It was Aldous Huxley that once said “The pleasures of ignorance are as great, in their way, as the pleasures of knowledge” and it is evident from the article that Chopra gained great pleasure in telling us what he ‘knows’ about Pakistan cricket. Certainly, from his photo on Cricinfo, it is clear he is someone quite fond of himself generally. Having taken exception to his piece, I decided to write the following as a comment: “A shameful article by someone who quite clearly has a chip on his shoulder. How long have you kept that pent up inside you?”. Who thinks my comment was allowed through? Wrong, it wasn’t, but can anyone tell me why?

Here’s a taste of his work:
“There is a way of describing Pakistani cricket, which used to be tiresome but which has now started to strike me as patently offensive. This is the insistence that Pakistani cricket is charmingly erratic, wonderfully unpredictable, beautifully inconsistent, sublimely indisciplined. Right, I’m making these up. But you see the pattern. Pair a couple of adjectives which span the spectrum from the sublime to the sordid and have a go at describing Pakistani cricket. And I suspect the world of Pakistani cricket revels in this description, because this sort of indulgent tolerance gives it a free pass.”

The basic theme of his article is that Pakistan is the troubled member of the cricketing family with it’s indiscipline and should not be helped all the time. “A common feature of the calls for a display of solidarity with the Pakistani cricket world in its “time of need” is the invocation of “family” and “fraternity”.” Utter garbage! Sri Lanka apart, when has the cricketing world shown us solidarity or come to our aid? Quite the opposite, the most powerful board in cricket, the one he supports, has done it’s very utmost to sideline Pakistan. How on earth could he describe solidarity with Pakistan as a common feature?

Whilst nitpicking, he even mentions Inzamam Ul-Haq’s clash with a spectator as proof of Pakistan crickets troubles. But he completely ignores the troubles of other teams; Harbhajan’s slapping of his own team mate and racial slur to Symonds (with threats of quitting the entire tour) come to mind. How about the problems the West Indies have had?

Whether he truly believes what he wrote, or whether it was a sad attempt at driving traffic to his other blog (which I won’t mention), it is very dangerous and careless to put out views like that. He should stay clear of things he does not know about. It is people like him and his holier-than-thou attitude that do Indo-Pak relations no good. The sad thing is that they are promoted by the site that calls itself the home of cricket. The interesting thing is that Cricinfo would give us all this rubbish about democracy and free-speech as the reason for allowing his views, but then they’d have to tell me why they didn’t publish my comment wouldn’t they? ESPN Cricinfo has lost it’s neutrality a very long time ago and you can let them know here.

Since our last look at the captaincy issue, Misbah, a potential contender, has been out of favour in the team so therefore cannot be considered this time around. This leaves Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan; the words spoilt for choice don’t exactly spring to mind. Any left-field suggestions are welcome. It would be interesting to see who would win a captaincy vote amongst the players. Maybe that would be the way to go in order to mend the different factions and cliques that have emerged within the team.

Since Inzamam retired, no one has managed to hold the role for any significant period of time for one reason or the other. I think whoever is chosen now, as long as he is chosen carefully, they need to stick with him for a reasonable period of time so that even if he does start off badly, he has the chance to improve.

Shoaib Malik: if he is to be believed, has "no interest" in captaining Pakistan, & Inzamam retires: difficult shoes to fill

I’m certain the next captain will also be working with a new coach as it is looking increasingly likely that Intikhab’s time is up. This aspect should be taken into consideration also and the new captain should be given a fair chance to work with the new coach in implementing ideas.

The decision of keeping one captain for all forms will also have to be made. If that is the case, which one of the contenders would get into the side in every format? So, do we excuse Afridi, give Yousuf a longer go, forgive Younis or has Malik’s time now come?

And whilst mentioning the run out between Salman Butt and Mohammad Yousuf in the 1st innings of the 3rd Test, he writes:

“This move has the potential to replicate either a brilliant attacking masterpiece by Sehwag or the chaos of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Salman Butt gesturing at each other after having failed to complete an easy single”

Inzamam Ian? You mean Yousuf right? Concentrate now, criticise one Pakistani at a time. This disease is similar to the one Tiny Greig was showing symptoms of during the ICL when he kept referring to the Lahore Badshahs as ‘Pakistan’. Very professional I must say. O the burden of ignorance!