This is not cricket at all, this is racism in it's new form. My wholehearted support for PAK cricket and people - there has to be an end of this farce. All that was achieved in 12 years had been blown away in 12 hours and I must say - it was well planed, and well executed as well. And, it's unfortunate that in these difficult times, there are people who are trying to earn their two minutes glory - guys we have differences, we have egos, we have emotions and we have memories ... but above all we are cricket fans and we are human - let's be with the suffering team, the fans, the board and the nation. May be we can't change the plot or proceedings, but that shouldn't get better of our good judgment, neither should it stop us from calling a spade is a spade.
New Zeeland is a small fly in this plot, but what ECB did today was ultimate punch below the belt. They cancelled a tour for less than 48 hours for two useless games, which are not even proper cricket, in a place where their Royals visited and funny enough played cricket just about a year back, but in the process they have buried everything that PCB earned over last 12 years. On top of that, I read they proposed an alternative venue, as if the purpose was to showcase the T20 skills and people of Pakistan were hankering for it. We can try to justify the call, but deep inside everyone knows, it was a back-stab, done deliberately to make things worse. I have read many theories in this regard and I know that SRL team was shot on PAK soil - but that was 12 years back, the situation was different, so were the scales.... we can't hang a dead body time and again for one crime and go in circles. Life has to go on - it didn't stop after Christchurch shooting or London bombing, why it has to be different every time for PAK?
PAK is paying for the guts shown by it’s PM – like or dislike, Taliban is an entity and it’s PAK who has to live with her rowdy neighbors at west. PAK PM can’t swallow the pill imposed upon him without chewing to know how it would taste just to please the vaunted ego of the losers. I can refer one story from my dad – long back, Begum Zia was asked by an infamous agency to start a limited war against Myanmar, basically a shadow war keeping Bangladesh as screen – the exchange was quite sweet for her as well, eventually which would have led to an Air Base at Sandwip. She didn’t agree on three grounds – Bangladesh won’t be air lifted, it’ll stay there after the “friends” invariably leave, BD wasn’t prepare for a mass scale long term war and most importantly infuriate China. She paid dearly and still paying with interest ……
Coming back to cricket – I beg to disagree with [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION]. No boss, no effort for PCB or PAK Govt. will change the situation because the issue here is not security measures, neither PAK’s image or capability. PCB/PAK Govt. have done more than enough to satisfy the question mark, to a level that I am not sure at macro level if it’s financially profitable for PAK to host cricket at home or not – PCB might make money, but somewhere, someone has to count bills for this insane preparation. I don’t think Western cricketers are bigger targets than their diplomats living and roaming around PAK, neither players playing for National colors make them more lucrative target than in PSL colors. Let’s at least once try to agree that what was done is not right, we can justify the act every other day. In a small cricket family, one member is being pushed to the edge of the cliff inch by inch and we are trying to find out how the corpse can be collected from the valley!!!
Stay strong Pakistan and stay focused – at least now the position is better, the smoke screen is cleared. I don’t think direct retaliation (end cricket ties) helps PAK cricket, neither shifting home venue; but at the same time Cricket has to be played. Closing down the shop will close down the supply chain as well. What I see as the next most important task is to bring teams at home – whoever is willing and in exchange of counter tours (not money – bribe isn’t sustainable), to establish the credibility that cricket can be played in PAK. For “those” home series, only option I see is alter the schedule, that’s instead of AUS/ENG…. touring PAK, for the time being try to swap the home tours away and get the next tour planned for home – that will buy some time, better if in revenue sharing model. And, may be try to arrange tri/quadruple nation tournaments in 3rd country as hosts (Like PAK-BD-AFG-SRL in BD/SRL) – that will keep the money inflow and the hosting rights as well. Going back to UAE or any other country for home series is basically a compromise, that will set a wrong precedence.
Once again, my heartiest support for the fans and the players – one day it’ll be over and I hope it’s sooner than the plot.
New Zeeland is a small fly in this plot, but what ECB did today was ultimate punch below the belt. They cancelled a tour for less than 48 hours for two useless games, which are not even proper cricket, in a place where their Royals visited and funny enough played cricket just about a year back, but in the process they have buried everything that PCB earned over last 12 years. On top of that, I read they proposed an alternative venue, as if the purpose was to showcase the T20 skills and people of Pakistan were hankering for it. We can try to justify the call, but deep inside everyone knows, it was a back-stab, done deliberately to make things worse. I have read many theories in this regard and I know that SRL team was shot on PAK soil - but that was 12 years back, the situation was different, so were the scales.... we can't hang a dead body time and again for one crime and go in circles. Life has to go on - it didn't stop after Christchurch shooting or London bombing, why it has to be different every time for PAK?
PAK is paying for the guts shown by it’s PM – like or dislike, Taliban is an entity and it’s PAK who has to live with her rowdy neighbors at west. PAK PM can’t swallow the pill imposed upon him without chewing to know how it would taste just to please the vaunted ego of the losers. I can refer one story from my dad – long back, Begum Zia was asked by an infamous agency to start a limited war against Myanmar, basically a shadow war keeping Bangladesh as screen – the exchange was quite sweet for her as well, eventually which would have led to an Air Base at Sandwip. She didn’t agree on three grounds – Bangladesh won’t be air lifted, it’ll stay there after the “friends” invariably leave, BD wasn’t prepare for a mass scale long term war and most importantly infuriate China. She paid dearly and still paying with interest ……
Coming back to cricket – I beg to disagree with [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION]. No boss, no effort for PCB or PAK Govt. will change the situation because the issue here is not security measures, neither PAK’s image or capability. PCB/PAK Govt. have done more than enough to satisfy the question mark, to a level that I am not sure at macro level if it’s financially profitable for PAK to host cricket at home or not – PCB might make money, but somewhere, someone has to count bills for this insane preparation. I don’t think Western cricketers are bigger targets than their diplomats living and roaming around PAK, neither players playing for National colors make them more lucrative target than in PSL colors. Let’s at least once try to agree that what was done is not right, we can justify the act every other day. In a small cricket family, one member is being pushed to the edge of the cliff inch by inch and we are trying to find out how the corpse can be collected from the valley!!!
Stay strong Pakistan and stay focused – at least now the position is better, the smoke screen is cleared. I don’t think direct retaliation (end cricket ties) helps PAK cricket, neither shifting home venue; but at the same time Cricket has to be played. Closing down the shop will close down the supply chain as well. What I see as the next most important task is to bring teams at home – whoever is willing and in exchange of counter tours (not money – bribe isn’t sustainable), to establish the credibility that cricket can be played in PAK. For “those” home series, only option I see is alter the schedule, that’s instead of AUS/ENG…. touring PAK, for the time being try to swap the home tours away and get the next tour planned for home – that will buy some time, better if in revenue sharing model. And, may be try to arrange tri/quadruple nation tournaments in 3rd country as hosts (Like PAK-BD-AFG-SRL in BD/SRL) – that will keep the money inflow and the hosting rights as well. Going back to UAE or any other country for home series is basically a compromise, that will set a wrong precedence.
Once again, my heartiest support for the fans and the players – one day it’ll be over and I hope it’s sooner than the plot.
