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With talent in abundance, Pakistan cricket team which is perhaps the best on paper in the world looks demoralised because of the total mess in the management.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), is being run simply on personal whims of the establishment totally ignoring the potential of the players and selection or appointment of team officials who are simply either incompetent or have no say whatsoever in its functioning or policy making decisions. Whatever may be the reason, in nutshell the team's performance is proof enough of all-round deterioration.

The team's performance at Tangiers (Morocco) and Nairobi in the just concluded tri-nation competition exposed the intentions and calibre of all those who are associated with the team and those who are at the helm of affairs. The responsibility cannot be put only on the team management or the establishment. If one cares to do postmortem of the recent events, which is a must and if someone cares to improve the things, it is evident that there is unnecessary interference from some quarters which is adversely affecting the team's performance.

The role in the overall performance of the team shows that personal likes and dislikes is governing the policy of the PCB. If national interest is dear to anyone, this factor should never be allowed to creep in. The problem is that it has become the governing factor. Those who talk of merit are living in a fool's paradise at least in the present PCB setup.

Every move of the establishment is manoeuvred which has plagued the board. Nobody in the PCB seems to be sincere or loyal to the game. If there would have been sincere people, they would not have allowed sports vultures to hang around. What is the contribution of individuals like Zakir Hussain Syed to cricket. He was offered a lucrative job of secretary, Asian Cricket Council and unconfirmed reports suggest that a situation is being created to adjust him somewhere in the PCB hierarchy.

Presence of a few shady characters in Morocco has given new dimensions to rumours that Pakistan lost some of the matches in Tangiers under suspicious circumstances. May be someone sensing rift in the team and being present on the scene made full use of the situation.

The Kenya episode, which resulted in Yousuf Youhana being sent home was the overflow of happening in Morocco which was covered up under the guise of fitness problem of the batsman. Can the PCB explain how come Youhana went for an MRI test without the consent of the team doctor. It was all doctored and nothing else.

The present PCB setup has a set plan to have only 'yes' men or paid employees who dare not raise their finger on any issue. It adopted the policy of having paid selectors and perhaps the PCB chief himself was the worst sufferer when his yes men dare not pinpoint the fault of Junaid Zia's bowling action. The result was that Junaid was called for chucking on four occasions. Team coach Haroon Rasheed failed to show any wisdom by not pointing out the problem with Junaid's action after the first call. But, Haroon was more interested in his bread and butter than anything else.

The present chairman of the selection committee, Wasim Bari, a gentleman cricketer, just cannot afford to put his foot down and at times he is not even aware of team selection. The PCB is in dire need of men of the stature of Haseeb Ahsan who despite having best relations with the then BCCP chief, Air Marshal (Retd) Nur Khan refused to select, player of the calibre of former Pakistan captain, Imran Khan, purely on medical grounds and stepped down, totally ignoring his relationship with Nur Khan.

When Haseeb toured England with the Pakistan team as manager, the British press which is always out to run down visiting teams was perhaps most respectful. Then we have a man in Naushad Ali, who is a clean man and has managed the Pakistan team, is a former Chairman of the Selection Committee and a former ICC match referee with good reputation.

But such people cannot be inducted in the board as they are men of principle and would work with full freedom without any interference. Nobody can doubt their credibility and credentials. There are some other people but they do not suit the present management who want to meddle in everything and are responsible for the present mess up.

The latest action of the PCB in retaining Shoaib Malik and sending back Azhar Mahmood is simply disgusting. Shoaib Malik is being rated as a better off-spinner than Saqlain Mushtaq and a better batsman than Saeed Anwar. So much so that the PCB toyed with the idea of promoting him as an opener. Shoaib Malik scored two hundreds in one-dayer which gave boost to the manipulators to promote him in the batting order.

The whole effort fired back as whenever he went to open the innings he played dot balls, resulting in increased pressure on the team. He only wanted to secure his place in the team caring hoots for the team interest. He failed as a bowler when in three matches he just bowled one over for 15 runs. In the last match against Australia he scored 37 from 94 balls which totally belied the PCB hierarchy's doctrine.

If anyone from Nairobi had to be sent home, it should have been Shoaib Malik, the worst performer on the present form and not Azhar Mahmood who has been declared unfit, a reasoning which is hard to challenge as neither the player nor the team doctor will support for obvious reasons.

Those who follow the game must be surprised with the way the present management is handling Shahid Afridi, who holds the world record of scoring fastest century in one-day. The team management is toying with his batting position. He has batted at No. 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and last time he was sent to open the innings. Can anybody in his senses ever make such decision unless there is some motive behind it.

Misbah-ul-Haq, who has been unlucky in the past at last got a chance when the team management was left with no option and he slapped in the face of the establishment by scoring 50, 39 and 50. What was the team of so many experts travelling with the squad doing all along. All the team officials should be kicked out and fresh team of management should be inducted. But nothing will change as long there is interference from the top. Unless everyone who is given a particular assignment has a free hand which at the moment seems impossible. What has been the benefit of specialist, trainers imported from Australia for batting, bowling and fielding.

Pakistan sports in general and cricket in particular is on decline and one cannot expect any improvement unless we do away with the politics of regionalism, nepotism and 'sifarish' and work with the sole aim of promoting national interest, keeping personal interest at a distance. No doubt it is easy to preach than practice but nothing is impossible if there is sincerity and loyalty to the nation which should not be compromised.

© Dawn