This one's for Pakistan

From Ibrahim, Saudi Arabia
Well here we go again. A reader summons up the guts to defend Pakistan's place in the CT, and in come mails telling her--a resident of Pakistan, mind you, who not only sees the situation everyday but lives it--not to take it personally and reminding her--a resident of Pakistan, mind you--that Pakistan is an unsafe country. What, I wonder, will it take to convince you people?

For the past seven years Pakistan has been taking this sort of treatment at the hands of other boards. First the West Indies' tour was shifted to Sharjah. Understandable, considering it was right in the wake of 9/11 and there was a bit of uncertainty as to safety. Then New Zealand pulled out of an unfinished tour--again understandable, considering the bomb blasts near their hotel. Then, of course, it was Australia's turn, as what were originally supposed to be Tests in Pakistan were shifted to Sharjah and Colombo. The next year Bangladesh toured, with no sign of hostility. South Africa, after an undue amount of thought, ventured to tour, with all of Pakistan holding its breath. Then New Zealand condescended to send a security-stuffed team largely devoid of its experienced old soldiers--again, no threat, apart from on the field when Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Akhtar were ripping out stumps, Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed were registering 100-run stands like they'd gone out of fashion, and Abdul Razzaq was unleashing his lower-order blitzes. Then, after much debate, India pulled in.

It ended up a historic tour, not only because it was the first Indian tour in Pakistan for 13 years, but because of the hospitality of the hosts and the generally good atmosphere. Then--you'd think, wouldn't you, after the Indians, and then the Zimbabweans and Sri Lankans, came and left without a hair of their heads harmed, that it was all right--England huffed and puffed for months over whether or not to play a single ODI in Karachi--absurd because Karachi's only ODI against India the previous year had been played with terrific spirit and without nary a sign of hostility. When they eventually arrived, seaming at the sides with security, there wasn't a sign of local hostility, and, to rub it in further, they were crushed by a record 165 runs. So much for that. India came and went--surely we'd proven ourselves now?--and so did the West Indies, and so did the South Africans, and surely Australia would tour now. Not a chance of it, apparently.

Even when Inzamam-ul-Haq, retired now from international cricket, decided to do his country a last favour and simply talk--yes, talk, because we Pakistanis can talk reasonably and rationally, contrary to popular belief--to anybody with doubts, his honour Mr Dickason wasn't satisfied. A few more years and Australia might condescend to play a benefit match in Lahore...it's closer to India and its IPL, isn't it? Lalit Modi might send a couple of bodyguards over.

Before anybody decides to send in posts about "insecurity" and "uncertainty" and a thousand other excuses, let me say that, yes, despite its numerous pluses (and believe me, they ARE numerous) Pakistan has its problems. There are bombings, there are tragic deaths. Even to point out that rarely is such an attack aimed at foreigners (and please, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, don't flatter yourselves as "Westerners"), and never has an attack been aimed at a cricketer, would be a disrespect to all the Pakistani non-cricketers who have been killed.

Before you object again--bombings are bombings, why send ourselves willingly into this hole that Frederick Forsyth so delightedly set his totally fictional thrillers in--there is always a certain amount of risk involved in touring any country. The dangers of the subcontinent have been well-documented--Pakistan's more than others--but other countries have more than their fair share of dangers. Well might Pakistan refuse to tour England in future, citing gang violence; well might Pakistan refuse to tour Australia, citing hostile crowds (Mark Boucher could tell you); well might Pakistan refuse to tour New Zealand, with its "dark secret" of domestic violence; and well might Pakistan refuse to tour South Africa, where the crime rate, partly thanks to "illegal", desperate-driven immigrants from across the Zimbabwean border, is unnaturally high. Enough is enough.

Pakistan, unless there is some conspiracy to mask the past dozen tours as pretenses of hospitality and friendliness (and I wouldn't put it past some of our ungrateful ex-"guests" to assume just that), has proven itself, time and again, as a safe country for a cricket tour. If Kevin Pietersen and Jacob Oram, both of them having come and gone from Pakistan without so much as a scratch, really don't want to play, then they don't have to. Just kick 'em out for the tournament and replace them, temporarily or otherwise, with hungrier players. No player is bigger than the game. If the Champions Trophy is moved from Pakistan, it will affirm the fact that the game in Pakistan, certainly, has been the worse for our alliance with the West.