Cricket is Life: Mohsin reduced to dummy selector as Butt defies all norms

At the time, those words were like sweet music to the ears, specially in the backdrop of what had transpired during the preceding months with Pakistan cricket facing one humiliation after another. In those early days in his job as chief selector, Mohsin was often heard and read in the media that he would ensure that the team was picked on merit and merit alone.

However, it now appears that those words of wisdom were only to create a sense of illusion amongst the innocent souls that all is well as far selection of Pakistan team is concerned. The word ‘merit’ has been thrown out of the window because Mohsin, by his attitude of late, has changed his stance dramatically. By bringing back a 36-year-old Misbah-ul-Haq from nowhere as Pakistan’s fourth Test captain this year has, in truth, put an end to all talks of rebuilding the Pakistan cricket team with an eye on the future.

Mohsin, of course, cannot be entirely blamed for the shock induction of Misbah in the UAE-bound Pakistan squad since the appointment of captain is PCB chairman’s prerogative.

But the chief selector’s claims that Misbah has been picked because of his performance in domestic competitions and his ‘neat and clean background’ are questionable.

If that is the reason then the selectors must be asked to explain why Misbah wasn’t selected for the England tour despite a good run in the Pentangular Cup and the national one-day tournament. Surely his experience would have been handy in England then.

Misbah, if one’s memory serves right, was also part of the group that rebelled against Younis Khan’s captaincy last year.

The timing of the announcement of limited-overs squad is somewhat puzzling because the National Twenty20 competition begins from Sunday in Lahore and the selectors could have waited a few more days before giving a final shape to the side. But it seems they were in some sort of hurry and were forced to follow instructions from the top brass of the cricket board.

It is a clear indication that selections were done in a bid to make up for the blunders committed in the past. According to Mohsin, Younis was the first-choice on the selectors’ list to bolster the middle-order batting but that choice, given the rotten state of PCB chairman Ijaz Butt’s mind, was vetoed.

If Pakistan senior teams in Mohsin’s tenure were picked purely on merit, then the likes of Faisal Iqbal, Khurram Manzoor, Aamir Sajjad, Sarfraz Ahmed, Asim Kamal and Naved Yasin would have surely got slotted in somewhere.

The treatment meted out to leg-spinner Danish Kaneria after the first Test against England is another blunt example of how the PCB is run by a visionless Mr Butt.

Kaneria’s replacement on England tour Raza Hasan, the slow left-armer who now doesn’t figure in any of the three squads announced by the selectors, at least had the chance to visit a country he would only dream of going so early in his career!

Mohsin, meanwhile, has allowed himself to be reduced as the chief of a rubberstamp selection committee because no one in this body has the courage to stand up to Mr Butt who has a regular habit of poking his nose in all selection matters which, indeed, is foul practice.

In the current scenario Mohsin should emulate his predecessor Iqbal Qasim who owned full responsibility of national team’s shambolic display in Australia last season and decided to quit in a dignified manner. But the former opener is unlikely come up with such an elegant gesture.

What transpired on the ill-fated England tour is now history but the colossal damage done to Pakistan cricket in the past few months is beyond repair and the loud and clear calls for a major surgery to save cricket from total degeneration is, apparently, falling on deaf ears.

Pakistan’s inconsistency on the playing fields is nothing new as there is seldom a vision in place to put the house in order.

The main cause of all the ills is that the people at the helm of PCB affairs are shamelessly enjoying their perks and their globetrotting chairman moving merrily from destination to destination on one pretext or another while filling his bulging pockets with more TA/DA.

According to rough estimations, Mr Butt’s trips across the globe have cost a whopping 11.9 million rupees in the first nine months this year. Who says Pakistan cricket is not flourishing and heading in the right direction!