Ringside View: Return of the self-serving prima donnas?

SHARJAH-The Pakistan cricket team's debacle against the best outfit in contemporary cricket has left everybody here, including the captain, the management and many aficionados of the game in a state of absolute shock. And it has brought out the not-so-predictable response from the powers-that-be. Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, the PCB Chairman, has presented his resignation to the Patron, who happens to be the President of Pakistan.

It remains to be seen whether the resignation is accepted or not, for the President, according to a PCB press release, has advised Tauqir Zia that he would discuss it on his return from a visit to Turkey.

"I feel down and embarrassed with my team's performance. And although the same boys fought excellently in the first Test, I believe being the chairman of the Pakistan Board I have to take responsibility for such a poor performance", said Tauqir Zia.

If the chairman's resignation is accepted, the newly-installed PCB director too is likely to go, as Chishty Mujahid simultaneously submitted his resignation to the chairman. "I'm not going to accept his resignation and will hopefully succeed in convincing him to continue in the job", said the chairman.

Talking to this correspondent on phone from Rawalpindi, Tauqir Zia added that he had tried his utmost during his tenure to curb the unpredictability in the performances of the Pakistan team, and had partially succeeded too as the success graph before the current dip was reasonably good. "But this latest disaster has left me absolutely distraught", said Tauqir Zia, and hence, "The honourable thing for me was to resign".

In the meanwhile, Richard Pybus, coach of the Pakistan team, commenting on the resignation of the PCB chairman, said: "It's disappointing to hear that. It would be disturbing for the team. I just hope that there is some reconsideration in that".

Things, said Pybus, are shaping up for Pakistan cricket. "There are lots of positives coming out. Saqlain was out of the team, now he is back and taking wickets. Shoaib Akhtar is taking wickets. So there are lots of positives. All we need is to make these players battle-hardened. If an Australian player is replaced, anybody flying in here is ready. We need that. I am hopeful that our South African hemisphere tours will be good ones".

The important question is whether, the PCB chairman's resignation at this juncture, when the World Cup is only four months and a bit away, would help resolve the issues dogging Pakistan cricket or precipitate things further?

In the post-Imran Khan era, which has now stretched beyond a decade, the malady of 'player power' and the scandals spawned because of it - such as revolts against various captains, the match-fixing scandals and the blatant blackmail of the PCB officials - have alternately wracked Pakistan cricket.

Though there were honourable exceptions, who tried to curb player power, such as the former PCB CEO Majid Khan, but for one reason or another such sporadic efforts remained unsuccessful.

In the present context, when Pakistan had already lost six out of its last 10 one-dayers with all the non-performing veterans in the team, it indeed was brave of the Board to field a side overloaded with greenhorns against a champion outfit like Australia. Though it fought gallantly, and with a little more luck may have forced a major fluke, at Colombo, here at Sharjah once the Aussies assumed total ascendancy right from the outset, it sank without trace.

But the conjecture here is: whether it would have performed better with Saeed Anwar and Wasim Akram - the two fit but discarded veterans, while Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana weren't available owing to injuries? Their recent track record doesn't suggest that they would have changed the course of the match in a significant manner.

So, does this signal the end of the experimentation with youth? Would Tauqir Zia's resignation, if it is accepted, also coincide with the sacking of the young ones who had showed such promise at Colombo but withered in the heat and Aussie pressure in Sharjah? Should they not be given a fair run?

This writer for one believes that the course of opting for youth was the right one, even though it has in the short run, resulted in a most dismal showing. Whatever made the PCB adopt this path, regardless of the current depressing scenario it is a whole lot better than remaining hostage to the whims, fancies and machinations of self-serving prima donnas.