New Chairman For PCB?

Dr Nasim is a brave man. It is nice to see that in spite of oceanic criticism pouring in daily, he has somewhat perfected the art of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds

By Dr Nauman Niaz

The onslaught and the fallout of Dr Nasim Ashraf's tenure continue to reverberate with growing intensity. Days on, things simply are not cooling down. But, ironically, things are calm with the decision makers. Why couldn't people understand that cricket management is a specialised subject? The manner in which people from all jobs, be it a retired Lieutenant General or a Foreign Secretary or a less fanciful Chairman National Commission for Human Development has exploded cricket management's invincibility is so tragic. Dr Nasim surprised quite a few when he was promptly named to replace Shaharyar M Khan.

In England in August 2006, when Inzamam-ul-Haq conceded the final Test of the series at The Oval after Darrell Hair had questioned the integrity of the Pakistan players, rightly or wrongly Dr Nasim's actions with the 'thumbs down' showed that he was under control. Retrospectively, it seems it was just a gesticulation. He wasn't in control. Neither has the weather been much use to Nasim's government.

Dr Nasim was one of Shaharyar's several members on the board of governors. There are reports, though unconfirmed, that he was eager to get into the position of power, to some considering that cricket's razzmatazz could bring him into a space from he could emulate Shaukat Aziz to country's highest office.

At one time, his name flashed on the television screens as one of the choices to hold an interim office before the February 18th General Elections. Who could imagine, Pakistan's political space could tighten-up due to a judicial crisis and shape in contrast to what people like him predicted with General Pervez Musharraf in an unassailable position.

Regrettably, Dr Nasim's plans were smacked down to impossibility once a coalition government took office. Now, his survival is being connected to President General Pervez Musharraf's future as the head of the state. As pictures on television, from the fifth and last One-day International between Pakistan and Bangladesh could suggest, Nasim surrounded General Musharraf.

His smiles are not going to change the situation. He has failed to brave the midday sun rudely waking up all the ghosts of maddening cricket management. People rallied around, in daunting numbers, at every dusty, sun baked road he could possibly think of. His choice of men to run cricket in Pakistan was absolutely wrong. It wasn't a piece of cake that he devoured to nibble. It was something properly under the spotlight.

The glare of cricket's massive crisis is still blinding but Dr Nasim is a brave man. It is nice to see that in spite of oceanic criticism pouring in daily, he has somewhat perfected the art of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds -- and if necessary, running with the hounds and hunting with the hares, has tenaciously declared, on numerous occasions that his policies were a great success. Most in Dr Nasim's management team have been men, supping up with the imps and praying with the saints.

Dr Nasim took over the country's cricket in October 2006 and opened with great bravado but subsequently skirmishes with reality and the intriguingly complex cricket politics, he lost his footing. Once he triggered implementation of the now extremely controversial 'Corporate' culture he thought, as it showed from the rhetoric, his statues could be erected in every square, in the business houses and on top of the stadiums.

From the team to employments, central contracts, appointment of captain, coach, players defecting to the Indian Cricket League, power-brokerage and supply of top stars to the Indian Premier League and more than a million dollar development plans, everything seemed inflated like a balloon and zero performance showed it deflated too.

In spite of great sounds reverberating in newspaper columns, on television channels, even in the Senate, other than that, there is a deafening silence from the hundreds of powerful management players, advisors, special assistants, consultants and flunkeys who have been flattening their middles with huge salaries and unlimited perks. By my inaccurate reckoning, if these worthies had bestirred themselves to come to the rescue of their falling chairman, the newspapers would have been awash with their statements exhorting to people to strengthen their regime and particularly Dr Nasim Ashraf.

Instead, they have simply disappeared into the woodwork of their plush office settings. Only Dr Nasim tried to make regular appearances and seemed gutted defending the indefensible.

Dr Nasim had a proper work-space with the blessings of the Patron of the PCB unending he could have tried giving country's cricket newer dimensions, introducing latest sports management modules. Instead he picked shreds from the previous regimes, and used new wrappers to tell the world that fresh stock was being developed.

Dr Nasim in spite of being given indicators and reasons to sack quite a few in his handpicked cabinet never bothered to listen to advice. He wanted to shoot people down, those tried to stand-up to his mindset. If nothing else, directors and senior managers could be threatened that should they fail to deliver the goods, they could be shown the door. It wasn't like that, presumably because the chairman had read their dossiers and known the sad part of their inabilities.

And finally, with new political heads in place, I am afraid that the game of cricket, on the sunnier climes, is about to receive a deluge of new management fresh from the pastures. That wouldn't do much for the game I am afraid. Incompetence shouldn't be replaced with incompetence. Failures shouldn't be reinforced again.

There are dozens of stories emanating out of Islamabad, narrated almost in monotone and in speculative detail by everyone and anybody related to anyone in country's power-structure. There is a long list of names including that of Dr Zafar Altaf, Arif Ali Khan Abbasi, even Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, Salman Taseer and Senator Enver Beg. And there is one dark horse too. It's Saleem Altaf, Pakistan's ex-fast medium bowler, who once stimulated Lahore's Law College with his swing and speed, on and off the cricket greens is also being tipped to pick up this golden spur.

I am his great admirer. How he would be able to edge out Dr Zafar Altaf near the finish line is still a bit of mystery. Overall, both are great guys. Saleem, a little more Lahori in his tone and tenor and a bit more accessible while Zafar more detailed and philosophical. At the end of the day, it isn't about who wins the race, it's about how would they be able to pick up their work-teams.

There are stories not couched in fiction but steeped in facts and they are all about the seizure of their beloved sport by governments of intolerance, bigotry, and ineptness. If that alone is not deadly enough, there is the added complication of cricket being stuck in the primeval mode of governance in Pakistan.

Most of the governments since 1999 have managed it like a roulette, people flailing about in dead-space, a sullen silence amidst loud rhetoric punctuated by non-technocrats. One like the current regime have tried to pursue their own agendas, whereas incapable continue to add even more to the steamy cauldron.

There are political divides here, intellectual differences, feuds within, no restoration of game's honour and transactions going sour. It is just a shambles -- regrettably it doesn't matter. The future of Pakistan cricket has fallen victim to a situation that's gone hopelessly out of control.

It matters least how noble Dr Nasim's mission may have been. Dr Nasim in the middle of his tenure as Chairman PCB failed to realise that in Pakistan even your number was up, you number was up. Chairman, twice more powerful than him vaporised into thin air as if aliens had indeed winched them up.

The ordinary people are shell-shocked. They have no solutions. They have no say in what is going on and they know that they can only pray that cricket is put back to progression. This is a sad and a frighteningly chilling thought and there is one more. The present state of chaos cannot last either. One shudders to think what lies ahead. Time has come that a proper sports management government is put in place. And may not include names from the long list of cricket's glitterati, rather it should go to people really at work, familiar with methods and means to understand game's management with reference to the triad of Operations, Marketing & Administration. And it's not only the triad, there is another integral component, and that is the 'intellectual honesty'.

What to do? We have to implement a) THE LIBERAL MODEL -- sports management is about fulfilling the goals. The Liberal Model asks about the sports management experts' goals and aspirations to prescribe policies that will help the team to make end-points reachable.

Then there is b) THE NORMATIVE MODEL -- sports management is a physical challenge performed within the context of rule-governed practices. Consequently, sports management time zones are something that hinders the management players from meeting the challenges and excelling according to the rules of the games; c) THE PHENOMENAL MODEL -- Sports Management Challenges are limiting.

Whosoever comes in next, or Dr Nasim survives (which is most unlikely), its time resource is exhausted in a) Character Development, b) Program Development and c) High Management Methodologies including feed-back loops.

We have to stop the existing euthanasia. Cricket needs reconciliation. There is a desperate need for a 'Chairman PCB' -- Enough of these 'Chairing' or 'Cheering' men, please. Have a heart and have some mercy!

Courtesy: The News Pakistan