Pakistan cricket – what next?

From being mercurial to cricketing pariah

Pakistan cricket is in disarray – has been for the last decade – a pristine losing record mired in utter mediocrity.

There has been the odd blemish. Misbah’s Test team has given us a few cheers in the dessert. There was that T20 World Cup win in 2009. And the ODI series win over India, in India. Perhaps a couple of others which my selective memory has chosen to chime out.

But whilst the last decade has seen Cricket ride the T20 wave (for better or worse) and India’s commercial juggernaut to become a more global brand, Pakistan has regressed from being mercurial to cricketing pariah.

The blemishes should get a lot of the blame. They keep lulling us into a fall sense of accomplishment. Just enough for the status quo to keep a choke hold on progress. And we are all too familiar with the status quo – poor management, poorer leadership, and even poorer execution.

The status quo argues that the system is largely fine, and is still producing talent and results – see blemishes as exhibit A – and the bits that aren’t working can be solved by tinkering around the edges. To its credit, the status quo does have plenty of colourful support. Some wear Afridi’s star man tattoo on their forehead whilst others have Misbah’s polaroid stapled to their chest. The best of this enlightened bunch though see conspiracy where the less gifted see Salman Butt admitting guilt.

Granted it would be difficult for any country to rebound after losing talent like Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif to 5-year match fixing purgatory – alas no Justice Qayyum to bail us out this time. Even more difficult when the world’s leading spinner is asked to change his bowling action at the ripe age of 36 and also happens to bowl for Pakistan, not India. And then there is the small case of not playing any cricket at home since 2009.

But these truths mask the real issues – the ones that are regularly paid lip service to – talent, selection, management, leadership, ethics, and the phenomenon that is Afridi.

Talent – the fact is that we just don’t produce as much as we used to – and the talent that is produced is in spite of the system rather than because of it. In fact, we destroy more than we nurture. Nasir Jamshed has gone from winning the India ODI series single handed – as an opening batsman – to becoming the McDonalds menu. Junaid Khan has gone from dominating Kohli to almost not making it to the Pakistan A team. Our grass roots game is non-existent. The pitches used in domestic cricket are not built to produce quality batsmen, our Achilles heel. Successful organisations invest more in talent development and management – why don’t we?

Selection – devoid of common sense or direction. We pick Khalid Latif for T20 instead of quite frankly anyone else. We play four fast bowlers on a turning pitch. We pick Mohammad Sami over Imad Wasim – why invest in the future when you can remain comfortably numb in the past. We rarely reward strong domestic performances with central contracts. And when we do dish one out, the genius selection committee chooses to select a 50 odd score in the PSL instead.

Management – I should just be able to say ‘Ijaz Butt’ and rest my case but he hasn’t been the only fool on the block. There is no doubt that the PCB Chairman slot is used to reward loyalty to the powers that be. Capability has very little to do with it. Status quo will trumpet that past and present appointees have been successful CEOs, highly regarded career diplomats, and ex-army generals. But what they fail to recognise is that success in one field does not necessarily translate into success in another. This job requires someone with the good sense to recognise that cricket is no longer a sport – it is a product – and products that don’t sell become irrelevant. Pakistan cricket today just doesn’t sell. Forget winning, we have no flair, no charisma, no passion, and we aren’t even that cute anymore. Listening to post match interviews is cringe worthy. Nostalgia is fast becoming our only solace.

Leadership – lack of leadership and infighting is not a new phenomenon – the latter was there even in Imran Khan’s time. Yet we continue to not invest in any infrastructure that grooms our cricketers. It is no secret that most of our cricketers come from humble backgrounds with little or no education. Why isn’t there a development programme that helps these boys realise their potential? Help them manage their careers. Warn them of the pitfalls that come with money and fame. Help them find commercial opportunities so they are not wholly dependent on cricket, God forbid an injury. Help them be better human beings. Instead we are resigned to choose between bad and awful.

Ethics – the Justice Qayyum report should have been a wakeup call but we didn’t heed it. Cricket was more important than the small matter of selling out our national colours. Why we were all confounded when the match fixing story broke in the UK years later is beyond me. But we still had an opportunity to ride sympathy to save Amir (rightly or wrongly) but instead we lost him and our relationship with the ECB. A diplomatic holocaust if there ever was one. We have since taken some steps to claw our way into better graces of the cricketing world, but I suspect more out of necessity than want.

The phenomenon that is Afridi – the poster child for Pakistan cricket should in fact be nowhere close to it. For me, Afridi exemplifies everything that is wrong with Pakistan cricket and with our society at large. We revere individuals, not systems. From Ayub to Yahya to Bhutto to Zia to Sharif to Musharraf to Kayani and now General Sharif – our faith has always been for the individual. For short cuts. For one man to carry the day. Even if it’s at the expense of the system, the team, the bigger picture. We hate graft. Putting the system right takes too long for us. In one man we must trust. It’s this mind-set that drives us to ignore that Afridi has failed 350 out of the 400 times that he has played an ODI. Or that as a captain he bit into a cricket ball on national television to help him win a game. After playing almost 550 international matches he still hasn’t found a clue. But he did hit those two sixes so it’s all good!

For change to come it has to start from the top. So in that we are dependent on the prime minister to make some changes. And change he has to make. It’s well known that he loves cricket. He should realise that at this rate, there will be no cricket in Pakistan to love. The PCB Chairman seat has to be one that is held to account for all aspects of cricket in Pakistan and to that end it should be fully empowered to drive change.

And it’s wholesale change that is required. Selection committees need to become full time jobs where individuals are on the road scouting players and games, not sitting in cosy rooms looking at averages that often lie. We should invest more in data – the best teams in the world do – in a competitive world even a fraction of upside can turn a loss into a win. PSL was a good start. We need to build on it, especially the commercial opportunity it brings the PCB and the players. The coaching staff needs to be relooked at – what they are coaching I’m not quite sure. We need to start putting a premium on character. It’s what wins games when the chips are down – and for Pakistan, the chips are often down.

Above all, the PCB has to be managed as a standalone private enterprise. The ACB has got it right for some years and more recently, so has the BCCI. The ECB is also doing a better job, especially bearing in mind the talent they lose to football. Let’s learn (not copy) from them. Let’s also learn from sports like baseball – their grass roots system, scouting, and use of data analytics is exemplary.

Cricket has a monopoly on sport in Pakistan. There is fan base equal to none. There is talent still. It needs someone to bring it all together. Whomever this someone is, I hope that he/she understands that it’s not the individual that is important but the system.