No Wasim Khan, not Mohammed Hafeez’s, your statement is the problem
Pakistan’s Cricket history is a classic case of contradiction, even for their own liking. From the tale of Javed Miandad’s outrageous batting to Imran Khan’s Oxbridge leadership, it has been a glorious one for generations. But what do we all actually remember?
When at Lord’s, the trio of Mohammed Amir, Mohammed Asif and Salman Butt decided to make it more tainted, the world came to a standstill, everyone stunned as how a fine leader, the most skilful bowler of our generation and the brightest young talent of our times involved themselves in an incident to take the country’s reputation even further down. It was a gleam period in the sport that took years for Pakistan cricket to come out from, but then the PSL controversy further broke out.
The management of both situations established a complex truth about Pakistan cricket which further reaffirmed when PCB chief executive officer Wasim Khan said, on Sunday, that Mohammed Hafeez should be "focusing on his own cricket" instead of giving opinions on "right and wrong" when the batsman said, "Shouldn't we set Standards of Dignity & Pride Higher than any other "Extra Talent" to represent Pakistan." The “right and wrong” later, the outgoing CEO’s reaction that “current players should not be going up on social media to criticise other players or talk about what policies the cricket board should or shouldn't have” reeks of a very medieval style of micro-management which does no good in the time of social media and rather unconfined assessment.
Pakistan has had a sordid history in managing their players and even former players have threatened the board to expose certain scandals if their points are not taken into consideration. It is not surprising because the tainted fixing history that the team has seen over the years always keeps the media and fans at the tip of their tongues, with every revelation believed to have some truth to it. Sarfraz Nawaz kept on speaking about it, Aamir Sohail threatened to reveal the dark sides of Pakistan cricket every time he was out of the side and, at the end of the day, nobody other than the board and its avenues suffered the worst because of the same. From Khan’s high-headed statements, it seems like he has forgotten the history which unfolded in Pakistan when he was enjoying his life in Yorkshire.
And surely, this was not the first time that Hafeez, an admirable cricketer in every way possible, made his stance clear. He, in fact, was the first to stay away from national camp ahead of a tour of New Zealand because Mohammad Amir, who was returning from a spot-fixing ban, was picked to be a part of it. Azhar Ali was strongly standing alongside Hafeez as a mark of protest until PCB intervened to solve the matter, once and for all. Or so did we think?
By questioning the PCB once again now, Hafeez not just proved why he was never a hypocrite about it but rather gave a clear vision of how the sport was not a place to mess around. Surely, Sharjeel Khan, like everyone else, deserves a second chance in his career but by delaying the admission for far too long he had not just cheated on the sport but the Pakistani fans, who love their cricket to the core. Hafeez’s stance was more to do with the fact that the same problem which took the golden years away from the country’s cricket shouldn’t be repeated and moral values pertaining to the sport should be given a high standard. He was surely not wrong in believing that. Was he?
By asking him to shut up and giving the example of English boards, Wasim Khan has not just put a black mark on the country’s attempt to revive their sagging fortune, but showcased his ignorance about the attitude of English cricketers who he once called his own. For the uninformed, Khan was born in Birmingham and played first-class cricket for the record-breaking double-winning Warwickshire team in 1995, averaging 49 in the championship-winning run. And for heaven's sake, after sitting on British Government’s Equality & Human Rights Commission Sports Group and The Prince's Trust Cricket Group alongside being the CEO of Lancashire, he is an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). He must know English cricketers better.
And, in the fear of generalisation I am writing, it is always the English cricketers, who on the drop of the hat, make one controversial remark after another - ranging from moral policing to booing cricketers left, right and centre. It is a classic vignette of English life and how can he blatantly put the blame on a cricketer who has the aura of a hero. Hafeez is well within his right to ask for moral values, which is, in fact, a direct reaction to sporting corruption, to be kept ahead. Surely, common sense is not that expensive a possession to have.
The sub-continental cricket boards have very much tried to tie the knots around the cricketers’ faces but when the situation becomes grave, we only have regrets in the cupboard. Khan can very well move on once his tenure is over to the comforts of his Birmingham house but such statements will live on forever, as a mark of fear. That will be a legacy he surely wouldn't want to have.
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