The dilemma of Pakistan Cricket!

Have you ever thought why there are so many problems with Pakistan Cricket or any other sport for that matter, like Hockey?

Believe you me, like all of you, I am also disappointed with the performance of Pakistan Cricket team in the recent times. Except from the T20 World Cup, Pakistan’s performance has been rather humiliating. But what is more important is the reason behind such a ‘consistent’ poor show. Well, of course there are many reasons behind the Pakistan cricket disaster. But I believe the root cause is Politics!

To me, the major reason is the way the institutions are run in Pakistan; like other institutions, the chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board or the Pakistan Hockey Federation (for that matter) are appointed by the President of Pakistan. There is no criteria whatsoever that can be followed in this process. Since nothing in Pakistan is free of politics, the appointment of the head of PCB is mainly undertaken on
political basis. It’s not a secret that the current PCB chairman Mr. Ejaz Butt is the relative of the Federal Defense Minister Mr. Ahmed Mukhtar!

When appointments are made on political basis how can you even imagine that the person appointed so, will make decisions without any bias and on merit. This creates way for another dilemma: The lack of accountability.

This only happens in Pakistan: President appoints Chairman of Cricket Board. The chairman has all the authority to run the most powerful and wealthy Sports board in Pakistan. The chairman doesn’t need to be worried about his position and his decisions as far as the President likes him. Despite all his poor performance, violation of merit, team’s poor performance, controversies including match fixing, players’ indiscipline, players’ power (…and the list goes on and on), the Chairman remains the Chairman until either of the following happens:

1) The government is replaced by another setup

2) The president stops ‘liking’ the chairman

Even then, if the chairman loses his job, there is no procedure to hold him accountable of the decisions he had made during his office tenure. In other words, the chairman of the PCB is like a Mughal King. He has all the power to exercise, there is no one to ask questions from him, and even when he loses the position, still he doesn’t have to be answerable to anyone.

A few days ago, I saw on a TV channel that Mr. Tony Blair the former PM of the Great Britain was being inquired by a Jewry regarding his decision to support the US policy to attack Iraq. I wondered, could we see such a scene in Pakistan where at least the PCB chairman (forget about the PM or President lolz) is held responsible for his decisions during his tenure.

I know you must be thinking about the Senate’s Standing Committee for Sports led by Jamshed Dasti, which has been reported many times as criticizing the PCB, especially Ejaz Butt. But all this exercise is useless my friends because these standing committees have no influence or authority whatsoever on PCB.

I am not ‘only’ criticizing Mr. Ejaz Butt. The examples can be found in the past as well. Especially, Dr. Nasim Ashraf. This man was a close friend of the former president Gen (r) Pervaiz Musharraf. So, Mr. Musharraf wanted to bestow something to his close friend. What’s more lucrative a job than the chairmanship of PCB? Therefore, Mr. Naseem Ashraf was given the charge of the poor PCB in October 2006. He remained on this position until his friend Gen. (r)Musharraf resigns from president ship on August 18, 2008. Dr. Naseem resigned the same day. After that what happens. Dr. Naseem Ashraf was the founding chairman of the Human Development Foundation of North American (HDFNA). He was living in USA when President Musharraf called him to Pakistan. And guess what? When he resigned from PCB chairmanship, he straight away flew back to USA. Just like our honorable PM Mr. Shaukat Aziz.

Well friends. I know it’s a long tale. You must be thinking what the hell am I discussing politics on cricket blog. But believe you me, in Pakistan everything is badly affected by politics. And cricket is not an exception. Until and unless we don’t empower the institutions, we cannot expect a professional environment where the merit prevails and the performance flourishes! Keep hoping guys!

So this was my take. What do you think? Do you agree to my ideas or you have something else to discuss? What are you waiting for? Come on tell in your Comments!