I politely disagree. Yes the domestic infrastructure and PCB set-up needs a major overhaul but a good and sincere administrator can make a hell of a difference.
Air Marshall (r) Nur Khan is a shining example of that. He was still only answerable to the president (General Zia) back then but he had good leadership and management skills. And because he was a no-nonsense, take charge kind of guy he produced impressive results wherever he went be it
Hockey
Cricket or
PIA
Sometimes you need that 'danda'
and I completely disagree with you.
I don't know much about Nur Khan apart from the stuff I've read here and there. but I rate Shehryar Khan very very highly. I have huge respect for that man. he is a very dignified, reserved, sober man who thinks hard before he says something. he took a lot of excellent steps when he was the chief especially the fact that he refused to sack Inzi/Bob every two months as demanded by the people/fans of Pakistan. plus the Pak team did reasonably well in his time.
and yet what happened when he left? and in what circumstances did he leave in? and where do we stand today despite the relative stability in his time?
we stand today where we stand today simply because despite good, capable administrators like Nur Khan, Shehryar Khan - the dictatorship model does NOT work. you cannot leave everything to one person. it doesn't matter who he is. when he goes, the house of cards will collapse as it has. you need to build systems (and yes you need good people to build those systems).
everything has to be decided by committee. and no one - I mean NO ONE - should ever step out of their job descriptions. it is not the PCB chief's job to pick the captain, sack the coach, etc by himself. people have to go by the rules.
but see this is where the hypocrisy and short termism of Pakistani fans comes up. when the PCB chief breaks all kinds of rules but does something they like, they cheer for him. when he does something they don't like... then they jeer. but the point is that it is NOT his job to make those calls. it's the principle that matters.
when Butt sacked Lawson, I don't remember much protest when that warranted him getting fired. the irresponsible, unprofessional manner in which he fired Lawson was absolutely disgraceful. he deserved to lose his job for that. now I wasn't even a huge fan of Lawson. but when you appoint anyone to a job, you give them time to prove themselves no matter who they are. so even if Afridi is appointed captain, you should give him two years at least (may God have mercy on me, my soul and my kaali zubaan). but people wanted to suicide bomb Butt's house when he picked Abdul Rehman. why? because they didn't like the player.
and THAT hypocrisy is the problem. the problem isn't that he sacked Lawson or that he picked Abdul Rehman, the problem is that it wasn't his call to make and that he behaved like zill-e-elahi as do all PCB chiefs. now some were better than others. but the bottomline is that Pak cricket will always be in the dump unless PCB becomes an organization instead of being at the command of one man - even if that man is Nur Khan himself.
