High drama in the court

While PCB remains in a state of limbo

For the last about six months, the PCB – the governing body of the game that the whole nation has an unbounded passion for – is in a state of limbo, with legal wrangling stymieing smooth governance. There was high drama in the courts on Tuesday when the Islamabad High Court first suspended Najam Sethi as ad hoc PCB chairman and then reinstated him on appeal by the Board’s fast-on-the-draw legal eagles – all within a couple hours. Cricket, it has been said, is a game of glorious uncertainties. But that is about the vicissitudes of the game, and here its management is being put through an endless rigmarole. At fault is the government, which appoints people so wholly unqualified to lead Pakistan sport’s only truly multinational corporate entity. As a consequence, it is axiomatic that Pakistan cricket has suffered inexorably.

This most recent fracas started with Zaka Ashraf, sent over by President Zardari to head the PCB – which made it second successive deplorable appointment, following that of Ijaz Butt. Midway through his term, with the ICC prompting democratic order sans government intervention, he saw a gilt-edged opportunity. Having doctored the constitution, and changed the electoral system to suit his prospects, he got himself elected in a patently underhand manner at just about the time the new political dispensation would have sent him packing. It still did not work, for the IHC threw him out before the government could, on grounds of dubious process. Having just overseen elections as the caretaker Punjab CM, Najam Sethi got yet another plum ‘caretaker’ assignment – priming him to take it in his own right. Again the IHC intervened, restraining Sethi to only tend to day-to-day affairs, and hold elections by October 18 – which meant forcing a fadeout. To circumvent it, the PM shoved aside the president and took over as PCB’s chief patron, chucked out his own ‘caretaker’, and appointed the same person as head of the ad hoc committee.

Cricket may only be a game but its organization is no child’s play, and it cannot be handed over to whosoever the powers-that-be intended to patronize. It should always be entrusted to someone with either the corporate or cricket management experience – preferably both. Ad hocism and arbitrary appointments of cronies is not the way to strengthen institutions. And with Butt, Ashraf and Sethi, Pakistan exactly has been doing the same.