The former captain has attributed Pakistan’s ouster from the World Cup to an infamy that has been brought on by the cowardly leadership of Inzamam-ul-Haq.
LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan has attributed Pakistan’s ouster from the World Cup to an infamy that has been brought on by the cowardly leadership of Inzamam-ul-Haq.
“Having come up with the poorest performance for any Pakistani team in any World Cup, this is the worst crisis to have hit Pakistan cricket which should be used as an opportunity to bring about drastic changes by which the immense talent available to Pakistan cricket can be tapped,” Imran Khan wrote in his column, published in The Nation on Monday. The first change he proposes is that General Musharraf should have nothing to do with the selection of Pakistan Cricket Board chairman.
“In the two World Cups during the Musharraf regime, the team did not even make it to the top six. Therefore, Pakistan cricket should have a constitution that should entail that all talent is concentrated in the six regional teams to play first class cricket. The chairman of the PCB should then be elected from these six elected associations. This is no rocket science, just following the Australian model that has made the Aussie team the most successful in cricketing history.”
“Secondly,” he says, “It is about time we had a new selection committee with paid selectors, a new coach and a new captain. We need a captain who leads from the front and a coach that can make an attacking strategy so that Pakistan can utilise fully the existing talent in the country.
Thirdly, Inzamam’s reluctance to go up the order and prevent a crisis yet again exposed this timid policy of allowing technically and temperamentally ill-equipped batsmen to go up-front in difficult condition while arguably the best batsman was being shielded at number five. And when the expected crisis came, for the second match in a row even Inzy could not handle the situation. This is an infamy that has been brought on by cowardly leadership tactics adopted by Inzamam who by now should have known that it is much easier to prevent a crisis than to play in one. And even the club quality Irish bowlers made the professional Pakistani batsmen buckle under the pressure of the World Cup.
“If the proper lessons are learnt from Pakistan’s defeat at the hands of Ireland, it could become the basis of renaissance of Pakistani cricket. However, going by the past experience of the Musharraf regime, the way every institution has been dismantled, including Parliament, the press and the judiciary, I am afraid the true structural changes to revive Pakistan cricket will have to wait till there is a proper democratic dispensation in the country,” Imran concludes.
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