Some seriously good cricket players have been overlooked for too long.
RAWALPINDI: This is apropos the article “Selection blunders by the PCB” (August 12) by Faisal Nadeem. The selection of the Test squad is ludicrous at best. My curiosity about the Pakistan Cricket Board’s selection criteria has been prodigiously aroused. I, for one, abhor the idea of parochialism but selecting players on the basis of regions rather than performances or outright talent has for long been a norm in Pakistan cricket and the selection for the Zimbabwe tour is another abominable example. Some sports journalists and former cricketers cry foul when players from Karachi, for instance, are omitted.
It is time we realised that this is the Pakistan cricket team we are talking about. If the best 16 cricketers belong to one particular neighbourhood, let alone the whole town or a city, by all means, get them into the team. The thousands cheering in the stands and the millions glued to their television screens cheer for Pakistan, and not some city. Some seriously good players have been overlooked for too long. I wonder why a fine young pacer like Sadaf Hussain is yet to debut for Pakistan when he was the highest wicket taker in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy for two years running. Not picking Usman Salahuddin or unearthing Mohammad Irfan at the age of over 30 when he had been playing domestic cricket for seven years indicates that we are light years away from establishing any semblance of meritocracy. The same journalists castigating the selectors for overlooking on-field performances are suddenly elated with these selection policies. I am afraid these double standards will prevail at the detriment of Pakistan cricket.
Waqar Hasan
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2013.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
