Reverse swing: Behind the wicket
by Saad Shafqat
The baffling drama surrounding Zulqarnain Haider, Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batsman who disappeared on the morning of a recent ODI in Dubai and resurfaced hours later in London, has left everyone confused. Is he a genuine whistleblower, a hapless victim of a prank gone awry, a disturbed individual fighting inner demons, or simply a self-interested man seeking a better life in the UK?
A great deal of discussion has taken place around these possibilities, but in the absence of any definitive revelation, the public is none the wiser.
One systematic approach, it seems to me, would be to take his claims at face value and deconstruct them to see whether they make sense. The cornerstone of Zulqarnain’s claims is that he has received death threats for failing to fix matches. This does sound rather extreme, but given the amount of money at stake, death threats for failure to comply with the demands of match-fixers are certainly not beyond the realm of possibility. People can, and do, kill for far less.
Faced with a death threat, any sane person would seek protection. You seek protection from sources that inspire confidence. Zulqarnain approached neither the team management nor the PCB because, let’s face it, neither really inspires any confidence. The PCB these days is known only for incompetence. As for the manager, this is the same Intikhab Alam who not long ago called Pakistani cricketers mentally retarded. Confronted with a threat to your life, who do you turn to? Not to these guys.
Certainly Zulqarnain could have gone to the Dubai police, a sharp outfit known to be on top of its game. It is understandable, however, that he wanted to break free of the PCB’s ambit, which required getting out of Dubai.
England would have seemed as good a safe haven as any. It is a developed nation, knows and plays cricket, and sits right within the glare of world media. There may be less crime in Dubai, but Zulqarnain may have reasoned that there is more chance of getting justice in England.
His subsequent actions — request for asylum in the UK, scattered and sometimes contradictory interviews to the media, announcing retirement but then conditionally retracting it — are easily understood as the behaviour that would be expected of any confused and frightened individual.
The question now is whether Zulqarnain truly has some explosive ace up his sleeve. This requires not just that the death threats are authentic, but also that he can prove that they are. After all, it might well be that the threats were a hoax, and were either meant to be a prank, or were perhaps intended to mentally unsettle him but without any further serious intent.
The PCB’s attitude towards this issue has been shocking. Given Zulqarnain’s incendiary claims and the potential for some dynamite revelations related to match-fixing, the PCB should have offered him a compassionate ear and unconditional support. Granted that he was the one who chose to turn away from the PCB, but if our board was truly interested in getting to the bottom of the matter, then it had everything to gain by being positive and conciliatory.
Instead, the PCB has responded with bitter overreaction. Their lawyer compared Zulqarnain to a soldier deserting duty, and the Board promptly cancelled his playing contract. One can see that the PCB would be hurt and offended by Zulqarnain’s actions, but professionalism demanded that they rise above it. A news report eventually did claim that, after being caught wrong-footed, PCB chief Ijaz Butt called Zulqarnain and offered “full cooperation,” but this was subsequently denied by the PCB’s lawyer.
The big elephant in the room that everyone is acutely aware of, but which no one wishes to address, are the Akmal brothers. One approach to solving mysteries is to see who benefits the most, and in this mystery, the Akmal brothers do, the eldest of whom is in direct competition with Zulqarnain for a spot in the Pakistan side. To be sure, at present there is no evidence to suggest that any of them were behind the threats, so one can only speculate.
Zulqarnain’s unexpected return from the tour of England earlier this year, in which he gave a heroic performance in his debut Test at Edgbaston but was immediately sent back under suspicious circumstances, is also adding fuel to this mix. One plausible theory is that the PCB bosses view Kamran Akmal as their blue-eyed wicketkeeper, and don’t want competitors like Zulqarnain getting in the way. Whether there is any truth to this, only time will tell.
Many people are also asking that if indeed there is some dynamite information, why hasn’t Zulqarnain come out with it? This, too, can be logically answered. Such information is both sensitive as well as worth a lot of money. We can be sure that Zulqarnain will play an important role when the ICC’s investigation into match-fixing and spot-fixing convenes in the coming weeks. Moreover, we can hardly expect Zulqarnain to be sharing the details spontaneously; there are wealthy media outlets in Britain who would readily pay serious money in exchange for such revelations.
With this issue internationalised and loudly publicised, there is a good chance that the truth will emerge in time. Match-fixing has shaken cricket to its core and continues to dominate news cycle after news cycle; this is not a story that is going to die down or disappear.
http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/28/reverse-swing-behind-the-wicket.html
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