Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Leash!

As the Asia Cup has gone on, speculation over whether Malik and Lawson will survive the axe or not has grown immensely.

Humiliating losses to India and Sri Lanka, Malik shying away from the post-match and press conferences, and Lawson's outburst on the media has all resulted in everyone questioning their positions as captain and coach of Pakistan.

During the lunch interval of the Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh match yesterday, journalists staged a protest demanding the sacking of Geoff Lawson. All this even after Lawson had apologized for his behaviour.

So will the PCB succumb to this media pressure or will they let it be?

Many are saying that if Pakistan fail to reach the final of the Asia Cup, Lawson and even Malik will face the axe.

Unfair?

Well the problem here is not winning or losing the Asia Cup. Its much bigger than that.

It lies in the leash!

It lies in the leash the Chairman has tied around the selectors, the captain, the coach, the senior players.

The problem lies in each one of them wanting the control but neither having any.

The Chairman wants to have his squad, his captain, his coach, his XI on the field, yet he can't control what happens on the field.

The Chairman holds the selectors, the captain, the coach, and the senior players by a tight leash but once they go on the field, the leash is gone and the Chairman can't do much apart from jumping and waving in the stands.

The selectors want their players in the squad and in the XI, they want to dictate to the captain and the coach, but in reality they are just tied to that leash in the hand of the chairman and keep bending over to him.

In the end they don't get what they want, nor do they give the captain and coach what they want.

The captain keeps begging for his choice of players, argues with the selectors, reasons with the Chairman but each time that leash keeps getting tighter around his neck.

He tries to lead from the front, tries to bring the best out of the players, but the unsupporting senior players send all those efforts to the cleaners.

In reality the captain is walked around with that leash and when set free on the field, he seems all at sea.

The coach doesn't get along with the selectors, doesn't get along with the journalists, doesn't get along with the senior players, and with that leash around his neck just bends over to the Chairman after every demand of his is shunted.

The coach puts in all his efforts to build a cohesive unit but when no one listens he sits down quietly with that leash around his neck and takes home a fat cheque for bending over.

The senior players feel hard done by for not being allowed to captain Pakistan, for not having a say in selection matters, for not having the resonsibility that a junior captain has.

They don't feel like doing their best when the coach and captain are so uninspiring. They want to do more, want to say more, but that tight leash keeps them quiet.

The senior players want to have the control that once an Imran Khan, and a Wasim Akram, and an Inzamam Ul Haq had, but with every one-on-one meeting with the Chairman, their demands are buried and the leash is tightened.

At the end what we have is Pakistan cricket in a bloody mess created by a $%^&ing leash!

What is the solution one may ask?

Dump the leash and start over.

You need only one man in control and sadly no one but Imran Khan, who wants to be no where near the cricket set up, can command such control.

Maybe the cricket should be handed over to some Big Brother from Mumbai.

Atleast his leash will be more frightening!

Make your pitch on this post...



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19 Pitched:

  1. Viswanathan said...
     

    Bend over?

    Am I thinking what you are thinking?

  2. Q said...
     

    That depends on what ur thinking Ott ;-)

  3. Gaurav Sethi said...
     

    cracker of a write Q. like the Leash talk.

    Seriosuly, can't recall last when Pak unleashed all its resources. They are running on empty - and the two Ys (at least on the face of it) add to it - Younis' contributions and Yousuf's attitude are dismal. Not too different to Ind ODI cricket before the shakeup.

    In a way, not their fault entirely, the limited overs' game has gone thru the roof - while they are still in the basement.

    Think Akhtar and Asif's exit can only help Pak cricket.

  4. straight point said...
     

    very unleashed post of leash around the neck of pak team...!!

    however i wont squarely lay all blame on Chairman's door...

    they are finding themselves on hole which they dug themselves...for good part Malik was given captaincy for full two years which is unheard of in subcontinent...not even dhoni enjoys this pleasure...

    they all are running in different directions but one and nobody is thinking about pak cricket...pak team...

    we just saw with warne that even with limited resource what can be done...and i must say here lawson and malik has failed big time...

    nobody can argue against success not even chairman of board...and opposite is also true...

  5. Unknown said...
     

    only nasim ashraf's exit can help pakistan cricket

    one reason why i think malik and lawson appear more and more frustrated is because no one seems to be willing to listen to them... sucks for malik because he's probably gonna get sacked and younis is gonna get the job instead

  6. Q said...
     

    How unfair would it if Malik lost the captaincy considering that he just won a tri series and for the 1st time decided to take up the responsibility and lead from the front by opening the innings. He's enjoying his best form as a batsman since becoming captain.

  7. Q said...
     

    I'm not sure if Akhtar and Asif's exit will help them NC. The bowling resources are very thin!

    The Yo-Yos definitely need to get their act together. Since Inzi left they have been trying to be the man in control.

  8. Q said...
     

    SP the issue is that Malik and Lawson are handicapped because they cant do things the way they want to. So how can we blame them?

    When a captain and coach have players who dont listen to them, they cant do much abt them.

    The Chairman hasn't done anything to sort this problem out. He's worsened it by giving so called power to selectors.

  9. Q said...
     

    I share ur thoughts Saqib.

  10. straight point said...
     

    what i am trying to say, q, is that they are equal party to the mess pak cricket is in this moment if not more...

  11. Q said...
     

    Agreed SP - the chairman, selectors, coach, captain, senior players - they have all contributed to the mess. Totally agreed.

  12. Q said...
     

    This sums it up SP:

    "The problem lies in each one of them wanting the control but neither having any."

  13. Anonymous said...
     

    a picture is worth thousand words, and u prove it q...

    and with the post you painted quite a picture there...

    most of the guys who comment here are there on my blogroll including naked cricket and just included you with them

  14. Anonymous said...
     

    I wrote a thread in Jan titled "Weak captain,rogue players, dummy coach and corrupt management". Here's the link http://cricketfiles.com/?p=70.

    Six months have passed by and the team has not progressed at all, all the problems still exist.

    It seems that our selectors do not understand the meaning of consistency,we are watching a clear pattern,some of the senior players keep on underperforming and just when every body thinks that they are going to get axed they perform well in a couple of matches and retain their position. These Marginal performances by senior players have turned Pakistan into a minnow. The selectors will have to quickly categorize these senior players either they are inconsistent or they are underperformers.

    The current management has failed completely,they couldn't accomplish with 700 employees what previous administration were accomplishing with just 17 employees.

    Its been almost three years since Pakistan feilded its full strength team in a series, due to stupid bans,injuries or poor selection in every series some key players were left out.

    There were rumours that Wasim Akram took money to sit out in the quarter final of the WC against India, Is that money now going in the selectors pocket or the chairman's pocket for leaving Shoaib out and in every match making a few selection blunders.

    What is the pupose of this leash?
    Why the management wants so much control?
    Why the president of a country is willing to take so much flak for such an insignificant post?
    Why the board always tries to maintain status quo as far as the players are concerned?
    Why they want to keep the captain and coach powerless?

    Nobody wants change for the sake of change, but enough is enough PCB should have a complete shakeup.
    And the team should be selected just on the basis of consistency and combination all the underperforming paper tigers should be shown the door.






    Consistency in performance is the key, and has to be taken as a factor while selecting the players.

    Another alarming trend is of increasing selfishness,players are deliberately playing innings which have no purpose and utility for the team they only play to save their own ass.

  15. Anonymous said...
     

    Seem to hit the nail again, Q. I feel really sorry for Malik. Whatever he does, the end result might be his sacking. Not a great position to be in. That explains at least part of the dehydration. As for your comment on giving the leash to some Mumbaikar, if your talking about some kind of team-owner, I disagree. Neither do I agree with Harsha Bhogle's famous comment that all of cricket should be run by team-owners. I had a lot of respect for Bhogle and he lost some of it from me after that (for whatever little it is worth).

  16. Anonymous said...
     

    Q

    I bet the leash is already in the hands of somebody from Mumbai, only he is from the underworld.

  17. Q said...
     

    All Padded Up - Welcome to Well Pitched :-)

    All the commenters here have been around for almost a year now. glad to see u here, hope u keep coming back.

    Will blog roll u soon.

  18. Q said...
     

    VM & Wasim - I did not mean team owner from Mumbai. I was pointing towards giving the reigns of the crcket board to some bhai from the mumbai underworld ;-) They apparently run their empires very efficiently and their "leash" is frightening!

    Wasim, I know who u r pointing towards. I have the same man in mind.

  19. Q said...
     

    Wasim u ask valid questions but here we are in a catch 22 situation.

    When the likes of Inzamam Ul Haq had full control and power, everyone criticized him for being a dictator and having his chamchas in the team, and so on.

    Then the PCB decided to take away that control from the captain and now we have the chairman's chamchas...

    What do we do?

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