KARACHI: Both Arif Abbasi and Sarfaraz Nawaz are absolutely correct in pointing out that the new PCB president has shown inexperience and immaturity in his tenure so far.
The gaffes committed by Zaka Ashraf are alarming and a bad omen for Pakistan cricket. For instance, it was bad form for the chairman to appear in the commentary box recently, which he did during Pakistan’s second ODI with Sri Lanka. Important matters such as revival of cricket with India need to be tackled carefully and the chairman should not have spoken on this in public before getting an idea of how the BCCI would respond.
The malaise that Pakistan cricket currently finds itself in can be placed squarely on the PCB’s shoulders. For instance, after the spot-fixing fiasco, did the Board conduct any independent investigation of its own? A report from a tour manager or security official cannot be very credible because such officials cannot be expected to be independent. Also, there seems to be a pool of management who take turns holding various posts in the Board, and that means that everyone knows one another, so if there is wrongdoing no one is really going to speak up.
After the spot-fixing saga, at the very least the Board should have carried out a purge of its officials, especially those who were on the tour when the spot-fixing took place, instead of making meaningless statements such as that it will show “zero tolerance” towards match-fixing and illegal betting. Other than this, the PCB needs to do the following: 1) It should draw up its constitution within a given timeframe. 2) No player on whom there is even an iota of suspicion should be considered for selection. 3) The Board on its own initiative should not seek any international cricket in Pakistan, say for the next six months. During this time, it should review the security situation and come up with some serious proposals to guard foreign teams. The local police should only be used for security at the ground or on the route, while the guards should come from a better-trained force, such as the Rangers.
We should also request the ICC for help by sharing our plans with it and then asking for feedback. We can also use the experiences of other countries — remember it was only quite recently that there was a ban on football matches being played in several grounds in England because of hooliganism. This matter was resolved effectively by the police, and by legislation by parliament and rules set in place by the English Football Association.
Asad Hasan
Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2011.
