** **http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jun2005-daily/06-06-2005/oped/o1.htm
Through a cricket ball, darkly
Out of my head
*Khusro Mumtaz
*Fans following Pakistani cricket over the years may have noticed how neatly the team reflects the inner-workings and psyche of Pakistani society at large and how its exploits give us many lessons to learn, if only we’re ready to learn them. Two recent incidents relating to the current cricket tour of the West Indies have once again highlighted that very fact.
According to various newspaper reports, first there was Abdul Razzaq hurling racial and ethnic invectives at Yousuf Youhana, the team’s only Christian member, for supposedly not attempting a difficult catch in the last one-day match against the Windies. That resulted in Youhana, one of the two main batsmen of the side, storming off the field and, ultimately, flying back to Pakistan, thereby missing the Test matches that followed the one-day internationals. End result? Pakistan, already without the services of captain and leading batsman Inzimam-ul-Haq, loses the first Test match to a weaker opponent.
The second Test is underway as I write this, so its fate remains to be seen. Nevertheless, Youhana’s absence is sure to be felt. The former vice-captain insists the only reason for his return to Pakistan was to look after his ailing father. But even though Youhana Sr. immediately made a recovery upon Youhana’s arrival in Pakistan the cricketer refused to travel back to the Windies, claiming that there wasn’t enough time for him to get back before the beginning of the second test. In actuality, when he made this statement, there was still around a week to go before the second test started. Something is definitely rotten in Denmark.
One may argue that Youhana should have put his hurt ego aside to give his all for his country. But his country also owes him a few things, the least of which is something called respect. Can you blame him if he is degraded and abused and his ethnicity/religion ridiculed? If he is treated as something “less than”? Even if the abuse and ridicule occurred in the heat of the moment it still reflects the deep-rooted mindset of his fellow team members. I wouldn’t blame him if he refuses to turn up in the country’s colours until he receives the appropriate apology from his teammates and the Pakistan Cricket Board. The lesson to be learnt remains clear. We ostracise the minority communities and make them feel unwelcome in their own home at our own peril and, ultimately, at great cost. Our best talent (remember Dr. Abdus Salam) will be lost and our country will be the poorer for it.
The Youhana affair was then quickly followed by the Shahid Afridi-Younis Khan-Inzamam imbroglio. Afridi took umbrage at the fact that Younis, the stand-in Pakistani captain in the first Test match, had ordered him to open the innings, something Afridi didn’t want to do. The mercurial Pathan complained to regular captain Inzamam that Younis was overstepping his bounds and wanted to take over Inzi’s post permanently. A confrontation then took place between Inzi and Younis, with the former accusing the latter of aspiring for the captaincy. The situation soon turned into a shoving match between the three participants.
Now, I believe Inzamam to be a gentle soul. I also don’t take him as somebody who ever really aspired for the national team’s top slot before leadership was thrust upon him. But it seems that he’s now also starting to fall prey to the same weaknesses that have brought about the downfall of many a Pakistani leader. Having tasted a little bit of success on the recent Indian tour, he’s started to believe his own press as well as the insidious whisperings of sycophants with their own axes to grind. Whether politico or a general or cricket team captain, a Pakistani leader’s belief in his own infallibility is matched only by a constant looking over the shoulder to see who’s coming to throw him out of his position of supreme power. What’s lost therefore is what’s best for the country or the team and the fact that rules and regulations apply equally to all citizens or team members, including the general or prime minister or captain himself. Strong institutions are what really matter and they, not strong personalities and individuals, are what will save our country.
But the messiah complex has always plagued us. If Imran Khan made the Pakistani cricket team into a winner by the sheer force of his personality, he is also the one who broke it after his retirement by reportedly manoeuvring to have the succeeding captain Javed Miandad replaced by his own chosen heir, Wasim Akram, who was at that time entirely unfit for the job. Pakistani cricket has yet to recover from the fall-out of that decision which created innumerable rifts and delusions of grandeur within all the team members, as they all started aspiring for the captaincy. Hence, at a time when the Pakistan team was blessed with one supremely talented individual after another – Akram, Waqar Younis, Saleem Malik, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar, Inzimam, Rashid Latif, etc. – it was hardly able to achieve success on a consistent basis. Personal glory and, subsequently, greed (the match-fixing scandals) took precedence over pride in a collective effort and working for the good of the country as a whole. It was a perfect example of the general decline of Pakistani society.
Compare that with Abdul Hafeez and his men who were able to achieve great things with very limited resources (much like the young country itself at that time) when Pakistan first achieved Test cricket status in the early 50s. That team only had two truly world class players – Hanif Mohammed and Fazal Mahmood (who sadly passed away recently) – yet its results belied that fact. They were paid a pittance yet the pride of representing Pakistan and the idea of something greater than oneself was enough to make those players achieve something truly spectacular and unforgettable.
The writer is a banker and freelance writer
I wonder if you meant it to be this funny but to me it was!