My Critique of Lt. Gen. Tauqir Zia’s Article

Few days ago I happen to read Lt. Gen Tauqir Zia’s article at crickinfo, that on one hand infuriated and on the other hand disappointed me to discover that Pakistani cricket is lead by people without any vision.

In the typical mold of an army general Tauqir Zia seems to have developed an apparent displeasure for any difference of opinion and also for those who disagree with him. When a team performs the way Pakistani team did in this world cup, then the chairman of the board can not be showered with the flowers and praises (no matter how much he wishes for that to happen!).

Leadership, or lack of it, starts from the top and trickles all the way down to the level of mere pawns. Mr. Zia picked the Pakistan team’s coach, selection committee and for all practical purposes also hand picked Waqar as team’s captain. This, so-called, think-tank of the Pakistan team committed blunders in the team selection, developing game strategies and on-field cost-effective use of resources. It is natural that the man who is responsible for the selection of these personnel becomes the prime target of such a criticism, is it too hard for the ex-DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) of Pakistan Army to understand? I hope its not!

“Imran publicly stated that this team was better than his 1992 squad. That was a sentiment shared by most critics of the game prior to the World Cup” writes Gen. Tauqir Zia in his article. It is natural that people compare their teams with the one that hoisted the world cup, it happens in India and in Sri Lanka too. It also is natural that to boost the confidence of the team people make such claims. It would be foolish if the PCB chairman believes into such statements and gives the illusion that we will win the cup again.

I disagree that this team was more talented than the 1992 world cup winner team. I have written in one of my earlier articles that modern sport psychologists do not put too much weight behind only raw-talent. Talent, in my books, is a package deal, which includes but is not limited to:

The raw playing talent,
Ability to stay focused,
Ability to integrate into the team to form a single cohesive unit,
Ability to analyze oppositions to form a strategy,
Mental strength to cope with the mounting pressures of the game.


I am certain that in raw-talent this team is certainly better than the one in 1992’s world cup. If raw-talent is the only thing you need to win the world cup then West Indies would have won in 1983 and Pakistan would have been winners of more than a lone world cup that they have under their belt. It takes much more than the raw-talent to be victorious in this day and age of the game. 1992’s team was blessed with two of the greatest cricketing brains ever to play for Pakistan, need I name Imran Khan and legendary Javid Miandad ? Current team can’t even claim to have a single player who can match the talents of these legends of the Pakistan cricket.

Mr. Zia altogether ignoring the history of Imran Khan’s criticism of Pakistani cricketing infrastructure continued to write:
“Now, when that same team which Imran had rated so highly, has failed to deliver, he blames the setback to the gutlessness of the PCB chief and domestic cricket etc etc., and still wants his protégé Wasim Akram to be rewarded with the captaincy!”

As far back as I remember Imran Khan has always been critical of the domestic cricket setup, even after he lead the team to win their only world cup in 1992. It is not at all the result of his frustration after seeing Pakistan humiliated in this world cup. This goes deep into our national character that we disagree and try to look down towards the people who are leaders in their fields, but are political on the other end of the spectrum. For many decades we ignored the suggestions of Dr. Abdus Salam (the only Pakistani Noble laureate) to improve the standards of science and education in the country. Now we are doing the same with Imran Khan and for the fact that he has different political ideas than the ruling political party (namely Pakistan Army!) does not mean that we ignore what he has been saying for over twenty years about the cricket setup in Pakistan.

If you look at the career of most of the super stars in this Pakistani team none of them are the product of Pakistan’s domestic cricket setup. Wasim Akram, Waqar Younas, Inzy, Azhar Mehmood, Aqib Javid and Yousif Youhanna almost had no first class experience when they debuted for Pakistan. It is sheer luck that we have been getting such a talent and that Imran Khan groomed most of them with his leadership and cricketing insight. It is the lack of a proper setup that Imran Khan is criticizing and not the fact that the team is gutless! Why can’t Pakistani cricket be organized on regional bases?

On the other hand two of the legends of Pakistan’s first class cricket, namely Shafiq Ahmed Pappa and Agha Zahid, are two of the biggest failure stories in the test cricket. Shafiq Ahemd Paapa has piled up an almost 20,000 runs in the domestic cricket in almost 20 some years. He could only score 99 runs in his six test appearances, and now is the member of the selection committee. Agha Zahid has managed to amass nearly 14,000 runs in his first class career, but could only score a meager total of 15 runs in his only test match in 1974, when he was terrorized by the lethal speed of the great Andy Roberts. These two tales highlight the sorry state of Pakistan’s domestic cricket setup.

There certainly is some serious problem with the Pakistan cricket and it is but natural that fingers are pointed towards the top brass of the PCB.

I was thrilled to see last year that PCB launched school cricket tournament in the five big cricketing cities of the country it is a step in the right direction. I could not figure out what are the requirements for the schools to participate in such competitions, but having a proper regular coach is what I would expect all schools to do. Our ex-test players and most of ex-first class players can fill these posts. It is at this level that we need to work with the young talent to work on their technique.

One does not drown because she fell in to the deep waters rather one drowns because she does not try to get out of the deep waters. Lets put whatever happened in the world cup behind us and learn from this experience to plan for the next one in the Caribbean.