The inevitable has happened. Three of Pakistan’s favourite cricketing children have been sentenced to jail terms by a court in London, along with Mazhar Majeed, their avaricious handler. In spite of the sadness that we all feel, this was the only step that the court and jury could have taken, considering the weight of incontrovertible evidence against them.
There were a rash of impassioned statements on television chat shows, saying why Raina or Warne or Jadeja were not imprisoned or that so many others were also doing the same thing. But no one has claimed that life is fair. Many have gotten away, with murder, so to speak, while these three got caught. They have to be made an example of and they should feel fortunate that the sentences were not much harsher.
In any event, two stellar cricketing careers have been destroyed by the lust and greed for ill gotten money. The greatest blame goes to the captain, Salman Butt who orchestrated this whole sordid affair. Mohammad Asif shares the blame while the teenager, Mohammad Amir might be given a softer condemnation. He is young and from a poor background and got caught up in the excitement of making some extra money being dangled in front of him by his captain. A career every bit as exciting, potentially as that of Wasim Akram has been destroyed. Salman Butt should hang his head in eternal shame.
This does not just stop here. The ICC is also investigating, rightly in the view of this column, the activities of Kamran Akmal and Wahab Riaz. Akmal gained worldwide notoriety by dropping four catches and purposely missing a straightforward stumping in a Test in Australia. The stumping miss was so blatant that it raised eyebrows everywhere. Riaz gleefully put on a currency laden jacket in front of the kabab shop in London.
It is said that it takes seven players to fix a Test match, so there must be a couple of others. The wicketkeeper has to be a key member of this group and perhaps that is why Pakistan’s wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider panicked and ran off to London because he was in the key fixing position and was not playing ball. And now we have another Akmal behind the stumps, although nothing untoward seems to have happened in his presence.
All this contrasts spectacularly with the activities of Pakistan’s favourite cricketing son, Imran Khan. After a splendid career, Imran decided his purpose in life was to help humanity and just as on the cricketing field, he has succeeded beyond all expectations. The cancer hospital, the university are glowing examples of his charity work. The mammoth public meeting he addressed on October 30 in Lahore is a fitting tribute to his stature as a political figure and quite possibly, a future national leader.
It is to his credit that his political opponents could only dig up two things that he may have done wrong in all his years. One was that he admitted experimenting with a bottle top while playing in an already decided county match and that he helped someone with placing spread bets. How petty can politicians get.
Incidentally, betting is a legal activity. What is illegal is the fixing of matches. Imran could play a major role in trying to convince the British government to pardon Mohammad Amir. The boy is young and impressionable. He also happens to be the best young bowling talent in cricket. Among the three convicts, he is the only one who deserves any sympathy at all.
It is high time that the PCB also acts to clean its foul smelling stables. They should appoint a no nonsense, clean chief executive officer who is respected and feared by the players. This CEO should have the moral authority to be able to take match-fixing by the scruff of its neck. He should be highly respected by the international cricketing community, so that he can assist the chairman in his bid to bring cricket back to Pakistan.
Only a couple of such names come to mind. Ehsan Mani has been chairman of the ICC. He has impeccable credentials as a cricket administrator and is respected internationally. The CEO position would be a couple of steps down for him. He would have made an excellent chairman. There are a couple of other names being floated about. One of them has gained a bit of notoriety as having reportedly tried to fix a veterans’ cricket match in India and being banned for his troubles.
The one name that immediately springs to mind is that of Majid Khan. He was CEO under Zulfiqar Ali Shah and ran the PCB with unprecedented command and authority. His staff consisted of 13 people as compared to the hundreds who were later employed by subsequent administrations. The players respected him because in his prime, he was a batsman of the rarest class who would have walked into any team. The players were terrified of incurring his wrath. One shudders to think of what he would do to any cricketer even suspected of being a match fixer. Majid has unprecedented respect in international cricketing circles and his presence in the PCB would immediately improve its standing in world cricketing circles. The chairman could also rest easy and focus on the larger things, knowing that the PCB’s daily running was in knowledgeable and trustworthy hands.
The new PCB chairman will only be as good as the people he has around him. Having a good reputation as a manager and administrator, he would certainly be aware of this. There is no point having sycophants and yes men, because however good they may make him feel, they will be a negative factor in the task at hand, the developing and running of Pakistan’s favourite sport.
