After the Board spent a bit of a stash on his heart operation, the chairman of the PCB, Shehryar Khan, is back. Despite repeated official communication by the PCB saying that they will not beg India for a tour, he is veering dangerously close to doing just that.
Maybe, after fixing his heart, the next thing to fix is the team itself. Just like the Board needs to get rid of its octogenarian chairman, the team needs to get rid of the two seniors to get a new captain.
All respect for the seniors and kudos to them till as long as they can handle their jobs with aplomb, but they need to go when the writing on the wall is clear enough.
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As opposed to General Raheel Sharif, who came from military royalty, General Bajwa is a bit of an unknown quantity. No one really knows him.
But his departure from the Raheel Sharif style of doing things wasn’t pretty apparent almost immediately after taking over. First, when the prime minister and he had a meeting, instead of the receiving brigadier saluting the premier, it was the chief himself who saluted the man who is, well, his boss. Moreover, he didn’t even have any qualms about an actual jhappi.
Another thing that set him apart was his interaction with the media. Whereas his predecessor didn’t give the media much attention, the incumbent, after emphatic requests, did spend some time with the press.
On a lighter note, what actually sets him apart is that as opposed to several previous chiefs, he actually looks his age. His predecessor had a distinctly jet-black set of moustache and hair. In this regard, Pervez Musharraf was the most sly. He used to keep his sideburns au natural and colour the top. It was very strategic; probably employed more strategy thinking on his hair than he did in Kargil.