Kaptaan – We look towards you for rescuing the Pakistan Cricket

Pakistan Need both the leaders to stand for Pakistan Cricket again and bring cricket back to Pakistan

Before Pakistan goes for yet another “home series” scheduled to be played in the UAE, the PCB and the Government of Pakistan must come to an unambiguous conclusion as to where they want the Pakistan Cricket be destined to; Pakistan or abroad?

It’s been more than four and a half years now that Pakistan played their home series within Pakistan for the last time. The terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore, and the Spot Fixing scandal surfaced in London worsened everything related to the Pakistan cricket.

Looking at such a bleak scenario, the Cricket gurus had started predicting that Pakistan would face a life-ban. At this stage, the emergence of a hero, they call him Misbah ul Haq, took place. He, in those gloomy times, not only earned respect for the homeland but also lead the team from front and clean-swept the then world number one, England. Misery, it was again a home series played offshore.

Misbah had been facing sheer criticism for his deceptively defensive approach right from the moment he started facing the ball for his nation. It would be interesting to note nevertheless that more the criticism got fiercer, more his performance became scintillating. He out-shined his fellows home and abroad in all forms of cricket; T20, ODI and Test.

Known in cricketing circles as Mr. Consistency, Misbah ul Haq managed his team to successfully keep from any ugly controversies.

Known in non-cricketing circles as Mr TukTuk, Misbah has been being conferred upon substantial appreciation from the stalwarts of the sport. Ex-cricketers like Wasim Akram, Basit Ali, Mohsin Khan and many other cricketers, and even the PCB Chairman argue for Misbah that he has almost always to start with TukTuk due to the disaster taken place in the batting line up of the team shivering and sobbing at the humiliating score 3/20, 4/26,3/43 or even worse. To them, the real ailment is not Misbah’s slowly blooming innings, but it is his fellow batters’ below-average performance.

Be it South Africa, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe or India, our talented batsmen like Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Umar Amin and Adnan Akmal get miserably flopped in performing well on the batting tracks. And the nonsensically alleged baabay of the team, Misbah and Younis, have to rescue their failing men. None of the young batsmen could perform in Zimbabwe or in India when it was really required. The only victory at Harare in Zimbabwe and in India in the Champions’ League was actually earned by none other than these baabaas of the team.

WHY TO BRING CRICKET BACK?

When we ponder over the apparent reasons of the utter failure of the young batsmen playing abroad, we come to the conclusion that unfortunately none of them has played even one match at the Pakistani soil. None of them did debut their career at home.

How would they gain confidence if they are never provided with a chance to play on their soil, among their people? Playing on the home-ground among the home-crowd is the key. Playing at home generally helps kick-start the careers of the legends-to-be. Pakistani batsmen are not performing well because they are not exposed to the world’s best bowlers at their own soil. It is interesting to note that the world class players are seen to be struggling when they are on a tour, whereas the home teams’ players get confidence while playing at their home grounds. They improve their record, their technique and their confidence. Cricket boards prefer to start their young players’ careers from the home series. Conforming to the very philosophy, the BCCI has ensured that their first class cricketers be provided with a couple of months every year (until 2020) to play at their soil. They’ve got ICC’s Future Tour Program designed according to their needs; however the PCB doesn’t bother to have even a glance at this scheme, what to talk of adopting it for her players.

During the IPL, entire world comes to play cricket in India and their average players get an exposure of playing against world’s best cricketers in an environment which is conducive enough for them to learn. This is how they improve their skills. Even their seniors get confidence from this league.

Let’s have a look at the miraculous outcomes of playing at the home ground: England won Ashes at their home. Zimbabwe beat Pakistan in their home series. India won 4-0 against Australia in India. Australia is hoping to get Ashes trophy back in 2015 when they will be playing in Australia. South Africa bowled three teams out below 50 at their home.

Alas! the Pakistani cricketers do not get a chance of playing against the best cricketers on their own soil.

Icing on the cake, the pitches in the UAE will not be prepared by the Pakistani curators. Instead, the ICC curators would prepare them. Suppose, the pitches are prepared with the consultation of the Pakistani curators, according to the aspirations of the team, still it will not equate playing within Pakistan, for the UAE will remain the UAE, and expat spectators cannot replace the natives.

PCB can do one thing only and it is, to provide Pakistani cricketers to provide as many chances as possible within the country and by helping them get contracts in different international leagues. Young batsmen need to have exposure of different grounds, quality fast and spin bowlers and competitive cricket at all levels. PCB must ensure it as I said in my article published in Daily Tribune.

Dear PM, please invite Kaptan and assign him a task to revive and bring cricket back to Pakistan. 

How to bring cricket back

This is for the first time in the history of Pakistan, and is a pleasant coincidence, that the Prime Minister and and the leader of the 3^rd largest political party have been playing professional cricket when they were young. The PM has played first class cricket and the PTI chief has been a Test cricketer. Both of them know the importance of the question as to why cricket should be brought back to Pakistan without any further delay. In the writer’s opinion, acting upon these points as soon as possible might save the Pakistan cricket from any further deterioration:

1.    The Prime Minister himself should talk to the Kaptaan in order to seek for his help to bring cricket back; for Imran Khan is one of the most influential and charismatic cricketers of the history of the game. And if, the PM does not bother to call in him, the Kaptaan should take an initiative and offer his services, for the sake of Pakistan.

a.    The Kaptaan should be given a task to visit all test playing countries on a war-footing and talk to the boards to send their teams to Pakistan and give personal guarantee for the fool-proof security. He can even quote that the chief minister of Punjab has already done a marvelous job by brining international players to Pakistan and ensuring that they play here without worrying about their security.

b.    Imran Khan must negotiate with the ICC as Pakistan needs a person who can advocate her cause in the best possible manner. Imran has a rich record of earning respect by winning the Ball-Tempering case against Ian Botham, and bringing the final of World Cup 1996 to Lahore which was supposed to be played in India. It was Imran who convinced the officials to select Lahore as the venue for the final.

c.     The Kaptaan has developed a great team from the corporate sector which can guide him as to how he should fight for Pakistan at the international level

d.    The Kaptaan must negotiate with the ICC to visit Pakistan and check security measures. The state should also help Imran in talking to ICC with the evidences of those events when international teams (hockey, kabaddi etc) visited Pakistan and were taken care of properly by the Punjab government

2.    The bone of contention remains the players’ security. The Kaptaan can also convince the government to bring the culprits of 2009 attacks to justice, so that cricketing world may trust Pakistan. Spectators can expect a positive response from a cricketer-turned-Prime Minister who ensured Faisalabad team’ presence in the Champions’ League.

3.    The PM visited Turkey recently and invited the investors to invest in Pakistan. He is a businessman who can have his own cricket franchise and invite world’s best businessmen to invest and develop their own franchises for Pakistan Super League. He can use his team to ensure the best ROI (Return-On-Investment) to the investors. Business can be attracted from the non-cricket-playing nations even.

A cricket fan knows that asking for bringing the sport back to the soil is not equal to asking for the moon, especially when the whole nation has witnessed her politicians uniting for the cause of Pakistan on the floor of the APC.

Kaptan Shakehand with PM and help Pakistan ... We need you for cricket again...