Chalk and Cheese

By Agha Akbar –

There is a thing or two common between Najam Sethi and Akhtar Rasool, both are political appointees

As personalities go, Akhtar Rasool and Najam Sethi are poles apart – as different as chalk and cheese. Yet they have a couple of common attributes: both are political appointees heading two national organizations in major Pakistani sporting disciplines, hockey and cricket – the former a national game, the latter a national passion.

Both Rasool and Sethi are bossing sports that are overwhelmingly important in the national context, for Pakistan traditionally has been a strong performer in the global arena in these two on a consistent, though in hockey – as well as in squash, another game in which Pakistan was once the leading light but has now touched the nadir – it has plummeted no end since the mid 1990s onward.

It is a sign of times – and the difference in magnitude in terms of prestige and financial strength, that the PCB is now streets ahead of the PHF – that while Rasool and Sethi both landed the position after securing the prime ministerial nod, the former’s induction into office has been rather seamless while Sethi’s turned out to be choppy and eventful.

Sethi has actually been appointed twice (Imran Khan has gone public, alleging that the plum position is a reward for Sethi tilting the election 2013 scales in the PML-N’s favour in Punjab as acting chief minister), bookending Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf’s reinstatement by the same Islamabad High Court that had remained Sethi’s bugbear in his seven-month initial incarnation.

Zaka Ashraf’s legal victory turned out to be pyrrhic, for he was sent packing by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Feb 10, with Sethi moving in with an alacrity that belied his avowed disinterest in the position.

Whether Sethi would last, and eventually bow out with his reputation enhanced, is anybody’s guess. One thing is certain though: The global environment promises a period quite nervy and difficult, putting all his faculties to a serious test.

That said, Sethi, quite unlike Akhtar Rasool, is an unknown quantity. And while he has his own strengths – suave, expressive, quick on the uptake and quite adept in diplomacy, the fact that he is a rank outsider may also cut both ways.

Akhtar Rasool: no solution to our hockey blues

Akhtar has been an integral part of the hockey establishment since the early 1970s. From the mid-1990s (his first tilt at the position of president PHF commenced in 1997 with the PML-N’s second government at the centre, and ended with its sacking through the Musharraf coup on Oct 12, 1999). But when he switched loyalties, jumping over to the ‘Q’ ranks (with opportunism that has been his hallmark) though he was not restored to the same high office, he remained there all along, either as chief selector or manager/chief coach etc.

As such he has been part of the problem of Pakistan hockey and responsible in a big way for its steep decline in recent years. With him as its chief selector, Pakistan finished last in the 2010 FIH World Cup. And as manager and chief coach since early 2012, under him the team kept on plumbing the depths: finishing at seventh at the London Olympic Games – the lowest ever for the three-time gold medalists, and worse still, not qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, again for the first time ever.

Can Rasool pull Pakistan hockey from its bootstraps, catapulting it back if not to the top, at least in the reckoning? The prospects are scant. If he had any ideas or innovations that could work towards that end and recapture even a measure of the past glory, he would have executed by now.

Pakistan hockey has lost its vibrancy and significance – in name still bandied about as our national sport. And Rasool is neither qualified nor equipped to pull it out of the mire. Even his political clout is of spurious variety: the Sharif Family has only forgiven his misdemeanor but in their books he does not really stand rehabilitated. So while crumbs of unimportant office that makes him feel important he may get, but not much more than that.

Forecast: Pakistan hockey shall remain in dire straits

Pakistan Cricket: Pushed to the wall

In contemporary cricket and hockey, Pakistan is being pushed to the wall. In cricket, though poor management has been a persistent issue, at the moment the PCB is facing a grim situation which is not of its own making.

With the Indian cricket board shepherded plan of the ‘Big Three’ to highjack and monopolize world cricket, Pakistan is between a rock and a hard place. By dissenting to the bitter end, and not cutting its losses and bargaining when it could, it is the only odd ICC executive board member left out of the deal. Already isolated owing to the security perception in the country, it is threatened with being further marginalized, and likely to be further put on the ropes.

Not exactly alien to all sorts of challenges and controversies, for Pakistan cricket this surpasses the worst it has been through. But Pakistan cricket indeed is a strong entity, with our cricketers’ flair and entertainment value not easy to smother if the PCB manages to put its house in order and leverages its strengths to make the most out of a bad situation.

Can Najam Sethi lead Pakistan out of this tight spot? It would be difficult for anyone, but it is definitely not beyond his talents. The overriding proviso though is whether he can turn Pakistan cricket into a meritocracy first. If he accomplishes this, and Pakistan outshines the competition internationally with a measure of consistency, ignoring the Greenshirts would be a touch difficult even if some entity wanted to do it with a vengeance.

Forecast: Difficult terrain ahead, but Pakistan Cricket can make a fist of it

The writer is a senior journalist based in Lahore