Pakistan cricket it seems has always been a hub of controversies. The superstars of the country have been nothing less than mischievous. Be it for smuggling drugs into the UK on the England tour in their shoes, back in the glorious Imran Khan days or for being seen in night clubs in South Africa with women. It seemed like Pakistan cricket had it all.
But I guess God had different plans for our cricket. Plans those were grander in nature for any of us to comprehend. Just when we thought that our cricket could not get any more controversial than Bob Woolmer’s, lets just say it, ‘unanticipated’ death, a new bullet of notoriety hit us when our Test captain, along with two of his pacers got suspended after a leaked tape, alleging their involvement in a spot-fixing case.
Just when the world and team Pakistan were busy in assessing the loss in terms of spot-fixing, a lot more happened. Who could have imagined that a player with only a single Test match to his credit will suddenly go ‘missing’? Without a trace, Zulqarnain just vanished off the face of the earth. He left trails on Facebook and sent text messages to a journalist. Only to re-emerge in London, the man soon applied to seek asylum, claiming there were ‘grave’ dangers to his life.
Thinking over the facts of Pakistani cricket and all the controversies that it has been surrounded with, one just wonders how all makes sense. How could anyone possibly connect the dots? But the more is tried, the further it depicts a spider web. Reasons, it seems, are required merely to justify things or events. Pakistanis need not justify any of it.
So what if Pakistan players get caught smuggling narcotics into a foreign territory? So what if our superstars hang out with women in night clubs? So what if the only team in the history of cricket has forfeited a test match? So what if the coach is nothing less than murdered? So what if they reached the semi-finals of the Twenty20 world cup by just winning two matches? So what if the players are charged and suspended in a spot-fixing case? The answers are uncertain and the management attitude wants to keep the things that way.
If an analysis of Pakistan cricket is conducted, one can realise that everything is a mess. No matter how bad things are, they are still ignored. Nothing seems unfair. Nothing seems too notorious. Nothing seems too out of order. Blinded by passion for the sport, people would do just about anything to keep this one thing going on when everything else seems to fail in the country.
Cricket has been that one ray of hope that has kept many alive. So yes, all of it is justified when it comes to Pakistani cricket because when everything else has turned its back, the sport has been there to provide something to cherish, something to live for. For a nation where cricket is just about next to religion, there is no need for a ‘reason’ or ‘justification’ for anything – perhaps this is what one calls blind faith.
However the mismanagement over the last few years has exposed the so called coordination between the team and the officials. This has dented the sport badly. But it seems that neither the Pakistan Cricket Board is interested, nor the Patron in chief. If this attitude carries on, then it is likely that Pakistan Cricket will have to face tough days ahead. For a nation which follows the game religiously, this will be mere humiliation for them.
