Pitch-dark

The problem lies in the fact that many of these high moral attributes are wrongly utilised. Too much emotion remains pent-up in highly talented heads and bodies, and that’s why it is usual to see altercations, flirtations at the edge of the rule-book, and even downright on-field affronts. They play it hard, they play it their way.

Kingston’s essay is a little different. The complicated politics of the country came into the picture and queered the pitch. In between, coach Bob Woolmer was the victim, so was Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul Haq. It doesn’t speak highly of the administration, or the credibility of the system in trying to keep out elements that do not and should not mix with the game, and the shining pride, used to fighting every paragraph of the way through history books.

It also doesn’t speak much of the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit. For all practical purposes, it has been a spectacular flop.

Lastly though, one must point a finger at the security system around World Cup teams. The strainer-like cover prevents too little, or how would anybody slip into Woolmer’s room, unnoticed, and go through the hideous paces that he or they did?

In the background, the Pakistani’s cricketing future has become a smudged picture, President Pervez Musharraf’s hasty declaration that the country’s highest civilian honour, Sitara-e-Imtiaz is posthumously Woolmer’s, notwithstanding. Too many incidents have maligned Pakistan cricket in the past. Too much has happened off-field, and lessons perhaps have not been learnt in the match-fixing scandals that have rocked the world in the recent past.

Whether it is political lethargy, or practical impossibilities in the Pakistani system, is difficult to pinpoint, but in the end, even as a Salim Malik is yet to get off the fixing hook, and an Ata-ur-Rehman has just emerged from the ban, back-up efforts seem to have been absent for incidents thereafter.

Without pointing a finger at the Pakistan-Ireland shocker, or to the rapidly degenerating relationship between coach and players (and ex-players), one could easily see the tension as Pakistan prepared for the World Cup. Shoaib Akhtar, always a pain in the Pakistan neck with his outspoken nature, was found to have been doping. Mohammad Asif was caught in the same net, just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, many feel. They stayed out of the squad. Some say Woolmer had won his first round.

As the World Cup took off, so did a parallel battle, deep in the murky guts of a decaying set of ideals in the system. A battle that slowly, but steadily pushed a bunch of highly talented, yet highly pressured Pakistan players out of the Cup, and their coach out of his dreams.

It wasn’t easy for Inzamam. There is more to the story of his quitting the captaincy and international (one-day) cricket than meets the eye. There are many more tricky issues to be addressed when the Pakistanis reach home. Yet more, when the sponsors run scared, and more when the democracy and free voice-starved populace demand answers.

One is looking at a mayhem between the stumps, at a degeneration of values, morals, and shackled freedom. That will be the last straw. Hope the talent survives.