The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), even after having experience of senior cricketing stalwarts, is incapable of appointing captain for the Pakistan team on merit. Even after witnessing the poor form of Azhar Ali as batsman, he is still entrusted to bear the load of captaincy on his shoulders.
His poor form in the game depicts that he does not justify his own position as an opening batsman in the team. First he is a batsman and then he is a captain. If he can’t perform to his basic role then he must not be trusted to bear additional load in the game. Instead, comparatively, Sarfraz Ahmed has shown good performance and has led from front in UK as well as in UAE as far as the Twenty20 is concerned.
It shows, however, that he is far better a captain than is Azhar Ali. The PCB must give Sarfraz, additional responsibility of captaincy of one-day team as well. Besides, the wicketkeeper is always termed as best captains as they are good readers of the game whether the team bowls or bat.
In decades when we face war on terrorism as nation and there aren’t any team visiting Pakistan to play tournament on home grounds and ranking wise team is also dwindling and a stage has arisen where the national team has to qualify for big tournaments; also demands that a turnaround strategy is required.
This turnaround strategy in turn demands that merit be adopted for team selection in its true essence. Our cricketers are ambassadors of Pakistan when they go oversee to play tournaments and matches.
Their attitude on ground and out of the stadia reflects on Pakistan. People get hurt when they hear stories of corruption and match fixing which mostly happens due to our player’s fault. The board has to look up ways to make our cricketers either literate or select players who are mature and literate.
We are generally speaking as well as from the point of view of economy are facing 4th generation war as singled out nation and paying price for being a nuclear power nation. Our enemy and neighbour, India, is just cashing in and has so far pushed us aside. As a result of changes taking place so rapidly on a broad spectrum we have lost our prestigious stance and are gradually phasing out from the game of cricket.
We might have by should the game is not alive in our youth. Although, demoralized they are but they still love cricket as it pulsates in their blood. Every situation has an impact and this demoralization has also impacted a little in shape of popularity of football and base ball games in the country. This is the first time that Pakistan Base Ball Team is representing Pakistan to qualify for a tournament in USA. Similarly, more football clubs have become active in the country and it is yet to be seen as to when the Field Hockey also becomes active in Pakistan.
The cricket history of Pakistan has remained outstanding as we have played and won matches against all the top teams of the world but our present state of affairs are so poor that it looks like we have no natural talent coming up these days in the team. Who is responsible for all this? Is the PCB held responsible for corruption that breathes in their folds or the selection favouritism?
It is, though, desired that someone clean the dirty bills of PCB to strengthen the national team again. May, I live to see that day!