The only news from the cricket front, or at least for the time being, is that two of the five selectors have been sacked. Only two? Call them scapegoats, but Wahab Riaz and Abdul Razzaq paid the price of Pakistan’s disastrous Twenty20 World Cup. The manner in which the two were shown the door is akin to put the whole blame on two and save the rest. It was later revealed that one of the members of the selection committee had phoned Wahab and asked him to take the full blame for the abysmal show of the team. On his refusal, the decision was taken.
The sacking was on the cards after Pakistan abjectly went out of the T20 World Cup with an upset defeat against newcomers USA and an expected one against India. Naturally and expectedly questions were hurled at the selection of the squad. But changing two personnel was like a fig’s leaf. It was natural that Wahab showed his instant reaction to the allegation that he was putting pressure on other members of the selection committee. “I don’t agree with the statement being discussed about adding pressure to the members of the selection committee. How can one vote dominate 6?
Justifiably, there were three other members plus the captain (Babar Azam) and head coach (Gary Kirsten) who endorsed and signed the sheet of 15 squad members. If the selection was faulty then the whole selection committee was responsible, not just the two members. Exculpating the captain and head coach and three other members was unjustified.
Conversely, what if Pakistan had won both the close matches? They lost from the brink of victory, one in Super Over against the USA and the other needing 40 in six overs with eight wickets intact. It is a fact that Pakistan lost both the games that they should have won. Had Pakistan won both the games then does that make the selection correct?
Ever since the new chairman Moshin Naqvi was elected (unopposed) Wahab had attained a prominent position. The former left-arm pacer was considered the right hand of Naqvi. He had also served as sports minister in the interim set-up of Punjab Province with Naqvi as chief minister. Even before Naqvi’s takeover, Wahab was serving as chief selector in Zaka Ashraf’s regime. Surprisingly, the new chairman reshaped the selection process, appointing five selectors Wahab, Mohammad Yousuf, Razzaq, Asad Shafiq, date expert Bilal Afzal plus the captain and head coach of the white ball team. The tagline was ‘all the selectors have equal powers with no chief selector.
That in itself acquitted Wahab and Riaz from the total responsibility. With him being so close to the chairman Wahab was portrayed as chief selector. He was also appointed senior manager of the squad so that he can not only handle the situation but any problem or inside thing could be shared with the chairman.
So how the problems started. It came to a pass on May 25, the day all teams had to submit their World Cup squads. The seed of discord was sown in the selection committee on May 25 when Bilal Afzal raised an objection with Naqvi that he was not properly consulted by Wahab and fellow selectors. Naqvi took stock of the situation and ordered minutes of the selection committee meeting, delaying the announcement by a few hours.
Trouble doubled for Wahab when the players were allowed to be part of a “meet and greet” show with fans allowed to get a selfie and picture for just US dollars 25. The distractions with most of the players having their families at the hotel in New York before the all-important India game was deleterious. There were some cases of indiscipline as well with Wahab reportedly not able to handle them strongly.
It was that dual status that compounded Wahab’s cause.
Doubling up the problems was the fact that Wahab along with Razzaq went to play the Championship of Legends after submitting his report on the tours. There wasn’t any meeting, or if there was any it wasn’t a detailed one, with the chairman. Two selectors going for a private league may not have gone well with the top man. That too may have been one of the factors in giving marching orders to Wahab and Razzaq.
So the promised “surgery” by Naqvi has started. But would it be a mere change of faces or the Pakistan Cricket Board is ready to face the change? Pakistan cricket, its teams — both white-ball and red-ball — and the domestic system need changes, improvement and lift.
We must remember that systems cannot be fixed only by changing the individuals. The initial thing to achieve a change is to realise and accept that the status quo is not working and having the courage to envision a different reality. We cannot expect different outcomes if we continue to operate within the same broken systems.
Verily, our system is faulty.
