Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

Now, when the World Cup is hardly 4 months away, the PCB has realised that Misbah-ul-Haq should be dropped from the team of the 3rd ODI match to be played vs Australia, on Sunday, 12 October, 2014.

All this pushing of the panic button, is too little and too late.

This spent cartridge (Misbah-ul-Haq) and some others as well, should have been dropped, when Pakistan came LAST, repeat LAST, among all the 8 participating teams of the Champions Trophy, held in June-July 2013. But, then the entire PCB junta had one mantra on their their lips that “show us the person who can speak English and can lead after Misbah ul Haq?”. As if, the PCB had decided to keep Misbah-ul-Haq as the captain, for his life time; and even when he was no more in this world.

Actually, these veterans should have been dropped, when we lost an ODI and a Test Match vs Zimbabwe.

Such players again deserved to be sacked, when Pakistani team miserably lost the Asia Cup in Dhaka.

Finally, Misbah ul Haq must have been summarily dismissed from the leadership of the Pakistani team, after the recent shameful surrender in Sri Lanka.

But, as they say Qurban Jaieay on the most brainy, accomplished, intellectually honest, visionary and experienced diplomat cum chairman PCB, His Royal Highness Shaheryar Khan, who on his very first day of joining the PCB as chairman, announced that Misbah will remain captain till the World Cup, as if the honour and respect of the country, was the domestic servant of Shaheryar Khan; and all that mattered to him was his personal whims and wishes, which looked obviously subservient, to one of his own SUBORDINATE.

Moreover, leaders of organisations who have any semblance of honour and integrity, always take upon themselves, the responsibility of any national humiliation; and resign, without finding any scapegoats in their own organisation..!

Now, which genius thinks that at this eleventh hour, the change of captaincy, will change the fortunes of the Pakistani team?

With all due respects to Shahid Afridi, he is any thing but passed his prime, not months but years ago. In fact, he has played more ODI matches, than he has taken total wickets in his ODI carrier.

It seems the gurus of the PCB think that if a senior player is not performing, promote him as captain, which obviously is the best recipe for a disaster.

Now, when the sword of Damocles of the Australian white wash, is looming over the head of the PCB, they have sacrificed Misbah, who has neither the confidence nor the capacity to face the Australian onslaught. But the question is why all the PCB’s big wigs didn’t pay any heed, when they were informed time and again, about Misbah’s limitations, due to being a timid person and a pure defensive mind?

However, PCB should also be ready to axe Shahid Afridi (who has been again made the T20 captain of the Pakistani team till the World Cup 2016, by our visionary and legendary chairman PCB), in whose leadership our T20 team vs Australia created sort of world record(s), in NOT hitting even a single six in a T20 match and allowing the opponent to achieve the target, with 6 out of 20 overs to spare.

Now, the PCB is forewarned that after the Australian team’s hammering, we should be ready in the coming month for another white wash, from the black caps (New Zealand), as well.

As such, the cricket mad fans of Pakistan earnestly appeals to the Patron in Chief of the PCB in Pakistan, to immediately come forward and finish this PCB TAMASHA; and order the following:

1. Sacking of the simpleton (ignorant) chairman of the PCB, the entire, repeat the entire fleet of the coaches and ALL the selectors, as well as, the manager of the team.

2. The new chairman (may be a no non sense person like AVM Farooq Umar, It was during his tenure as President PHF that Pakistan Hockey won a “World Champions Trophy” and the “World Cup Sydney 94” after a long lapse of 14 years ) should be tasked to purge the team of all the SIFARSHI and non deserving players like Umer Amin and Suhail Tanvir etc., and rebuild the ENTIRE edifice of the team with YOUNG players having potential and talent like SAMI ASLAM and IMAM UL HAQ etc.

3.The new chairman should also be tasked to re-vamp the PCB, as a world class professional organisation.

4. Also, as was done by the legendary Air Marshall Noor Khan Sahab, when he appointed 22 years old Javed Miandad, as the captain of the Pakistan cricket team, the new set up of the PCB should be directed to appoint a young deserving player (like Sami Aslam Ex. Captain U19 Pak team) as captain of the National cricket team, who should have the potential to lead our team for the next 5-10 years, in future.

Last but not the least, we should forget the fear of defeat with this younger blend of new players, for some rebuilding time in the future, as we have been tolerating our senior stalwarts, for inflicting the agony of, not the defeats, but humiliating defeats (after getting out for 49 runs in a Test match which obviously was a below club level team’s performance) for even a much longer time.

Now, as the national interest demands, there must not be any further delay from the Patron in Chief of the PCB, in ordering a swift, but major clean up surgical operation in the PCB.

It is earnestly hoped that the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will never allow his name to be remembered in a the annuls of the history, as the Patron in Chief of the PCB, under whose tenure, last nail was fixed in the coffin of the Pakistani cricket.

Who is the real chairman of PCB..?

The statement of Mr. Sheharyar Khan on the 1st day of his taking over as the chairman PCB that Misbah ul Haq will be retained as captain, till the world cup and Mr. Subhan was THE man in the PCB, removed any semblance of doubts about the fact that the PCB will be remote controlled by Mr. Najam Sethi; and that Mr. Sheharyar Khan will be more than happy to blindly continue his policies, even at the peril of Pakistan cricket.

The shocking manner in which our cricket team surrendered in Test and ODI series, during its recently concluded tour of Sri Lanka, is just the tip of an iceberg. But even more pathetic was the inertia, of the top management of the PCB, which utterly and most probably deliberately, failed to perform an accountability act, vis-a-vis the responsible persons of the tour management committee, all types of coaches who took the tour as a joy ride or a paid holiday; and the players who failed despite having been on a very long training camp, preparing for the Sri Lanka’s tour, during the last few months.

The board also typically looked the other way, when the time came to fix the responsibility on the person (s) liable for not taking pre-emptive measures, to save Saeed Ajmal from the ban imposed by the ICC, on the chucking issue. This is all the more a serious matter, because many commentators and experts had forewarned several months ago that this situation was written on the wall.

Now, the PCB top notches, instead of taking to task all those who botched the selection process, with particular reference to the non selection of Younis Khan (remember the same people earlier deliberately blundered in case of Younis Khan when he was relegated to B category for the central contract) and Harris Suhail; and wrongly selecting Suhail Tanvir and Umer Amin, has totally landed themselves in a mess, by issuing a show cause notice to Younis Khan.

Why can’t the most seasoned living diplomat in the country understand the simple fact that the existence of the PCB, is due to the world class players like Younis Khan and not the vice versa.

It seems that everybody in the country except the chairman PCB, knows the fact that a vested group in the PCB is playing dirty politics, which has ruined the game, spirit and morale of our players to the extent that since the PCB was taken over by Mr. Najam Sethi, our team miserably lost the champions trophy by going down to the last position among all the participants, lost a Test and an ODI vs Zimbabwe, then lost two tournaments (T20 World Cup and the Asia Cup) which were played in Dhaka few months back and finally capitulated vs the Sri Lankan team in both the Test matches and also lost the ODI series, 2-1. Here, we have not counted some absolutely avoidable defeats against the South African and Sri Lankan teams, during the matches played in the UAE.

Now, with this kind of consistent dismal performance of Mr. Moin Khan & Co., in all the above defeats, the chief selector had the guts to say that Younis khan was not considered for the ODI team, because he just scored 3 runs in the single ODI (don’t forget he scored 177 in an innings in the 1st Test vs Sri Lanka in the same tour), he played against the Sri Lankan team. If a world class player can be sacked on his poor performance in one match, why can’t the manager cum chief selector be also sacked on a continuous string of failures of the team, he is having joy rides with, tour after tour after tour?

In order to put a full stop in the continuous decline of the Pakistan cricket (which was obviously due to the string of poor decisions of Mr. Najam Sethi & Co.) the incumbent chairman PCB, must take the command of the board in his own hands; and act on his own independent decisions, after seeking the help and advice of the former players (who are men of integrity, but not in the good books of the PCB). In this regard, opinion may also be sought from the former chairmans of the PCB.

World Cup 2015 – Few proposals for Pak cricket team..!

Pakistan cricket team always had the potential and talent to win, any and all of the past cricket ODI & T20 world cup tournaments.

As such, there should be no doubt, about its chances of winning the next cricket ODI World Cup, scheduled to commence from 14 February 2015, to be played in Australia and New Zealand, where our (Pool B) 1st match, will be against the Indian team, on 15 February, 2015 at Adelaide.

The details of Pool A and B teams are given below:

Pool A.

England.
Australia.
SriLanka.
Bangladesh.
NewZealand.
Afghanistan.
Scotland.

Pool B.

South Africa.
India.
Pakistan.
West Indies.
Zimbabwe.
Ireland.
United Arab Emirates.

Since 4 teams from each pool (total 8 teams from both the pools) will move forward, to play quarter final matches, we can safely assume (barring any upset) that the following teams MAY qualify for the quarter finals.

Pool A.

England.
Australia.
Sri Lanka.
NewZealand.

Pool B.

South Africa
India.
Pakistan.
West Indies.

Obviously, for all the teams playing quarter finals, semi finals and the final match, will be a do or die affair. Hence, for all purpose and intent, they will be considering all these matches, as a knock out or a final match.

Now, for Pakistan to prepare for this ODI World Cup tournament, it has less than 5 months. Luckily, we also have the opportunity to play 8 ODI matches during coming Oct-Dec 2014, against Australia (3) and NewZealand (5).

PCB must ensure that firstly, it must also pick few newcomers with fresh legs, for the World Cup team, who performs outstandingly in the ongoing T20 national tournament being played in Karachi. This is high time that daring, fearless and hard hitting batsman like Awaiz Zia, is given an opportunity to play in all the 8 ODI matches vs Australia and NewZealand in UAE, to bolster his confidence for the World Cup tournament.

This is all the more necessary, because our low scores in the 1st power play part of the game, during the starting 10 overs, has been the achilles heel (a portion, spot, area, or the like, that is especially or solely vulnerable).
With World Cup almost at hand, we created a sort of a world record in just concluded ODI series vs Sri Lanka, by scoring only 19 runs in the first 10 overs of an ODI, when only 2 repeat 2 fielders, are stationed outside the 30 yards circle.

We also possess the world record for playing the maximum number of DOT balls in the ODI’s and the T20 matches.

Our basic weaknesses in the ODI’s, as well as, in the T20 matches, have been the failure in scoring during the power play period (as if we have burdened the mind with the fear of losing the wickets during the power play, which in any case on many occasions, we do lose, even with NOT scoring freely in the power play) and secondly, committing the CARDINAL mistake of not taking singles regularly, or playing huge number of DOT balls.

Both the above problems are obviously due to a negative mind set, which if our coaches particularly Mr. Waqar Younis, fails to address, we will continue to perform as we did in recent series in Sri Lanka.

Our team management, must realise that it is not an issue of the abilities of our players. Rather, it is related to the negative mind set, imbibed or embedded in the brains of our players; and the only way to come out of this rut is to do specific practise (particularly during the coming 8 ODI and 3 T20 matches vs Australia and NewZealand) of these two short comings, explained above.

In the coming 8 ODI and 3 T20 games, our tour management committee must give a minimum target of 80 runs, during the 1st 10 overs of the ODI’s; and 60 runs during the 1st 6 overs of the T20 games. Because, if at all we have to be the #1 team of the world, we will have to be better than the best.

However, our all batsmen must be told that they are required to play FAST but NOT at all required to play RASH.

They should also be told that the basic difference between cricket and the baseball game is that in baseball, you are supposed to hit every ball; and in cricket every ball has to be played on its merit. However, that doesn’t mean that batsmen should fail to score singles and doubles, if boundaries are not coming.

Moreover, to overcome the chronic problem of our batsmen, in effectively scoring runs of the short balls, coming fast over their shoulders, particularly on the bouncy wickets of Australia and NewZealand, they should be given rigorous practice, with special bouncing rubber balls, bowled over the cemented pitch.

Regarding fielding, the players should be taught that all 11 fielders must focus 100% during the game, just like a wicket keeper; and the best way to NOT to drop a catch and stop a hit is to EXPECT that EACH and EVERY ball will be coming to the me. This mind set will VASTLY improve the catching and fielding.

Further, while throwing the ball for a direct run out, first the fielder must LOCK his eyes on the wickets and then throw the ball towards the stumps with one bump to the ground rather than direct aerial throw to the wickets. Research has proved that one bump throw to the wickets, increases the chances of the hitting the stumps, compared with the aerial throw.

In the bowling field, the old adage of bowling wicket to wicket, still pays the maximum dividends. However, in the modern day cricket, disguised slower balls, the balls bowled away from the off stump (just short of wide ball) and surprise bouncers have proved extremely useful and productive, during the crunch times and in case of FREE hits.

In this regard, PCB must prepare a plan named ”Vision 2015″. This plan should be a fool proof strategy with specific focus on winning the 2015 ODI World Cup tournament, considering all risk factors, like sudden unavailability of any player due to various reasons (as happened with Saeed Ajmal), at least five umpiring decisions going against us (two in batting & three in bowling innings), dropped catches/missed run outs and failure of main bowlers and batsmen etc.

We should remember that plans never fail, we fail to plan. Moreover, the PCB “Vision 2015″ must state that “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.”

Best of luck to the Pakistan cricket team….you can do it…you can win the World Cup…just believe in the fact that InshaAllah, you will be the world champions..!

Congratulations to Mr. Imran khan that our cricket team has also joined your call for the CDO movement and firstly, MISBAH chose to bat under favourable bowling conditions and later on, team got all out for 102 in 32.1 overs.

Some other interesting statistics of the Pakistani innings played under Civil Disobedience Movement called by the PTI.

Total balls of the innings 193
Scoring shot balls 58
Dot balls played. 135
Total boundaries x4. 7
Boundaries behind the
Wicket. 6
Boundaries in front 1
Innings sixes 1
Scored 19 runs for 3 wickets in 10 overs, which may well be a sort of a record for the power play overs, when only 2 fielders are allowed outside the circle.

Now, Pakistan is truly reaping the fruits of the over one year’s PCB chairmanship of cricketing and administrative wizard and darling of Mian Nawaz Sharif, Mr.Najam Sethi ( who is still the most powerful man in the board relegating the chairman Shahyar Khan as just a figure head) wherein, against the Sri Lankan team, we lost Test series 2-0 & ODI series 2-1, in a most ignominious manner.

In this regard, Prime Minister, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, must remember that the history will never forgive him for the fact that he was informed and forewarned many times in writing that cricket was NOT the cup of tea for the nincompoop Najam Sethi, but he supported him to the hilt, by compromising the national interest, for the reasons best know to Mian Nawaz Sharif and the world at large, as well; easily forgetting that the constitution of Pakistan, strictly prohibits nepotism and favouritism.

In fact, in this case the constitution of Pakistan, was flagrantly violated and then people had the guts to criticise the past dictators, for saying that constitution was just a piece of paper.

Congratulations to Mr. Imran khan that our cricket team has also joined your call for the CDO movement and firstly, MISBAH chose to bat under favourable bowling conditions and later on, team got all out for 102 in 32.1 overs.

Some other interesting statistics of the Pakistani innings played under Civil Disobedience Movement called by the PTI.

Total balls of the innings 193
Scoring shot balls 58
Dot balls played. 135
Total boundaries x4. 7
Boundaries behind the
Wicket. 6
Boundaries in front 1
Innings sixes 1
Scored 19 runs for 3 wickets in 10 overs, which may well be a sort of a record for the power play overs, when only 2 fielders are allowed outside the circle.

Now, Pakistan is truly reaping the fruits of the over one year’s PCB chairmanship of cricketing and administrative wizard and darling of Mian Nawaz Sharif, Mr.Najam Sethi ( who is still the most powerful man in the board relegating the chairman Shahyar Khan as just a figure head) wherein, against the Sri Lankan team, we lost Test series 2-0 & ODI series 2-1, in a most ignominious manner.

In this regard, Prime Minister, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, must remember that the history will never forgive him for the fact that he was informed and forewarned many times in writing that cricket was NOT the cup of tea for the nincompoop Najam Sethi, but he supported him to the hilt, by compromising the national interest, for the reasons best know to Mian Nawaz Sharif and the world at large, as well; easily forgetting that the constitution of Pakistan, strictly prohibits nepotism and favouritism.

In fact, in this case the constitution of Pakistan, was flagrantly violated and then people had the guts to criticise the past dictators, for saying that constitution was just a piece of paper.

Look Mr. Najam Sethi, what the BCCI Secretary Sanjay Patel has said about your so called “MOU turned into binding agreement straightaway”.

Wisden India quoted Secretary Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Sanjay Patel, as saying on Wednesday “the deals with Pakistan were not set in stone”.

Perhaps the genius PCB boss may be knowing that:

“You can fool some of the people for some of the time. You can also fool some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people, all the time”.

Watching World Cup football matches, one thing is becoming clearer, day by day and match after match that the referees are definitely favouring Brazil, from the match one.

Moreover, the blatant wrong decisions of these football referees, specially in awarding wrong penalties, have made the cricket umpires, look like angels.

Anyway, this football World Cup seems to be a fixed affair, like the WWF wrestling matches.

Come on FICA bring up a new ICC..!

When two of the big3 of the ICC are against opening Cricket for the Olympics what is the use of the ICC???

Srinivasan as ICC Chairman is embarrassing: FICA boss

27 Jun 2014, 1324 hrs IST, AP

READ MORE: Narayanswami Srinivasan|International cricket council|Federation of International

Cricketers
© Getty Images

Paul Marsh has termed Srinivasan’s appointment as ICC Chairman “embarrassing”.
Melbourne: Paul Marsh, the executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association, has described Narayanswami Srinivasan’s appointment as the Chairman of the International Cricket Council as “embarrassing”. Marsh, who is shortly to step down as executive chairman of FICA, said the election Thursday of Srinivasan to the most powerful role in world cricket was “very concerning.”

Srinivasan is currently barred by the Indian Supreme Court from performing his duties as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and has been listed as one of 13 persons of interest in an investigation of corruption in the Indian Premier League.

In a FICA statement on Friday, Marsh said “our strong preference was for the controversy involving Mr. Srinivasan in India to be resolved before the ICC made a decision on the chairmanship.”

Srinivas an’s appointment followed changes to the structure of the ICC which awards virtual control of world cricket to India, England and Australia. India lobbied strongly for Srinivasan’s appointment and his nomination was carried with strong support from both Australia and England.

India provides almost 70 percent of cricket’s international revenues and the election of Srinivasan and the revamped ICC structure, affording power to the sport’s ‘big three’, are seen as measures to prevent India quitting the world body.

Marsh bemoaned the concentration of political power into fewer hands.

“It’s difficult to see how cricket has got to this point,” he said in an interview with Australia’s SEN Radio. “It’s one of the saddest things I’ve seen in cricket. It’s embarrassing for the game that we’re in this position. The process that they’ve gone through to get to this point is very concerning. Effectively what’s happened here is the ‘big three’ boards of Engla nd, Australia and India have taken over the world game.”

Marsh said it was likely the big three would share a larger share of revenue at the expense of smaller nations.

“I don’t know how that helps build the world game,” he said. “I don’t see that cricket has a huge future if the game becomes about three or four countries. What we’ve seen over the last few years is that the game has been run very much along selfish lines.”

Marsh will be succeeded as FICA chairman by Tony Irish of South Africa.

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Another black day in the sporting history of Pakistan..!

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

AoA.

I will not at all be surprised, if your very important national and international commitments, must have kept you unaware, from the extremely sad and tragic news that today for the first time ever, in the country’s 60-year history of the game of Hockey, Pakistani team is not playing the World Cup; because our team failed to qualify for the tournament, which has commenced today on Saturday, 31 May 2014 at Hague and from Asia, India, South Korea and Malaysia are participating.

Hope you remember, the Hockey World Cup was introduced by Pakistan, which also won this title 4 times in the past.

MashaAllah, next week you will be completing first year of the government.However, if we just talk about sports, it looks that the people at the helm of affairs for sports in the government, absolutely failed to stem the rot and provide any vision or guidance in the improvement of the pathetic state of affairs of the sports, particularly in games of Hockey, Cricket, Squash and Snooker, which were once dominated by Pakistan, around the world.

The improvement in the sports sector is neither difficult, nor has a requirement of rocket science. What is needed is commitment and dedication with honesty, integrity and meritocracy, without any politics, favouritism and nepotism.

Hope you are also aware about the state of the ugly affairs in the other major game of the country namely cricket, where our team came last among all the participants of the Champions trophy played in the UK, but were rewarded with an Eid bonus by Mr. Najam Sethi, as if PCB was his father’s company. Then our team went to Zimbabwe and got defeats from them (Zim a lowest status team) in a Test as well as, the ODI match. And recently Pakistani team created another record of shame, when in the T20 World Cup tournament held in Bangladesh, for the first time in the history, we failed to qualify for even the semi finals spot.

If I were the PM, all the sports administrators including the minister in charge, would have been sacked with the orders to refund entire pay and perks waisted on them for abysmally failing, during the last one year of the government, to deliver even 1% positive results.

Again, if I were the PM, for the sake of the name and image of Pakistan, for which our soldiers are almost daily embracing martyrdom, I would have gone across the party lines, to select an advisor for sports, who could turn around all the major sports played in the country, in not more than a years time.

In this regard, the following three names come to my mind, for selecting amongst them, a national sports advisor to the P.M.

1. AVM Farooq Umar Ex. CEO & M.D. PIA. He was also elected “President Pakistan Hockey Federation.” (PHF) It was during his tenure that he Resurrected Pakistan Hockey and made it Win the “World Champions Trophy” and the “World Cup Sydney 94” after a long lapse of 14 years . His success depended on upfront leadership and the ability to motivate the players right in the play field.

2. Lt. Gen (R) Tauqir Zia. As the chairman Pakistan Cricket Board for 4 years, he not only introduced the “Vision 2005″, paragon for the promotion and development of Cricket in Pakistan but also managed to implement almost 75% of that Project in every part of the country particularly in the far flung areas of Balochistan, Sind and Frontier.

3. Khalid Mahmood. His keen interest in sports particularly cricket, provided Mr. Khalid Mahmood opportunities to serve Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in various capacities: Honorary Secretary (1975-1976), Member PCB Council (1988-94), Manager of Pakistan Cricket Team touring England, South Africa and the West Indies (1992-1993) and as Chairman PCB (1998-1999).

Before concluding, I would like to bring to your kind notice that please don’t consider sports as something which should be left as your last priority, on the national agenda. And if any proof was required to substantiate my request, here is the statement for your kind perusal, about the power of the sports, by one of the greatest statesman of the world, late 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 late Mr. Nelson Mandela, it is suggested that Pakistani government should slightly re-phrase it and declare the following as its mission 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, 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 Pakistan to the smithereens.”

With best wishes and kind regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Another black day in the sporting history of Pakistan..!

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

AoA.

I will not at all be surprised, if your very important national and international commitments, must have kept you unaware, from the extremely sad and tragic news that today for the first time ever, in the country’s 60-year history of the game of Hockey, Pakistani team is not playing the World Cup; because our team failed to qualify for the tournament, which has commenced today on Saturday, 31 May 2014 at Hague and from Asia, India, South Korea and Malaysia are participating.

Hope you remember the Hockey World Cup was introduced by Pakistan, which also won this title 4 times in the past.

MashaAllah, next week you will be completing first year of the government.However, if we just talk about sports, it looks that the people at the helm of affairs for sports in the government, absolutely failed to stem the rot and provide any vision or guidance in the improvement of the pathetic state of affairs of the sports, particularly in games of Hockey, Cricket, Squash and Snooker, which were once dominated by Pakistan, around the world.

The improvement in the sports sector is neither difficult, nor has a requirement of rocket science. What is needed is commitment and dedication with honesty, integrity and meritocracy, without any politics, favouritism and nepotism.

Hope you are also aware about the state of the ugly affairs in the other major game of the country namely cricket, where our team came last among all the participants of the Champions trophy played in the UK, but were rewarded with an Eid bonus by Mr. Najam Sethi, as if PCB was his father’s company. Then our team went to Zimbabwe and got defeats from them (Zim a lowest status team) in a Test as well as, the ODI match. And recently Pakistani team created another record of shame, when in the T20 World Cup tournament held in Bangladesh, for the first time in the history, we failed to qualify for even the semi finals spot.

If I were the PM, all the sports administrators including the minister in charge, would have been sacked with the orders to refund entire pay and perks waisted on them for abysmally failing, during the last one year of the government, to deliver even 1% positive results.

Again, if I were the PM, for the sake of the name and image of Pakistan, for which our soldiers are almost daily embracing martyrdom, I would have gone across the party lines, to select an advisor for sports, who could turn around all the major sports played in the country, in not more than a years time.

In this regard, the following three names come to my mind, for selecting amongst them, a national sports advisor to the P.M.

1. AVM Farooq Umar Ex. CEO & M.D. PIA. He was also elected “President Pakistan Hockey Federation.” (PHF) It was during his tenure that he Resurrected Pakistan Hockey and made it Win the “World Champions Trophy” and the “World Cup Sydney 94” after a long lapse of 14 years . His success depended on upfront leadership and the ability to motivate the players right in the play field.

2. Lt. Gen (R) Tauqir Zia. As the chairman Pakistan Cricket Board for 4 years, he not only introduced the “Vision 2005”, paragon for the promotion and development of Cricket in Pakistan but also managed to implement almost 75% of that Project in every part of the country particularly in the far flung areas of Balochistan, Sind and Frontier.

3. Khalid Mahmood. His keen interest in sports particularly cricket, provided Mr. Khalid Mahmood opportunities to serve Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in various capacities: Honorary Secretary (1975-1976), Member PCB Council (1988-94), Manager of Pakistan Cricket Team touring England, South Africa and the West Indies (1992-1993) and as Chairman PCB (1998-1999).

Before concluding, I would like to bring to your kind notice that please don’t consider sports as something which should be left as your last priority, on the national agenda. And if any proof was required to substantiate my request, here is the statement for your kind perusal, about the power of the sports, by one of the greatest statesman of the world, late 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 late Mr. Nelson Mandela, it is suggested that Pakistani government should slightly re-phrase it and declare the following as its mission 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, 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 Pakistan to the smithereens.”

With best wishes and kind regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad