It all felt unreal until the inevitable happened - a controversy in an England-Pakistan cricket series is as sure as a Sunday holiday. In a classic case of stepping over the line, pundits and fans all over the world have called for life-time bans on the players, ban on the Pakistan team while being trialled for treason charges.
Agreed, all of it may be true and that its not just another conspiracy by the British media against the Pakistan team, as evidence looks watertight. But why the calls of a life-ban one may ask. Bear in mind that it is about spot-fixing and not match-fixing.
The previous incidents of such nature resulted in a six-month to one year bans on the South African and the West Indian players. The reason why almost everyone wants the players never to play again is because it is to do with Pakistan. No, it is not a conspiracy theory, wrapped in defiance or a post-colonial hang up.
It is about the image that Pakistan carries in the world, which seems to be worsening as the clock ticks by. Nobody in the cricketing fraternity likes Pakistan, nobody wants to come here, the cricket board has lost the status it used to enjoy in the Asian block and it does not have the financial muscle either.
Not that the players should not be punished if found guilty, but it certainly would have been different had the issue involved players from the mighty Indian or Australian teams, which have enough muscle to dictate the cricketing world on their own. So the extent that this issue has boiled up can also be related to the failure of image-building of the country in general and the PCB in specific.
The moral bankruptcy and the character deficit in the society are the obvious reasons that everyone cites for the shameful episode. But, it is money again that should take a lot of the blame. Not that it justifies what the players have allegedly done, but it should provide a test in case to the managers in the future.
Time for some numbers. A Pakistan cricketer in the top-most category fetches around £22,500 a year, just one notch below what Bangladesh offers to its players. In case of that teenager kid Mohammad Amir, it is £1,300 a month that he makes, a sum that a lot of MBAs here make without having to live a celebrity lifestyle. One would say different economies have different purchasing parities, but celebrities of such status are valued in the international market, not in isolation.
Add to that the fact that Pakistani cricketers fail to compete with their international counterparts as the countrys perceived role in exporting terrorism combined with poor tackling by the PCB, deprive the players of the lucrative IPL, which makes them soft targets for the bookies. It is no rocket science that a bookie would rather approach a Mohammad Amir than an Indian young player, to bowl a no-ball for a few thousand pounds.
Where does it go from here? It is time to learn quickly if this problem has to be eradicated from the system. Besides offering comparable perks, the players need to be groomed and mentored in the academies. It is time to revamp the system - a management and coaches with tainted backgrounds, a manger involved in a bribery scam and a chairman that the ex-ICC chief thinks is a joke will not serve the purpose.
PAY THEM MORE OR PAY THE PRICE
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Australia £400,000
England £400,000
South Africa £105,000
India £82,500
West Indies £77,250
Sri Lanka £77,250
Pakistan £22,500
Bangladesh £12,000
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Source: www.cricinfo.com
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