As yet another tennis season winds down to the Masters’ finals in London followed by the Davis Cup final between Argentina and Spain– the two clay court powerhouses from their respective continents. Recently, there has been a steady murmur of discontent amongst the players regarding the heavy workload for the top players. There was even talk of strikes and the need for the Davis Cup season to be shortened. All, it seems, is not well on the tennis scene. But this just might be a storm in a teacup.
A professional tennis player on the average would play 18 to 20 events a year plus the Davis Cup ties. Four of the events would be two week ones like the Grand Slams, about ten Masters and the rest, smaller events where they charge huge appearance money. It boils down to about 24 weeks of tennis, not an overwhelming task for an athlete doing something he would love to do anyway and earning in a week what the ordinary man anywhere does not make in a life time of grind. So, the players should be pardoned if there is a lack of sympathy for their cause. When, at the turn of the twentieth century, Dwight Davis presented the silver bowl that proposed team championships between countries, little did he know the extent to which it would grow.
The importance of Davis Cup
Currently over 150 teams participate in four different groups, with the elite World group consisting of 16 teams. The prize money from the Davis Cup keeps a lot of smaller tennis federations financially afloat, while the winners of the elite group earn millions of dollars.
It is, in essence a lifeline for the sustenance of the sport around the world. The Davis Cup weekends come after Wimbledon and the US Open and the top players who have fought through to the later stages in these events are usually worn out from their exertions. The thinking now is to turn the World Group into a fortnight event with best of three set matches rather than the grueling five sets that they have to play, at times in extremely partisan hostile conditions around the world. The other groups could be turned into a bi-annual event.
The ITF should look at this issue very carefully before they take any drastic steps in this regard. The Davis Cup is so closely interwoven into the fabric of tennis among the smaller tennis nations that any tinkering with it could have negative repercussions for these countries that rely on Dwight’s Cup for their sustenance.
Curse of dropped catches
On the last day, Sri Lanka made a historic last ditch stand to salvage the first Test against Pakistan. Led by the redoubtable Kumar Sangakkara and the “other” Jayawardene, they held off the Pakistan bowlers well into the second session on the last day – when Sanga fell.
Is that the wicket that Pakistan needed to break through to the tail quickly? The time seemed to have been running out on them.
They should have been there on day four were it not for six dropped catches, some of them absolute sitters. Pakistan’s Cheema, Junaid, Gul and the spinners Hafeez and Ajmal were very impressive in the first innings. The pacers made the Sri Lankan batsmen duck and weave with Cheema steaming in with impressive pace and hostility. But it was the southpaw Junaid who ran through the lower order for a five-wicket haul, the bowler’s equivalent of a hundred.
The Pakistan batting was also just what a Test match ordered. Taufiq Umar laboured for his first fifty and then accelerated to his first double hundred in Tests. Umar should have been a regular in Tests all these years because of his steady temperament and tight technique but was not given a long enough run by the selectors. Hafeez is shaping up to be a batting all rounder and his cricketing acumen could make him a front runner for the captaincy when the admirable Misbah calls it a day.
Misbah’s cool, calm demeanor has had a lot to do with this resurgence of our Test team. If managed properly and with selections and omissions made only if absolutely necessary, this team could gel into an outfit that could compete with the very best.
England at sea in India
Meanwhile, in India, England have found that playing against a country on their home turf is an entirely different kettle of fish. The Indian batsmen who were so much at sea in the swinging seaming conditions in England, have made merry against the England attack. These different conditions are exactly why cricket is such a cyclic sport, with teams going up and down the rankings.
Advice for the new chairman
The new PCB Chairman, Zaka Ashraf is set to take up his post on Monday. Ashraf should take heart from the fact that some of the best chairmen of the PCB have been non- cricketers. There was Zahid Ali Akbar under whose charge Pakistan won their only World Cup. Then there was Zulfiqar Bokhari who picked a good team and then kept his nose out of day to day workings. Zaka Ashraf would be well advised to consider this option.
There are two people who would make ideal CEOs, one who has run cricket at the highest international level and another who has played at the highest level and has also served the sport admirably as CEO. There are other former cricketers who are angling for the job but they lack the skills and character traits that are necessary for this critical office.
It is not even certain whether the two aforementioned, considering their stature, would even consider the CEO position. But if the right package and conditions were in place it could be a possibility. Zaka Ashraf should focus all his efforts towards getting a team together which can have a synergistic effect on Pakistan cricket. And it all starts with the CEO.
