Cricket must go amateur, advises Imran (7 June 1999)

7 June 1999

Cricket must go amateur, advises Imran

Sue Mott

Imran Khan would improve English cricket by not paying English cricketers. Or not many of them anyway. No wonder his party failed to win a seat in the last Pakistani election. Unvarnished truth is a terrible thing.

"My suggestion is very radical," he said in a BBC World Service phone-in to the question "Where is English cricket going wrong?"

"What we have in Pakistan is a system which is semi-professional. In other words, young men coming in just about get their expenses paid. The only players who make money in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka are top-quality players. Anyone else has no job security," he said.

"In England, unfortunately, there are 20 players times 18 counties on a minimum wage. The majority of them have no chance of playing for England. They block the way of young, fresh blood coming through and they create a very defensive, non-competitive atmosphere - which is why in big competitive matches England cannot compete.

"In my view there should be job insecurity."

He was devastatingly persuasive. If England and Wales Cricket Board members had found him on shortwave or the BBC's talking points website, they would have spent the rest of the afternoon phoning their sponsors begging them to withdraw their money from the sport. As Imran said on another point, if you think there is no hereafter you can become dangerously materialistic. Only the short term matters. Very short term in England's case. They didn't even make it to the semi-finals, never mind the hereafter.

Of course, England are the least of his worries. Pakistan meet India tomorrow (in the Cup Carnival, not in war planes over Kashmir, although that is possible too) and he has reason to believe the country he led to World Cup victory in 1992 will be "psychologically devastated" after one-run defeat to South Africa on Saturday.

He still reckoned Pakistan will make the semi-finals, to the consternation of a caller from Bombay, alongside the South Africans and Australians, who are hitting their stride.

Imran, himself, has moved on. If ever a man, lauded, feted and dated, has seen fit to grow beyond the boundaries of his sport, it is the former Pakistani captain turned politician, husband and father. "Cricket was a phase. Cricket is my past now. I have interest in it but I can't have involvement in it. You've got to decide how important cricket is to Pakistan where 10 per cent of the population have fallen below the poverty line in the last 10 years."

His campaign to help form the next Pakistan government - "God willing" - is his preoccupation. He wants to rescue the country from endemic corruption and the sort of insults offered by Ian Botham, who once said: "I wouldn't send my mother-in-law there."

If only Britain could learn from this. We have a different problem in this country. If only we could sidetrack our ex-sportsmen by luring them into Parliament, we might prevent them mangling the English language so disastrously as colour commentators.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph