I SUPPOSE it’s appropriate, with the English FA Cup coming to town on Wednesday, to use a football analogy in referencing how sporting hyperbole is just so much nonsense in the real world and why the West Indies Cricket Board would be justified in rejecting an invitation for the reigning World Twenty20 holders to play two matches in Pakistan in March.
For long-suffering Liverpool supporters like myself – it’s now 27 years since they were last crowned league champions of England – Bill Shankly is a revered personality for his transformation of the club in the mid-1960s into an almost invincible juggernaut that dominated the domestic and European game for more than two decades.
Apart from his success as a football manager (meaning coach in every other part of the world), Shankly is also remembered for some famous quotes, like this one: “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. . . I can assure them it is much more serious than that.”
Of course, such attention-grabbing statements are really intended to stir emotions. No one should ever take them seriously, especially when you consider what the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was asking its Caribbean counterparts to sanction as part of an apparent reciprocal arrangement, with the Pakistanis playing a couple of T20 Internationals against the West Indies in the United States before coming to the region for three One-Day Internationals and three Tests in April and May.
Fearful
While there may be a legitimate argument for other International Cricket Council (ICC) full member nations spending more time appreciating the peculiarities and complexities of the security situation in Pakistan, the simple fact of the matter is that the country remains vulnerable to elements who use murderous violence to destabilise the nation, ensuring as well that those from outside who are looking on, even with a sympathetic eye, will remain fearful for their safety should they be required to visit the sub-continental nation for any reason.
Yes, it is now almost eight years since the Sri Lankan team was attacked by armed militants in Lahore while on an official tour. However that singular event, in which six police officers and two civilians were killed, seven Sri Lankan players were injured and Pakistani umpire Ahsan Raza survived two bullets to the chest, banished for the foreseeable future the notion that extremists would never dare to attack international cricketers for fear of a nationwide backlash in that cricket-crazy country.
And while the security-conscious alienation ended for a fortnight in May, 2015 when Zimbabwe played three ODIs and two T20s to significant audiences of enthusiastic fans in Lahore – the same city of the attack on the Sri Lankans – Pakistan’s cricket authorities have found it to be a virtual “Mission Impossible,” so far, to persuade more prominent nations to tour there.
Solidarity
From the Pakistani perspective, this will obviously be seen as an unforgiving perspective by other ICC members, with counterparts like the West Indies expected to show the lead and offer a significant degree of solidarity in helping to bring full-fledged international cricket back to that part of the world on a regular basis.
At the end of the day, though, for all of the history of camaraderie and presumed solidarity in the face of the traditional official dominance of England and its predominantly white cricketing outposts of Australia, New Zealand and (before the end of Apartheid) South Africa, there is really only one issue for the WICB to consider: Are they satisfied beyond any reasonable doubt that their players would be safe in Pakistan?
If the answer is “no,” whether that conclusion is based on independent security assessments or information sourced directly by them, then it would be highly irresponsible for the administrators to sanction such a trip.
Even if the continuing extremist attacks in Pakistan, as isolated as they may appear, can be compartmentalised as incidents from which visiting cricketers can be confidently protected and insulated, what about the perception that if it happened once it could happen again?
While all evidence can be presented related to security details and other supporting systems, is it fair to expect cricketers to function in such an environment, assuming any would be willing to go in the first place?
For argument’s sake, let’s say that the WICB and West Indian cricketers should be willing to step out of their Caribbean cocoon and expose the supposed hypocrisy of the ICC’s power-brokers in their continued alienation of Pakistan as a venue, is it a risk worth taking?
Yes, it’s a risk just stepping out the front yard in some parts of our region. But that is everyday life, which merely emphasises that cricket, for all of its presumed importance, is nothing more than a pastime and a triviality not worth risking life or limb, however remote the prospect.
Fazeer Mohammed is a regional cricket journalist and broadcaster who has been covering the game at all levels since 1987.