**Pitched battles
**
The General is on the attack. Sick of being the public scapegoat for Pakistan’s disastrous form, Lt-Gen. Tauqir Zia, the chairman of the cricket board, has launched an extraordinary retaliatory strike against his critics. But in keeping with wartime tactics, Zia’s blast reeks more of propaganda than piercing truth. What’s more, as George Bush and Tony Blair could tell him, modern warfare is all about choosing your enemy carefully - preferably someone you can batter quickly into submission. Zia has rather bravely chosen Imran Khan. Brave, but foolish.
In last Sunday’s edition of The News, a leading English-language Pakistani daily, Zia defended his regime and sniped at critics for uninformed and off-the-mark criticism. He was adamant that the PCB had done all it could, and effectively blamed the players for the debacle.
“I firmly believe that Pakistan has enough talent to bounce back quickly,” he wrote. “There is no need for despondency, and every reason for hope." The reason for this optimism, Zia said, is that the “influences which derailed it [Pakistan cricket] so often in the last ten years or so have been weeded out”. By that he presumably means some, perhaps all, of the senior players who have been dropped, which begs the question of why he didn’t start gardening three years earlier.
He also singled out former cricketers and army officers for attacking his regime when they, according to Zia, had been turned down for posts at the PCB. There has been a free-for-all since the World Cup, with journalists, mediamen and politicos falling over themselves to rubbish the PCB. Imran, too, recently aired some stinging criticisms of Zia’s reign and made a strong case for the reform of domestic cricket. Although Zia didn’t mention Imran by name in his article, rumours circulated after the World Cup that Imran was touting himself as Zia’s successor.
Two days after Zia’s foray into journalism, Imran fired back, again in the pages of The News, which couldn’t believe its luck. The General is missing the point, wrote Imran, and flatly denied any ambition to become the PCB chairman. Zia’s article, wrote Imran, had increased his pessimism about the future of Pakistan cricket. The mighty Khan is upset for three reasons. First, domestic cricket, which he considers to be less alluring than a baboon’s armpit. Then the folly of investing in highly paid coaches and ignoring the captaincy claims of Wasim Akram. And finally, the General’s coterie of sycophants who are busy protecting their own pay-packets instead of securing the future of Pakistan cricket.
The problem for Zia is that Imran can outdo him for eloquence. He can also outdo him for integrity - as Zia hops uncomfortably over Pakistan’s collapse yet tries to absolve himself of blame. Imran has always been more right than wrong about the blemishes and talents of Pakistan cricket. Most of all, Imran has the aroma of a winner, while the General is drenched in the foul smell of defeat. Imran’s major failing, however, is his obsession with Wasim, who has never become the captain or the unifier that was needed. A lesser failing is the way that Imran dismisses the concept of a coach.
But these entrenched views are harming Pakistan cricket, when the reality is that both sides need to give a little. Zia, for example, should seriously consider Imran’s proposals for domestic cricket and heed cautions about his gang of advisers. Meanwhile, Imran should give up hankering after yet another stint for Wasim. Even so, in this war of words, Imran is a clear winner on points.
Tauqir Zia does have an ace in his pack, though, and it is the same ace that Imran held when he was captain. This ace of spades goes by the name of Javed Miandad.