Stani Army

What on earth is going on? Following Pakistan’s embarrassing defeat to India, the PCB Chairman Nasim Ashraf has sent an email to the team manager Talat Ali, criticising the team.

It’s right, we’re all fans so in that sense we have a right to criticise but what was the Chairman of the PCB doing writing his opinions on team selection, fitness of players, captaincy and body language in an email to the team manager. Surely this is beyond the Chairman’s domain. If the chairman of the board needs to interfere with issues that concern team management and the selectors then he has employed team managers and selectors that do not know how to do their jobs.
You’re at the top; you hire the people that hire the people that hire the people right? If a chairman feels the need to ask all these questions in an email after a match then there is something there which has been fundamentally wrong and left unaddressed for quite a while. I cannot disagree with what Nasim Ashraf has written, but as the Chairman he should not be involved in such aspects and had he done his job properly, then there would be no need for him to be writing this in an email to his team manager. What’s next? Will we be seeing Ashraf running onto the field wielding his chappal (slipper) about to thrash one of the players for a dropped catch or over-throw?

We have long asked for foreign coaches; maybe we need foreigners higher up too as it has been quite clear for some time that those that have been employed so far from Pakistan have not an ounce of professionalism about them.

After the Shoaib 5 year ban incident it would have been easy to think that things would settle down and Pakistan cricket would be allowed to move forward. But, up pops Asif in Dubai and now Ashraf’s email. We can only wonder what will be next. If Pakistan cricket was not so important to so many people then these events would be funny. Sadly, this is no laughing matter.