Your opinion people...my thoughts in The News today. PCB gets its test If the Board wants to cut down its costs then it should better start by getting rid of its incompetent directors By Sohaib Alvi It seems to be the week of long knives at the Gaddafi Stadium. It probably hasn’t sensed such a buzz since Colonel Gaddafi, the late ruler of Libya, gave a speech here in 1974. And it seems there’s going to be the same chaos and confusion as on that winter day almost 40 years ago, not least because the Libyan leader gave his entire speech in Arabic. Imagine the faces of the Sheedas and Fiqas a few seconds into the speech. So what is it this time that reminds me of that chaotic day? Well once again this “foreigner” has come to speak in his own language and it’s one that the people gathered there by the last few chairmen don’t understand; primarily because it is the language of accountability, rationalisation and audit. If you recall the movie “Up In The Air” George Clooney plays the role of the consultant who is hired by top managements all over the US to downsize the staff in their organisations; he is constantly flying across America, and a typical day for him is arriving by the morning flight, calling in the few dozen unfortunate employees one by one and firing them there and then. By the evening he’s on another flight to serve another client in another city. Ironic that the man sent here to do the hatchet job and trim the PCB, Amir Tariq Zaman, holds the grade of Additional Secretary. Ironic because additions are the last thing in his mind and subtraction is the only problem he is here to solve. The PCB wanted a Test match here since 2009. Well now they’ve got it. The only thing is everyone at the top and middle is calling their connections to call it off. In a column here a couple of weeks back I wrote that the PCB has done away with the internationally played Kookaburra balls because they were costing some Rs5 million extra. My solution was to fire one director and keep the Kookaburra balls. Seems that if the Additional Secretary does his job, we’ll have enough money to play with Kookaburra balls for the next three seasons. Sad that it has come to this. Some are basically very fine people whose names are being bandied about for the guillotine. Javed Miandad, for one, is a legendary batsman and tactician. To remove him from the DG post would be embarrassing for him. He was one person who kept asking for authority and responsibility. But, as almost everyone was saying, he should have held his self respect and brand name as priority and walked off some time ago. Having said that, I don’t think it would have saved any money for the PCB. They would have put in a friend and relative of some influential in his place and the job description, responsibilities, accountability and KPIs would have stayed gathering dust in the drawer. At least Javed was ready for an opportunity where he could put his experience into play. Another person that would be unfairly asked to pack his bags is Haroon Rasheed. I’ve interviewed him personally on a few occasions (though not since he got a job in the PCB after which I didn’t seem to exist for him, except to make a call once every two or three years asking me not to be too critical of the PCB’s top management in my columns). He at least has a plan, sticks to it and works hard in implementing it. He has no suspicious past; you never see him trying to hog the limelight and he has done much to improve the cricket at the grassroots level. Yes, he has been accused of taking advantage of his presence to push one or two of his brothers into some key positions in the coaching section when there were other candidates who could probably have been better placed to do the job. But then that is our culture unfortunately. We do look out for our family ahead of merit. If nepotism has to be eliminated, it will be better if it starts with the Rana brothers being told to pack their bags. These people have literally acted as Gaddafi Stadium is their second home and have little to show other than touring as managers and coaches. Zakir has apparently not been very proactive in the jobs he has held. One reason can be that he doesn’t go around telling everyone the burden he is carrying or what he has done or achieved. Another can be that he actually isn’t proactive. Either way it needs to be seen whether he carries the right set of skills required for that position. I feel there are more educated and more experienced ex-cricketers than him who would do a better job. I mean someone like Iqbal Sikander, the former leg spinner who played in the 1992 World Cup and has been working in key positions in the Asian Cricket Council due to his education and qualifications. But I doubt he would be interested in getting into the domineering culture of the PCB as it stands now. But yes, I would like to see people like Intikhab Alam thrown out. He has done too much damage by my estimation. He has been accused of pitting one player against another, was a failure as a captain, publicly made fun of Shoaib Akhtar’s infection in front of media and had the audacity to criticise Danish Kaneria, when the youngster has a far better bowling average and strike rate than he ever had. In fact, he comes at the bottom of all leg spinners who have played for Pakistan. Wasim Bari is an example of selfishness and inefficiency at their worst. The man has little stomach to bear pressure whatever may be the position. He had the gall to once have an ODI against South Africa made into his benefit match when he has all the trappings of a rich executive due to his role as a director in PIA, again a post I wonder if he was ever qualified for. And which man would not have the self respect to go home after being replaced as the CEO of the PCB; the gentleman actually accepted a lower level job with some glorious designation. I mean, is it that in this whole country of amazingly talented executives and hard working principled people, we can only pick from existing resources and shuffle them around? Shafiq Papa is another whose position is being questioned. A fine soft-spoken man he has quietly gone about his business over the last several years of playing havoc with the domestic schedule. It has at times been astronomically stupid. There have been instances when he didn’t realise that a tournament was falling in the month of Ramadan. At times dates and venues of matches were changed at the very last minute; and then every other season has a different format. And he was there when the illegal decision was made to allow one departmental side to retain their position in the first division after they had been relegated according to results; and the top team from the second tier was to take up their position in the first division, as per rules set out at the start of the season. My article archives for the past 33 years, and especially the last ten, are filled with examples of nepotism, selfishness, questionable decisions, lack of ethics and downright stupidity in the PCB. It is enough of a criminalising dossier in itself, or at least of where to look and which file to open. There is the fear that eventually a few gardeners and gatekeepers will be fired as happened in 2007 or whereabouts when some 60-odd lower ranking staff were knocked off by the incumbent CEO, Shafqat Naghmi, a serving bureaucrat. The next day the chairman Nasim Ashraf played Robin Hood and restored everyone. The CEO had not the decency to resign. I hope this time the intention is sincere to rid the PCB of the ageing, blood-sucking top order and not to create space for another set of favourites to loot and plunder the resources, the most valuable among them the young and deserving cricketers. jang.pk/thenews/oct2013-weekly/nos-06-10-2013/spo.htm#3
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 08:48:43 +0000