A Nerve-Wrecking News
By Aamir A. Salaria
St. Peters, Missouri
The shocking news about the five-year ban imposed on Shoaib Akhtar by the PCB is a very sad, pathetic and nerve-wrecking news for cricket lovers all over the world.
While we all must strive hard for effecting exemplary discipline in every department of cricket, both on and off the field, since cricket is the only game in the world that helps to build, and shape one's character, the punishment imparted to Shoaib Akhtar, one of the most fearsome and attacking fast bowlers in the 250 plus years of cricket history, by un-elected, dictatorial, autocratic, self- and clan-serving officials of the PCB is pretty harsh, unjustified and unbecoming of a cricket body to say the least.
The mission of any cricket body, including the PCB, should be to promote quality cricket, both nationally and internationally, and to protect the rights of all cricketers globally in general and on its own territory in particular.
What PCB has done in this case is absolutely unbecoming of a pragmatic cricket body or association.
I would urge the newly elected government to look into this matter seriously because it has far reaching implications for the future of quality cricket promotion not only within the country but all over the world.
I would also urge Shoaib Akhtar to use his inalienable right to appeal against this wrong decision of the so-called PCB disciplinary committee, headed by an army general, who had never played any kind of quality cricket all his life. So how come he decide about the future of a test cricketer like Shoaib Akhtar?
Maybe, the general thought that he was presiding over a military (kangaroo) court?
In principle, using one's right to dissent and to freely express one's views about any matter is fully protected as an individual's civil rights and liberties by all civilized societies of the world. Therefore all cricket bodies, including the ICC and its affiliates, should be no exception to it.
