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50 years of existence: Time to be professional Adeel Javed - 3 April 2001
I'll wager: Put all the cricket gurus together and ask them to predict what will happen next in Pakistan cricket ......- no one will be able to come up with an answer. Even if they do - take my advice and never put your money on it! That's the way Pakistani cricket has been in this country for years and continues to be today. If no one else, at least the legal or otherwise, gambling syndicates here and in many countries can thank Pakistan cricket that 'predicting the next' keeps them going. This has been the sorry state of Pakistan cricket. In fact, many critics say, that this is not just limited to cricket but the chaos is found everywhere else in the system and portrays a classical third world life. Players squabble over money, if someone gets a penny or two more, he will be ostracized and his career limited through vindictive criticism. Similarly if one doesn't like the other personally, he will try utmost to keep him back from everything else that the gent is duly capable of. This is something that the country can definitely do without. A well-known and publicized example is Javed Miandad not getting along too well with Imran Khan but Miandad supported him all the way to win the World Cup in 1992. Playing for your country is an honour in every little sense of the word and I feel, those who take it for granted should get the boot. I don't know Miandad personally but do know one thing that whenever he wore the 'Pakistan Green' it was Pakistan he played for. Country is beyond personal rivalries and those who mix the two need to be shown the proper way out. I remember when Pakistan had a good run before WC99 everyone gave credit to Wasim Akram. Even Ijaz Ahmed in a personal interview, specifically attributed the success to Wasim's leadership qualities and now that when the team is losing, blame has been put on the coach and captain. Interviews of Imran Khan, Zaheer Abbas and Intikhab Alam (even before the manager presented his tour report), suggest that such blames are more personally motivated than being made for cricketing reasons alone. Such innuendoes and 'reverse-sweeps' have disturbed the very foundations of Pakistan cricket and may well be the main reason for our inconsistent performances. Haunting feelings of losing the senior players in the past have always prompted the PCB to give them an edge of authority over the coach and even the manager. I firmly believe this has led to a distorted form of 'players' power' and they have taken their places in the team for granted and done whatever they liked. Discipline has taken a back seat and Pakistan has ever since been moving in a never ending circle, one day a good display followed by a pathetic round of lowest level cricket. Once again, Pakistan cricket stands at a critical juncture. It is up to the cricket chief to take-up the driving seat and make some strong decisions rather than being influenced by others. Here, I would make a few suggestions to the chief:
© CricInfo
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