Gone for now and gone forever
Enough has been said and much has been on paper about this issue. The news is Pakistan no more stands in the list of hosting countries for the cricket world cup 2011. Few days ago ICC announced in its meeting that Pakistan is being eradicated from the list of hosting nations for the forthcoming cricket world cup.
This decision has not only dented the hearts of cricket lovers in Pakistan but also has put a bung on any likelihood of international cricket match in Pakistan for at least 2 years.
We have been watching and reading many comments, interviews and statements from different people about this verdict. Majority of them rebuked ICC for this tough decision and some of them put PCB in the firing line. But the fact to me is that the PCB itself is a biggest culprit for that.
Let’s just scrutinize the security conditions in the other hosting countries. Take Srilanka first where Tamil tigers are notorious for spreading terrorism in the country. More than trice they assailed the areas where cricket was being played or about to play. Once it happened with Newzealand in 1992, when they were touring Srilanka and in the middle of the series an attack happened in the area which was quite near to the hotel where Kiwi team was residing. Many players of Newzealand team decided to call their names off from the touring team but rest were willing to continue the tour, so tour continued and kiwi team concluded their tour as per program. Similar instance happened in 1996 when Australian team was about to arrive in Srilanka and just two weeks before their arrival few bomb blasts were made by Tamil tigers in Colombo but Aussies didn’t call off their tour and it went according to schedule.
Few instances in India also happened and one of them happened recently few months ago, when Mumbai was attacked by a group of terrorists England cricket team was touring India for seven ODIs and three test match series. That incident only forced England to return back to their country but just after few weeks they came back to India and completed their tour with reduced number of matches.
Now come to Pakistan’s situation, teams are reluctant to tour Pakistan right after 9/11 incident. Australia is a biggest opposing candidate, they snubbed to play at Pakistani soil both in 2002 and 2008, both the tours were shifted to neutral venues.
Despite that other teams toured Pakistan and these tours went well and with out producing any mishap. Just take a look at the tours of the few teams in past:
Everything seems good and favorable for Pakistan except the last one. The latest tour of Srilanka to our country ended or rather called off in most unfortunate mode. It has its own significance. As I depicted earlier in this article about the different mishaps occurred in Srilanka and India prior or during the tour, this latest incident (terrorists’ attack) with Srilanka team is prominent and unique in its sort. Because that was first time in the history of the cricket (or I guess in any sports) that a team is attacked or besieged directly. Nobody knows the goals which terrorists wanted to achieve by attacking a sports team and I guess this is not a right forum to discuss it but that incident had started a cooling period for Pakistan cricket.
In my previous blog namely “Cricket under attack”, I described the irresponsible display of Pakistan Cricket Board in providing security to Srilankan team (read that blog for more details). Also the statements given by great Mr. Ijaz Butt chairman PCB, in which he said that providing and ensuring security to touring team is the sole responsibility of Provincial Government (Punjab Government in that instance) and PCB can’t be held responsible for that, had made some drastic impact on PCB’s imagery in front of other countries. Because everyone knows who ensured Srilankan team that their security will be of Presidential level, its PCB who ensured that not the Punjab or Sind governments.
In my opinion current PCB management is the whole sole responsible of that debacle and also it is responsible for the repercussion of that incident due to which Pakistan lost the hosting of World Cup 2011 (that could earn million of dollars as revenue). It looks pretty unimaginable that cricket will return to Pakistan in next few years, if it happens then it will be a humdinger for us.
As a Pakistani I am sad, as a cricket lover I am feeling dented. I believe that “it has gone for now and it has gone forever”.
This decision has not only dented the hearts of cricket lovers in Pakistan but also has put a bung on any likelihood of international cricket match in Pakistan for at least 2 years.
We have been watching and reading many comments, interviews and statements from different people about this verdict. Majority of them rebuked ICC for this tough decision and some of them put PCB in the firing line. But the fact to me is that the PCB itself is a biggest culprit for that.
Let’s just scrutinize the security conditions in the other hosting countries. Take Srilanka first where Tamil tigers are notorious for spreading terrorism in the country. More than trice they assailed the areas where cricket was being played or about to play. Once it happened with Newzealand in 1992, when they were touring Srilanka and in the middle of the series an attack happened in the area which was quite near to the hotel where Kiwi team was residing. Many players of Newzealand team decided to call their names off from the touring team but rest were willing to continue the tour, so tour continued and kiwi team concluded their tour as per program. Similar instance happened in 1996 when Australian team was about to arrive in Srilanka and just two weeks before their arrival few bomb blasts were made by Tamil tigers in Colombo but Aussies didn’t call off their tour and it went according to schedule.
Few instances in India also happened and one of them happened recently few months ago, when Mumbai was attacked by a group of terrorists England cricket team was touring India for seven ODIs and three test match series. That incident only forced England to return back to their country but just after few weeks they came back to India and completed their tour with reduced number of matches.
Now come to Pakistan’s situation, teams are reluctant to tour Pakistan right after 9/11 incident. Australia is a biggest opposing candidate, they snubbed to play at Pakistani soil both in 2002 and 2008, both the tours were shifted to neutral venues.
Despite that other teams toured Pakistan and these tours went well and with out producing any mishap. Just take a look at the tours of the few teams in past:
| Year | Touring Team | Number of Matches | Problem | Status |
| 2002 | NewZealand | 3 ODIs and 2 Tests | Bomb blast at Karachi near PC hotel where kiwi team was staying | Postponed |
| 2002 | NewZealand (returning tour) | 5 ODIs | None | Successfully completed |
| 2003 | South Africa | 5 ODIs 2 Tests | None | Successfully completed |
| 2004 | India | 5 ODIs 3 Tests | None | Successfully completed |
| 2004 | Srilanka | 3 ODIs 2 Tests | None | Successfully completed |
| 2005 | England | 5 ODIs 3 Tests | None | Successfully completed |
| 2006 | India | 5 ODIs 3 Tests | None | Successfully completed |
| 2007 | South Africa | 5 ODIs 2 Tests | None | Successfully completed |
| 2008 | Srilanka, India, Bangladesh, Hongkong, UAE | Asia Cup | None | Successfully completed |
| 2009 | Srilanka | 3 ODIs | None | Successfully completed |
| 2009 | Srilanka | 2 Test | Srilankan team was attacked and targeted directly by a group of terrorists | Called off |
Everything seems good and favorable for Pakistan except the last one. The latest tour of Srilanka to our country ended or rather called off in most unfortunate mode. It has its own significance. As I depicted earlier in this article about the different mishaps occurred in Srilanka and India prior or during the tour, this latest incident (terrorists’ attack) with Srilanka team is prominent and unique in its sort. Because that was first time in the history of the cricket (or I guess in any sports) that a team is attacked or besieged directly. Nobody knows the goals which terrorists wanted to achieve by attacking a sports team and I guess this is not a right forum to discuss it but that incident had started a cooling period for Pakistan cricket.
In my previous blog namely “Cricket under attack”, I described the irresponsible display of Pakistan Cricket Board in providing security to Srilankan team (read that blog for more details). Also the statements given by great Mr. Ijaz Butt chairman PCB, in which he said that providing and ensuring security to touring team is the sole responsibility of Provincial Government (Punjab Government in that instance) and PCB can’t be held responsible for that, had made some drastic impact on PCB’s imagery in front of other countries. Because everyone knows who ensured Srilankan team that their security will be of Presidential level, its PCB who ensured that not the Punjab or Sind governments.
In my opinion current PCB management is the whole sole responsible of that debacle and also it is responsible for the repercussion of that incident due to which Pakistan lost the hosting of World Cup 2011 (that could earn million of dollars as revenue). It looks pretty unimaginable that cricket will return to Pakistan in next few years, if it happens then it will be a humdinger for us.
As a Pakistani I am sad, as a cricket lover I am feeling dented. I believe that “it has gone for now and it has gone forever”.
i agree 100% with asim its just a matter of being denial to pakistan and pakistan cricket the monpoly of indian cricket is telling its influence on this game...
ReplyDeletethanks alot for your comment
ReplyDeleteVery good post Asim, just adding to what you mentioned here that PCB is currently run by quite a few incompetent people, At this point of time Cricket boards one of the main responsibilities is Lobbying for its country, which PCB has failed to do miserably, Pakistani cricket is currently considered as a liability on the cricketing world and its not on anyone's top agenda, Obvioulsy indian govt & BCCI has also played a big role in isolating Pakistani cricket from main stream and it has done it very sucessfully, But no any can deny the fact that if the attack on srilankan team had not happened, the situtaion would be same
ReplyDeleteAsim, you are absolutely right. Yes we are facing these kinds of issues in Pakistan, no body is trust on us and we are d evaluating our values.
ReplyDeleteWe need to think about that, and we have to work on that, how can we promote cricket on Pakistan and we should have to display on us a 'Good Piece Muslim' in the whole work.
Totally agree with you and with Irfan too it was PCBs fault before and later too when they simply denied to accept that its their fault, keep writing :)
ReplyDeleteI think Pakistanis as a nation dont deserve any international match. Blame PCB, Blame, Punjab Govt, Blame Salman Taseer, or blame anyone, everybody is equally responsible.
ReplyDeleteGood one.
ReplyDeleteI can understand the feelings of overseas players and boards when they flatly deny Pakistan tours (specially now) becasue every 2nd Pakistani here in US and Canada replies "marna thoree hai" to the question "when are you planning to visit Pakistan?".
We have no one else but ourselves to blame. We as a nation, PCB as a professional body and GOVT as an authority are responsible to all this.