Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), which has not recovered from the trauma of relocation of 2009 ICC Champions Trophy and the Aussies postponement of tour in March Pakistan cricket, received a further blow when the tri-series in Dubai, scheduled for late March, was cancelled due to unavailability of the Sri Lankan team.
PCB Chief Operating Officer (COO) Salim Altaf apprehended that the event might be scrapped altogether, and said he did not know why Sri Lanka could not participate. The event was part of a nine-million dollar deal with Dubai Sports City last year, which was to provide Pakistan with cricket at a neutral venue after foreign teams refused to tour the country over security fears. The third team was to be Bangladesh.
Pakistan did not play even one single Test match last year after Australia postponed a tour in March, citing security risks. They rescheduled the tour in two visits - for one-dayers in 2009 and Tests in 2010. But they refused again to tour Pakistan after the Australian government refused permission over fear that players could be targeted because the Australian army is among international troops deployed in Afghanistan.
Now the series will be played in Abu Dhabi and Dubai from April 24 to May 7.
NO THREAT TO WORLD CUP:
Though International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat has reiterated that the 2011 Cricket World Cup will go on as scheduled despite growing political tensions between co-hosts India and Pakistan.
He told the reporters after the meeting of the World Cup Organising Committee, comprising representatives from all four host nations - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - in Delhi:."I am aware of the current situation, but the World Cup is still a long way away. It is too early to be concerned but we are monitoring the situation on a regular basis." Since the teams have also been wary of playing in Pakistan for security reasons, therefore, there are substantial doubt about the convening of World Cup her.
Lorgat said World Cup organisers had been asked to keep alternate venues in mind. "This has to be done if something is not favourable in any of the host countries," he said. He, however, indicated that Australia and New Zealand were the alternate host countries for the 2011 tournament. So far 15 World Cup venues had been identified with eight in India, four in Pakistan, two in Sri Lanka and one in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh will host the opening ceremony on February 19, 2011, while the final will be played in India and the two semi-finals shared by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Lorgat said. The ICC Chief Executive, however, warned that preparations for the tournament needed to advance faster. "We have noticed that the work is lagging behind and the host nations need to speed it up," he said. "We have some catching up to do but I am confident we will deliver a world class event."
PATHETIC: This is the pathetic state of affairs of Pakistan cricket, which was among the top three teams of world till the mid-90s. Law and order situation played a major role in isolating Pakistan in international cricket. Besides political wrangling at the highest level in the PCB, which has failed to show vision for competitive cricket, did not draw up a policy to organise cricket at grassroots level, damaging the concept of competitive domestic cricket.
The tragedy of Pakistan cricket is that highly paid people in the board, having or little or no knowledge about the modern cricket game are running the PCB affairs. Being a watchdog body of the national and domestic cricket, it was the responsibility of the PCB higher-ups to monitor the performance of its associations and strive for the promotion of the game, development of basic infrastructure, including stadia and grounds, training facilities to budding cricketers and welfare of the players.
NON-ELECTED HIGHER-UPS: Had the non-elected higher-ups realised the importance of the game, which provided them with lucrative salaries, the Senate Standing Committee on Sports would not have summoned them every now and then.
Decline in the standard of the game started soon after the victory in 1992 World Cup, though it was slow as the PCB management was somehow accountable to the elected council and general body.
But power struggle between PCB Chairman Khalid Mahmood and Chief Executive, former Test captain Majid Khan resulted in the dissolution of the board and suspension of constitution in July 1999 by president Mohammad Rafiq Tarar, on the advice of the then prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif.
Since then the deterioration not only continued, but it also gained momentum, and now the situation is that Pakistan took on Sri Lanka in the recently held three-match One-day International (ODI) series like minnows.
WRONG POLICIES: The present pathetic state of affairs speaks a lot about wrong policies, nepotism and favouritism and lack of professionalism at the highest level in Cricket Board.
Whenever former Test cricketers were assigned the job of handling the Cricket Board affairs, they failed to deliver. One may recall the revolt of players, who joined the Kerry Packer Circus, in the early 70s when former captain A. H. Kadar was president of then Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP).
The experiment of inducting former Test captain Majid Khan as Chief Executive introduced, since he was at loggerheads with Chairman Khalid Mahmood. However, the power struggle resulted in the dissolution of the Cricket Board and suspension of constitution and imposition of longest ever ad hocism in July 1999.
Then came former Test captain Ramiz Raja as Chief Executive. Though he did some planning to improve the standard of the game at grassroots level, he could not do justice to his job, as he was increasing involved in cricket commentary and columns' writing columns for newspapers. As a result, he quit as PCB Chief Executive to become full time cricket commentator. So the level of Pakistan cricket is no different from Kenya and Zimbabweans.
NEW PCB SET-UP: With the induction of new PCB set-up, it was expected the Ijaz Butt and his team will concentrate on reviving associations with a view to restructuring domestic format, but he has failed to deliver.
Cricket circles are critical of the of appointment of highly paid retired and controversial personnel on top posts. Most of them are former Test or First Class cricketers, but they have been appointed are obliged to as they doing because of their personal friendship with the PCB chief or political clout. Moreover, most of the appointees are either in the late sixties or seventies. Besides, the PCB policy-makers are also undecided about the role of associations, which in the past had produced star cricketrs.
MESSY SITUATION: In the present messy situation, one cannot hope for any betterment because of the weak administration, which is lacking in vision and planning.
As in the past over nine years, decisions in the PCB are made by an individual, who is usually "guided" by some handpicked "experts," claiming to be the expert in ending all ills, plaguing the sports body. Hence their claims of bringing "revolutionary changes" in the organisational set-up of the games' and improvement in the standard of the games, will certainly bounce back.
These individuals rarely endorse the decisions, taken by their predecessors. Pakistan cricket team, which suffered a shameful defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka, in the recently concluded three-match series, needs sound planning, effective coaching, exhaustive workout, on the field alertness and teamwork to win matches. This is possible only if the men on top abandon the habit of blaming the players when they tumble and concentrate on improvement in management. The players' performance reflects the ineffective of the management.
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