BOMBAY, 25 April 2003 — Pakistan’s refusal to participate in the Asia Cup scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka sometime in August this year seems like cutting one’s nose to spite the face. One can understand them refusing to play if the Asia Cup was to be played in India or not tour India for a one-to-one series in retaliation for India not touring Pakistan.
However, since they are in the process of building up a side and have some talented youngsters waiting for an opportunity to show their skills, the participation in the Asia Cup with two strong teams like India and Sri Lanka would have been an invaluable experience for the youngsters and would have helped develop them quicker. Perhaps Pakistan would lose in the tournament but on the other hand they could also do so well that it gives the game a real boost. Having won the tournament in Sharjah where a full-strength Sri Lanka team also participated, another good performance in the Asia Cup would only benefit cricket in Pakistan.
In the past, whenever BCCI were refused permission by the govt of India to participate in an event where Pakistan were also playing, there were many Pakistani players as well as former players who said that since India were afraid of losing to Pakistan they were pulling out under some pretext or the other.
Now that Pakistan Cricket Board on its own and not because of any instruction from the Pakistan govt has decided not to play in the Asia Cup, would Indians be wrong in thinking it is because they are afraid of losing to India and that’s why they are not playing? There is still time for the tournament to take place and hopefully better sense will prevail and Pakistan will play in the Asia Cup.
Pakistan’s pulling out of the Asia Cup will also deal a blow to the Asian solidarity at the international level. It is this solidarity that has prevented the other countries from dominating the Asia bloc. After years of being subjected to the whims of some of the old powers in world cricket, Asia had broken the stranglehold in the late 80s and had also managed with its growing financial clout to get more of a share in the funds for development of the game but if there is a break in that solidarity then Asia will once again have to subject itself to other countries where the passion for the game is not half as much as it is in Asia.
There will be those who will argue that since India and Pakistan do not play each other in a one to one series there is no solidarity anyway.
That however is more due to the compulsion of politics and does not really affect the solidarity but not playing in the Asia Cup does send the signal that all is not well with Asian cricket.
If Pakistan decides to stick to its decision then the other countries should go ahead with the tournament if only to show the rest of the cricketing world that the game is bigger than an individual or a team. It also gives a chance to some of the developing cricketing countries to play with the ‘big boys’ of international cricket and get some valuable experience that will help their cricket grow too.
Speaking of ‘big boys’ the biggest of them all, the Australians, have ensured that they keep the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy by winning the first two Test matches with comfort. While the first Test at Georgetown, Guyana was won by nine wickets with a day to spare the second one in Port of Spain, Trinidad was much closer with there being an outside chance of West Indies winning the game. This possibility was there when Lara and Sarwan were together at lunch-time with the West Indians needing just about 200 to win and with seven wickets in hand.
There was only Marion Samuels as a recognized batsman to come and with the pitch taking spin and large chunks of it often being dislodged by the deliveries landing there it was never going to be easy.
The unsung Bichel gave the Australians the breakthrough immediately after lunch and with Lara falling soon after the skids were on the West Indian innings.
It is in such a situation that Carl Hooper would have been very useful to the West Indians but he chose to make himself unavailable after being dumped as the captain. The last time he had walked out on West Indies Cricket was just before the World Cup in 1999.
He kept himself away for a couple of years and then came back only on assurance of the captaincy.
This attitude so upset Michael Holding that he refused to commentate for Hooper’s first series as captain against South Africa in 2001. Holding, who was part of the great quartet of fast bowlers of the 1970s and early 80s that bowled West Indies to several victories on some unhelpful pitches just could not understand how a player could set conditions for playing for his country. There were some in the Caribbean who thought that Holding had taken his protest too far, but it takes real courage of conviction to forego one’s earnings for one’s beliefs. Today Holding stands vindicated after Hooper’s decision not to make himself available after being dropped as a captain after the debacle in the World Cup in South Africa.
West Indies may have not regained the Sir Frank Worell Trophy but Lara’s form as a batsman means that he will continue to lead West Indies unless he gets tired of being on the losing side after being part of a winning side for a greater part of his career.
The emergence of Darren Ganga as a classy middle-order batsman and with Lara and Sarwan still around with the talented Marion Samuels will probably make the West Indies selectors shut the door on Carl Hooper forever. If that happens it will be a sad end to a career that promised so much but delivered so little.
A century on debut made one feel that he would end up with at least 20 Test centuries but after 14 years in Test cricket he barely has 13 centuries which amounts to less than one century for every year in Test cricket, definitely a poor return for one with so much ability.
Just goes to prove that at the highest level it is not just talent alone but temperament that separate the men from the boys. Carl Hooper with the way he conducted his career on and off the field for himself and West Indies cricket sadly remained a boy who just did not grow up.
