The Zulqarnain Haider saga is the latest instalment in the soap opera that is Pakistan cricket, further supporting the widely held belief that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has hired a an assembly-line of talented script-writers and story-tellers who are feverishly churning out one implausible story after another, week in, week out.
Zulqarnain, known more widely as Zoni, has received flak and kudos in equal measure after his bizarre and inexplicable behaviour of the past week. While the full facts of the matter are not known, and may never become public, this much is certain: the 24-year-old wicketkeeper from Lahore has acted foolishly and in haste, and in the process, has done irreparable harm not just to his own career, but also to Pakistan cricket.
The facts remain unclear. Zulqarnain alleges he was approached by someone who asked him to underperform in Pakistan's fourth one-day international (ODI) against South Africa on November 5. Pakistan subsequently won that match, through a coordinated team effort. There were match-winning contributions from many players, including Zulqarnain.
This one incident, it seems, prompted Zulqarnain to abscond for the UK on the first available flight. He did so, he claims, out of fear for his life. He appeared to leave in secrecy, without bothering to inform his teammates, the PCB management, the local Dubai authorities, the International Cricket Council (ICC) or even his close friends and family, yet he did have the time to leave an update on Facebook and inform certain Pakistani journalists.
Zulqarnain overreacted and this is borne out by subsequent statements from former Pakistan cricketers. It appears that most experienced cricketers would either have ignored the perceived threat to his family, laughed at it or, if serious, reported it to either the PCB or the ICC. Basit Ali, the former Test batsman who took a courageous stand in the match-fixing scandal of the late 1990s in the era of Azhar-ud-din, Saleem Malik and Hansie Cronje, said: "It is strange the way he acted. I think being a new player maybe he got scared by the threats, but this is nothing new for professional players. Most of us have got threats at some time to do this and that but you just ignore them."
It also seems strange that a potential match-fixer or a bookmaker would approach a wicketkeeper who bats low down in the batting order if the aim was the affect the outcome of Pakistan's batting. After all, Zulqarnain's contributions with the bat in the previous five matches against South Africa in the UAE had been minimal.
Abdul Qadir, the great leg-spinner and former Pakistani chief selector, shares this scepticism: "What is strange to me is that Zulqarnain is not a frontline or match-winning player, so why threaten him? I think he should have informed the team management about the threats instead of taking such an extreme step."
Zulqarnain's disappearance from Dubai and appearance in London thus raises a number of unanswered questions.
Under the ICC's regulations, all approaches or perceived approaches from bookmakers must be reported immediately. This is what players such as Shane Watson, the Australia batsman, did recently. Zulqarnain, however, chose not to report this to the ICC, despite the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) and the ICC being located in Dubai.
It defies belief that Zulqarnain could not find even a single trustworthy confidant: not the ICC or the ACSU; not his teammates or his captain or the officials; not the team manager, the coach, the security manager or even other impeccably honest players such Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf.
He did not even approach the Dubai Police, who accompany the team bus and provide security.
Also, it appears from Zulqarnain's statements he felt the UK was safer than the UAE. It is, however, well-known that crime rates in the UK are significantly higher than in this part of the world.
His apparent lack of concern for his family is remarkable. He felt they were threatened yet instead of joining them in Pakistan he left them in the lurch, disappearing to London and leaving them, according to him, at risk in Pakistan.
