Just a few hours after his dismissal from the lucrative post of chairman selection committee of Pakistan cricket team, former Test cricketer Haroon Rasheed lost his temper and sense. In an interview to a widely circulated Urdu daily, he asked how he would pass his daily life as he was living on rent and his mother was ill and he had to live on footpath after being kicked out by the PCB.
Haroon had been in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for more than 20 years on various lucrative positions and had become a leech of Pakistan cricket. But only a day after losing the job, he started abusing the PCB.
It is really embarrassing for Pakistani cricket that a person who had occupied lucrative posts for a long time started talking like this only a day after being removed. Not only the PCB high officials but also the government should take notice of this man’s attitude. This man has the gall to say such things when he has miserably failed to perform his duty — that of selecting a team that can win!
How Haroon presented his case of supposed “suffering and poverty” just a few hours after his termination should be enough to open the eyes of cricket authorities and the government. What type of people — shameless and greedy — have been running the affairs of the country’s most popular game!
Haroon remained chairman selection committee, senior cricket team manager, director National Cricket Academy, head of Youth Development, coach of Pakistan Under 19s and chief of game development. All these were highly paying jobs — he got no less than Rs200,000 a month.
As chairman selection committee, he was drawing around Rs500,000 a month and just after his removal he said he was empty handed and unable to pay the rent of his residence.
The PCB is not a philanthropy institution. It is not supposed to provide every former cricketer with a job.
But it seems the government still has its eyes closed. It has failed to see the deterioration and decline of Pakistan cricket, which is and has been in the grip of such narrow-minded people.
These few people have been playing a musical chairs game. After each calamity, someone who has done nothing while in important positions previously is called in.
Because the performance of the national cricket team was extremely poor in the Asia Cup and the World T20 and there was so much public pressure, the PCB had to do something for face saving. So it removed Haroon. It will not be surprising if he comes back in a different position very soon.
Everybody was expecting the termination of Haroon, dismissal of coach Waqar Younis and replacement of skipper Shahid Afridi because PCB’s top hierarchy wanted to save themselves from a backlash.
Pakistan have lost three World Cups with the current chiefs: the 2014 World T20, the 2015 ODI World Cup, and now the 2016 World T20. There have been various other debacles, including the defeats against minnows Bangladesh.
PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan and executive committee chairman Najam Sethi have thus succeeded in avoiding criticism from the cricket-crazy Pakistanis.
But it seems that the nation will not be satisfied with this old game of PCB. It desires a complete cleanup in the PCB.
It is time an operation “Zarb-e-Azab” was launched in the PCB to clean the mess or Pakistan cricket will reach the bottom and the situation will become the same as in hockey.
India will never allow our cricket to progress. This is why they have not been inviting Pakistani players for the IPL. There is a lot of difference in the quality of cricket of those who play in that league and those who don’t.
The senseless leaders of PCB do not know anything about cricket, what to talk of the modern cricket. They are there only to mint money. They do not care where their decisions lead Pakistan cricket to.