my  block

where uzairs roam

This just in: Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has had his resignation rejected by General Musharraf. Ashraf, you recall, is completely incompetent and clueless, not to mention unqualified, and his appointment was based on the fact that he is a friend of General Musharraf. Infuriating.

It would be simplistic to blame Pakistan’s World Cup failure on any one man, but if I had to pick one person whom the lion’s share of the blame should be accorded to, it would be Ashraf. And I don’t say that in a I’m-the-chairman-so-the-buck-stops-here way. Appointed 5 months before the World Cup began, here’s a brief look at his achievements:

• Stated he would produce a constitution by the beginning of the new year so the Board could finally stop being run ‘ad-hoc’. This is often promised by new chairmen, but that doesn’t mitigate his failure.
• Installed, then removed, then installed Younis Khan as interim captain in the space of a couple of days. The world laughed.
• Initiated the drug tests that led to the whole debacle where Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif were first banned, then re-instated, then held back from the World Cup. This would have been a pleasant step for the Board to take — regardless of the outcome — if they had not bungled things so miserably, with confused statements about the validity of the tests, two investigations of questionable integrity and finally the embarrassment of keeping Akhtar and Asif out of the World Cup.
• With the team already decimated in constitution and spirit, Ashraf chose the days before the World Cup to further distract the players with his ban of English at press conferences. Honestly, of all the bone-headed things to do. The official reasons were to promote Pakistan (WTH?) and to prevent journalists from misquoting Pakistani players, but the sheer lack of common sense and awareness of how the media work were revealing in themselves. And that’s not to mention the fact that Ashraf’s ban reflected incredibly poorly on the players.
• When questioned by the Senate (have they nothing better to do?), Ashraf first accepted ‘full responsibility’ for the team’s failure, and then blamed it on Inzamam’s ‘poor batting and arbitrary decisions’.

So, we have incompetence, a lack of qualifications and experience, and a complete absence of common sense and ability to deal with the media. And yet this man has been retained.

Thanking the General, Ashraf said, “I will continue to endeavour my best for the development and progress of cricket in Pakistan.” I’m scared.

While on the topic, it should be noted just how ridiculous it is for the president of the country to be asking the chairman of the PCB to stay on. Pakistan’s a mess, so I know he has better things to do. This, my friends, is what a complete decimation of institutions and structured governance leads to — a politicization of everyday activities, and a scramble to meddle in as many things as possible to reflect one’s status and power. It’s also a slippery slope, as witnessed by the fact that Bob Woolmer, a Briton whom one might have hoped would have a more developed sense of propriety, also indicated he was amenable to staying on if requested by the President.