Cricket may be just a game but it is a game that embraces much more than a sport. It is a game that involves the passion of billions, it is a game that reflects the competitive spirit of various nations and teams, it is a game that brings out the best and the worst in individuals and is thus a reflection of the national mindset. To brush away Pakistan’s miserable start against India and the West Indies in the World Cup is to brush away the many viruses infecting the best of talent, the extent of self-esteem and the ultimate pride of being a Pakistani. All this talk of talent not being there is negated by the fact that this team, a few weeks ago, defeated Australia and previously many other teams as well. However, their performance has never been consistent and will never be consistent given the extreme stress and uncertainty surrounding them. Cricket is a subset of what ails this country: lack of vision, lack of will and lack of institutionalisation to unleash and harness this talent into consistent performance.
In normal circumstances, institutions beginning with the country name should bring a sense of pride and patriotism. However, anything beginning with Pakistan brings an image of mismanagement, hopeless performance and infamous incidents. The reason is the complete politicisation of these institutions. Public institutions are always up for sale either to the lowest bidder or up for lease to those whom the politicians owe a favour. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is a hot seat amongst the favour-dole-out largesse by politicians in power. In times of military rule the generals were appointed as heads of the PCB and, in times of democracy, from anchors to bankers, all are eligible as long as they are in the ‘I owe you’ category of men in charge. This is the reason for PIA, PTV, PCB or any other Pakistani institution becoming case studies of how to kill potential.
Cricket has become a science and a game that requires extraordinary physical and mental toughness. In the more developed countries, physical fitness is part of general awareness and sports fitness is a mandatory requirement. The present cricket team has always had a great deal of vulnerability to injuries. Most youngsters are not only overweight but are also not really conscious of the importance of fitness. Players like Nasir Jamshed should have been disqualified on purely this basis a long time ago, as they become a huge liability on the field. With such fierce competition where each run counts in the net run rate category, a fielding miss is almost unpardonable. Similarly, the fitness level of our fast bowlers like Junaid and Irfan needs ruthless monitoring and supervision. With a huge team of physios, trainers and coaches, it is amazing that half the team has some injury problem or the other.
However, the most disturbing part is the mental fitness of the players. There seems to be a complete lack of self-belief in our players to perform in any department of the game. This is where the team management seems to be totally misreading the situation. Cricket is a game of specialists who need to be used with controlled aggression. Having part time wicket keepers, occasional bowlers and makeshift openers has made the team look at best a make-do arrangement where the fear of losing becomes apparent even before the match starts. Match strategy itself speaks volumes for this defensive mindset. Having won the toss against the West Indies and electing to bowl first in a tournament where teams batting first have won a majority of the matches just shows the lack of confidence and self-belief in the team.
To excel under conditions of fear and uncertainty is really difficult. Credit must be given to our team because, despite such adverse circumstances, they do manage to raise their game to a level where they manage to beat the best from time to time. Politicisation of institutions has visibly made performing an almost impossible feat. It started with state institutions like the police and judiciary, spread to state enterprises like PIA and Pak Steel, and now has also permeated to all levels of sports organisations. While we blame the team and the captain for a dismal start to the World Cup, we need to recognise that for the last few years, the PCB top chair has been more of a musical chairs contest between the ex-appointee of the PPP versus the present appointee of the PML-N, causing a mockery of the institution. It took a tampering of the Constitution to accommodate the PML-N candidate and bypass the legal contest. This led to change in the selection team, coach and many other posts. When the top post is not on merit, then all posts are contentious and controversial. When people at these positions are there due to their connections, they will always make decisions to save their seats rather than serve the best interests of the game, when players in the team know that people in positions are not following the rules of merit or law, they will be encouraged to violate discipline and use connections to retain their positions in the team, and when matches are played with this intent. the likelihood of a volatile and uncertain performance will always be a high probability.
The difference between the more consistent performers in any sector, including sports, is to have institutions based on systems, rather than based on personalities. The Australian team is an example of how, regardless of players’ coming and going, their performance variation is in an acceptable range. Hardly will you see in the world the head of the country heading cricket patronship and appointing people of his own choice as heads of these institutions, hardly will you see such a big entourage of officials accompanying teams, hardly will you see top team officials interfering in every aspect of team selection and training, hardly will you see any team making random decisions of replacing players in the chosen squad. The mismanagement of the two great assets of Pakistan cricket, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez, is primarily due to the fact that with so much politics in the organization, planning for these two trump cards was left till it was too late.
Despite having a poor structure, despite having the uncertainty sword hanging over their necks and despite having no international teams visiting Pakistan, the team has done extremely well in spurts, and that is the hope for the remaining World Cup. However, if the performance does not improve, the real people to penalise are the ones who have sowed this virus of institutional decay to an extent where the fittest team has become too unfit to deal with the rigours of a world-class tournament where the margin of error is non-existent.
The writer is secretary information
PTI Punjab, an analyst and a
columnist. She can be reached at [email protected]