Joyless Cricket

In that all too familiar manner, the Pakistani cricketers have once again managed to find themselves in a deep hole that they have dug for close to a decade and a half through match fixing. How does a team manage to find itself in the spotlight so often for sport unworthy reasons?

In a country where many things are going horribly wrong beginning with the impotent governance and the now added burden of the floods on its cities that have already been ravaged by terror attacks, cricket was among the few things that gave them some respite. But now with the match-fixing allegations ably supported by relatively conclusive assortment of evidences, the gashes on a recuperating Pakistani side have once again opened.

Where do the youth go wrong? Most certainly the lack of role-models in the side has had an adverse effect on potential bowling power houses like Mohammed Aamer and Mohammed Asif. The senior players or lack of those so to say, are themselves kindred spirits in the art of ‘figure it out yourself’. Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf who are constantly at loggerheads with the PCB have not the slightest chance of steering the ship to safety, unless they get their acts right. Shahid Afridi, the rebel, is perennially in a state of war with the one-day and Test cricketer within him. So who gives time to these boys who are at an impressionable age, where money can outstretch their knees just enough to earn them a thousand pound no-ball? The first look says, the bookies are nurturing them young and profiting well.

The feudal setup of Pakistani cricket is an extrapolation of the how things are in the country. Imran Khan dominated and reigned in some of the most explosive talents in world cricket. His presence, without an inkling of doubt, had a direct influence on Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Aquib Javed. In the two decades since Khan’s retirement there has not been a single influential leader in the side who could take the team with him. No wonder then that there has been no one to pay it forward.

Atleast in the present scenario Salman Butt has refused to step down from captaincy, which otherwise was the standard response at the first sign of trouble.
Wisdom comes through experience alone. An individual’s lessons come through observation, and in the bad world of international cricket, if that gaze is set upon the wrong imagery then he better buckle up for a hard fall.

If the allegations are conclusively proven to be true, then the guilty players will be punished severely. The great shame for the game would be the possible loss of a talent like Aamer, who at 17 has already seen the rise and the fall of speckled career. The youngest to take fifty wickets in Test cricket, a boy who out-classed Tendulkar in his first match against India. He was yet another great Pakistani pacer in the making.

Often the cricket set-up in Pakistan leaves a lot to be desired, especially when a young career terminates itself owing to the negligence of senior members of an establishment. Let us hope that the game survives yet another scare and the gentleman’s game stays true to its name.