Re: PCB had planned to quash rising ‘mullaism’ within team
PCB, as always, acts too little too late. A cricket team is supposed to be a professional sports team, not a tableeghi jamaat. The growing influx of tableeghis started initially with Saeed Anwar's last few playing days from 2001-2003, and then increased with Inzamam's reign from 2004-2007. During this period, the "beards" have grown alarmingly, from Inzamam, to Yousef, Afridi, Rana Naveed, Shabbir Ahmed, Mushtaq Ahmed, etc. Where was the PCB then? Because the results were okay, Shahryar Khan and Nasim Ashraf kept their mouths shut, and came out with half-assed statements like "religion binds them together"? Hello....are you running a Jamaat, a Madrassah or a International cricket team?
The PCB was too weak an incompetent to act when it should have, and now we have a Tableeghi team, that doesent perform, thinks winning and losing is all upto God - and they can themselves get away without any effort and commitment, instead of practicing they go visit mosques to deliver lectures, and pray in the gallery of an aircraft. They`re lucky they were not onboard an American or Canadian airline, otherwise they would have and SHOULD have been off-loaded immediately.
If the PCB wants to 'quash' the mullaism then it needs to clearly tell the players that they must choose whether they are professional cricketers or tableeghis....if they want to spread and preach religion, then they should leave the team and go about doing whatever they want. It's ridiculous that its taken so long for the PCB to act....