Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘Cricket’ Category

 

2nd Test Day 2.
NZ 271. Pak 76/5.

It looks our most expensively hired Head Coach is hell bent on proving his sheer incompetence, in selecting the correct eleven.
Here, the question arises who and at which stage from the PCB will intervene, to stem the rot, after very very unwisely, the PCB succumbed to the demand of Mr. Micky Arthur (at time of his appointment) that only he and the captain will have the authority to decide the playing eleven and manager will have no say in this regard. As far as I remember, Mr. Micky Arthur has not played a SINGLE Test match in his life.
Under the circumstances, one fails to understand why a highly experienced (81 Tests 51 ODI’s) former Test captain and holder of many cricketing world records, Ex. Chief Selector PCB and Ex. COO PCB Mr. Wasim Bari was sent as manager, if there was zero percent role of the manager in the final team selection. In fact, Mr. Wasim Bari has absolutely no role, as far as cricketing affairs are concerned.
In order to salvage the remaining part of this rather long tour, the chairman PCB must intervene sooner than later; and immediately restore the traditional powers of the team manager as the chairman of the tour selection committee.
In first Test vs the NZ our HC wrongly dropped Wahab Riaz, about whom later on, he was praising lavishly.
Now, in the second Test match, instead of playing Sharjeel Khan, he inducted Muhammad Rizwan and also wrongly dropped Rahat Ali.
So much for the HC. Now also it is high time that if more than three years old batting coach can not be immediately sacked during the on going tour, the PCB must send one person to join the team management immediately amongst Zaheer Abbas, Majid Khan, Javed Miandad, Mohsin Hasan Khan and Amir Suhail, to be attached with team as Team Director with special responsibility, to improve the habit somehow adopted by all our batsmen of getting out himself, by playing lose shots rather than bowler getting them out.
Please mark my words, if PCB now fails to act sagaciously and with lightning speed, this tour of NZ and Australia, may prove to be one of the biggest disappointment, in our cricketing history.
Mr. Inzamam ul Haq (the highest paid chief selector in our cricketing history) must also explain to the nation, why
our opening batsmen are constantly failing under his tenure and why Khalid Latif was dropped, if Sharjeel Khan was selected?
Our PCB top notches must learn to be proactive, rather than be reactive, because PCB is not Pakistan CASH Board, where rather than thinking to improve the ever sliding domestic and international cricketing standards, money is callously dished out on perks and privileges of the members in many novel ways and where Rupees 4 Crores are spent on one dinner and plans are being contemplated for taking on to overseas trip its BOG members with their wives in business class, plus stay in 5 star hotels; and creating a paid joyride overseas trip fund, for the pleasure of our parliamentarians.

 

Dear Mr. Prime Minister and Patron in Chief PCB
اسلام و علیکم

Sir,

At the outset I apologise for taking your busy time on the subject matter.

However, due to the sensitivity of the issue and urgency of the nature of the situation, created out of the extremely strange resolution, adopted by the Board of Governors of the PCB, in its last meeting held on 8 November, 2016 (to register PSL as an independent Private Limited Company which will be a separate entity run by its own governing board), a grave crisis has been created, which can only be resolved by your immediate and direct intervention.

In this regard, kindly allow me to explain below all the facts for your kind perusal please:

i). Nowhere, repeat nowhere in the cricket Test playing countries, T20 Cricket League is a separate company from its cricket board. The separation of PSL from the PCB is not a decision in the interest of Pakistan cricket, but may benefit few individuals.

ii). In all Test cricket playing nations, only ONE cricket board is DIRECTLY responsible for regulating all types of cricketing activities in their respective countries. If in Pakistan, two competing organisations are allowed to control cricket, it will very soon demolish the structure and the edifice of the PCB, along with the domestic cricket.

iii). In Pakistan domestic cricketing structure and standard of the game is already suffering badly, due to the acute shortage of funds; because no international cricket team has visited Pakistan, to play a complete series, since the year 2009. Under the peculiar circumstances of cricket in Pakistan, the cricket lovers are shocked at the hara kiri of the BOG of the PCB, in allowing its cash cow (PSL) to detach itself from the PCB: that too on without any plausible reasons.

iv). The shortage of funds is so acute with the PCB that it can not even spend money to provide playing practice in domestic games on imported Kookaburra cricket balls; and PCB has even requested to the ICC to create a fund for some financial assistance to the PCB.

v). Everyone remembers that when top Pakistani players were not allowed to play for the national team (as they had opted for joining Kerry Packer’s World Series team), what happened to our national team’s performance. Here also a situation is clearly apprehended in which, players, coaches and management staff will opt to go towards more lucrative PSL, even if they were to take an early retirement. This situation will badly affect on Pakistan teams future supply line of quality manpower.

vi). Cricket leagues in all countries are considered CASH COWS for the respective cricket boards. What is the the justification to cannibalise PCB by just putting forward the reason of POLITICS? The best way to minimise politics in any organisation (read PCB) is to strictly implement the policies of transparency and accountability and zero tolerance in conflict of interest situations.

vii). When even the audit report of the 1st PSL event has not been submitted to the BOG of the PCB, on which tangible and solid reasons it has decided to form a separate company for the PSL?

In this regard, what are the answers to the following questions:

1. Is the hurry and rush for creating separate company for PSL was due to the reason to create permanent and highly lucrative jobs for the few individuals, who may be foreseeing the end of their tenure in the PCB, in near future?

2. If the decision to make a separate company for PSL was taken because of the failure of the first PSL or non achievement of the desired and expected results, then why not to first have the accountability of the concerned personnel of the PSL management, who were wholly and solely responsible for running and managing the PSL, with ZERO interference from either the chairman PCB or anyone from the PM office?

And if at all the formation of an independent PSL company is inevitable; such failed persons must not be allowed to ruin the new company from the outset.

3. However, if the first PSL is found to be a successful event (after receiving the financial and management audit reports separately) then very logical question arises that what was the requirement of taking such a hugely damaging action against the PCB, whose funds and full resources were used in such a callous manner that almost Rs.4 Crore were spent on just one PSL dinner at Lahore?

4. Those who say that the Indian Supreme Court has asked the BCCI to form a separate body for IPL, are not giving the following additional information:

a). The BCCI is registered under the societies Registration Act. PCB is a statutory body formed by an Act of the GOP and currently under ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination. The constitution of the PCB and its amendments are always issued by the GOP through official gazette notifications.

b). Even after the orders of the Indian Supreme Court (ISC) the BCCI has not gone for the formation of a separate IPL body; and a legal battle is still on, between the BCCI and the ISC.

c). Some people in PCB are in a rush for the separate PSL company even when accounts of its first event has not been audited, but BCCI which started IPL in 2008 and has since played nine tournaments, has still not separated IPL from the BCCI.

Mr. Prime Minister, from the foregoing narration of facts, you can vouch for your self that the PCB is not in competent and safe hands and has utterly failed to safeguard even its own corporate interests and thus needs your immediate surgical strike to stem the rot, before it was too late to act.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

The augment that Pakistan’s 9th rank in the ODI version of the game, is due to no international cricket in Pakistan since the year 2009, does not hold water, because at the same time, without international cricket, we are # 1 Test team of the world.

What is good for goose is good for gander.

In my humble opinion, the factual reason for our teams continuous poor performance in the ODI games, has the following reasons:

1. Our nemesis is the 1st power play of 10 overs, where our average was just 39 runs, when only 2 fielders are standing in the acres and acres of outfield.
Ist power play period of 10 overs, demands POWER HITTING and a score of not less than 90 runs. Recently, in England, we did score in an ODI match, 83 runs in the first 10 overs of 1st power play. However, mostly the moment, we lose a wicket or two, our team panics and immediately start playing in a defensive mode, forgetting that in an ODI match, either you win or lose, there was no scope for a draw, like Test matches.
Somehow, our batsmen are also very susceptible to short pitch rising deliveries; and this weakness, is nowadays, being fully being exploited by our opponent teams.

2. Our next huge weak point is playing the dot balls.
In an innings of 50 overs, a total of 300 balls are available.
In the World Cup2015 match vs India, we played 169 dot balls and lost the match by 75 runs.
The only solution of reducing dot balls is the rotation of strike; and going for singles, doubles and three runs, if boundaries were controlled by the opposite team, by way of good bowling or excellent fielding.

3. Our bowlers have totally forgotten how to bowl effective Yorkers and dot ball bouncers.

4. Both our pacers and spinners frequently come into the danger zone and are time and again warned by the umpires, which results in mentally putting the bowler under such a pressure that he forgets his main task of bowling with line and length.
Moreover, our spinners are not using the art of wicket to wicket bowling, resulting in getting fewer and fewer wickets.
In ODI and T20 matches, wicket to wicket bowling pays higher dividends, because batsmen are always lifting their bat, to go for big hits.
Our bowlers also lack discipline of not bowling no balls and wide balls. The new rules of free hit are very much tilted in the favour batsmen, because any type of no ball is now penalised with a free hit. If our bowlers can not restrict their no and wide balls then all the hard work of batsmen and fielders go down the drain.
No balls should be considered a CRIME like a SELF GOAL.

5. A run saved is a run scored. Dropped catches not only badly demoralises the bowler but brings the opponent team, nearer to victory.
Run outs should always not be the incorrect anticipation of the batsman, but run outs should also be created by the guile and agility of the fielders.
In the recently held T20 World Cup2016 match played in Chandigarh between Pak vs NZ, it was really shocking to witness NZ batsmen running 5 score, in an extremely small ground.
World class teams have a RULE of thumb that no player is considered for selection, particularly, in T20 and ODI teams, if that player is known for his poor fielding.
We in Pakistan, never hesitate to include in our T20 and ODI teams, poor fielders like Irfan, Rahat, Tanvir etc.
Our team should forget improvement in ODI rankings, if fielding is not taken as seriously, as batting or bowling.

 

The entire responsibility of Yaser Shah’s abysmal performance in the 2nd Test (1/266) rests on Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad, and no one else.

However, legendary spinner Dr. Intikhab Alam was also sitting there and he should have guided Yaser Shah to how to bowl at the English batsmen, who changed their technique from lords, as stated by their captain:
“Watching Yasir from Lord’s, he got a lot of lbws and bowled so we played him a little straighter and it worked,” said Cook.

More than the players, it was a complete failure of the entire Pakistani nincompoop coaching staff and the tour management committee, who just sat on the laurels of the Lords victory and failed to devise any strategy for the second Test match and entered the game without ANY plan, except not to do any push ups again.

In cricket, every new game is an entirely new battle of wits. Gone are days when winning combinations were not disturbed. The biggest failure of Micky Arthur and Misbah ul Haq was when they ignored our glaring weaknesses of the first Test and entered into the second match on the hype of the Lords victory push-ups.

Further, from day one, Amir was bowling at a reduced speed in the second Test and by the end he had to go off the field. If this man was not fit he should never have been waisted in the second match.

The secret of success lies not in the push-ups, but in staying ahead of your competitor, by future gazing, knowing your and competitors weak and strong areas, anticipating the next move of the opponent and be ever ready to adapt for the change.

Now, till the start of the 3rd Test on 3rd August, we should utilise the available time for some radical changes.

As such, the chairman PCB must act immediately and swiftly (like ECB did when they immediately inducted Saqlain Mushtaq, which helped Moeen Ali get many more wickets and much cheaply than Yaser Shah) and induct the world renowned legendary leg spinner Mr. Abdul Qadir, as a spin bowling consultant of the touring team.

The following suggestions submitted a few days ago may be considered on the theory of selecting horses for courses:

Few suggestions for the remaining two Test matches:

1. Let Shan Masood continue opening the innings. However, the batting coach must work very hard on removing his weakness of playing rising balls and mental block against the bowling of James Anderson.
2. Drop M. Hafeez.
3. Call back Shoaib Malik from his Test retirement, as a batting all-rounder. We need his off spin bowling desparately.
4. Let Azhar open with Shan.
5. Drop Younis Khan and bring, in his place, Sami Aslam, who is already with the squad.
6. The batting order may be reshuffled as below, as England has also promoted their best batsmen J Root to # 3 position, who alone scored 325 runs in the match, whereas, our 22 batsmen scored a mere 432 runs (Average 19.63) in the 2nd Test match.
1. Azhar
2. Shan Masood
3. Asad Shafiq
4. Misbah ul Haq
5. Sami Aslam
6. Sarfraz Ahmad
7. Shoaib Malik
8 to 11 four bowlers.

It also looks Amir is a shadow of his original self. If he is not fit, either, Sohail Khan or Zulfiqar Babar may be included in his place or Junaid Khan may be called from Pakistan.

Keeping in view the overall pathetic batting display, Fawad Alam must also be immediately flown to the UK: and given a try in the side matches before the 3rd Test, to check his form under the English conditions.

Moreover, for the ODI’s the situation is even more critical, as our eligibility for the ODI World Cup 2019, is dependent upon staying by September, 2017 within the top 8 rankings, which at the moment is #9 and our next 15 ODI’s will be played against England, West Indies, NZ and Australia.

In the ODI format, batting is our Achilles heal. In this regard, it is suggested that Misbah ul Haq, may be advised in the national interest to rejoin our ODI team, by cancelling his retirement, as a batsman, to see through the period, till the rankings cut off time of September, 2017.

Pakistan Paindabad.

How to improve national economy and reduce expenses on health budget with investment in sports..!

Respected Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Sahab,

اسلام و علیکم

Sir,

The subject mentioned article is submitted for your personal kind perusal and is based on an old maxim quoted as below:

“The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton”.
(i) The British were given to believe the real reason which tipped the balance in their favour in wars was the superior character of its young men built in boarding schools while playing games like cricket.

(ii) Eton was one of the famous English boarding schools that trained English boys for careers in the military, civil service and the church. (DAANISH Schools of the Punjab Government are a great example of a visionary project to turn around the fortunes of the future generations of Pakistan).

(iii) Famous public schools saw team sports like cricket not just as outdoor play, but as an organised way of teaching English boys, the discipline, the importance of hierarchy, the skills, the codes of honour and the leadership qualities that helped them build and run the British Empire.

(iv) Through the game of cricket-the ideal that cricket was played not for victory or profit but for its own sake, in the spirit of fair play, the British imperialists sought to justify their conquests and glorify the self image of English elite as “unselfish acts”.

(v) Though it suited the English ruling class to believe that it was the superior character of its young men built on playing fields that tipped the balance, the Napoleanic wars were won due to the economic resources of England. It was progress in trade and industry which made England, the world’s greatest power.

As such, a humble effort is made with the subject mentioned article reproduced below, to raise this nation’s full economic potential in trade and industry, through a physically super-fit Pakistani population, which must collectively believe in the saying “healthy body healthy mind’.

Last but not the least, we have to consider the 200 million population of Pakistan, as a huge manpower asset of this planet, which needs to channelise its positive energy into specific future goals, set by the nation’s visionary leadership. The national leadership must also determine, how to achieve these goals.

ARTICLE.

It is no secret that how politics coupled with corruption, has spoiled the sports in the country, which has earned the DUBIOUS distinction of the worlds BIGGEST nation, NOT to have earned a single medal in the Olympics, since the year 1994. While, much smaller and poorer countries like Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Kenya, have proved that winning medals at international level is just a matter of commitment, dedication and simple hard work, sans politics.

In the past, luckily our cricket, hockey, squash and some other sporting teams and players have been bringing laurels for Pakistan; with very little money, extremely small size governing boards and minimal politics.

Gradually, the foundations of key sports in Pakistan were eaten up by the greed of money, rampant corruption, nepotism, politics and incompetencies of the successive governments, sports managers and the players combined.

If, we have to put the sports in Pakistan back on the right track, two basic things are necessary.

Firstly, a vision and secondly, visionary and totally focused sports leadership, to put Pakistan back on top, at the worlds’ sports map.

As far as, the vision is concerned, nothing ever said about sports can match the following quote of Mr. Nelson Mandela, “Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

Now, taking a cue from the above mentioned statement of Mr. Nelson Mandela, it is suggested that Pakistani government should slightly re-phrase it and declare the following as its VISION statement:

“Sports has the power to change Pakistan…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite Pakistani people in a way that little else does. It speaks to the Pakistani youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope for the entire Pakistani nation, where once there was only despair, lawlessness, hunger, unemployment, poverty, drugs, suicide bombings and alarming increase of suicides due to the economic hardships. It is more powerful than government in breaking down the menace of terrorism which has blown the country to the smithereens.”

Moreover, sports raised in the country on modern and scientific lines can be one of the biggest economic sector; providing employment, reducing poverty and drastically improving public health and fitness levels.

Under an sports advisor to the Prime Minister, we need to have a Pakistan Sports Commission (PSC) responsible for central planning under the banner میرا پاکستان sports system.

Under the this system, Pakistan will root out talented young children and put them in special academies from as young as four years old. If they are able to progress, athletes who make the cut should be put into a relentless training programme, filled with targets they must regularly hit, and paid by the government a monthly wage of Rs.60,000/-

Each year, the best athletes should then be sent to national training centres to be established at all the provincial capitals, where they will compete to enter Pakistan’s national team.

If they will succeed, they will move with their families into these training centres and live there all year round. These centres will train the sportspersons having the following mission statement:

“There will be no breakthrough without the hardest hardship. You cannot be a champion without going through the ultimate pressure”.

For as long as they will be successful, the national team members will benefit from perks including air tickets for their parents to watch them compete and, in some cases, sponsorship deals.

Sportspersons who will win medals in international competitions, or with national titles, can attend university after their career ends, with the tuition fee paid for, by the government.

The Pakistan Sports Commission (PSC) should have three units under the Advisor on Sports to the PM, namely the administrative departments, sport competition management centres, and other support and services institutions.

The PSC will be closely tied with All Sports Federations of Pakistan and the Pakistan Olympic Committee (POA). Besides forming strategies for sport development, overseeing their implementation, and developing mid- and long-range sport development plans, the PSC will be responsible for 9 number of functions as detailed below:

1. Creating a national sport framework

2. Promoting physical activity and exercise participation in schools and local and regional communities

3. Organising national sporting events

4. Organising international sport events in Pakistan.

5. Enforcing antidrug and anticompetitive measures.

6. Supporting research into the development of sports.

7. Implementing regulations governing the sport industry, sport market, and sport-related business activities.

8. Implementing national physical training standards and supervising public health in coordination with the Ministry of Health.

9. Overseeing sport activities with foreign associations and teams, and sport-related cooperation and communication with foreign countries.

To fulfill the nation’s Olympic strategies and ambition, the PSC and sport authorities at the provincial level will play a key role in promoting sport development in Pakistan.

One of the strategies should be the sponsorship of the Pakistan National Games (PNG), modelled after the modern Olympic Games; the PNG will be the largest and most important sport extravaganza in Pakistan. Each province-level administrative unit should send a team to compete in the PNG. The preparation for and competition at the PNG will allow the government to cultivate elite Pakistani athletes for major world competitions.

The essence of Pakistani Olympic strategies and ambition will be a unique system of selecting and training elite athletes.

Pakistan will become one of the few countries in the world that dedicate and use spare-time sport schools extensively to train and prepare future elite athletes. A spare-time sport school will be a boarding school specialized in sport and established to train Olympic hopefuls. Students will be selected for their athletic talent. They will take academic classes in the morning and engage in rigorous sport training sessions in the afternoon. These sport schools will serve as a reserve pool for elite sport teams at the provincial and national levels.

The Sports Law of Pakistan should became effective within six months of the formation of the PSC, becoming the first fundamental legal document for sport.

The Sports Law will establish the main tasks and key principles in managing the sport industry, confirming the importance of mass sport, and identifying the duties and responsibilities of sport-related organizations.

Essentially, the law will set the framework for the development of modern sport in Pakistan. The enactment of the law will signify that the sport industry in Pakistan has entered a new era under the protection of the country’s legal system.

Based on the Sports Law, local governments at provincial and city levels will have the right and authority to make their own rules for managing sport within their jurisdictions.

The Plan for Olympic Glories should also be released by the PSC within six months of its formation. The plan should outline three goals:

(a) restructuring the system in elite sport training and management.

(b) enhancing the elite athlete delivery pipeline and system (including sport schools).

(c) endeavours to maintain the nation’s leading position in world sport competitions.

The PSC should also promulgate the guidelines for a national fitness program. The guidelines should be drafted with the aim of improving the health and the overall physical condition of the general population.

The guidelines will encourage everyone, especially children and adolescence, to engage in at least one sporting activity every day, learn at least two ways of keeping fit, and have a health examination every year.

The aim will be that by 2020 about 40 percent of Pakistan’s population would be regularly participating in physical activity and that clear improvement would take place in the physical fitness level of Pakistani citizens.

In this modern era sports needs professionalisation which will lead to commercialisation; this means that sports associations become profit-making entities and that there will be a club system and professional sports leagues will also be formed. Sports clubs operations will cover ticket sales, advertising, club transfers, commercial matches, and television broadcasting.

This will open for world wide sports playing and related job opportunities for Pakistani sportspersons.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Respected Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Sahab,
اسلام و علیکم
Sir,

The subject mentioned article is submitted for your personal kind perusal and is based on an old maxim quoted as below:

“The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton”.
(i) The British were given to believe the real reason which tipped the balance in their favour in wars was the superior character of its young men built in boarding schools while playing games like cricket.

(ii) Eton was one of the famous English boarding schools that trained English boys for careers in the military, civil service and the church. (DAANISH Schools of the Punjab Government are a great example of a visionary project to turn around the fortunes of the future generations of Pakistan).

(iii) Famous public schools saw team sports like cricket not just as outdoor play, but as an organised way of teaching English boys, the discipline, the importance of hierarchy, the skills, the codes of honour and the leadership qualities that helped them build and run the British Empire.

(iv) Through the game of cricket-the ideal that cricket was played not for victory or profit but for its own sake, in the spirit of fair play, the British imperialists sought to justify their conquests and glorify the self image of English elite as “unselfish acts”.

(v) Though it suited the English ruling class to believe that it was the superior character of its young men built on playing fields that tipped the balance, the Napoleanic wars were won due to the economic resources of England. It was progress in trade and industry which made England, the world’s greatest power.

As such, a humble effort is made with the subject mentioned article reproduced below, to raise this nation’s full economic potential in trade and industry, through a physically super-fit Pakistani population, which must collectively believe in the saying “healthy body healthy mind’.

Last but not the least, we have to consider the 200 million population of Pakistan, as a huge manpower asset of this planet, which needs to channelise its positive energy into specific future goals, set by the nation’s visionary leadership. The national leadership must also determine, how to achieve these goals.

ARTICLE.

It is no secret that how politics coupled with corruption, has spoiled the sports in the country, which has earned the DUBIOUS distinction of the worlds BIGGEST nation, NOT to have earned a single medal in the Olympics, since the year 1994. While, much smaller and poorer countries like Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Kenya, have proved that winning medals at international level is just a matter of commitment, dedication and simple hard work, sans politics.

In the past, luckily our cricket, hockey, squash and some other sporting teams and players have been bringing laurels for Pakistan; with very little money, extremely small size governing boards and minimal politics.

Gradually, the foundations of key sports in Pakistan were eaten up by the greed of money, rampant corruption, nepotism, politics and incompetencies of the successive governments, sports managers and the players combined.

If, we have to put the sports in Pakistan back on the right track, two basic things are necessary.

Firstly, a vision and secondly, visionary and totally focused sports leadership, to put Pakistan back on top, at the worlds’ sports map.

As far as, the vision is concerned, nothing ever said about sports can match the following quote of Mr. Nelson Mandela, “Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

Now, taking a cue from the above mentioned statement of Mr. Nelson Mandela, it is suggested that Pakistani government should slightly re-phrase it and declare the following as its VISION statement:

“Sports has the power to change Pakistan…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite Pakistani people in a way that little else does. It speaks to the Pakistani youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope for the entire Pakistani nation, where once there was only despair, lawlessness, hunger, unemployment, poverty, drugs, suicide bombings and alarming increase of suicides due to the economic hardships. It is more powerful than government in breaking down the menace of terrorism which has blown the country to the smithereens.”

Moreover, sports raised in the country on modern and scientific lines can be one of the biggest economic sector; providing employment, reducing poverty and drastically improving public health and fitness levels.

Under an sports advisor to the Prime Minister, we need to have a Pakistan Sports Commission (PSC) responsible for central planning under the banner میرا پاکستان sports system.

Under the this system, Pakistan will root out talented young children and put them in special academies from as young as four years old. If they are able to progress, athletes who make the cut should be put into a relentless training programme, filled with targets they must regularly hit, and paid by the government a monthly wage of Rs.60,000/-

Each year, the best athletes should then be sent to national training centres to be established at all the provincial capitals, where they will compete to enter Pakistan’s national team.

If they will succeed, they will move with their families into these training centres and live there all year round. These centres will train the sportspersons having the following mission statement:

“There will be no breakthrough without the hardest hardship. You cannot be a champion without going through the ultimate pressure”.

For as long as they will be successful, the national team members will benefit from perks including air tickets for their parents to watch them compete and, in some cases, sponsorship deals.

Sportspersons who will win medals in international competitions, or with national titles, can attend university after their career ends, with the tuition fee paid for, by the government.

The Pakistan Sports Commission (PSC) should have three units under the Advisor on Sports to the PM, namely the administrative departments, sport competition management centres, and other support and services institutions.

The PSC will be closely tied with All Sports Federations of Pakistan and the Pakistan Olympic Committee (POA). Besides forming strategies for sport development, overseeing their implementation, and developing mid- and long-range sport development plans, the PSC will be responsible for 9 number of functions as detailed below:

1. Creating a national sport framework

2. Promoting physical activity and exercise participation in schools and local and regional communities

3. Organising national sporting events

4. Organising international sport events in Pakistan.

5. Enforcing antidrug and anticompetitive measures.

6. Supporting research into the development of sports.

7. Implementing regulations governing the sport industry, sport market, and sport-related business activities.

8. Implementing national physical training standards and supervising public health in coordination with the Ministry of Health.

9. Overseeing sport activities with foreign associations and teams, and sport-related cooperation and communication with foreign countries.
To fulfill the nation’s Olympic strategies and ambition, the PSC and sport authorities at the provincial level will play a key role in promoting sport development in Pakistan.

One of the strategies should be the sponsorship of the Pakistan National Games (PNG), modelled after the modern Olympic Games; the PNG will be the largest and most important sport extravaganza in Pakistan. Each province-level administrative unit should send a team to compete in the PNG. The preparation for and competition at the PNG will allow the government to cultivate elite Pakistani athletes for major world competitions.

The essence of Pakistani Olympic strategies and ambition will be a unique system of selecting and training elite athletes.

Pakistan will become one of the few countries in the world that dedicate and use spare-time sport schools extensively to train and prepare future elite athletes. A spare-time sport school will be a boarding school specialized in sport and established to train Olympic hopefuls. Students will be selected for their athletic talent. They will take academic classes in the morning and engage in rigorous sport training sessions in the afternoon. These sport schools will serve as a reserve pool for elite sport teams at the provincial and national levels.

The Sports Law of Pakistan should became effective within six months of the formation of the PSC, becoming the first fundamental legal document for sport.

The Sports Law will establish the main tasks and key principles in managing the sport industry, confirming the importance of mass sport, and identifying the duties and responsibilities of sport-related organizations.

Essentially, the law will set the framework for the development of modern sport in Pakistan. The enactment of the law will signify that the sport industry in Pakistan has entered a new era under the protection of the country’s legal system.

Based on the Sports Law, local governments at provincial and city levels will have the right and authority to make their own rules for managing sport within their jurisdictions.

The Plan for Olympic Glories should also be released by the PSC within six months of its formation. The plan should outline three goals:

(a) restructuring the system in elite sport training and management.

(b) enhancing the elite athlete delivery pipeline and system (including sport schools).

(c) endeavours to maintain the nation’s leading position in world sport competitions.

The PSC should also promulgate the guidelines for a national fitness program. The guidelines should be drafted with the aim of improving the health and the overall physical condition of the general population.

The guidelines will encourage everyone, especially children and adolescence, to engage in at least one sporting activity every day, learn at least two ways of keeping fit, and have a health examination every year.

The aim will be that by 2020 about 40 percent of Pakistan’s population would be regularly participating in physical activity and that clear improvement would take place in the physical fitness level of Pakistani citizens.

In this modern era sports needs professionalisation which will lead to commercialisation; this means that sports associations become profit-making entities and that there will be a club system and professional sports leagues will also be formed. Sports clubs operations will cover ticket sales, advertising, club transfers, commercial matches, and television broadcasting.

This will open for world wide sports playing and related job opportunities for Pakistani sportspersons.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

 

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

Sir,

In line with your governments openly declared hall mark policy about across the board accountability, an independent joint audit (private audit firm+FIA+NAB+Headed by the Auditor General of Pakistan) of PCB should be held, where one PSL’s dinner in Lahore at Expo Center, cost around Rs.4 Crore; and later on, PCB Board of Governors (BOG) approved this huge expense on just one dinner, without any objections, for which entire BOG members of the PCB are collectively responsible.

Moreover, former renowned Test cricketer Mr.Sarfraz Nawaz’s reported open statements over media, about a top PCB functionary, getting in Delhi, Rs.40 & Rs.6 crores respectively, on fixing (losing) the matches of ODI World Cup 2015, vs Indian and West Indian cricket teams (played in Australia) needs full INVESTIGATION & ACCOUNTABILITY, with the help of IB and the ISI.

Furthermore, PMLN’s Senator Mr. Mushahid Ullah Khan also openly aired his opinion, in a recent TV program that an inquiry should be conducted, about the way our team played and lost T20 world cup matches vs Indian and the New Zealand’s team in India, which also needs investigation by the IB and the ISI, as selling of motherland is the highest degree of treason, punishment for which should be death from a firing squad, as per the opinion of great West Indian legendary cricketer, Sir Vivian Richards.

Accountability of the CONCERNED is also needed in the PCB for auction of the media rights in 2015 (for 8 years period till 2023) at almost the same or even less amount, at which the media rights were auctioned by the PCB, in 2008.

An immediate high powered audit is also required about the reported approximate expense of Rs.90 Crores, incurred on arranging the PSL; and till finalisation of the audit, the concerned top notches of the PCB, may be advised to not to leave the country, on any pretext.

Sir, I am fully confident that if you issue necessary orders for the implementation of the above necessary audits of the PCB, your image, reputation and prestige will rise to the sky.

With Best Wishes Kind Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Vivian Richards writes in his book “VIV RICHARDS” and gives his opinion on match fixing and its punishment at page 219, quoted as below:

“The problem needs to be taken more seriously and be throughly investigated.
Anyone caught and proved beyond doubt to be involved in match-fixing should be given the maximum punishment, both within the game and under the laws of the country in which it happens.
In my view, it’s a kind of treason, selling your country out.
At one time that would have meant being put in front of a firing squad.
How can anyone sell out his or her country for a few bucks? It is beyond my comprehension.”

All Pakistani cricket teams matches of T20 World Cups of 2014 and 2016 and ODI World Cup matches of 2011 and 2015 must be investigated by a joint investigation team of the ISI and the IB.

 

Pakistani cricketers always bear the burden of representing the image and the hopes of millions of their fans. Their on and off the field behaviours, have a social and political significance, that goes well beyond the field and enters into the homes of all the citizens as well as, into the most powerful institutions. The victory in a world cup ODI or a T20 contest, can move nearly all sections of the Pakistani nation, in an incomparable manner.

Thus, for the ordinary Pakistani cricket fan, PCB is not just an organisation; rather, it is a mini Pakistan (and its chairman a mini Prime Minister) and looked upon like the institution of the Pakistani armed forces, where they can’t imagine, any compromise shall be made, on the image and reputation of the country; and where rather than lowering the national flag and pride, our sons sacrifice their lives.

Hence, the PCB and not the players…. needs a turn around..!

We should not be so naive to expect production of a Mercedes car from the manufacturing plant of a motorcycle.

Moreover, as Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” As such, we must not expect miracles by sending players to army institutions, for some rigorous training. If that was the case, why armed forces sports teams world over and in Pakistan, are NOT the number one teams, in all the sports they participate?

Nowadays, like the management, sports is a science and the role of the amateur handlers is over. Only QUALIFIED professionals can train sportsmen, for producing world beaters.

Until and unless, PCB itself is turned upside down, our cricketing standards will keep on sliding into the abyss. The culture of taking work from the qualified professionals can NOT be handed over to the existing SENIOR staff of the PCB, who can’t even develop a multi-media presentation. Everyone knows how many managers and above, in the PCB, can truly handle the computers, beyond the emails reading?
It is suggested that PCB must be totally revamped (with a vision statement of BETTER THAN THE BEST) from the top to the bottom, to make it function like a top class world level organisation, with zero tolerance for old amateurish and bureaucratic style of working, which breeds intellectual, moral and financial corruption, nepotism and favouritism, in each and every sphere of its operations. Right now, PCB has become the last and final resting place of the great nincompoops of Pakistan.
However, the greatest harm the PCB is doing to the nation is that it is being run on a system, which is doing double damage; in the shape of production of mediocre run of the mill players; and at the same time, talented players (like Awais Zia) are facing hurdles, in coming into the lime light.

If the PCB wants to survive in the fast changing world of competition, it must change its old habits and rebuild itself, inside out. PCB must know that a professional organisation is “of and for professional people”.

For the inside out rebuilding, the PCB must come out in a crystal clear manner that “how it want to be thought of” and then consider every thing that the PCB “say and do.”

Every PCB department must also be converted into a “cost center” responsible for its revenues and expenses.

Side by side, the PCB must also shun its CULTURE of politics and self serving policies. This is absolutely necessary, because culture of an organisation is the environment under which all it’s employes perform their duties. What is needed by the PCB is to create a culture of team work, which stimulates the employees for working with absolute honesty and recognises and rewards employee efforts and permeates the entire organisation.

While chaos, politics and leg pulling is rampant in the rank and file employees of the PCB, how it can be expected to produce players, who will not be equally, if not more, afflicted by these malaise? As they say in the IT jargon, garbage in garbage out, or output can not be more than the input.

However, the top notches of the government and the PCB, must know very clearly that the PCB can not be turned out into a first class world level organisation, by just transfers, postings, change of designations, hiring or firing of employees.

In fact, such steps breeds even more discontent and ill will, among the employees and the general masses.

To achieve the desired results, PCB needs a total and complete overhaul, disregarding any political or other pressures for serving any vested interest(s), examples of which (running the organisation on an absolutely 100% merit basis) can be seen in many Pakistani organisations like LUMS, SKMCH & RC, IBA, NUST and the GIK etc.

Till such time, the PCB itself is turned into a center of excellence, it can’t produce a bunch of players, who can be the world beaters, on a consistent level.

In any team game, a team do not need champions like Don Bradman or David Beckham to be the world beaters. But, greats like Don Bradman and David Beckham in any team, can not excel, without the cooperation of other team members.

For our players to consistently excel at the international arena, PCB coaches need to repeatedly hammer into the minds of the players, the following famous quote of Aristotle.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”

Now, world over competitive sports is not considered just a past time hobby or entertainment and fitness activity. Rather, sports activities are considered and handled as a science. As such, the PCB must shun business as usual, decades old approach.

Moreover, the PCB think tank must “PLAN FOR SUCCESS” with clear and measurable objectives.

The PCB must also not forget that the world’s best and most expensive coaches are NOT the recipe for the success. If this notion was true, rich countries like the USA and the Saudi Arabia, would have been the world champions, in many sports like football etc.

The recipe for success mostly lies in the smooth working of a well defined system, lead for which must come from none other than the PCB chairman.
Gone are the old decadent ways of assembling players for a camp, just before the tour to show their fitness and playing abilities. It must be the specified duty of the think tank and the selectors to devise a plan to monitor 24/7 the health, eating habits, general behaviour and performance of the CONTRACTED players, in a scientific manner. These contracted players must not be allowed to have a free reign, even during the off days, as they are almost like paid employees of the PCB.

Moreover, the FINE TUNING and grooming of the marked pool of all the talented and upcoming players (non-contracted) should be the SPECIFIC responsibility of the NCA staff, who must constantly produce, highest calibre five players, for each position of the game, both for the men and the ladies teams.

As such, rather than hiring a foreign coach for the national team, we need to hire an experienced and QUALIFIED foreign expert, who has the experience of running the sports academy on professional lines, may be from Australia. This expert should be assigned the task to turn NCA, into a center of excellence, second to none in the world.
It will not be out of place to conclude, by mentioning the quotes of the three famous sports coaches, for the motivation of our players, who are under tremendous pressure to perform on a consistent level.

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.”
– Vince Lombardi

“When you’re playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you’ll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.”
– Pat Riley

I’ve never played for a draw in my life.

Alex Ferguson

In England, it’s a rare thing to see a player smoking but, all in all, I prefer that to an alcoholic. The relationship with alcohol is a real problem in English football and, in the short term, it’s much more harmful to a sportsman. It weakens the body, which becomes more susceptible to injury.

Alex Ferguson

I’m going to tell you the story about the geese which fly 5,000 miles from Canada to France. They fly in V-formation but the second ones don’t fly. They’re the subs for the first ones. And then the second ones take over – so it’s teamwork.

Alex Ferguson

The work of a team should always embrace a great player but the great player must always work.

Alex Ferguson

 

 

1. If we can lose 2 matches with Shahzad and Umar Akmal there is no risk dropping them from the team for match against Australia.

2. We must not only have to win against Australia but badly need to win with a huge margin. As such, there must radical changes in the team selection and batting order.

3. In the match against Australia, we need power hitters and also these power hitters must come higher in the order to bat fearlessly; not like the timid way Ahmad Shahzad & Umar Akmal batted vs NZ.

4. As a changed tactic, one regular power hitter batsman must also come low down the order, to score maximum possible runs during the last five 16-20 overs.

Proposed team with batting order against the match vs the Australian team:
1) Sharjeel Khan
2) M Hafeez
3) S Afridi
4) Sarfraz Ahmad
5) Shoaib Malik
6) Khalid Latif (power hitter)
7) Imad Waseem
8) Nawaz
9) M Sami
10) Wahab Riaz
11) M Amir