Dr. Nauman sahib kaafi gusay mein lag rahey hein…
The spoiled broth
By Dr Nauman Niaz
Pakistan’s present problems started at the end of World Cup 2003 when we lost too many senior players more or less at the same time, and, like a lot of other sides who are successful, we didn’t quite have the amount of cover that we should have had.
By the time one tended to earmark the cricketers for the World Cup 2007, most of those available had become a drag, the panic-ridden officials and selectors finding themselves in a sticky situation. Ill-planning of his predecessors seemingly struck Dr Nasim Ashraf hard. The plight of affairs could be adjudged from the fact that February 13th, 2007 was the last date for announcing the final team for the competition, embarrassingly one the PCB saw their back-to-back requests for postponement being rejected by the ICC and then they had to pick at least three players with ‘subject to fitness’.
Imagine, a team entering one of world cricket’s top tournaments with three to four players not fully fit or barely hitting the ground. Only a miracle can allow such a team to go unscathed through the super-eight stage? (Miracles do happen).
The biggest examples of our injury-management and rehabilitation are Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul. One would not like to name the likes of Shoaib Akhtar and Shabbir Ahmad – Shoaib because of being incorrigible and Shabbir, rusted and out of cricket for over a year. Sending Shabbir in haste to South Africa, after Inzamam had personally asked for him was a shambles. Expectedly, he broke down bowling only two plus overs in the Twenty20 international.
Recurrence of an elbow injury made Asif look a pedestrian in the fourth one-day international. Regrettably, it proved one’s point that the injury maskers so often used by the players and rehabilitationists simply don’t help theirs or the team’s cause-proper injury assessment, treatment, rehabilitation and post-therapy introduction modules are needed to be put at place – in our case we have believed in blatant eyewashes.
Pakistan’s fitness card hasn’t made for happy reading in recent times. Not once since the beginning of the last season have Pakistan had the luxury of having the best possible pool of bowling talent to choose from; at any given time, at least one (and frequently more) of the leading bowlers has been injured. Any of the following reasons, or a combination of them could be the cause: too much cricket, lack of training, absence of injury rehabilitation, and failure on the part of the players to adhere to the basics of the fitness routine. Whichever way you look at it, there is reason to worry.
If any of the Pakistan cricket hierarchy is asked to call out a comprehensive list of their fit players, chances are they would struggle. The comings and goings among the team have been so fast, most onlookers have become confused. Pakistan’s team presently looks as much as anything hard-stricken due to the litany of accidents, injuries and illnesses, and despite the disasters, they haven’t settled any precedents. And then there was Inzamam-ul-Haq’s comment that his players are not mentally tough. Somewhere in all there may lurk the skepticism about his own role.
His remarks upon the vacillating performances of the modern Pakistan team and of how the lows make the highs are another masker. Can the intrinsic strength of the team be increased sufficiently to render Pakistan a force from the first ball in the World Cup 2007?
The Australians start World Cup 2007 as favourites – Australia is a confident nation, and it shows in sport, and this confidence is necessarily evident every day of the year. They have their own share of reversals and heartbreaks on the cricket field as in general life. But when a thirty plus year old man strolls to the middle in his first match and strokes a handsome century, seemingly free of nerves, merely carrying out some sort of pre-ordained mission, it seems so natural.
Mike Hussey has been incredible. Ricky Ponting told the world that Hussey would now find life harder. There are numerous uninhibited men like Hussey sprinkled all over Australia. They have learned their cricket in the hard, uncompromising school, from the age of nine upwards. This is the system, competitive rather than politics ridden or recreational, the enjoyment coming only-only-through winning.
Their team selection for the competition is most impressive. With Glen McGrath’s wicket taking ability on the wane they have added another striker Shaun Tait in place of the more sedate Stuart Clarke. With Bret Lee, McGrath and Tait, and a couple of bowling all-rounders in support role, their attack now looks redoubtable. It shows the mechanisms with which selectors and team management work in Australia-true champions.
And as a side-thought, who could imagine a spinner like Shane Warne ever being produced from Pakistan cricket or, come to that, from rotten systems? Danish Kaneria, nowhere near Warne but the best of his type in the country, was sacked and then reinstated to share the wicket taking responsibility for them in West Indies-shambles! He should have been retained in the one-day team after his success in Tests (15 wickets) in South Africa if he was to be part of the team for the world cup? What should one expect from Rao Iftikhar Anjum, selected and chopped, sacked and reincarnated? There are no players adequately equipped to replace injury-prone bowlers on the Pakistan team. In the meantime, there is no bewildering range of cricketers from which to choose. Finding the truly best squad should not have been easy. Lamentably, the new Pakistan that Inzamam was so keen to mould a year ago has still not started to take shape.
Four years ago, when the fortunes of Pakistan cricket, at a dark low then in the wake of the World Cup 2003 defeat began to turn, the Pakistan supporter prayed that the onward journey would be a straight line, however gradual, and not a circle: there was just too much rotten baggage that needed to be left behind. Till the beginning of the current season, this hasn’t been the case. Pakistan didn’t find a stirring captain and had to suffice with Inzamam-ul-Haq, senior most on the party. He somehow the other has failed to bring a refreshing openness, a strong backbone, a disregard for parochialism, and a stomach for a scrap.
Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s supposedly thoroughbred coach was imported in 2003-04 and was expected to bring with him a strong work ethic, discipline, and the team cause. Together, in their contrasting ways, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Woolmer set about shaking off diffidence, banishing intrigue, instilling belief and aggression and as strong work culture. The results began to come when Pakistan toured India in 2004-05. Tests were won abroad, a one-day series was comprehensively annexed, Test series against England and India were taken in 2005-06 in our backyard and Pakistan cricket was heady with hope and anticipation. And then suddenly power-share crept into the team-both Woolmer and Inzamam became immensely powerful.
Inzamam became one too authoritative; he was scoring heavily and was emerging as the strongest man in countryís cricket. His was a reflection of Imran Khan, so he assumed. Bad PCB policies, incapable administrators, power-concentration and poor injured players rehabilitation started to prop up as Pakistan toured Sri Lanka. Shoaib Akhtar stayed true to his description-an enigma. Despite an advent of Mohammad Asif, Pakistan tottered aimlessly to choose his partner. Shoaib and Umar Gul both were beset by frequent injuries.
The Pakistan batting, which had been the axle around which the team’s recent success had been built, creaked and groaned for so long on unfriendly pitches abroad that it couldn’t simply be explained away as early season rust. Inzamam’s back injury didn’t help, but it was staggering how much such a dazzling constellation could have lost its shine so abruptly and collectively.
As the season has gone increasingly sour there’s more to be alarmed about than just the batting or bowling failures. Not losing in South Africa, what that should worry the Pakistan supporter more are the signs of complete disillusionment, of certain new values being debased, and consequently, an incessant deterioration?
The key to this Pakistan team used to be the fact that Inzamam had bound them together so well that if they weren’t one big happy family, they certainly weren’t letting on. But now the displeasure some of the players felt at Shoaib’s somewhat mysterious injury was becoming obvious. One must admit we’re never going to be a truly great cricket nation till we put the team ahead of our personal triumphs and accords. Pakistan’s has been an attitude problem and it is not being remedied.
What happens in the PCB does not have a direct bearing on how the players perform on the field. But players don’t operate in a vacuum. A cricket team, like any other, derives stability from a stable environment. For over three years, the Pakistan cricket administration has been rife with confusion, manipulation, skullduggery, and petty politicking. During Shaharyar Khan’s stay in office, the uncertainty over the PCB operations, the selection process and appointments, whether it was legitimate or not, stank. More than anything, it betrayed desperation on the part of the chairman to install in offices people of his choice by any means, and in the process it laid bare the fault lines within the administration in the starkest manner possible.
Redemption, like recrimination, comes cheap in Pakistan cricket. The Pakistan cricket fan is demanding, but he is also easily satisfied. It will take no more than a couple of wins to wipe away the blues. But for Pakistan cricket to not heed the warnings would be self-defeating.
Just as success acts as the strongest cement, failure exacerbates every little crack. Thatís why it is important not to lose perspective. Failure is nearly as important as success because it makes you alive to problems that exist. To remain successful it is perhaps necessary to fail once in a while. We should look deep and hard within.
Inzamam hasn’t led the team with passion. The age and back injury has taken its toll on his batting. He has lost his majesty in one-day cricket, and despite the odd flourish in a Test at Port Elizabeth, like the spirited 92 not out against South Africa he is now a less reliable batsman of the Pakistan middle order. But Inzamam, it just can’t be disputed, provides hope, if any for our chances in the World Cup 2007. We don’t have any replacements.
The question that needs to be asked, both by those who manage Pakistan cricket and by Inzamam himself: is he reaching the burnout stage as captain? At this one must reiterate Steve Waugh in 2004 was candid about the ill effects of leading an international team. Four years, he reckoned, was about the most a man could handle.
It may not yet be the time for Inzamam to go, but it is time to give thought to the succession plan. A much bigger crisis of leadership looms over Pakistan cricket at the very top. Dr Nasim Ashraf is the Chairman of the PCB. He must be having a vision for country’s cricket, though he is yet to share it. The worst fear is that Pakistan cricket is headed towards a state of limbo.