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A very high level post about the issues in Pakistan.

Over the last few months I have been very saddened by what is happening to my country Pakistan.

Nearly every day you turn on the news there is always some story about Pakistan.

I am disappointed with the media because many of the reports have been biased and inaccurate.

The first issue i have is about the portrayal of former President Musharraf as a ruthless dictator who snatched power.

This is incorrect. Musharraf was at odds with the then Prime Minister Narwaz Sharif. It was Sharif who ordered the then Army Chief Musharraf’s plane not to land. When the plane finally did land Musharraf then proceeded to arrest Sharif and take over. The facts of this have not been relayed in Western Media instead we get Dictator Musharraf ruthlessly takes over Pakistan in a bloodless coup.

As a minority Christian in Pakistan, many leaders have come and gone and have not done nothing for the Non Muslims, when Musharraf came into power he started to look after the minorities.

Pakistan in my opinion is far more stable under a military rule, there is law and order and there are no problems. The recent corruption by President Zardari (Mr 10%) is further testament that it is very difficult to have stable democratic government in Pakistan because of the large amount of corruption. Democracy may work in Australia but it does not work in other countries, and that is the bottom line.

Over the last few years Pakistan has had to deal with a great deal, on one side is India, on the other side there is Afghanistan, on the north there is Kashmir, in Karachi there are a number of groups causing instability, at the same time there is a lawless western part of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan which the government or army has no control over and the many versions of the Taliban are running free.

To add fuel to the fire, Pakistan has sided with the Allies in their war. The has been a terrible Earthquake in the north of the country. More recently there was a plane crash, followed by the terrible floods that have displaced over 20 million people.

This brings me to cricket.

Before I talk about cricket. I must say that i do not support Match Fixing in any shape or form. However what disappoints me is the media and public who start talking about this with little or no knowledge of the cricketing culture and Pakistan.

A bit of background. Being a cricketer from Pakistan you are subject to a great deal of pressure. Much more than say the Australian cricket team.

Much of the blame is due to the PCB who I blame the most for Pakistan’s current cricket state. Players are brought in and dropped after 1 game, infighting, bans are imposed and then overturned it seems like no one is running the board.

Pakistan was hit hard by terrorists; we had bombings of a hotel in Karachi just missing the New Zealand cricket team. The Sri Lankan’s who decided to tour to help their troubled brothers Pakistan in a difficult time were met with gunfire by terrorists who injured some players and killed a few police officers. That spelt the end of International cricket in the near future in Pakistan.

In Pakistan cricket is a total religion and the same can be said for India and Sri Lanka. Players are worshiped like God’s. It is very hard to explain to someone who has not been to Pakistan about how huge cricket is in Pakistan. Banning of International Cricket in Pakistan has been a big blow and hurt the future development of cricket in Pakistan. But on the other hand even with the sanctions Pakistan has still performed very well with some very bright new stars etc.

Now I will turn to Match Fixing.

The first thing I would say is that I am disappointed with Shane Warne and his comments, I respect Shane Warne for all he has done for the game, but I still cannot understand how he could say to ban cricketers if they are involved in Spot Fixing, when he had admitted along with Mark Waugh to taking money from bookies in exchange for pitch and other information.

With Spot Fixing and Match Fixing the issue is far more complex than what people read in the media.
I find it very hard to think that just Pakistani players are involved over the years, we have seen in the AFL and NRL how players even when the rules are there that they continue to break them whether it be drugs or other things, so I find it very hard to believe that in the whole cricketing universe only the Pakistani players are corrupt.

With specific regards to Pakistani cricket players. One must understand that Pakistani players are paid only a fraction of money of what other nations pay their sportsmen. A rough comparison would be an English player would get around 300,000 pounds where as a top Pakistani player would be on 35k. That is a big gap. Add into the mix that Pakistani players are not allowed to participate in lucrative leagues like the IPL. For example MS Dhoni would make more money in one over at the IPL than a Pakistani player would make in a year. The salary gap is huge.

When you add the addition of Bookies, some of them very powerful, they have approached many top players from around the world, yes the likes of Watson etc have rejected their advances, but Watson for example has a lucrative contract plus receives money from his various endorsements and also from the IPL, so he may be in a position to reject advances. However a Pakistani cricketer on a very small wage could be tempted.
Like i said it is wrong to do match fixing, however there is more to this than what we know. When you add the power of bookies who are dealing with large amount of money, and are possibly connected to underworld figures, with possible threats to players families, then the choice to bowl a no ball suddenly becomes a risk worth taking.

We must also say that the allegations are not proven yet. I am still not sure whether these tapes of the predicted no balls were done before or after the game occurred, it has not been verified as such. I feel sorry for Mohammed Amer, easily the biggest new talent in world cricket and it would be sad if his career is tarnished by this. I also feel sorry for Salman Butt, but in my opinion Asif has had a few too many things happen to him over the years.

I hope it’s not true, but if they are found guilty those players must face punishment but the Pakistani cricket team should not be banned over it.
One other thing that bothers me is that people are not giving as much donations to Pakistan in their time of need, not nearly the amount of sympathy as say the Tsunami and the Haiti earthquakes. There have been alot of people saying well why help Pakistan they are terrorists. This is so far from the truth.
When I was staying in Pakistan i stayed and visited some poor families and even with their poverty they would give up their own food and belongings to be hospitable to a guest. Something which touched my heart and i must say this type of hospitality is not found in Australia from people who are well off.

The problem is that the government is corrupt and don’t care, at the same time the Taliban are helping these people who are feeling abandon by their government and this is how the Taliban increases its popularity within the poor and uneducated people.

Pakistan has had a very tough time of it. And i really hope this country can bounce back as we have suffered alot. Please donate if you can to help Pakistan.

i think there finished in cricket for now.
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if the people who are involved are found guilty in this, dont they get death by hanging or something like that?
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i think ur players should move to another country where the cricket board aint a bunch of dumbshit retards who know nothing about the game.
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so bc someone has one bad game they drop or ban them and then suffer for months at a time? lol idiots over there