Who Cares About Pakistan Cricket?

There are two things in cricket that are dead set certainties, Sreesanth will always be Sreesanth and Pakistan cricket and cricketers will always find a way to earn ridicule and disdain. The PCB must've felt overshadowed by the negative press coverage being devoted to Shoaib Malik, because they've unchained a series of events that will ultimately result in more ignominy.

First, it astounds me how an administrative body can fine a player for poor performance. Last I checked, fines were reserved for disciplinary transgressions and poor performance was punished by dropping the player from the team. Pretty simple logic really, but clearly very complex for the likes of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, for it's taken him a whole month to decide he wishes to appeal the imposition of an unjust and nonsensical penalty.

Never to be left behind in making the news for anything but legitimate cricketing reasons. The illustrious Akmal brothers have decided they were wrongly fined for trying to save the older brother's place in the team by playing media wars with team management.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that certain legal technicalities will ensure that the fines and bans will be reduced, rightfully so in Naved-ul-Hasan's case, to nothing more than mere slaps on the wrist. But it may take someone with greater smarts to explain the PCB's lust for unfortunate, unnecessary and embarrassing media coverage.

Why do I care? Because, such daftness goes beyond cricket. Because, it is yet another frustrating subcontinental example of how the privileged few waste their many opportunities to return some semblance of order, normalcy and pride to their community. The bigger travesty is that this practice is so engrained in every aspect of public life that the general public becomes increasingly desensitised with each indiscretion.

That's it. Rant over.