As I See It Column
March 10, 2012
M. Serajul Islam
The Bangladesh Cricket Board’s President said in a press
conference in Islamabad recently that international cricket would resume in
Pakistan soon. He led an 8 member delegation there to see firsthand security arrangements
to send our cricket team for a tour. Readers may recollect that all cricket
playing countries stopped visiting Pakistan after a terrorist attack on the Sri
Lankan cricket team in Lahore in, 2009. Since then Pakistan has been playing
its “home series” of Test, 50/50 and T20 matches in the UAE.
It is a bit strange that Bangladesh is making this overture at a
time when no other Test playing country has shown the slightest inclination to
visit Pakistan. The decision of the Board’s Chairman to visit Pakistan to clear
the way for a visit by our team becomes
more suspect because Bangladesh’s Coach Stuart Law has said categorically that
he would not be a part of the team to tour Pakistan.
It seems like the BCB President is either not taking a lot of
factors in the equation or just sidetracking some obvious ones. A major factor he is
sidetracking is the law and order situation in Pakistan, specifically the
activities of various terror groups that have increased in recent times. The
Pakistan terror groups had no reason to attack the Sri Lankans. Yet they
attacked the team to show their potency. More importantly, they targeted the
Sri Lankan team because it was a soft target.
The Bangladesh team would also be a soft target explained by the
fact that if our team is, God forbid, attacked, there would be little or no
repercussions as there was none when the Sri Lankan team was attacked. There could however be more reasons for
possible terrorist attacks on the Bangladesh team for acrimonies related to our
war of liberation. The terrorists could have added reasons there to attack a
Bangladesh team on a visit to Pakistan.
The Pakistanis at the moment are on an upswing in Test cricket.
After the match fixing allegations against some of its team members that
included Captain Salman Butt, Pakistan Test team had become almost a pariah in
the annals of Test cricket. After
sincere efforts of its new management ably supported by the cricketers on the
field led by Misbah Ul Huq as the captain, Pakistan has made a dramatic come
back to Test cricket wining three “home” test series they played against South
Africa, Sri Lanka and England in UAE. The last one against England was a 3-0
white wash.
Unfortunately, the so-called home series were away from home,
without the home crowds watching. More importantly, Pakistanis were not just
failing to take pride from the victories of their Test cricketers by watching
them in the fields; these victories were embarrassing the country instead. The
victories were flagging for the outside world the fact that Pakistan continues
to remain a terrorist prone country adding to its negative image.
Pakistan has therefore been pursuing with all the Test playing
nations with offers to visit Pakistan for playing Test cricket. So far, none
has shown even a lukewarm interest to visit Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan would
consider it a great favour not just to its cricket but to the country if any of
the Test playing countries visited Pakistan. It is in this context that one has
to know the reasons that are motivating Bangladesh to be the exception among
the Test playing nations and undertake an official tour to Pakistan.
One answer is in the poor performance of our team in Test cricket
in recent times for which we are not receiving any offers from Test playing
countries for playing a series abroad. Pakistan has just not offered us a
series but it is doing so in a silver platter. Unfortunately, this is only one
reason and not a good enough one to do Pakistan such a huge favour by putting
the lives of our Test team at risk. If one were to look at Pakistan from the
view point of our bilateral-relations, Pakistan does not deserve such a huge
favour from us. We have many issues outstanding with Pakistan starting with an apology
for 1971.
Thus on balance, there are no strong enough reasons for Bangladesh
to do Pakistan such a big favour. The main reason for a visit to Pakistan was to see firsthand
the security issues. One fails to understand why should a delegation with the
responsibility to look at security issues had to be led by the President? His
leadership of the delegation has given rise to suspicion whether there is a
hidden agenda. The Pakistanis has already used his visit to good political use.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister with the BCB President held a press conference in
which the latter expressed confidence that international cricket would soon
return to Pakistan, a strong political statement to build Pakistan’s fragile
international image.
Bangladesh, as ICC rules are at the moment, could be a candidate
for the President of the ICC in 2014. However, Bangladesh would have to be
elected to the post of Vice President this year to be in line for assuming the
post of President. Unfortunately, there is a move underway to bring changes in
the ICC that would deprive Bangladesh of the post of Vice President and
eventually that of the President. It is in the context of these proposed
changes that the visit of the BCB President makes sense because without the
proposed changes, his door to the ICC President’s post was more or less assured.
Pakistan is a member of the ICC and could be very useful for Bangladesh. A tour
of Bangladesh Cricket Team at a time when Pakistan needs it very badly could be
a quid pro quo for its support of for
the BCB President to become the Vice
Prescient this year and President in 2014. The proposals for reconstituting the
ICC would come up for consideration in June this year.
It is of course a national issue for a Bangladeshi to be the
President of the ICC. However, it may not be as simple as the BCB President may
think. Pakistan is at this time suspect
in the international cricketing circles and its support could bring the
opposite result to what the BCB’s President could be expecting. There are also many
issues beyond cricket involved here that the BCB President needs to clear with
the relevant authorities. Above all, the whole process needs to be transparent.
Bangladesh cricket is now looking down the barrel of the gun in terms
of its Test status because of its poor performance in the field. The recent
green signal given by the BCB to BPL has pushed our cricket in the wrong
direction. It seems our cricket officials are becoming too interested in
cricket politics and lures of money for cricket lovers of the country to feel
comfortable. Individual interests are
taking precedence over cricket related and national interests.
At the time of submitting this piece, the news has come in the
media that the BCB President has expressed satisfaction with security
arrangements in Pakistan. This means Bangladesh would take the risk of a tour
to Pakistan. Meanwhile, the Board’s
President has dropped Tamim Iqbal from the Bangladesh squad for the Asia Cup to
be played in Dhaka next week after the selection committee had included him.
The Chief Selector has resigned over what he termed as undue interference of
the President. Many other former
cricketers have spoken in the media about the role of the President.
Tamim Iqbal, despite his recent poor form, is still world class
and indispensible for the Bangladesh in the short versions of the game. He
cannot simply be dropped on cricketing merit. He has been
retained as a reserve which means that he is not unfit either. Is politics,
ugly politics, spreading into our cricket to destroy it? So it seems.
The writer
is a former Ambassador to Japan.
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