Ringside View: Pakistani soap opera

Scene:
- Six defeats in the last 10 one-day games, and the Pakistan cricket team falls apart at the seam.
- Five players out of the series against the Aussies, due possibly to a forced leave of absence or through injury.
- Coach stands sacked embarrassingly and that too, midway through the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, to be replaced reportedly by a foreign coach who a year ago was being accused of deserting his charge.
- A seminar held by the PCB to ascertain the reasons for the sharp decline and it came up with the same solutions that all knew beforehand anyway.
- Widespread media publicity of 'match-fixing' and investigations by the ACU using videotapes surface again after the opener in Colombo.
- Reports of scandals and infighting within the team and management culminating in an embarrassing estrangement of Yousuf Youhana and then re-instatement only to discover he does have a shoulder injury.
- Plenty more one can list.

Act 1: What's this all about?
Signs of panic? Definitely, but why? Every team hits a bad patch now and then. And defeat too is habit-forming as much as winning. Pakistan was definitely handicapped due to complacency, the absence of a sound strategy and, partly as a result of both and fitness problems; deprived of the right combinations. With back-to-back events, matches were really crammed together to not allow anyone to take stock. Still, it goes without saying, that the management and the boys could have done a whole lot better.

That said, while the cricket-following public has been taken aback by the string of reverses, especially because these came after the enthralling series win over Australia in Australia as recently as June, which lifted not just the morale of the team but swelled the sense of national pride, but nowhere has the disappointment reached the level of craze which could be phrased a 'public outcry', as one local newspaper would have us believe. No effigies have been burnt (yet!) and the players' houses have not been stoned (yet!), the PCB headquarters and other regional offices across the country remain unharmed too.

Act 2: Suspicions?
The word on the street in Lahore was that there must be more to it than a mere run of collective bad form, and between knowing winks and sly innuendo, one could make out that people blame it on the ambitions of a certain southpaw and his enormous ability to influence mates and put a spanner in the works.

But then, these accusations remain unchanged since the mid 1990s whenever the team has lost. So one has to take such aspersions with a pinch of salt.

But the question is, why panic? And does it suit the team on the eve of an important series in which, as things stand, Pakistan is to take part on neutral grounds without a 'home advantage', wounded in soul and handicapped in body. Whether these sackings, and a hastily-arranged seminar (where former great and not-so-great cricketers invariably offered the same advice which was already crying to be heard in some of the more well thought out match reports if someone had cared to read) prove to be a solution is indeed a point of conjecture.

Act 3: Action
If you look back at his term in office, the PCB Chairman has alternately used sacking the primadonnas and pampering them as a motivational tool and to keep the potential troublemakers on the straight and narrow. One has to concede, that this strategy has had a pretty decent measure of success in the past. Especially last year when he sacked Moin Khan, installed Waqar Younis as captain and brought back Rashid Latif as keeper-batsman. So, put in a spot, he again perhaps thought he has done enough of the pampering and it was prudent to apply the sacking mode this time around. The question remains whether a goat was sacrificed while the tigers roam free?

The Actors:
Would it work this time? One is not into crystal-gazing, but logical deduction says that it would not, or at least not wholly. And anything less than that would not do, considering the assignments leading up to World Cup 2003.

For one, the punishments do not seem even-handed. The coach, Mudassar Nazar, rendered ineffective long before he 'relinquished' his assignment, has been sacked but not the manager. And the manager's responsibility in ensuring cohesion and team spirit was far more than the coach's, and that he has failed in it requires no proof. It is evident from the handling of the Yousuf Youhana affair and sending him back home, which was 'overblown' (The Chairman's own words).

Secondly, the team doctor who refused to treat Youhana despite the latter's entreaties spread over days has gone absolutely scot-free, at least so far. It is entirely another thing that most sides do not have a team doctor on tours these days as hosts provide medical assistance in abundance. So, in essence what we have is a joyrider with preferences about who would he attend to and when.

Thirdly, there is this perception that Youhana has opted out by feigning injury. Even if this perception is wrong (and in that case it needs quelling on the part of the PCB as the media reports say he has a hairline fracture), it is still bad enough because it conveys that the top pros, despite this being their vocation, are choosing to stay out for the moment.

Fourthly, the recall of Moin and the 'resting' of Rashid, despite a flawless performance as keeper and a pretty decent one as a batsman. Rashid has denied he had requested for rest, and Younis has come out in his support. But more than sidelining Rashid - which, should it transpire, would be a travesty of justice in itself - it is the recall of Moin which raises one's heckles. For one, Moin has played next to no competitive cricket this season. Even the PCB chief believed that he needed to get in his 'groove' by featuring in the 'A' team. Wicket-keeping is not an issue, for Rashid is streets ahead of him there, and in batting, Moin made 10-odd against the visiting Lankan second eleven at Faisalabad. In this form, his induction would surely be further good news for the Aussies!

While one is on the subject, Moin was sacked last year not only because his performance behind the stumps (which was never beyond adequate at best, the overbearing noise not notwithstanding) and in front of it, there wasn't just a dip, it had gone to pieces. Since some people in the Board seem to be victims of selective amnesia, one may care to remind them that instead of looking after the Board's interest as captain, among other things, Moin incited player power, and deliberately led a number of his charges into a dubious deal that put the PCB in thick soup with its official sponsor. Wriggling out of the fiasco itself was an ugly, expensive and nightmarish exercise that has only just been resolved.

That was not all; Moin was even accused of leaking information (which the PCB then deemed as disinformation) to certain journalists. Is it a mere coincidence that these same journalists have consistently turned on the heat on the PCB for Moin's recall, even if it meant induction in the squad?

Ending or a beginning?
Lastly, while the PCB at one hand is trying to discipline others through sackings, what kind of message would the recall of a former captain send to the team? Especially when the same person had been ousted on flouting discipline beyond repair only just over a year ago.

Will the opera ever end and now we are again confronted with 'bad press' associated with match-fixing allegations, vague clarifications, names being used of the ACU and ICC and what not!