The Canvas

Sports is one area of life where everyone and anyone from any where has a good chance of winning. Winning for one means losing for the other, and definitely the better teams usually win. Losing is a part of the game we should learn to live with, or improve our game. Calling someone names shall just not be tolerated as a part of a sport, nor does it adhere to the ’sportsman spirit’ doctrine.

In a statement released yesterday by the South African Cricket team visiting Pakistan for a test match series, the SA spokes person said,

“Spectators at the Gaddafi Stadium racially abused Philander and Barnes when they were going to the nets and we complained to the police and they have handled the matter. We are not making any official complaints and we are satisfied at the handling of the matter by the police,”

Which for me is a news where I can’t really laugh or cry. Firstly, because it is really intolerable that we hurl racial abuse at people and especially foreign guests of the country. Secondly, I am happy that someone actually did something about it and arrested those five punks. Things of such nature are so not going down in our country and this is a positive step towards setting an example.

Apart from this, yesterday, Pakistan drew the last match and lost the series to SA 1-0. Probably the most idiotic thing to happen during the course of the series was the re-induction of Inzimam ul Haq into the squad for the last match to give him,

(a) A farewell from the Pakistani cricketing fraternity,

(b) give the oaf a chance to equal Miandad’s record.

They achieved (a), and lost the game hence, but the so called legendary batsman was mentally unable to contain himself and got stumped after scoring just 3 runs in the second innings for a few balls. The mission in mind was of course equaling Miandad’s record which stood at a staggering 8832 runs in test matches. Miandad, a legend in his own right, is something irreplaceable, and his record too is something that cannot be broken any day. Good day Inzimam sahib, thanks for fish.

I never really found this player to be what he is claimed to be. He was a decent player with a lot of experience under his belt, and a lot of cricket games too. The amount of cricket he has played gives him an unfair chance at breaking and setting all records in batting history. Pakistan Cricket board is gradually becoming more of a circus if it was not so before. Their selection committee is a joke, and probably only Inzimam was the only person amongst current players to have had the favor on his side. The blatant overlooking of his inability to run between the wickets, stepping out of the crease and playing shots, bowl and more over pathetic at fielding has made him what he is today. I remember the days when he would score at an average 3 runs per over and get stumped or run out a few balls later. Something very similar happened last time and I am really glad.

Being an avid footie fan, not so much a cricket person, I loved what happened last night. Peoples and persons like Inzi have probably taken away the chance from better and younger players by the favoritism they have enjoyed in the Pakistan Cricket Board. The culmination of which came in the form of his being appointed the captain of the team, with more obvious choices being overlooked. And now we have a kid named Shoaib Malik.