Winding up the cricket mess

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Editorial
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12
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It’s a product, after all

 

If the traditional post-World Cup chop could set the cricket team right, we would have undergone a number of rejuvenations by now. For example, we would have returned to our winning ways after the overhaul following the ’96 Cup, or the ’99 Cup, or the ’03 one, or any other following it. Yet, the trajectory of the last decade or so is not impressive at all. If anything, there is a very visible decline, and just as visible nonchalance on the part of the PCB. Of course, we do not have a very good idea of how the game fares in case of a shuffle at the Board. There have not been many.

And now, once again, we prepare to ‘cleanse’ the team of non-performers. Yet as Shahryar Khan and Najam Sethi show some non-starters and a number of old-timers the door, there is little chance of anyone giving much thought to the rot at the centre of the Board. Coach Waqar Younis has tried – albeit only after he was unpleasantly surprised by the duo that runs the Board. It turns out that not only did the two not meet Waqar, but someone mysteriously also leaked his secret report to the media. And since it had been submitted only to the two, there’s only so many ways it could have ended up in the papers.

While those who control the game continue to play politics, unfortunately, nobody seems to realise that the sport, like all sports, has now become a product. And since a big machinery – and a lot of money — goes into its production, it had better be handled carefully and responsibly. Perhaps our long time cricketing heroes are right after all. Perhaps the solution does lie in appointing responsible cricketing and management minds to run the Board, then invest at the grassroot – like every other country – and overhaul the game at the school/club and first class level. That, course, will not happen so long as opportunists with little credibility try to desperately hang onto the bounty that has come their way for no apparent reason at all.

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12 COMMENTS

  5. Fish becomes rotten from the head first – octogenarian the indispensable must go first then the coach the self righteous and legend must go home on his own

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