Thursday, September 16, 2010

In a 'fix' yet again


Pakistan vs. England,
Lords,
4th test,

Day 2
England were reeling at 102/7. Mohammad Amir was running riot having taken 6 wickets. Pakistan seemed to have made a comeback in the series and looked all set to level the series 2-2.

Day 5
Mohammad Asif offers a simple catch to Paul Collingwood and Pakistan crumbled yet again for another lowly total of 147. Moments later Andrew Strauss lifts the Natwest Trophy, but the series definitely hadn’t ended the way England would have imagined, amidst fixing allegations made against the Pakistani players.
Over the past 6 months, I have just been awed watching Amir and Asif swing the ball the way they have been doing and trouble the best of batsmen. The allegations made against the Amir, Asif and Butt took the cricketing fraternity and the fans world over by shock. It is just heart wrenching to see an eighteen year old kid, when the world was beginning to sit and take notice of his talent chose to tread the wrong path and put his career at stake.
Pakistan cricket seem to run from one controversy to another. They have seen it all: right from ball tampering incidents to forfeiting matches to public spats to doping scandals to terrorists interrupting matches. The root cause for the continuous turmoil in Pakistan cricket can be attributed to the lack of a strong governing body. The PCB (Pakistan Confused Board) is as much in the news as the Prime Minister of the country. They make huge, harsh, illogical decisions and distribute life bans to players and a while later they retract back their decision and the same players are back in the team (probably in the center of another controversy). Even after the fixing allegations came up, the PCB refused to drop the players for the ODI series. It is this leniency that makes the players take advantage of the system. Fortunately the ICC stepped in and suspended the players. It’s about time the ICC steps in and makes some harsh decisions and impose life bans and some heavy fines on the guilty players.
Somehow the cricketing maniac in me believes that Pakistan cricket will rise amidst the crisis and be a superpower once again .

But is it just me hoping against hope?

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