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| March 21, 2007 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 1, 1428 |
Pakistan should win for Bob’s sake
Pakistan's players will attempt to rescue some pride for their country and some honour for their deceased coach in their final World Cup match today. Zimbabwe though will be fighting tooth and claw in their quest to reach the next round. There was a time when this contest would have been a formality but once you've lost to Ireland presumably you can lose to a tenacious Zimbabwe side.
Preparations for this match have been hampered, of course, by mourning for Bob Woolmer, who has acquired a degree of popularity in death that he never achieved in life, certainly with Pakistan's cricketing fraternity. Perhaps the true failing of Pakistan cricket is that it only recognises the value of its personnel once they have left centre stage.
Inzamam-ul-Haq’s decision to step down from the captaincy is correct since he so dominated Pakistan's failed strategy, and refused to heed warning signs about the batting line-up in particular. Considering his wonderful record for Pakistan, though, it is a tragedy that he has retired in humiliation rather than with full dignity.
The spectacular and unprecedented flurry of resignations that have engulfed the team captain, the selectors, and the chairman of the board are exactly what Pakistan requires, and all of them should be accepted immediately.
Pakistan cricket must build afresh in Test and one-day cricket with a plan whose primary objective must be to make the team competitive once more. Quick fixes are unlikely but the expectations of the public have plunged dramatically and Pakistan do not have much international cricket over the next few months.
The selectors have made the most noise in their departure, blaming Inzamam for Pakistan's defeats. They may have a point but it begs the question why people continue in positions where they cannot make the decisions expected of them?
Why did the chairman of selectors and his panel rubber stamp Inzamam's whims and fancies? They should have resigned sooner if they had felt unable to execute their roles. That's what men of character would have done, and the problem with Pakistan's cricket administration is that it has been populated by people unable to take a stand on principle.
Wasim Bari has presided over two consecutive World Cup debacles, where selection issues have been to the fore. He can have no complaints. Pakistan's selection panel needs to follow the Australian model that is composed of champions of international cricket and is willing to make ruthless decisions based on sheer merit rather than favouritism or appeasement.
Today's match against Zimbabwe should be the end of an era of bankrupt thinking within Pakistan cricket. For over a decade the dysfunctional relationship between the board and its players has dropped Pakistan from the high of Melbourne 1992 to the low of Jamaica 2007. Fifteen years of steady decent, fifteen years of false hope and incompetence.
If Pakistan's players have any self-respect, any sense of respect for their nation and their supporters, and any sense of gratitude towards Bob Woolmer they will put on the performance of their lives today. But the record of this bunch of players is that they are equally as likely to be overwhelmed by the pressure of the occasion and hide behind their sorrow of going out of the World Cup and the death of their coach.
Zimbabwe are the youngest side in the tournament, form a country in utter political turmoil. A team that has barely experienced international cricket and has been stripped of Test status. Yet Zimbabwe are closer to qualifying for the next round of the World Cup than Pakistan's paper tigers.
They have shown energy and spirit under the fine leadership of their young captain. If a small troubled country like Zimbabwe can manage so much it is even more bothersome that Pakistan have failed so miserably.
Inzamam needs to remind himself and the rest of us what it really means to wear the green and gold of Pakistan. He might want to throw away his "Eat, sleep, gym," T-shirt and put on the one that says: "Proud to be Pakistani."
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