.
[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/03-09-2010/Opinion/2770.htm"]A few good people[/url]
Friday, September 03, 2010
Shafqat Mahmood
Another blast, another tragedy, this time in Lahore. Twenty-nine people dead, many injured. There is no respite, no time to take a deep breath or say that the worst is over and let us begin the task of renewal. Misfortunes keep piling up.
The floods ravaged one-third of the country with thousands dead, incalculable loss of shattered lives and the prospect of an economic dead-end. It brought us down but the people responded by giving generously. In the midst of a tragedy, this was a sign that the nation has not lost its spirit or its pride.
And then came the no-balls saga, the spot-fixing accusation against some of our cricketers. In the scale of things, it could be argued that cricket is just a game and how can one even begin to compare corruption in sports with the tragedies we face.
There is no comparison. Death and destruction are misfortunes of enormous proportion. They are soul-shattering, but they also challenge us to face adversity with fortitude. Crooked behaviour of our national sporting heroes hurts our pride. It takes away something that a proud people value above everything else. It dents our sense of honour.
It reminds me of a ditty we as schoolchildren were made to recite. "When wealth is lost, nothing is lost. When health is lost, something is lost. When honour is lost, everything is lost." In the real world, this may be over the top and glorification of a mediaeval, feudal mindset. But for a people who have precious little else to feel good about, it means a great deal.
The sad part is that those in whom we invest so much of our ego have no clue of, or don't give a damn about, the enormous national pride invested in them. Either they do not comprehend their status, or greed takes precedence over everything else.
For better or worse, and lately it seems for the worse, cricket is the only national game in which a large majority of our people are involved. There was a time when hockey was big, and even squash. We were for a time world champions in both these sports. Now cricket is our only passport to international recognition.
Greater spread of cable television has added to its popularity. Besides the coverage in urban cities and towns, small-time operators have taken the reach of cable television to virtually every village and hamlet. Given that life otherwise is tough, and not a great deal else happening, TV has become the major source of entertainment for the people.
The nature of cricket coverage adds to their greater involvement with this sport. It goes on for hours and hours and makes cricketers easily recognisable, with all their traits becoming a part of the national folklore. Results of the cricket matches, while in the larger scheme of things inconsequential, give that extra bit of joy and sorrow.
This current tour of England by the cricket team has had both. There has been great pleasure in victories against Australia and England and pain at losing the other matches by large margins. But while victory and defeat in a field of play has led to highs and lows, the allegations of dirty deals by our cricketers has been shattering.
As is inevitable in such situations, human emotions have run the gamut of outrage to suspicions of frame-up. From calls for summary justice to cries of conspiracy, everything has been said. The fact, though, remains that, again, the Pakistani cricket team is in the limelight for the wrong reason. And a deeply troubled nation with a lot else not going right has been driven into deep gloom.
The sad fact is that the evidence on the face of it is too damning against Mohammad Amer and Mohammad Asif, and by implication against Salman Butt. No-balls were bowled in the designated overs, as predicted by the crook Mazhar Majeed. And they were delivered by the bowlers he identified. This latter part implicates the captain because, how could Mazhar be sure that Amer and Asif would bowl these particular overs?
The reaction of the Cricket Board, whose chairman has been present in England most of the summer-incidentally, who has been paying for this long vacation?-has been disingenuous. Its stance is that it would wait for the Scotland Yard inquiry before it takes any action.
Why this is devious is because of the difference between a criminal inquiry and conduct against the laws of cricket. Scotland Yard is only concerned about the criminal side; that is, whether bookmakers have been defrauded under the UK's gambling act. For the police to prove this, bets need to have been placed on the suspicious no-balls. This would be difficult to prove, and there is little chance of a criminal prosecution of the cricketers under UK laws.
This does not, however, change the status of their misconduct. By bowling no-balls on demand, they may have been favouring bookmakers in India and other parts of the world, or just establishing Mr Majeed's credibility so that other, more lucrative deals for future matches could be arranged. Thus, for the board to hide behind the Scotland Yard inquiry and not take quick action against the players is evasive and deceitful.
We have reached this sorry state not just in cricket but in the country because there never has been any will for real accountability. Since the early nineties, the Cricket Board has been led by people who gave in to crooked players because they wanted to save their own jobs. The country too has suffered because no one has been willing to hold crooked politicians to account.
We cannot move forward as a nation until the crooks and deviants are punished. In cricket, had the-then board acted decisively on the 1999 Qayyum Report and banned all those mentioned, we may have been able to stamp out future dirt in the game. In politics, had one prominent alleged crook been punished, we may have been able to put the fear of God in others.
So, then, how do we move forward? For starters, the players being accused, including Kamran Akmal, should be made unavailable for selection in the Twenty20 and one-day matches. There is no need to suspend them. Just send them home if the British police allow it; and if not, hide them in a dinghy London flat.
Second, our own inquiry should be completely aboveboard. Various questions have been raised about the members of the FIA team being sent over. They should be changed, and others with greater credibility entrusted this responsibility. If we do the follow-up right, we will begin to rebuild trust in the world of cricket.
Obviously, in not too long a future, this board must also be changed. Not immediately, but after the conclusion of the England tour. The recipe for the nation and its cricket is the same. Pass the baton to a few good people and they will make all the difference.
Email: shafqatmd@gmail.com
Cheers![[Image: beer.gif]](http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/smilies/beer.gif)
[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/03-09-2010/Opinion/2770.htm"]A few good people[/url]
Friday, September 03, 2010
Shafqat Mahmood
Another blast, another tragedy, this time in Lahore. Twenty-nine people dead, many injured. There is no respite, no time to take a deep breath or say that the worst is over and let us begin the task of renewal. Misfortunes keep piling up.
The floods ravaged one-third of the country with thousands dead, incalculable loss of shattered lives and the prospect of an economic dead-end. It brought us down but the people responded by giving generously. In the midst of a tragedy, this was a sign that the nation has not lost its spirit or its pride.
And then came the no-balls saga, the spot-fixing accusation against some of our cricketers. In the scale of things, it could be argued that cricket is just a game and how can one even begin to compare corruption in sports with the tragedies we face.
There is no comparison. Death and destruction are misfortunes of enormous proportion. They are soul-shattering, but they also challenge us to face adversity with fortitude. Crooked behaviour of our national sporting heroes hurts our pride. It takes away something that a proud people value above everything else. It dents our sense of honour.
It reminds me of a ditty we as schoolchildren were made to recite. "When wealth is lost, nothing is lost. When health is lost, something is lost. When honour is lost, everything is lost." In the real world, this may be over the top and glorification of a mediaeval, feudal mindset. But for a people who have precious little else to feel good about, it means a great deal.
The sad part is that those in whom we invest so much of our ego have no clue of, or don't give a damn about, the enormous national pride invested in them. Either they do not comprehend their status, or greed takes precedence over everything else.
For better or worse, and lately it seems for the worse, cricket is the only national game in which a large majority of our people are involved. There was a time when hockey was big, and even squash. We were for a time world champions in both these sports. Now cricket is our only passport to international recognition.
Greater spread of cable television has added to its popularity. Besides the coverage in urban cities and towns, small-time operators have taken the reach of cable television to virtually every village and hamlet. Given that life otherwise is tough, and not a great deal else happening, TV has become the major source of entertainment for the people.
The nature of cricket coverage adds to their greater involvement with this sport. It goes on for hours and hours and makes cricketers easily recognisable, with all their traits becoming a part of the national folklore. Results of the cricket matches, while in the larger scheme of things inconsequential, give that extra bit of joy and sorrow.
This current tour of England by the cricket team has had both. There has been great pleasure in victories against Australia and England and pain at losing the other matches by large margins. But while victory and defeat in a field of play has led to highs and lows, the allegations of dirty deals by our cricketers has been shattering.
As is inevitable in such situations, human emotions have run the gamut of outrage to suspicions of frame-up. From calls for summary justice to cries of conspiracy, everything has been said. The fact, though, remains that, again, the Pakistani cricket team is in the limelight for the wrong reason. And a deeply troubled nation with a lot else not going right has been driven into deep gloom.
The sad fact is that the evidence on the face of it is too damning against Mohammad Amer and Mohammad Asif, and by implication against Salman Butt. No-balls were bowled in the designated overs, as predicted by the crook Mazhar Majeed. And they were delivered by the bowlers he identified. This latter part implicates the captain because, how could Mazhar be sure that Amer and Asif would bowl these particular overs?
The reaction of the Cricket Board, whose chairman has been present in England most of the summer-incidentally, who has been paying for this long vacation?-has been disingenuous. Its stance is that it would wait for the Scotland Yard inquiry before it takes any action.
Why this is devious is because of the difference between a criminal inquiry and conduct against the laws of cricket. Scotland Yard is only concerned about the criminal side; that is, whether bookmakers have been defrauded under the UK's gambling act. For the police to prove this, bets need to have been placed on the suspicious no-balls. This would be difficult to prove, and there is little chance of a criminal prosecution of the cricketers under UK laws.
This does not, however, change the status of their misconduct. By bowling no-balls on demand, they may have been favouring bookmakers in India and other parts of the world, or just establishing Mr Majeed's credibility so that other, more lucrative deals for future matches could be arranged. Thus, for the board to hide behind the Scotland Yard inquiry and not take quick action against the players is evasive and deceitful.
We have reached this sorry state not just in cricket but in the country because there never has been any will for real accountability. Since the early nineties, the Cricket Board has been led by people who gave in to crooked players because they wanted to save their own jobs. The country too has suffered because no one has been willing to hold crooked politicians to account.
We cannot move forward as a nation until the crooks and deviants are punished. In cricket, had the-then board acted decisively on the 1999 Qayyum Report and banned all those mentioned, we may have been able to stamp out future dirt in the game. In politics, had one prominent alleged crook been punished, we may have been able to put the fear of God in others.
So, then, how do we move forward? For starters, the players being accused, including Kamran Akmal, should be made unavailable for selection in the Twenty20 and one-day matches. There is no need to suspend them. Just send them home if the British police allow it; and if not, hide them in a dinghy London flat.
Second, our own inquiry should be completely aboveboard. Various questions have been raised about the members of the FIA team being sent over. They should be changed, and others with greater credibility entrusted this responsibility. If we do the follow-up right, we will begin to rebuild trust in the world of cricket.
Obviously, in not too long a future, this board must also be changed. Not immediately, but after the conclusion of the England tour. The recipe for the nation and its cricket is the same. Pass the baton to a few good people and they will make all the difference.
Email: shafqatmd@gmail.com
Cheers