Pakistan, India cricket in turmoil

Cricket in Pakistan and India is in turmoil following their defeats and ousting from the ICC Champions Trophy 50 over tournament played in South Africa recently.

Probes have been initiated, players accused of match-fixing and fielding and bowling coaches have been sacked. While the right thing to do is to have a probe and get to the bottom of things and as to what went wrong, match-fixing allegations and sacking of coaches smacks of poor thinking.

While Pakistan and India are conducting post mortems, so that shortcomings could be identified and put right for the betterment of the game, here in Sri Lanka, nothing moves and other than for hearing of the Minister of Sport asking Sri Lanka Cricket for a report, everything seems to be tickety boo.

One expected Sri Lanka Cricket to initiate a probe and check as to what is wrong with the game and as to what and where we went wrong that saw us skid out of the tournament, after a terrific beginning where we buried the hosts South Africa and then flopped, has not been forthcoming.

In the past and under the exemplary leadership of Mahela Jayawardena, a few moons after the team flies in after defeat or victory, a media briefing is called, reasons adduced for defeat or victory and the briefing is open to the media to fire questions.

That was what is called transparency. The captain of that time had nothing to hide. He took the bouquets that was given to him for the good times and suffered fools who put the blame fairly and squarely on him for the defeats and accepted the brickbats.

Accepted that in a match both sides can’t win. The side playing the better cricket wins, while the side performing badly loses. That is what the game is al about and only those who have played it will know. What Sri Lanka Cricket could have done was to have initiated an inquiry to find out whether any other circumstances, other than for the action out in the middle caused our debacle where we surrendered to England and then New Zealand. How we gifted victory to New Zealand is inexplicable.

We are not arriving at conclusions. But there is a lot of whispering going on saying that everything else from team selection to batting first or putting the opposition in and team spirit has left room for questioning.

It is the duty of Sri Lanka Cricket to probe these allegations, come clean and inform the cricketing public who have a right to know. The cricketing public who spent sleepless nights watching till late the Lankans performing, were frustrated and cursing unable to accept the fact that we lost to New Zealand whom we peppered in Sri Lanka.

We hope Sri Lanka Cricket would take their turn at the wicket wake up from the land of nod and bat and initiate a probe and come clean, taking the cue from their counterparts in Pakistan and India. The probe should be held not to find scapegoats, but so that lessons could be learned and mistakes not be repeated for the future of the game.

Now that we have finished with Sri Lanka, our next touchdown is Pakistan where captain Younus Khan has been tormented and torched for no fault of his, but simply on allegations made that there had been match-fixing that caused them to tumble out of the semi-finals.

It is the captain who has to take responsibility when his team wins or loses. And Khan is being hunted down by his detractors and unable to suffer the mental torture, the captain has resigned.

Khan has been lynched before a probe has been launched and the findings made public. Since some of the former players were found guilty of match fixing, Pakistan cricket will always remain stuck to that label.

But that does not mean, that every loss could be attributed to match fixing. That is poor thinking indulged in by the frustrated and the ignorant. Allegations must be backed up with truth and not fiction or hearsay. One can understand the torment that Khan is suffering at the moment. But if he has done nothing wrong, he has no one to fear. He must take it to the Lord (Allah) in prayer. A criminal is not guilty until he is proved guilty.

We are not casting aspersions on Younus Khan and his team on their loss to Australia which helped Australia enter the final and finally outplay New Zealand in the final and retain the trophy.

The game against Australia did not matter to the Pakistanis because they had entered the semi-finals. Had Pakistan won this game, their neighabours India would have made it to the semis and not Australia. So one can understand India’s attitude towards their bitter rivals.

As for us had the Pakistanis put more effort into this game, they could have won. Having said that, we must also state that Pakistan who had already entered the semis, did not have to worry as to who their next opponents were going to be. So can they be blamed?.

Pakistan like their neighabours India, have a knack of cutting and chopping their captains. We hope the same humiliation will not befall Younus Khan whose able leadership won for them the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in England will not have to abdicate in frustration putting Pakistan cricket further into the mire. From Pakistan we take wing to India where the sackings of fielding coach Robin Singh and bowling coach Venkat Prasad smacks of nothing but cowardice and absolutely pool thinking.

How come that these coaches are blamed for India’s defeats in the ICC limited over tournament in South Africa? What explanation does the Board of Control for Cricket in India have for dumping two of their former champions A fielding coach or a bowling coach for that matter could show and tell their chargers how to field and how to bowl. But if their chargers perform differently in the middle could the coaches be blamed and lynched?

It could not be wrong and Singh and Prasad cannot be faulted if they question their dropping and ask how come that chief coach Gary Kirsten is persisted with.

That’s a very sensible question and it will be interesting to see how the BCCI will answer if Singh and Prasad poses this question. It must be understood that a team can have the best coach in the world and he can tell and show. But all his hard work will come to nothing if his chargers do things differently out in the middle. Can the coach be blamed for this?

It is reported that captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Gary Kirsten were not aware of the removal of Singh and Prasad. They should have been the first to know. We hope they will voice their concerns and ask for explanations in the dropping of Singh and Prasad who only a couple months ago helped them beat Sri Lanka and win the triangular tourney in Sri Lanka.