When institutions, whether democratically elected or dictatorially placed, are not allowed to run independently and are interfered with constantly in their decision-making by the people above, the whole idea of maintaining discipline becomes a farce.
As we experience in our day-to-day life, not only at the governmental level but also in sports in our country, the institutions and their heads remain more or less subservient to the authorities who put them in the position to run the affairs. The PCB is of course no exception.
The recent tiff between the former ODI captain Shahid Afridi and the PCB is yet another example of spot-fixing of another kind, if you like to call it. To save their blushes, both the player and the PCB, while coming to a predictable compromise, should have resorted to a dialogue and counselling instead of knocking at the doors for justice.
The joke, I suppose, had gone a bit too far before spot-fixers at the highest level moved in to tell the player and the PCB to settle their dispute immediately, or else…
As per the script, Afridi has now got what he needed, the NOC to play for the county he is contracted with, and the PCB their right to discipline the player for the violation of their code of conduct. A face-saving settlement for both the parties, as dictated by the higher-ups.
Make no mistake about the decision of the disciplinary committee. It surely may have been pre-scripted during the Afridi-Ijaz meeting at Islamabad. Whether it means anything in letter is another matter.
Committees like these are known to behave like puppets on a string. This one may not be any different.
The mindless fine, too, does not fit the crime and we all know and have experienced it before that such fines have seldom been paid. This one is unlikely to be paid either. One more spot-fixing call from ministerial level will allow the ‘generous’ PCB to write the sum off.
We all know what happened in the case of Shoaib Akhtar and the PCB and how government interference settled the dispute, as it did when more than half the members of the team touring Australia were slapped with hefty fines and bans in 2010.
One phone call from the son of one of the highest ranking officials in the country let Shoaib Malik off the hook from a one-year ban and compelled the PCB to pardon the rest. None of the charged cricketers paid any fine.
That is what interference does; it takes away the authority of the institution, like it does of the PCB now, to maintain discipline and eradicate player-power if any.
In the present team, I do not think that there are elements to challenge the authorities. No one except, perhaps, Younis Khan and Afridi carry the star value to dictate terms today. A great majority of the players are average, run of the mill fellows who need more than anything else a guiding force and a helping hand to cultivate into them the discipline required at this level.
Afridi is a genuinely warm-hearted and amiable individual. His tantrums at times do not really suit his outgoing and pleasant personality. Instead of going around the town talking about the coach, he should have been advised to talk to the chairman of the PCB in private to make his point which obviously would have saved him all the bother including hiring of the lawyers and going to court.
The PCB also, I suppose, need to understand that involving themselves in disputes with the players who are mostly their employees as contracted players, comes to no avail unless they are allowed to make decisions and be firm on it.
That is where things start to go wrong. Spot-fixing of another kind makes their job as much difficult as maintaining discipline within their own ranks or in the team, of which they should be in charge
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