Pakistan rubbishing fertile cricketing talent

Talent sprouts from slums. All the big names in history hail from middle or have-not class. But a talent is of no use in absence of opportunities that help groom it. In the cricket crazy Pakistani nation, there are found a large number of aspirant and would-be
players. As almost seventy per cent of the country’s population dwell in rural areas, the cricket loving youngsters have no facility to play and nourish their skills.

There are no cricket grounds, no sportswear, no technical facility and no training centers available for the teen agers who are keen to play the game. Passing by a road, you will find some boys playing cricket in face of wild traffic that poses a severe
life risk to the players. Usually, the incidents of such type of cricketers’ death stories make headlines. Some are got crippled and some have to face punishment or penalties for breaking glass of vehicles and roadside houses or smashing the head of some passer
by.

According to a survey, the ratio of cricket watching and playing is more dominant in rural areas or slums as they can not afford to have any other pass time. But this trend is not likely to garner any advantage or positive outcome as it is not channeled
properly. As a result, the cricket passion dies away with the rise of bread and butter problems. Thus many talented youngsters go in drain.

Most of the analysts argue that this is the major cause behind Pakistan’s under-developed cricket. They view that the cricket management of the country lacks parameters that can gauge talent and use it on merit basis. Most of the time, players for the national
squad are selected through nepotism and favoritism. Such type of players lack skills and professional capabilities to improve the standard of the game. on the contrary, they earn shame for their country and cricket.

Though there are established some cricket clubs at regional and local levels but they are suffering from the same technical and logistical problems. As per a rough estimate, almost 50, 000 players are registered with these clubs. Most of them have come to
join cricket as a full-time career and many others even discard their academic careers for the sake of the game.

When these players do not get accurate facilities and fair opportunities to excel, they go astray. As they have no education, they are unable to perform in any other field of life. Resultantly, some fell prey to drug addiction and some become easy victims
of terrorist groups which use these hot bloods for their heinous designs.

The domestic cricket system of Pakistan has been a subject of criticism since long. It is discussed on all national and international cricket forums. Some experts call for drastic changes in it and some even suggest a full-time revolution. But despite all,
the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has not vision and mission to reform the system. The cricket governing body seems to be happy and satisfied with the age-old and flawed system.

Pakistan cricket managers need to take a glance on the domestic cricket structure of their neighboring nation, India which has established the system on solid and merit basis and the result is obvious as Team India holds the top rank in Test and the second
one in ODI cricket.

Pakistan’s cricket structure needs an overhaul. The local slum talent must be encouraged, facilitated and promoted in order to get its maximum benefits. It is the time to take a leap towards change otherwise there will be no use to cry over spilt milk.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=13310

Posted by Sharjeel Ahmad on Feb 20 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry