India and Pakistan are playing cricket! Again! But this time it’s not Rahul Dravid's Men in Blue vs. Inzi's Men in Green (thank god!). It's The Indian Veterans vs. The Pakistan Veterans and a three match series will kick start with a match at the NSK today. PTV, I imagine, are giving this live coverage, though I cannot confirm this as I haven’t bothered to tune it. Considerable controversy has been created by this series nevertheless.
The controversy stems from the fact that The Indian Seniors team includes the likes of Mohammad Azharuddin, the former Indian captain, and Manoj Prabhakar, both of whom are serving bans for match fixing. They had at first apparently been given permission by the BCCI it self to take part in the series despite their bans, which in Azharuddin’s case was a life-long one, but since then just about every one has denied they had anything to do with the series at all.
Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, got the ball rolling, “Azharuddin and Prabhakar have been invited by Pakistan and it is up to the Pakistan Cricket Board to stop them from playing in their country,” he told reporters, whilst also adding that the Indians Veterans Association was not an affiliate body of the BCCI. Vice versa The Pakistan Cricket Board was not to be left behind, "The Senior Cricket Board is operating on their own and they have invited Azharuddin and Prabhakar. We just support the Seniors Cricket Board and have allowed them to use our facilities" declared Shehrayar Khan, the ad-hoc chairman of the PCB, “It is up to the Indian Cricket Board to allow or stop Azhar and Prabhakar from playing" he added for good measure.
The PCB have however at the same time disallowed former Pakistan player Salim Malik, who is also serving a life ban for match fixing, from taking part in the senior series. Shehrayar Khan this time claimed this decision clearly fell in their “domain”. This obviously led to prime time soap episode 3, i.e. The Great Salim Malik Response: accusing the PCB of having double standards he told AFP “I have nothing to do with who is playing and who is not, but it’s disappointing that there are dual policies in cricket”.
And to add one final twist to the saga, Fawad Ijaz, the President and Chief Executive of the Pakistan Seniors Cricket Board insisted yesterday that Azharuddin’s arrival here was in line with the consent given to them by the PCB. "The Pakistan High Commission granted visas to the entire Indian cricket team, including Azharuddin and Prabakar, to travel to Pakistan for the one-day matches on the advice of the PCB”, Mr. Ijaz told a news conference.
This cat and mouse game reminds me of my childhood days. And how sometimes I and my sisters used to have naïve, insignificant little fights over whose fault it was that something had messed up: “It was you” , "No, it was you” , “No, it wasn’t” , “Yes, it was” , “No” , “Yes” , “No” , “Yes” ….
Before long we used to run out of steam to keep the argument going so we used to shut up and move on, while at heart still content at our own separate conclusions of the mess up being entirely the other person’s fault. With my 19th birthday now fast approaching I like to think I’ve out grown most of these childish habits, the PCB and BCCI, I suppose, if this blame game is any evidence, are still very much in the process of growing up.
