Their greed may have swelled the health of their wealth but it will be some time before Pakistan is able to live down the shame. No country especially cricket-mad like ours should have to endure such ignominy. It is all very well to suggest the guilt of Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir is in the realm of an individual act and technically, it is not Pakistans image, which is sullied by their actions.
However, such cold comfort overlooks the small matter of their nationality, particularly when you look at their vocation: representing Pakistan at the highest level in the case of Salman, leading the national team at the time. Try imagining how it would feel if you were a Pakistani expatriate living amongst citizens of other countries, especially Indians, and you have to endure humiliation for the wanton acts of the cricketing ambassadors. This sort of thing, then, does not in real terms whittle down to just an individual act, which could otherwise be ignored as say, in the case of ordinary criminals.
However, while the sentences handed out to the tainted trio in Doha by the ICC tribunal will hurt Pakistans image and for the time being even add to the turmoil that our cricket has seen under that walking disaster called Ijaz Butt, it will hopefully provide room for much needed redemption. This is the primary reason why even substantive arguments such as the one surrounding the procrastination of Ijaz Butt-led Pakistan Cricket Board having led to the eventual career-ending terms for the trio, should be put aside.
It is entirely in the long term interest of Pakistan cricket that it moves a million miles from anything that remotely brings the integrity of the game into question. Wed rather lose matches after honest toil than contrive to win/lose those that leave a few individuals rich at the expense of a cricket-mad nation which dotes on them. Admittedly, it is a lesson that will not be easily embraced by Pakistani fans prone to forgiving their stars at the altar of cricketing genius.
Iqbal Qasim, the former left-arm spinner, probably said it best when he suggested that punitive actions would be good for the game domestically and globally even as he bemoaned a bittersweet outcome because Pakistans name will stick to the scandal forever. Agreed the timing of the Crown Prosecution Service in charging the tainted trio was the stuff Ripleys is made of. But as I have been insisting all along, the dice was loaded even when allowing for the bare circumstantial evidence. No matter how sad, we should leave the three to stew in their own juices and move on.
Meanwhile, we finally have a captain for the World Cup after what seemed like a topsy-turvy Alice in Wonderland ride at the behest of the inimitable Ijaz Butt. The PCB chief in continuing with his Mad Hatter avatar possibly did everything he could to enact yet another Oracle of Delphi by withholding the announcement of the captaincy till the proverbial eleventh hour. Apparently, the gambit was premised in putting Shahid Afridi under the wood doubled with less-than-hidden maneouvres to install Misbahul Haq, currently on a purple patch, in his stead. The idea appeared to be to pit each against the other and then side with the winner. Such a sadistic exercise just days before the showpiece event could only be likened in history to perverse pleasure derived by high priests enjoying a gladiatorial combat in a Roman coliseum.
In the end, ironically, it was the unpredictable nature of Pakistan cricket that shone through. Just when Charlie and his aunt thought it would make Afridi and Misbah go for the jugular and kill team spirit in the process, they raised their game before publicly backing each other and belittling the idea of captaincy above their commitment to the team cause. This effectively took the mickey out of Butts bait. Playing the devils advocate, some critics felt it may have been a smart ploy to use one against the other in order to bring out the best in each hence, help lift the teams fortunes. But theres a (dropped) catch in this: one, that Butt is no Mike Brearley, the philosophical and shrewd former England captain acclaimed for his art of leadership; and two, this is a Pakistani team, where a clash of ego is, at most times, simmering beneath the apparently tranquil surface.
Truth be told, Butt may have been relieved to see the outcome of the ODI series against New Zealand.
The series victory will mean he will no longer have to tread the path of another misadventure that he seemed bent on undertaking.
The Doha chronicles notwithstanding, we still hope Afridi and Co will be able to conjure up a 1992 in 2011.
The writer is a newspaper editor and can be reached at [email protected]
