Cricket Culture In Pakistan

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/460463.html
This article, by Cricinfo's Pakistan editor Osman Samiuddin, may not be just throwing a light on the current crop of players wearing the Green Star. Like the West Indies, Pakistani teams have always been hard to captain because of way in which players can be so keen to feather their nest and take advantage, particularly on a lucrative tour like Australia, which offers so many distractions. Pakistan have only ever been at their best when their skipper was strong - Imran is the obvious example.

Make no mistake, these current problems where any Pakistani captain must have eyes that armour his back, began to fester under Inzamman, whose captaincy was complacent and arrogant and more than adequately summed by leading his team into cricket history's most shameful defeat, the 2006 forfeit against England. Who paid the price for that inaction? Certainly not petulant Inzammam, whose fines and suspension were lifted almost as quickly as they were applied by a spineless Pakistani Board. Instead, Darrell Hair was attacked and sanctioned for doing no more than his job. One day he will get justice when he writes a book about his life as a fair, reasonable and just cricket umpire applying the rules handed down to him by an international authority whose suits, now made by Indian tailors, should all include a wide yellow streak from nape to tail bone.

If the Pakistani players are self-centred and captains weak, then the remaining bulk of the problem sits squarely on the shoulders of a gutless and dare I suggest corrupt controlling authority in Pakistan. If you need a definition of rotten to the core, may I suggest you seek and audience with Izaj, the Butt of all or at least many of the problems. As with the West Indies, Pakistan is a pinnacle of maladministration, created by lesser men with greater greed and a sickness for power that taints their responsibility and has them focused only on the NEXT game rather than THE game.

Which naturally brings us to John Howard ... but that's another story!