Whether its progressing through to the top as a Cricketer or as a top professional in any organization, there is no short cut to the top and every individual has to go through a certain progression process. That’s where the raw passion for the sports and demands of professional excellence meet to constitute successful entities in modern day professional sports.
Unlike in amateur sports, where everything is up to individual – from performance, to preparation, to execution – there is nothing left to individuals in a professional team sport. From the support staff in the dug out to the guy managing the transportation of the players to the ground, there are many individuals in that ecosystem who constitutes a successful professional team.
Performance of the players in the field is the most critical but not the only factor for the success of the team. The shares of responsibility go all the way up to the top individual in the administration. For that matter, the requirements of competence and excellence need to be the same for both players and administrators.
To establish a competence and excellence based environment the methods need to be uniform and fair for everyone. The administrators and facilitators should also follow the same path to prominence as the players. Players and administrators are two wheels of the same cart and the cart can work not when either of them performs at optimum level but only when both of them are in-tune and in-synch with each other.
Just like a Cricketer, no administrator or support staff should be inducted directly at the board or national team level. All competent and interested individuals should come through a system that should start at the grass-root level – whether in Pakistan or outside.
Be it the coach, selector, manager, support staff or even Chairman of the board, they all must start at a level lower than handling of National Team. Pakistan Cricket Team should not be treated as testing vehicle for individuals. Instead, it should only be given in the hands of people who have already experienced the lower level of Pakistan Cricket and have proved their performance and competence.
If the objective is the performance and the target is competence then Pakistan Cricket will have to adopt global practices of professional excellence. But if the objective is just to use the International norms as a convenient excuse to justify and facilitate the incompetence and dominance of opportunists in Pakistan Cricket then it may continue to mark “All-OK” and go back to what they are doing for decades now. But then, the fans and supporters of Pakistan Cricket should not expect any difference of results in the decades to come either.
As they say, you reap what you sow and if you expect oranges from an apple tree, you only have yourself to blame for it.