The ashes of Pakistani cricket

Historically sport has had a distant relationship with the political issues of the land. The apartheid era ideal of normal sport in an abnormal society has generally been adhered to, even with the massive exception of the 1972 Munich Olympics. The usual scenario followed the template of the 1996 Olympics – where a terrorist bombing took place in Atlanta, but one that did not directly affect the competition; not that this made it any less terrible. This was the case with sporting tragedies till the end of the last decade when, in the space of twelve months the Togo football team bus was shot at in Angola and the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in Lahore. Since then, while Angola has hosted international football matches (but not in the exclave of Cabinda where the Togo attack happened), five years on there is still no sign of international cricket returning to Pakistan.



Over the past eighteen months there has been an effort – sometimes concerted, often not – led by the PCB to bring this issue under the spotlight. Under Zaka Ashraf Pakistan attempted to host the PSL but that train never left the station. Eight months of PCB being leaderless (until February of this year) has meant that the possibility of a PSL (or anything else) happening in 2014 is close to zero too; so at best Pakistani fans can hope for 2015 to bring them international cricketers to savour. The PSL was, in a rare instance, a smart move by the PCB; it could have opened the floodgates for international cricket in Pakistan without mortgaging the financial future of the board (similar to what happened in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka). And the response to the PSL showed that if the will is there, then cricket in Pakistan can survive, if not thrive. Alas, like so many good ideas in Pakistan, a mixture of politics, unwillingness and the situation on the ground has delayed it indefinitely.



[quote]The idea of Pakistan hosting is already an alien concept for a generation of fans[/quote]

But what of the ghosts of that March morning? Five years on from the terrorist attack no one has been held responsible for it. No bigwig in the Punjab provincial government or in the security apparatus was moved to tender a resignation for their failure. And while there were many arrests (nine of them from the ranks of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi) following the attack, slowly each of the suspects has been released. In October 2013, Nek Muhammad (the alleged mastermind behind the attacks) was released after over four years in custody, due to a lack of evidence. So why is there no one in jail or out of a job as a result of something that has completely altered cricket in the country? Because it is Pakistan, and this is how things work here, it seems.

[quote]Why is there no one in jail or out of a job as a result of something that has completely altered cricket in the country?[/quote]

But I digress. Cricket in Pakistan has been permanently altered by that attack. The idea of Pakistan hosting is already an alien concept for a generation of fans, and the by-products of that are only now coming to the fore. The immediate concern for the PCB then was to secure its finances but the money they received from the 2011 World Cup, along with the regular “home” series played in the UAE, together with supposedly frugal practices, means that it isn’t as big an issue as was once feared. The reports of PCB’s demise may have been greatly exaggerated.



[quote]Not having access to your heroes suddenly makes your dreams further than they actually are[/quote]

But Pakistan cricket has still been damaged by this indirectly. No longer can the second tier player show off his skills in side matches against teams touring Pakistan – this was the avenue where Pakistan discovered Wasim Akram, and rediscovered Mohammad Asif, after all. More importantly, no longer can budding young cricketers watch their heroes in the flesh. Shoaib Akhtar talks about watching Waqar Younis at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium and being inspired by it; and Misbah-ul-Haq has talked about watching Saeed Anwar at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad. Not having that access and familiarity with your heroes suddenly makes your dreams further than they actually are. The stadia were once the building grounds for these dreams, where the idea of playing for the country was once born –it is a luxury that the current generation no longer has.

But despite that, the passion for cricket lives on. The club cricket scene trundles on as before, perhaps with even more participants. Whatever likely downturn there was during the last years of the noughties has been somewhat reversed by the successes in the 2009 World T20 and the 2011 World Cup. The dreams are now made when watching on TV. A generation of Pakistanis has gotten used to this; like everything else in the country.

[quote]The PCB could have used the ban as a blessing in disguise[/quote]

But of course, the infrastructure rots away, with no motivation for it to be worked upon. The existing stadia, the domestic teams and the active players could have been used to drum up support and interest for the domestic game. The PCB could have used the ban as a blessing in disguise and worked upon increasing the access and importance of the domestic trophies; similar to what South Africa did during their lost years. Instead, in the belief that the ban is temporary, the PCB has not attempted any such measures. The domestic T20 remains a week long oasis in the calendar, but the four-day and 50-over competitions are still far from the reach of the average cricket lover. Few things better encapsulate this neglect of the domestic game, and the belief that international cricket is just a few months away, than the main stand towards the College End at the Gaddafi Stadium. The stand went under construction in the late noughties; and that has been standing unfinished for over five years now – as long as only domestic cricket is played there, there is no motivation to finish the construction there.

That stand, much like cricket in Pakistan, stands unfinished and unpolished, waiting for international cricket to return to Pakistan; to finally become functional again.