Due credit

There is plenty of praise to go around for Pakistan’s astonishing Champions Trophy win. Foremost, of course, are the players themselves who bounced back from a thrashing against India in their opening match to carry the team to the most unexpected of glories. But those working behind-the-scenes deserve credit too for rejuvenating the team. Coach Mickey Arthur has brought in much-needed professionalism to the team. The much-maligned Pakistan Cricket Board, led by Najam Sethi, deserves credit too for realising our cricket team was lagging far behind the rest of the world. It would be impossible to overstate the case for how important the advent of the Pakistan Super League – the brainchild of Sethi – has been for Pakistan cricket. Until the PSL came around, we were the only major cricketing nation without a T20 league. That meant our players did not have anywhere near as much experience in the shorter form of the game. The PSL has also proven more adept at unearthing exciting talent than our domestic competitions, with the likes of Shadab Khan making a name for themselves during the tournament. The PSL has also had a galvanising experience on cricketing fandom, bringing in new fans who never had the chance to see our cricketers and foreign stars playing on the international level at home until the PSL final was held in Lahore. The planned World XI matches to be played in Pakistan later this year will be another notch in the PCB’s belt and could be the start for the gradual return of international cricket to the country.

The way the PCB has handled the departure of its lynchpins Misbah-ul-Haq and Younus Khan is particularly noteworthy. It has often been said of Pakistan that it is a team of 11 individuals all of whom want to be captain. Yet the transition from the Misbah era to the Sarfaraz Ahmed captaincy has been smooth. Misbah was still playing when Azhar Ali took over as captain but his failure led to his replacement by Sarfaraz. Yet Azhar Ali remains in the team and there has been no talk of divisions, something that was unthinkable in a previous era. Under Sethi, the PSL and PCB handled the spot-fixing crisis in the PSL quickly and decisively before it could affect Pakistan’s reputation or morale. Yet for political reasons, he is dogged by unseemly controversy that is hurting the game. The sooner politics is taken out of the game and its administration, the better.