Cricket circus

Some order, if you please

It is just as well that Najam Sethi has decided to stop chasing the PCB chairmanship. Could it be because the realisation has finally dawned on him that he might not be the best man for the position after all? He won’t admit it, but the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, and his has been far from the best Pakistani cricket has had to offer since its inception. But he would still be ok with a position in the new governing board, which is likely to be formed soon. Nevertheless the Supreme Court’s orders are clear, and as such must be appreciated.

So what can an interim chairman (in seven days), an election commissioner and a new head do for Pakistani cricket? For one thing, if the process is transparent and can produce a chairman familiar with the intricacies of cricket and capable enough of gelling together various bickering factions (and subsequently players), then perhaps the ridiculous musical chairs of the last few months – of which Mr Sethi was the central player – can come to a welcome end. It is not just that the board was paralysed by the continuous back-and-forth between Najam Sethi and Zaka Ashraf, it is that the country became the subject of much ridicule, and it is little surprise that Pakistani cricket – on the field – suffered to no small degree. We became a joke, especially internationally. Among other things, Sethi must take the blame for reducing the PCB – which he pursued so fiercely – to a shadow of its old self, when the Board and the team were respected the world over.

Sports are, in fact, a reflection of a nation’s position and outlook in the overall scheme of things. In the old bipolar world, the Olympics featured intense rivalry between the two most advanced countries of the world, the USA and USSR. Then, later, China’s overall ascent also featured a rise in sporting standards, and now it regularly challenges the Americans at events like the Olympics. Pakistan, too, was once well known in the world of sports. That was when the country fared much better too. Sethi and the like, so long in one favoured position or another, must make way for professionals, lest what is left of our sporting glory also goes waste.