Road to the cricket World Cup

And the writing on the wall

Shahid Afridi has finally given words to what is on everybody’s mind in the cricketing fraternity; that if present (and past) performance is anything to go by, the World Cup will not bring much good news for Pakistan. Misbah, too, is increasingly disinterested; taking the last match of the rubber off and hinting he might not be the man, after all, to lead the boys in the cup. That, of course, leaves only Afridi for the job, who seems more interested in the captaincy every time the team performs worse than the last time.

Afridi is perhaps best positioned to understand the depth of the decline facing Pakistan cricket. He has almost 400 One Day matches under his belt, from the time Pakistan had recently lost the Cup to the present stage of decay. And interestingly, he cited batsmen’s inability to build partnerships as the core problem. Ironically, in the near two decades that he has graced the game, that has been a persistent problem with him as well. He may have identified an obvious flaw, but the real problem is far deeper, and concerns both on and off field matters.

The performance of the Pakistan Cricket Board turned from dismal to pitiable during the recent musical chairs between Zaka Ashraf and Najam Sethi. The latter, who came with the blessings of the prime minister, brought neither administrative nor cricketing experience to the chair. It is little surprise, therefore, that the political appointee was clueless during his off-and-on stint, his energies occupied with manoeuvrings that kept bringing him back to the chairmanship, not cricket. Even now, with an octogenarian at the helm – who has been there before, with nothing to write home about – there is little chance of things improving. And facts on ground support such claims. It is time to place the Board in the hands of a capable person, one with cricketing understanding and administrative experience. Political appointments have already destroyed numerous state institutions. And Nawaz Sharif appears to be the last nail in the PCB’s coffin. It is hope that this pre-World Cup pessimism will serve as a wakeup call for relevant authorities and cricket, once Pakistan’s pride, will retain its special status.