting all the excitement in the present series, it is because of Johnson's scathing takedown on Warner's role in the ball-tampering scandal. A probe by Cricket Australia had adjudged Warner as the villain of the piece in 'Sandpaper-gate' that had Australian cricket's integrity hitting rock bottom.

It is not altogether surprising that the Johnson's furious indictment of Warner stems from a personal exchange the latter had and used it as a ruse to question a "hero's send off". To be fair to Warner, he has since atoned for that sin by serving a year-long suspension but appalled fans feel that giving Warner a choice on his Test retirement is nothing short of sacrilege.

Warner pulled out all stops to have his leadership ban rescinded and when they all came a cropper, he pulled out of the process, accusing Cricket Australia panel of dredging up unsavoury details about 'Sandpaper-gate'. In the midst of the recent furore, Warner's manager James Erskine has been doing all the fire-fighting to defend his client's character and get even with Johnson.

Understandably, Warner now pins his hopes on his bat doing all the talking as it did in the recent World Cup in India but except for that double hundred at MCG against South Africa in his 100th Test, Warner has struggled to keep going. Cricketers in other countries, by and large, are not always very charitable about each other, have known to harbour jealousies and are also known to speak out in the guise of being fair and objective. But on sheer facts and figures, one cannot disagree with former captain Ricky Ponting that the MCG Test would have been an ideal swansong for Warner who battled on through an injury-blighted series in India and through the Ashes.

As the situations stands now, it is runs rather than his past reputation that will decide whether Warner gets Sydney as his farewell Test. If reputation emerges as the yardstick of his selection, Cricket Australia would be setting a surprising precedent. Players' retirement in other countries are decided by their respective country's Boards. Remember how the Boards elsewhere, notably in West Indies and South Africa ruthlessly wound up their star players' careers despite their enviable past record. It is only in India that hearts rule over heads. Also remember that the durable Ian Healy was chucked out and denied his farewell 100th Test and was replaced by Adam Gilchrist. One small consideration that works for Warner is there are not many replacements who can make a compelling case for their selection.

Although one sees a quid pro quo in Johnson's outburst in his column against Warner, there is substance in his charge that Warner has struggled in red-ball cricket and not being graceful in accepting his complicity in the ball tampering issue. With his backdrop it was befuddling that Warner made out a public his intentions of retiring on his own terms. Erskine's defence that Johnson's column was aimed at getting easy headlines pales into insignificance. In a skewed logic, Erskine claimed that Warner's replacements Matthew Renshaw, Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris too hadn't done anything worthwhile to merit selection.

Warner believes he is still the best man for the job. May be he is, may be he is not anymore but Cricket Australia will finally preside over his destiny. One thing, frail though in his favour, is thankfully for him, Mitchell Johnson is not a selector.