One was pessimistic about international cricket’s return to Pakistan. One was even certain that the present Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) management, under Najam Aziz Sethi, won’t be able to persuade the International Cricket Council and international cricketers to tour Pakistan. But newly appointed PCB chairman Sethi, who gained vast experience in the last three years as PCB executive committee chairman and Pakistan Super League chairman, has done the impossible. He is not only successful in bringing international stars to Pakistan with the support of the ICC but also has given a new hope to the country. A World XI, led by Faf du Plessis of South Africa, will play three Twenty20 internationals in Lahore next month in a bid to revive international cricket in Pakistan, where the sport has a fanatical following. The World XI also includes Australia’s George Bailey and South Africa’s Hashim Amla as well as former England all-rounder Paul Collingwood.
Pakistan is one of the major cricket playing countries of the world and it indeed is no less than a tragedy that for more than seven years now, we have been unable to stage international cricket for reasons beyond our control. Apart from a short series against Zimbabwe two years ago, Pakistan has effectively been a ‘no-go area for top-flight international cricket since an attack by armed militants on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in 2009. Since then Pakistan, who won this year’s ICC International Cricket Council Champions Trophy in England, have played most of their ‘home’ games in the United Arab Emirates. The upcoming World XI T20 series will not only enable Pakistan fans to see their heroes after years of being starved of international cricket but there is also hope that the fixtures will act as the forerunner to the resumption of full international cricket in Pakistan. For this, all credit goes to Sethi and his hectic efforts. He has shown to all and sundry that he is not only a strong administrator but also capable of running the PCB successfully and efficiently. And Pakistan cricket needs a strong leader like him.
Despite reservations of many, the PCB patron made a right choice when he appointed Sethi to cut through the awkward and messy politics of the PCB to once again make it a profitable and well-oiled machine that it once was, especially before foreign teams stopped visiting Pakistan after the 2009 attack. Since Sethi’s involvement in Pakistan cricket, many former cricketers and a group of media personnel are at daggers drawn with him. Whipping the PCB is our favourite pastime. With reason or without reason, we just love to flay the PCB. As is tradition in many aspects of Pakistan’s political and social life, the positives of any person are easily forgotten in return for some quick wins by highlighting negatives. The same has applied to Sethi’s efforts in the last couple of years on behalf of Pakistan cricket. The fact that he moved heaven and earth to restore India-Pakistan cricket relations, when most other administrations in the past would have walked away and excused themselves by hiding behind some false sense of national pride, was given no importance.
Of course, Sethi’s ‘cricket role’ has not gone well with many and generated a new set of critics. But what the naysayers are not counting five major events that have truly established Sethi’s legacy as one of the top administrators for the PCB: Zimbabwe cricket team tour in 2015, inaugural PSL 2016, the final of the PSL II in Lahore, confirmation of World XI tour and the Sri Lanka Cricket Board agreeing to play a T20 game in Lahore. It is not mandatory that the PCB should be run by former cricketers. How many other cricket boards of the world are being managed by cricketers? Sethi, a renowned journalist, publisher, TV personality, former Marxist, and a big cricket buff, takes great care in what he says. A political animal to the core, extremely well-read and articulate, Sethi comes across as a man with a ready and vivid set of examples to put forward his point of view, successfully cultivating a reputation of being a rational and neutral observer. His intentions are always clear. What makes Sethi famous as well as ‘notorious’ is the fact that almost ninety percent of the predictions made by Sethi have come true with his well-reasoned analysis! This perhaps has never been digested by his rivals.
We should now accept Sethi as the new chairman of Pakistan cricket, keeping in view his educational, administrative qualifications and selfless services for the sport. We should wholeheartedly support Sethi in his endevours to take Pakistan cricket forward. Due to our impatience and personal grudges, we don’t want to give time to managers of Pakistan cricket. This lack of patient, and having ‘personal agendas’, is playing havoc with Pakistan cricket. It is also imperative to understand that putting the PCB on the back-foot will never turn the fortunes of Pakistan cricket around. No cricket board wants bad things for their country. Every cricket board tries to give the best to its country. Improving Pakistan cricket or putting things in the right direction is no rocket science. We should never suspect the intentions of Sethi who is working out a blueprint aimed at long-term success and stability, and he is genuinely interested in resurrecting Pakistan cricket fortunes.
For too long, Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium has been asleep. For too long has it been deserted. It will wake up again and roar once more in September. Just like it did during happier times. Many are not happy with Sethi stealing the limelight. But this is not the time to be thinking across such cold harsh lines. This is the time to celebrate the passion surging through the crowd, to enjoy the pure emotions of every person inside the Gaddafi Stadium for those three days: 12, 13, 15.
Published in Daily Times, August 28th 2017.