Pakistan’s “greenwash” over England cannot be praised enough. It was not the extent of the victory, but, more importantly, the way the Pakistan team went about their task. They were on the ropes in the second Test and proceeded calmly, to dismiss England for very little. They were then shot out for below a hundred, but such is the self belief in the players, that they remained unruffled and backed their abilities. In the second innings, the batsmen showed admirable maturity to tame the England bowling and build a lead that was then defended by perhaps the best spin attack on the circuit.
This mental and emotional resilience is something that only the captain and to a lesser extent, the management can nurture. A lot of the credit, therefore, goes to skipper Misbah ul Haq and coach Mohsin Khan.
It is also important for us to realize that these good times are not never-ending, that there will be losses as surely as the sun will come up in the morning. It is how the team and the PCB react to these fluctuations that will determine the long term prospects of the team. It was, therefore, discomfiting to hear the PCB chairman taunt the Indian cricket team, saying that they were scared of playing Pakistan. With all due regards, these words smack of immaturity and jingoism and are best not repeated.
The PCB chairman would be advised to listen to interviews of Federer, Nadal or Djokovic after one of their Grand Slam wins. They are humility personified and full of gracious praise for their vanquished opponent. Not only is this easy on the eyes and ears, it also relieves pressure on themselves, a clever piece of sports psychology. One hopes that the PCB does not have to eat its words in the near future.
The Pakistan team for the ODI series against England has been announced by selector Mohammad Ilyas. His son in law Imran Farhat has been duly selected for both T20 and ODIs. There have been times in Pakistan cricket when, if a selector’s near relative was up for selection, the selector resigned from his position. The principle is that even if the selector does not have nepotistic tendencies, there should be no doubt about the fairness of the selection. The PCB will have to carefully monitor these tendencies, because this can cause strife and low morale among the team members, no matter how clean the selection. One has not followed the performances of Imran Farhat, but regardless, the selection is going to be food for controversy, something the team can scarcely abide.
The use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in tennis has been highlighted in an advertisement on French TV Canal+ channel. The ad features a caricature of Rafael Nadal driving a car and leaves no room for doubt as to what it is implying. The Spanish Tennis Federation is now suing the TV company. Earlier, French legend Yannick Noah had accused the Spanish athletes of using unfair means. The controversy seems to be heating up and could spin out of control. Already there are rumours of one top Spanish tennis star who was tested positive for drugs but was bailed out by the company that sponsored his clothing. Evidently, the company stood to lose so much over the scandal that they paid a huge fine and the player was told to ride out his suspension by claiming an injury. It seems now that other countries are challenging what is in their view, an unfair ascendency of Spanish players on the tennis scene. Evidently all is not as calm and placid in the tennis world as the ATP would have us believe.
Another controversy in tennis that is rearing its head is that of the ranking system where players are ranked on their one year performance and are under continuous pressure to defend the points that they had earned in a tournament the previous year. For instance, if a player reached the semi finals of the French Open last year, he would be defending those points this year. If he reached the semis again this year, he would break even. If he lost in the first or second round, the previous year’s points would be lost and those earned this year would take their place. The player’s ranking would plummet. A group of players led by Nadal, are trying for a two year performance criterion. They feel that this would give the players a little breathing room so that they can miss some tournaments in order to recover from injuries. Players among them, Roger Federer, oppose this, saying that there is no need to tinker with a system that is working. This has led to a rare public disagreement between Federer and Nadal. Unfortunately, the top players are not addressing the plight of the up and coming players who toil in the Futures and to a lesser extent the Challenger circuits. The prize money in the Futures is so poor that even the winner of the event, at times, cannot make ends meet. This area of tennis is the one that needs to be addressed the most and could be critical for its future health. Perhaps a certain small percentage could be taken from prize money from the major events and injected into the Futures circuit. The top players who make huge sums of money, would not notice the difference.
