“Going, going, going…gooooonnnn…back in play.”

“Ha ha, that’s the way the cricket cookie crumbles for Pakistan”

“Indeed, a good team has to lose to a team that is a new entrant and another team has to lose to another and viola Pakistan is back in play…”

“We in the Land of the Pure value new entrants – I mean haven’t you heard of special incentives, monetary and fiscal that we simply cannot afford, for new entrants?”

“Ah but we also give incentives to the old entrants. Didn’t Ishaq Dar agree to give electricity to all exporters at 19.99 rupee per unit while you and I, who are not in the category of vulnerable, have income tax cut at source and…”

“That’s because you can’t afford a chartered accountant!”

“There you go, any way we pay 40 rupee per unit of electricity.”

“Right OK so point taken, new entrants and old entrants with influence and cash can get incentives while the rest of us ponder and ponder…”

“Anyway you weren’t talking about new and old entrants were you when you said going going going gooon, back in play?”

“No I was actually talking of cricket and that’s what the powers that be and the eleven party government do not understand about The Khan. He has been forged on the cricket field and you may think he is down and out and up he comes again.”

“Ha ha and every once in a while we hear comments about his crossing a red line and that’s not acceptable but then he crosses another red line…”

“See The Khan’s red line is not the red line of The Others and by insisting that he has crossed it and it is unacceptable The Others show themselves as kinda helpless to say the least.”

“So what is the solution?”

“Play cricket not politics.”

“I don’t get it?”

“One cannot be ousted with impunity on the assumption that he or she will sit quietly till the next round.”

“Indeed.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022