Moving in circles

The surprising appointment of Misbah-ul-Haq as captain of the national cricket team appears to have more symbolic value than anything else. Apparently, the Pakistan Cricket Board management wants the world to believe that it has moved on after the disastrous England tour.

The appointment of Shahid Afridi, as was being suggested in official loud-thinking sessions, would have negated that impression. Many may ask if Afridi has merit-based claims to the title, but once Salman Butt was out of the picture, there had to be someone else in the hot seat. From that perspective — though a narrow one — the PCB decision makes some sense. Beyond that, however, it is a continuation of what the board has been doing over the last couple of years: lurching from crisis to crisis and managing the team in a style that involves moving in circles. The return to the fold of Intikhab Alam as manager and the constant denial of access to Younis Khan are just two examples that suffice to prove the point. The man who should have led the side even on the English tour is forced to play first-class cricket because he is not in the good books of the PCB supremo.

Intriguingly, the latter has adopted different methods to deal with various individuals who have been slapped with fines and bans in the same case. This is hardly the stuff one would find being taught in a human resource management class, but the PCB chief has gotten away with much more. In the interest of Pakistan cricket, one would like to hope for the best and see the team doing well in the matches ahead. But under a captain who has been plucked out of the wilderness to fill the gap this may well prove to be a tough task