Both Younis Khan and Misbahul Haq are to retire from Test Cricket shortly. They are our icons in terms of their massive cricketing record, besides their value and contribution to the Pakistani cricket team. In particular, Younis Khan will be scoring 10,000 runs and joining the elite club of cricketers led by Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, and Kumara Sangakkara etc. He would be the first Pakistani batsman to enter into the 10,000-club dominated by other South Asians (three from India and two from Sri Lanka). Misbah’s contribution should be seen outside the statistics — as a middle order batsman and, more importantly, as the captain of one of the most unpredictable teams.
While discussing their significance, it is also equally important to find out who will fill in their shoes and replace them? Undoubtedly, they are great players; like Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Waugh and Brian Lara, Younis and Misbah can also never be replaced. But we have to move beyond and ask the crucial question: is there bench strength — in terms of talent to replace our heroes? This analysis aims to explore a larger question: are our institutions strong enough to produce talent that would fill in and take the process forward — not only in cricket, but across the board — from politics to education.
During the last few years, the Sri Lankan cricket team has been suffering substantially — mainly because there could be no replacement for Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Pakistani team will face a similar situation in the batting department, as it is already struggling in the bowling segment to find game changers like Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. In this context, India is relatively fortunate to have found talented cricketers like Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. But, these players are more a case of individual brilliance than an institutional outcome.
The problem is clear. Our institutions are not strong enough to produce good players, as the Australian system successfully does. Anyone who has an understanding of the Australian infrastructure and the role played by their Board (Cricket Australia) would understand where the problem is in South Asia. Our basic structure, institutions andboards, is a part of the problem.
We have a serious problem with our institutions that could convert mediocre players into those with substance, and catapult talent into legends.
Where did we go wrong? A region that boasts of establishing the first known universities — the Nalanda with a huge emphasis on education — is now a pale shadow of what it was centuries ago. It is unfortunate that none of our educational institutions of higher learning figure in the top hundred at the global level. Compare it with what Singapore (with a population and size smaller than Karachi and Mumbai) has achieved in the last few decades on the educational sector.
For all the hype about the revival of Nalanda University in India, it has hardly succeeded in attracting international students. Compare it with what it was centuries ago — when transportation infrastructure was negligible and communication was non-existent, Nalanda had students from Tibet, China, Japan, Mongolia, Korea and Sri Lanka.
Today, our youths go to institutions of higher learning in Canada or Australia. Not because there is a pull factor in terms of getting a degree from a firangi university, but more because of our failure to provide quality education across the board. The above is true not only in terms of education — from social to natural sciences — but also in other fields — from sports to fine arts. How many gold medals have the South Asian counties together won in Olympics since 1947? Compare it with smaller countries like Spain, Kenya, Jamaica and Croatia. Kenya has more medals in the 2016 Olympics, than all the South Asian countries put together.
The need of the hour is that we go back to the basics and build our institutions across the board. The harsh reality is — universities of Heidelberg in Germany and Wisconsin in US have bigger resources than those of South Asia. Let us learn from them and build bigger institutions — starting from educational sectors. Other sectors will automatically follow.
Perhaps, we get carried away with another statistic — that we are a young region when compared to ageing population in Europe. True, we have a youth bulge. But, is our demography really a dividend? Or, do we have a bulge, which lacks quality?
Or, is it the quality that leaves us for better opportunities abroad, leaving us only with quantity? Even if above is the case, how to ensure that our pride stays with us? Answer is simple — absorb them by ensuring that our preparatory standards are comparable globally. This is a cycle; one cannot be achieved without the other.
Younis Khan may not easily be replaceable, given his commitment and calibre. But doing so would be our way of honouring him. Let us get back to the basics and start building our institutions. Let us also learn from those countries that have achieved greatness in the recent decades such as China, South Korea and Singapore in creating world-class institutions.
The author is a Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) Bangalore. He edits annual titled Armed Conflicts in South Asia and runs a portal on Pakistan — www.pakistanreader.org