Open letter to the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman
Dear Mr Najam Sethi,
In most other countries this letter would not be addressed to a politician-cum-caretaker chief minister-cum-anchor-cum-journalist-cum-etc, but someone with a sporting background. However, since you are the relevant person that needs to be addressed, here goes nothing…
The debacle against the Windies has proved one thing that has been visible for a while: no selection criteria in Pakistan cricket. Obviously there is no strategy either. But Pakistan cricket has done alright over the years sans any tangible stratagem in most eras. However, that was because there was enough talent to cover up for it.
Question: through what possible selection criteria do Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal get a place in the side? Surely illustrious spouses and sticky gloves are not among the selection measures. I mean what exactly does Malik have to do for his cricketing career to end? He has been trying hard for years. Please grant him his wish this time around.
Mohammad Hafeez has since stepped down from his captaincy – voluntarily of course, through no external pressure at all – and now you will have to appoint his skipper (unless you have already done so in the past couple of days). Although there might be the temptation to give the proverbial captain’s arm band to evergreen Shahid Afridi and groom him for the T20 World Cup in 2016, maybe you should let this one pass. Even though his consistency is exemplary, and he is a genuine match winner on his (leap year-esque) day, maybe it’s time to look at the next 18 instead of the previous 18 years.
Please do not listen to the so-called experts who would dutifully point to the issues at the “grass root level” for every defeat. I do not believe Pakistan grew different grass for the match against Australia. Just go back to the basics and things should improve. And the most basic of basics would be selecting the best group of players that your country produces.
This group obviously should not include the likes of Malik and Akmal Senior, and should not be led by proven leadership failures like Hafeez and Afridi.
Like in most other cases, one can improve on cricketing failures by looking at what the successful are doing. The strategy for T20 cricket for most sides is pretty clear: it is a springboard for the ODIs. Young captain, ambitious approach and fresh blood.
Pakistan is possibly the only team where “senior” cricketers are making comebacks in the shortest format. The old guard – if one can abuse the luxury of abusing the term – needs to be replaced by youngsters, which theoretically should leave no place for not only the dreaded duo of Malik and Akmal, but maybe it is time for Hafeez and Afridi to go as well. By the same criterion Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal should not play international T20 cricket again either, especially since the former seems to have reached “time added on” in his not-so-illustrious career.
Mr Chairman, losing is not an issue at all, capitulating is. The way one reacts to capitulation tells us more about one’s character than all the triumphs in the world. And, with all due respect, dear sir, your reaction following the loss was, well, to put it politely, a mirror image of the team’s on field performance.
Rarely do you see the chairman of a cricket board – a sport that barely has eight world class sides – gloat about being fifth on Twitter. Also sir, how people react in Australia, New Zealand and England should not really be our concern – definitely not after juxtaposing their selection with ours, not after comparing their losses with ours.
Dear Mr Chairman, when you tweet this, “I hear you all loud & clear. There will be accountability,” did the statement include your good self as well? For I fail to fathom the credentials you bring to the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman’s desk. But for that I would have to write another letter to Dear Mr Prime Minister.
Yours annoyingly,
Pakistan Cricket Fan
The writer watches cricket for a living and is an active member of the banned militant organisation Lashkar-e-Misbah. All aftereffects of reading The Horizontal Column are the readers’ headache.
