I DIDN'T SAY THAT ! by Cdr. Malik Arshed Gilani

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Player:

Intikhab Alam, Yawar Saeed, Shahid Afridi, Aaqib Javed, Kamran Akmal

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DateLine: 25th May 2010

 

Malik Arshed Gilani © Pakistan Cricket

The politest word one could use to describe the Pakistan Cricket Board these days is chaotic.

 

The politest term to describe its Chairman has to be passed 'Use by' date.

 

When we look back to review the individuals who have been Chairmen of the PCB and then examine the incumbent, one is forced to conclude that even given the deteriorating standards of management and behaviour in our Country, we have hit rock bottom.

 

The frequency of statements made by the Chairman and then denied are quite alarming. We had a situation when on return from the tour down under this individual on television, damned his players for 'match fixing'. It was a ploy to divert opinion away from the ineptness displayed by his appointees which doubled back to bite him.

 

Not being able to match his desire to correct the gaffe he had made with quick thinking he made it worse by saying he was talking about players from two decades past. In an effort to distance himself from the mess of his own creation he implicated the ICC but its CEO in comments during a visit here threw that wish out of the window.

 

The Chairman having almost forced the ICC to take note of his statements which resulted in the Australian Cricket Board also getting involved, now denies anybody's involvement.

 

To make matters truly worse he involved our Senators into this nonsense and that has flared up by them wanting to contact the ICC directly as they have no faith left in him. Now he has stated that the Senators actually wanted to pressure him into paying extra bills to some contractor and since he was not prepared to give away PCB monies out of high-minded honesty, the Senators are trying to 'fix him'.

 

Mr. Patron this individual is obviously over the hill.

 

Sir, the best cause or excuse one can find is that there may well be medical reasons for his bouts of insomnia which added to senility, genuinely makes him forget what he said.

 

Sir, please save him from himself. This in turn will also save Pakistan Cricket.

 

The PCB spokesperson says that a tape recording of the investigation into the disasters down under was leaked by the legal team of the charged players. I really cannot see what benefit they could gain from this. Since most of them want in-camera trials.

 

No trial in the courts of Pakistan is video recorded; I therefore can see no reason why this investigation was being saved for the PCB archives. Seeing bits and pieces of the recordings it was shameful for Intikhab to sell his players down the river. He is also catching the Chairman's disease as he is now denying what is visible in the video.

 

It is being opined by people who are in the know, that it was a conspiracy between the Intikhab, Aaqib Javed and the great schemer, Yawar Saeed. The end aim was to rid the team of honest senior players who would not line up according to their wishes and splash others with much dirt so that they would be easier to manage. Nowhere in this devious scheme was any real thought that was good for Pakistan Cricket.

 

Having got miraculously into the semi finals the team lost a well fought match. I think this was something to build upon but sadly we are not going to see any progress.

 

Afridi, Intikhab Alam, Aaqib Javed and Kamran seem in no way fazed by the rules governing giving interviews and for statements to the media. Their remarks in the press are aimed at trying to create a pressure for reselection.

 

Yawar Saeed seems to once again be scheming to bring Afridi back into the race for Test Captaincy. The fact that he made a miserable Captain in Twenty20 does not seem to matter.

 

In the meantime, the Arbitrator is taking his own good time passing a judgment on Younis Khan and one could possibly feel the real reason for this to keep him out of the reckoning for the Asia Cup.

 

Whilst no doubt all international tournaments are important, one feels that this one should be used for building up a new team. A new young team could be ideally led by an honest daring person like Younis Khan. The team should be shed of the schemers and all those that met and took an oath to act against him.

 

I would suggest that Kamran deserves to be dropped in favour of a young wicketkeeper and we should see 4 or five new faces. I know that this may deny us a chance to win.

 

I believe that with our present squad led by Afridi we have no chance to best India and Sri Lanka. We should remember that we go to England in the summer for two series against England and Australia and the plan should be to put up a fighting performance in those series.

 

Our best chance for that is a young unit which is well led and plays like a united, young and fit team.

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2010 Cdr. Malik Arshed Gilani)