Pakistan cricket needs a revolution
Brian Close (35,000 first class runs, 52 centuries) was called up for his seventh Test in 1961, against Australia. This match, which at one time England appeared certain to win, turned to disaster, with Close bearing the main blame for England's defeat. Many considered this unfair, including Australian cricketer Richie Benaud, who said, “I thought the slating of Brian was one of the most unjust things I have ever experienced”.
England was chasing a total of 256 runs to win the match, with just under four hours left to play. Scoring rapidly, they reached 150 for one wicket. Then Ted Dexter and Peter May got out in quick succession to Benaud, who was pitching his leg-breaks into the rough outside the right-handers' leg stump. This brought Close to the crease. May, the captain, was instructing his players to go for the runs and secure victory. Close took a calculated risk, and chose to hit out. He took one six off Benaud, but to the tenth ball he faced he played an unorthodox shot which Norm O’Neill caught above his head. Neither commentators nor reporters appeared to understand that Close's approach was to hit Benaud out of the attack, and thus make it easier for right-handed batsmen to score runs. Purists were outraged and, as England collapsed to 201 all out and a 54 run defeat, Close took most of the blame, with some commentators saying that he should never play for England again.
The BBC termed Afridi’s innings the “most indiscrete innings ever played at Lords”. That was the first innings; to my mind the second was worse. It was an act of gross mental indiscipline and extremely poor judgement. This is the best Afridi can do; no one expected anything better. The selectors responsible for the debacle should retire from cricket for life. Putting an Airbus 300 pilot in an F-16 jet is courting disaster. But this is all that ‘has-beens’ and geriatrics can deliver. They have made Pakistan cricket a laughing stock. The world’s cricketing press is having a go at them and the shamelessness of the authorities is cited as prime example. We are stuck in a void and there is no quick fix.
Pakistan cricket needs a revolution, not tinkering. Management the world over is an expertise just as cricket, the game, is. Not every manager is a cricketer and certainly not every cricketer a management expert. The board needs to be run as a corporate entity with cricketers as the asset. A business plan should be developed around these tangible assets with available resources used to mobilise them into a profitable and viable entity.
With a 180 million people population can we produce only 15 players whom we need to recycle in perpetuity? If yes is the answer, let’s go back to playing gilly danda. It’s cheaper and less stressful.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2010.
England was chasing a total of 256 runs to win the match, with just under four hours left to play. Scoring rapidly, they reached 150 for one wicket. Then Ted Dexter and Peter May got out in quick succession to Benaud, who was pitching his leg-breaks into the rough outside the right-handers' leg stump. This brought Close to the crease. May, the captain, was instructing his players to go for the runs and secure victory. Close took a calculated risk, and chose to hit out. He took one six off Benaud, but to the tenth ball he faced he played an unorthodox shot which Norm O’Neill caught above his head. Neither commentators nor reporters appeared to understand that Close's approach was to hit Benaud out of the attack, and thus make it easier for right-handed batsmen to score runs. Purists were outraged and, as England collapsed to 201 all out and a 54 run defeat, Close took most of the blame, with some commentators saying that he should never play for England again.
The BBC termed Afridi’s innings the “most indiscrete innings ever played at Lords”. That was the first innings; to my mind the second was worse. It was an act of gross mental indiscipline and extremely poor judgement. This is the best Afridi can do; no one expected anything better. The selectors responsible for the debacle should retire from cricket for life. Putting an Airbus 300 pilot in an F-16 jet is courting disaster. But this is all that ‘has-beens’ and geriatrics can deliver. They have made Pakistan cricket a laughing stock. The world’s cricketing press is having a go at them and the shamelessness of the authorities is cited as prime example. We are stuck in a void and there is no quick fix.
Pakistan cricket needs a revolution, not tinkering. Management the world over is an expertise just as cricket, the game, is. Not every manager is a cricketer and certainly not every cricketer a management expert. The board needs to be run as a corporate entity with cricketers as the asset. A business plan should be developed around these tangible assets with available resources used to mobilise them into a profitable and viable entity.
With a 180 million people population can we produce only 15 players whom we need to recycle in perpetuity? If yes is the answer, let’s go back to playing gilly danda. It’s cheaper and less stressful.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2010.