Raiwind IX

The bear hug as a wrestling move ...

During a talk show hosted by former Pakistani cricket captain, Rameez Raja, (on a local sports channel), Inzimam-ul-Haq suggested that along with the usual cricket training, cricketers should also be given “deeni taleem” (religious education).

This says two things. First of all, it proves that to be in the good books of the captain, a Pakistani cricketer has to tamely submit to Inzimam’s Raiwind regime in the dressing room, something the burly skipper has been accused of, (but denies).

Secondly, Inzimam, like Mushtaq Ahmed and Saeed Anwar before him, (and celebrities like Juniad Jamshed), have willingly let themselves be turned into poster-boys for large evangelist groups who in the last many years have been preying on the insecurities (and spiritual confusion?) of known personalities in the show-biz and cricketing circles.

Last year during the ICC Champions Trophy in India, Inzimam was taken to task by the new Pakistan Cricket Board chairman for insisting to hold joint prayers with his team on the ground they were holding a pre-match training session at.

Just imagine what would have happened had the Indian team decided to pray to Ganesh or Hanuman on a Pakistani ground or an English team had held a mass at Gaddafi Stadium ?

PCB asked Inzimam to cool it a bit with his Islam thing, while some cricketers discreetly complained that they were being forced by Inzimam to follow dictates according to the school of Islam that drives the organization of which Inzimam is now an active member (Tableeghi Jammat).

Inzimam vehemently denied any wrongdoing (rather “right”-doing), in this respect, however, his idea of imparting deeni taleem to the team suggests that the accusations seem to be rather valid.

How Lucifer fell ...

Some people are also of the view that this is, (at least one of the many), reasons why flamboyant characters like Shoaib Akhtar have remained in the bad books of the bearded skipper.

Ironically, coach Bob Woolmer, has had little problem with the team’s re-born-Muslims status and his reasons are attached to what Inzimam gains from his Raiwind regime: Discipline and submission from the cricketers.

Discipline not exactly based on a willful belief in the importance of professional order, but rather a grudgingly submitted fear gained from the players by playing the ever-useful “Islamic card” and a strict code of conduct and ethics based squarely on the Tableeghi Jammat’s idea of Islam.

During the controversial tour of England last year, a Pakistani weekly reported how when soon after the sudden death of former Pakistani cricketer, Wasim Raja, the team management decided to hold a one minute silence for the deceased batsman, Inzimam refused (and thus so did his team), saying that he can’t do such a thing without first asking a Tableeghi Jamaat elder whether the practice was Islamic or not.

Supposedly, the elder had no problems with this and it is only then that Inzimam finally decided to hold that simple, one-minute silence.

It is no secret that players like Shoaib Akhtar are an awkward anomaly in Inzimam’s Raiwind IX. Shoaib is the sort of player and personality who would have been more at home in a team run by the likes of Imran Khan and Wasim Akram. Not that those teams were full of raving irreligious men, but they were led and made-up of flamboyant, aggressive, independent characters who were also not immune to having a bit of fun.

The reason behind Shoaib’s falling out with both Inzimam and Bob Woolmer has certainly to do with things more than just pulled hamstrings and tantrums.

Shoaib is said to be disgusted with the nature of Inzimam’s manipulatively religion-driven ways of gaining loyalty from his players, and it is only natural that a personality like Shoaib is bound to feel isolated, misunderstood and persecuted in the morally self-righteous and judgmental make-up and psyche of the present- day Pakistani cricket team.

Late last year a Pakistani Urdu daily reported how Shoaib Akhtar gets back at Inzimam’s self-righteous ways.

It said that how Inzimam, who makes sure that Pakistani cricketers prey together all five times of the day, sometimes misses the early morning prayers himself!

Shoaib, who is an off and on participant of these joint ventures, when told that the loudest and staunchest advocate of joint prayers in the Pakistan team, Inzimam, himself usually misses out on the morning prayers, Shoaib made it a point to wake up at least an hour before the fajar prayers and call Inzimam’s room, wake him up and ask him to kindly come down so they can pray together!

Shoaib is supposed to have done this on a couple of occasions during Pakistan’s series with India early last year until Inzimam finally confronted the temperamental fast bowler and accused him of trying to mock him.



The mob rules ...

So when did it all began? A veteran sports journalist suggests that the onus lies with former Pakistani cricketer, Saeed Ahmed, (whom Ahmed’s former county cricket mate, Tony Graig, described as a “party animal” in the 70s), suddenly saw the light in the early 90s, grew a beard and joined the Tableeghi Jammat.

He then started visiting the Pakistani dressing room during the team’s matches in Sharjah in the late ‘90s and delivering impromptu lectures to various team members. The team management surprisingly tolerated him and he managed to hand over a few tapes to a couple of cricketers. These tapes were of lectures given by the Jammat’s most famous speakers.

The cricketers most impressed by these lectures were the bubbly leg-spinner, Mushtaq Ahmed, the innovative off-spinner, Saqlain Mushtaq, and stylish opening batsman, Saeed Anwar. By the start of 2002’s World Cup, all three had become active members of the Jamaat.

Waqar Yunas, who replaced Wasim Akram as captain a few months before the World Cup, became a sort of a defecto member of the preacher squad (minus the beard), and was in fact the one who started the tradition of saying “Thanks to almighty Allah” during post-match interviews.

He is said to have actually encouraged the practice of his cricketers being lectured by evangelists (most of them imported from Raiwind), and also including former pop star turned preacher, Junaid Jamshed.

Junaid was also seen accompanying the Pakistan cricket team as recently as during their tour of England in the summer of 2006.

However, these lectures, sudden beardings and tapes did not help much as Waqar’s team crashed out of the 2002 World Cup in what became the team’s worst World Cup performance thus far.

However, Jammat’s recruiting agents made greater inroads into the team when after the World Cup debacle, the team saw a string of firings and Rashid Latif was named the new captain. Though a man of secular outlook, he could not stop men like Saeed Anwar, Mushtaq Ahmed and Junaid Jamshed from looking to exercise greater influence on the team, an influence that went beyond delivering a few lectures or distributing a couple of tapes.

Eventually, once Rashid was removed from captainship (in 2003), and replaced by Inzimam, the recruiters got their biggest fish in this respect: The burly skipper himself!

There is a very interesting photograph, which appeared in the newspapers of the time. It shows Saeed Anwar, Mushtaq Ahmed and Junaid Jamshed leading Imran Khan, Inzimam and a couple of other cricketers at the famous annual gathering of Tableeghi Jammat members in Raiwind.

Even though they failed to get Imran Khan in their circle, Inzimam-ul-Haq became an enthusiastic participant and member, eventually turning the team into an influential bastion of the Jammat’s ways and teachings.

After “converting” most of the regular players of the team, the only ones deciding not to toe the line in this respect were Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi and, of course, Danish Kaneria (who is a Hindu).

Even Yusuf Yuhanna, a Christian, converted to Islam (and became Muhammad Yusuf). Even though he insisted that, there was no pressure from Inzimam for him to change his religion, insiders and much of Yusuf’s own family members think otherwise.

By early 2006, Shahid Afridi too had become a member of Inzimam’s religious clique, leaving only Shoaib Akhtar to face the music.

On more occasions than one, Afridi has hinted that he has not had the skipper’s full confidence, so can it be assumed that his move into the Raiwind camp has more to do with him wanting the skipper’s approval than religion? After all, none of the Pakistani cricketers was ever atheists requiring deeni taleem , now do they?

Inzimam’s Raiwind regime may have turned the Pakistan cricket team into a (seemingly) well-knit unit, but it operates at the expense of ostracizing talent that refuses to bend to the dictates of this regime.

Many also believe that it has softened the team’s innovative and competitive nature that was rigorously nourished and encouraged by the likes of former captains, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram.

The new attitude have left them looking and behaving more like cricketing ambassadors of the Tableeghi Jammat but with an on field outlook that smacks of a lackluster approach towards competitive cricket; an attitude startlingly apparent during the team’s recent tour of South Africa and feared to come up again during this year’s World Cup.