Kudos to Pakistan’s ambition but can they be more responsible in hosting games
Cricket needs a strong Pakistan - a simple yet mighty line once delivered by Harsha Bhogle rings through my ears on a daily basis. They are the sport’s ultimate contrarians - enriching the sport, making us pull our hair out and adding to the chronicles.
“Pundits from Pakistan” was probably one of the first cricket books that I read before taking up writing as a profession. Rahul Bhattacharya’s illuminating account of covering the Indian team’s tour of Pakistan in March-April 2004 over three Tests and five one-dayers spoke to me in a way that not a single book has ever done to me till date. It talked about the passion in Pakistan cricket, the Jazba as they like to call it, and about everything that now Pakistan cricket is not.
"Those five magical days of epiphanies, of closures, of small kindnesses and large, of rediscoveries and new discoveries ... For younger generations, it was an emphatic tearing down of stereotypes that had been fed to them, in their textbooks, their movies, their media." I am an obsessive romantic when it comes to the periphery of a Test match, more than the match itself, and those two lines by Bhattacharya summed up my love for cricket - an Indian cricket lover not seeing Pakistan as an opposition rather than making it a celebration of cultural similarity. Don’t get me wrong, cricket was pretty good too. The entire tour was highly competitive and a modern-day classic in the truest sense.
Growing up as an Indian fan in the 2000s and being treated with incredible series like that, it hurts now that cricket in Pakistan has stooped to a low like this. And hence when the news of Test cricket returning to Pakistan came out, with Sri Lanka travelling to the country for a two-match series, my joy had no bound. After all, no country’s cricket can survive without cricket being played in the country and Pakistan had to endure a tough 10 years without Test cricket. You imagine, the state of despair and of course, the state of happiness when it returned - a massive welcome was in order in Rawalpindi and Karachi.
But when it was the time for cricket to take precedence, it was quite uncharacteristic. The basic infrastructure was not in place, with only platoons of police being seen everywhere. The stadium was half-empty, which was in a way fair enough considering Test matches start on a week-day, but the state of the matches left a lot to be desired. The outfield, that once bore a proper green tinge look, was browner than the Ranchi wicket. The ball was shooting off the surface in one moment while stopping the other moment - all from one side. It translated badly to the Television, with the production level being worse than any state-association run T20 leagues in India.
PCB had concentrated its major focus on security arrangement, as it should, but it can never come at the cost of ignoring other issues - which is the basic requisite for the organisation of Test cricket. For sure, they can’t afford to have a mishap in security arrangement, which will put a spanner in their works to bring full-fledged cricket back to Pakistan, but they must also realise that having a one-dimensional tactic will only backfire massively, with the repercussions being severe at a later date.
As cricket remained an obscure entity in Pakistan for a long time in the aftermath of the 2009 terror attack on Sri Lankan team bus, almost every stadium sans the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore and the National Stadium in Karachi failed to get any attention. While Multan, Faisalabad and Peshawar have not been upgraded enough to host an international game, Gujranwala is no longer a cricket venue. This effectively left Rawalpindi and the two other major Pakistan cities to host a Test and we all saw what happened in the Sri Lanka series.
In defence of PCB, their funds had been dried up to a substantial extent after hosting games after games in the luxurious cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with literally zero gate receipt. Their interest to host India - albeit at a neutral venue - forced them to sign the now-defunct “Big Three Model” and they had to pay a huge price for it. However, that doesn’t justify their hurriedness to host games without having basic factors in place, as we saw in Pindi and in all probability, set to see again as the first Test against Bangladesh gets underway on Friday.
Hosting a cricket match is a responsibility and hundreds of people are required behind the scenes to ensure the smooth conduct of a game. Pakistan Cricket Board put in their best feet forward but with great ambition comes great responsibility. Giving best security in the hotel is fine, bringing in the Best Pindi Chole to the press box to satiate the journalists is great, but as long as they won’t ensure the cricket facilities is top-class, nothing can stop them from facing another severe ignominy.
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