Reverse Swing: All eyes on Mr Butt
By Saad Shafqat (DAWN)
Whether Ijaz Butt is the right man for the job only time will tell. The encouraging sign, for now, is that his appointment has been well received in cricket circles and endorsed by a wide spectrum of cricket personalities.
They say the post of PCB chairman is the most sought-after in Pakistan after the offices of the president, army chief, and prime minister.
Little surprise, then, that it attracts mal-intentioned Machiavellian personalities who are highly skilled at grabbing power but have no good idea what do with it.
Take a look, for example, at some of the activities that recent chairmen of the PCB have been up to: (a) inserting yourself in the team’s practice sessions and hanging out in their dressing room in the middle of a Test match; (b) making the national captain wait outside your office for hours, just because you could; (c) uttering straight-faced denials that there is nothing wrong with Pakistan’s domestic cricket; and (d) corrupting selection procedures to force through your own son into the Pakistan ODI side.
Any of these actions should have been enough to get these misguided individuals booted from office. Yet they remained firmly in place, unaccountably backed by a military dictator even as the graph of Pakistan cricket kept slipping and sliding. With the dictator gone and a democratically elected head of state in the presidency, fans expected something better. They have not been disappointed.
So let’s hear some cheers and claps, everyone, as we welcome Ijaz Butt, the new head of the Pakistan Cricket Board. He comes highly recommended, with years of experience, and a solid reputation earned from administration in cricket as well as in business. To top it all, he’s even played Test cricket, and therefore knows the highest levels of the game firsthand. Asif Iqbal recently made the point that you don’t necessarily need a Test cricketer to head the PCB. True enough, but after what we’ve been through, an ex-cricketer who also has a strong administrative record does seem a godsend.
In case you’re wondering, Butt is only the third ex-Test cricketer appointed to the chairmanship of the PCB, the two others being A.H. Kardar (1972-77) and Javed Burki (1994-95). The list of PCB chairmen, dating from the board’s inception in 1948, is otherwise dominated by bureaucrats and generals, with a handful of judges thrown in. There have also been a few cases — Nasim Ashraf being the most obvious — of unqualified hangers-on who had ingratiated themselves with the dictator du jour.
This hardly seems the best way to run the national cricket board, but it’s no different from how we’ve been running the country. Understandably, Pakistan cricket has been an accurate mirror over the years of Pakistan as a nation.
Both have seen flashes of brilliance despite weathering a string of undeserving and inept leaders at the helm, and neither has had the benefit of a constitution that was unambiguously adopted and followed. The end-result, in either case, is an entity that has failed to mature structurally and institutionally, and whose true potential remains far from realised.
Pakistan cricket’s great and long-term hope, therefore, lies in Pakistani democracy, because the chairman of the PCB is ultimately accountable to Pakistan’s cricket-loving public. This is (or should be) structurally ensured by a rigorous constitution that gives regional cricket associations from across
Pakistan a representative stake in the board’s governing body. The regional associations, in turn, are (or should be) accountable to the local network of organised cricket in clubs, schools, and colleges, which are the grassroots.
There could scarcely be a more critical time for a new PCB chairman to be taking charge. The cricket team has been underperforming on the field and convulsing with controversy off the field. Neither the coach nor the captain has been able to command much respect or authority. Selection is fraught with misguided priorities and petty motives. Even worse, empty stadiums bear somber witness to a drought of international visitors. Burdened with the nation’s disturbing reputation as a haven for militants, Pakistan cricket is becoming impossible to market.
The domestic cricket setup, which has endured endless tinkering and manipulation, continues its slide into devaluation and disarray. In a country that has contributed some of the biggest names in cricket history, the domestic factory hasn’t produced a megastar since the debut of Inzamamul Haq in 1992, or an internationally competitive batsman since the debut of Younis Khan in 2000. Pakistan’s fabled assembly line of pace bowlers has also dried up. It did produce a recent star in Mohammad Asif, but we all know what has become of that.
Even cricket at the grassroots is in decay. The sport is losing its popularity among the youth, and even the ones taking to it are not playing it properly. No one is telling these budding cricketers to straighten their arm when they chuck, or ground the bat when they run in, or play straight within the ‘V’, or avoid cutting until your eye is set. The knowledge of cricket laws is rudimentary and the spirit of the game remains misunderstood. Rot at the grassroots translates into embarrassment after embarrassment at the international level.
So the new chairman’s brief extends well beyond obvious problems such as an underperforming national cricket team and an uncertain home climate that is keeping away international visitors. Critical issues such as the board’s constitution and governance, the state of domestic and grassroots cricket, even Pakistan’s image as a stalwart member of the international cricketing fraternity, are also boiling away on the front burner and must be tackled simultaneously.
Whether Ijaz Butt is the right man for the job only time will tell. The encouraging sign, for now, is that his appointment has been well received in cricket circles and endorsed by a wide spectrum of cricket personalities. Fans need reassurance that someone honest and competent is in charge so we can get back to enjoying our cricket. The game’s administration in Pakistan has suffered some dismal failures in recent years. All eyes are on Mr Butt to pull us out of this mess.