I m not a cricket player and do not know more than half the terminology in use in the game but, like the rest of the country including the restive north, I am a cricket fan. I may not be a patriot like even the most obscure of our politician, constantly reiterating his/her patriotism, but I am unerringly a Pakistani cricket team supporter whenever and wherever they play and most particularly during the World Cup.
This game unites us as a country as nothing else has been able to not our collective anger at the Taliban indiscriminately killing our army personnel, law enforcement personnel, women and children; not our disgust at our inept ministers who say irrespective of their ministries appalling performance they would resign only if the Prime Minister gives them their marching papers thereby displaying zero integrity and no accountability to their constituents; and not our desire to revolt against the steady deterioration of our quality of life with each subsequent government, defended by the leadership through amateurish data manipulation.
I cannot any longer place hockey, a unifying game at one time but no more, on the same level as cricket as our subsequent patrons-in-chief, none other than prime ministers, have steadily but surely ensured the disintegration of our team's capacity in world hockey tournaments. That leaves cricket as the only unifying element and to put it facetiously this discrepancy if you will, is the focus of our first ever third time prime minister as the patron in chief.
The patron-in-chief's appointment in the cricket board has left many dissatisfied. "Hey," a board member declared, "I have sorted out all the issues surrounding the board and now thank the good Lord a system is in place that would ensure that there would be no external interference." If one places credence on this claim, then to put it facetiously, we have a great system in place but a team that simply cannot perform. Is it the system's fault? Or is it the fault of the team players or are the selectors or indeed the board members accountable? At this point in time I am not sure who to hold responsible except to say that in any other country but ours the board members would have resigned, the selectors and the trainers as well as the players. Did I just say they all should voluntarily resign when we did not even vote for these people given that our federal ministers who we actually voted for refuse to resign due to a non issue like incompetence? I must be getting delusional.
So we lost to India, the former World champions, but one of our players was wrongfully dismissed, or such is the defense being presented by some. To me this is akin to claims of rigging by Imran Khan to which the patron in chief has responded - not true and too late!
We lost against West Indies though we can claim that the West Indies lost to Ireland. You know the Irish team has come up from nowhere recently, to put it frivolously I guess I now understand the rationale behind the strained Irish-English relations in the past. I know what we should do! Cite England's humiliating defeat, I mean the country that ruled us is also labouring under not only a defeat but a humiliating defeat. I know what the Pakistani public should do now: pray for England to be further humiliated so the comparison could be made to stick.
But collective depression aside I would like to felicitate the board and all those associated with cricket, and yes I do include the players themselves, that the Pakistan team has set new world records the team that lost three players in one over. That surely does account for something. If you cannot win then lose in a way that your record would be held up as an example for all times to come. Well done all - from the patron-in-chief to the back up players.
What is that I hear? An inquiry is being considered? Yes let's get the only member of the ICC executive committee to head a one-man inquiry report and let him fire those responsible. What is that you say? He will fire all those who he has sent legal notices to: the Amnesty International, Imran Khan... hey, the names you have mentioned do not hold their office courtesy the patron-in-chief so they can't be fired.
Piddles!-The writer is newspaper's Islamabad Resident Editor
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