Qamar Ahmed: Pakistan's cricket suffers from lack of planning (17 Nov 1997)

17 November 1997

Pakistan's cricket suffers from lack of planning

By Qamar Ahmed

The first phase of Pakistan's commitment at home and overseas is over rather embarrassingly, casting doubts whether the Test series against the West Indies starting on Monday and the four nation tournament at Sharjah would redeem Pakistan's fast dwindling status in this game. Present circumstances do not bode well and if Pakistan fails to elevate itself in the coming weeks, we doubt than that the ad, will fall on some and the inclusion of a couple of players for the tour ahead to South Africa and Zimbabwe will have to be reassessed.

Again one of the weakest West Indian side on tour Pakistan must do well and I hope they will if they are allowed to, by the present bunch of selectors who instead of making their own judgment seem to have been toeing the given line and changing and chopping the players at will. In the last three series at Toronto, against South Africa and in the Golden Jubilee Quadrangular tournament we have seen Ramiz Raja, Saeed Anwar and Wasim Akram lead Pakistan. Ramiz suffered because of the lack of cooperation from a couple of players. In the Sahara Cup and also because of the tension that followed since he failed to lead by example. Saeed Anwar was expected to inspire the team against South Africa but failed to do so as his form also slumped as did his team's sluggish out cricket. Wasim Akram back after recovering from shoulder operation did strengthen the team but the batting failed beyond one's imagination in the one-day games as did the fielding.

After Javed Miandad's retirement the middle order has become vulnerable. He was the man who could carry the rest on his shoulders but that role is difficult to fill. One man who could do it with a bit of experience was Salim Malik who has now been struggling to make the team after not being considered in the home series for undisclosed reasons. The PCB officials reman mum and rather shy to disclose the report b the captain and the management on tour and the coach who took the team for the Sahara Cup. There is obviously something arises in that or else Malik would have been the first to be picked. He is now desperately trying to clear his name after a meeting with the Chief Executive of the PCB. The correct procedure should have been to invite Malik in from of a disciplinary panel if there was any violation by him or any of his colleagues and them listen to his side of the story before banishing him. He is no ordinary cricketer as he has significant a contribution to the game having made over 5,000 runs in Tests. He may have some weaknesses, that could have been redressed. If anything suspicious were confirmed by the panel then he should have been shown the door. But not in the manner in which it has been done.

I do not see one Pakistan player in the present team of whom we could say that they have past their best, especially when they are still in their late twenties and early thirties and have been doing well. One just should not judge them because they were notable to perform at their peak on wickets which were not properly prepared to provide home side advantage. the fault lies in administration and not in the players. It is customary in any country to give the players the psychological advantage at least to the home team on their own wickets. The character of wickets in Pakistan has never been determined because their is no professional approach towards it. The same players who fail to deliver on home wickets have done remarkably well on overseas patches. Waqar Y ounis in the English summer bowled at his peak for Glamorgan and proved to be the match winner with 68 wickets and yet he performed much below his ability here.

The Golden Jubilee matches were a big disappointment. They should have been played at different centres and in day light with the final at Lahore in the floodlight. It should have given the opportunity for people of other cities to enjoy the game live rather than watching it on the screen. From the crowd point of view it was a huge failure. The matches were played in front of empty stands with only a handful of people watching, even the final was not a sellout. Hence the PCB decided to hand over two free tickets to any one buying one. Even then seats remained unoccupied.

Source:: Dawn (https://dawn.com/)