The Cricket Interview / Lt General Tauqir Zia
'Did we not come to India in 1999, when there was a threat of the Shiv Sena?'
Pakistan cricket is in the midst of chaos yet again.
Lieutenant General Tauqir Zia resigned as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board following the humiliating defeat against Australia in Sharjah last week, but Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, in his capacity as president of the PCB, refused to accept his resignation.
"He has shown confidence and faith in me and I will continue to work with full enthusiasm," said Zia in a statement later.
Earlier, midway through the ICC Champions Trophy in Colombo, Pakistan coach Mudassar Nazar and manager Yawar Saeed were sacked and senior players were rested from the side, much against their wishes. To add to that, the cancelled tours of Pakistan have driven the PCB to bankruptcy.
General Zia spoke to Faisal Shariff about all these developments and advocated the need for other countries to tour his country again.
He also announced Wasim Akram’s retirement from Test cricket, saying he wants the ace fast bowler and Saeed Anwar to concentrate on the upcoming World Cup.
Excerpts:
What has been the impact of the cancelled tours on Pakistan cricket?
The team is demoralized. I have suffered financially. When you are playing in Colombo or Sharjah, what is the interest for the Sri Lankan people here? There is absolutely no interest. If you have only 200-500 spectators here it won’t be enough encouragement for the players. We have made it very clear that we will not play on neutral grounds.
You had threatened legal action against the ICC for cancellation of tours...
We have spoken to them and they have organised a committee. On the initiative of [Jagmohan] Dalmiya they have said that the ICC should organise tournaments in order to compensate a country which has suffered financially. Whenever you find time then there should be a tournament to compensate. My boys should play cricket and the people should enjoy them. We have so many stadiums in Pakistan; I have to make use of them. If we don’t use them tomorrow we will have some kabaddi matches held there. We have spent millions of dollars on the stadiums.
The threat of terrorism in Pakistan has frightened teams from touring Pakistan? How grave is the situation?
There is no threat of terrorism. The terrorists in Pakistan are as bad as anywhere in the world. They are no different. There are a lot of incidents in India also. Look what happened in Gujarat and elsewhere. There have been bomb blasts in England and killings in Australia, but people haven’t stopped sports. The Berlin Olympics went on despite the fascist regime of Hitler. In the 1972 Munich Olympics, a lot of Israeli athletes were killed yet the Games went on. The ICC has to take the role to use sport to bring countries together. I have invited the ICC to come to Pakistan and check the safety levels.
But why should players come on tours where they face risks to their lives?
Did we not come to India in 1999, when there was a threat of the Shiv Sena -- that they would kill all the Pakistani players? They dug up the pitches. We came because the public wanted to see cricket. We took the risk and came there. Aren’t we going to Zimbabwe? Didn’t we come to Sri Lanka when there was trouble? Australia and the West Indies refused to come to Lanka in 1996, but we came. What has happened to any Pakistani player?
No one is trying to target sportsmen. There are organisations, which have their own agendas. Therefore, to say a bomb blast in Pakistan renders the place unsafe is illogical. After all, there are 140 million people surviving there. If it were unsafe then all the Pakistanis would have left the country. That has not happened yet.
There is so much tension in India. The riots, the attacks are all happening, but have the Indian players ever been at risk? The domestic cricket is on and the government is sorting out the swines, who are doing this. By not visiting Pakistan these countries are strengthening the hands of the terrorists.
Don’t be scared; let us challenge them.
You said that you would get the Pakistani team to India if they [India] are reluctant to come to Pakistan.
No more. I have made it very clear that I will not talk to India at all. I have done enough in the past two-and-a-half years. I have supported the Indian team, Sunil Gavaskar and Zee TV a lot. I don't think I will support them in that way anymore. I am answerable to my people back home. If India does not want to play cricket I don't want to play with them too. They have to decide what they want to do. If India does not come to Pakistan in 2003 then I will not come to India in 2004. The ball is now in India's court.
Is Pakistan cricket clear of match-fixing?
If I have proof I will sort them out; if I don't, then I should shut up. I may have a lot of suspicion and the ACU might have suspicion but the court does not work without proof. So the Bhandari Commission has worked on this knowledge and found out that there has been no evidence against any of these boys. No one has come up. Ali Bacher had put the allegation; Majid Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz did not come up with evidence. My team is clear of match-fixing charges. My boys haven’t done anything wrong.
You sacked the coach Mudassar Nazar and manager Yawar Saeed midway through the Champions Trophy...
The manager is not a life-long manager. They are appointed from series to series. There is no question that I have sacked him because of that. We have lost four-five tournaments and what is the reason for the defeats? The lack of fitness of senior cricketers; there is something going on between the players and management; those were the reasons for their removal.
If the coach loses the confidence of the players then he has to go. I have not sacked Mudassar Nazar. He will take care of the national academy back home. Nazar was my national academy organizer. He also runs his business in Dubai and Pakistan. One man cannot do three jobs. So he had to go.
There was lack of confidence between the players and the coach. I have said that captain and coach will be appointed from series to series. The captain, Waqar Younis, needs to keep his fitness because at his age, as a fast bowler, he has to maintain certain levels of fitness. I have always wanted Richard Pybus as coach of the team. That man impresses me a lot.
The manager, Yawar Saeed, did not wish to travel so much since he has a business to look after. Therefore, Brigadier Khawaja Nasir has been appointed as the manager till the World Cup, after consultations with the players.
Can you explain the current chaos in Pakistan cricket?
There is no chaos. The chaos is with the fitness of my senior players. Inzamam-ul Haq and Yousuf Youhana are both injured. Youhana has a cyst in his shoulder and will need to be operated upon. He will take close to two months to get back into international cricket. Inzamam has been carrying on his knee and ankle injury for the last year-and-a-half. Because we want him to play he has been dodging his operation. Had he got his operation done then he would have been available.
Saeed Anwar is physically unfit and has not played Test cricket in a long time. To expect him to play for five days and field for 2-3 days will be very hard on him. And if I have to preserve Anwar and Wasim Akram for the World Cup in February next year then I must not expose them to one-day cricket. We have decided that under the rotation policy, Wasim Akram and Saeed Anwar will not play Tests till the World Cup. The problem in India and Pakistan is that you lose a few games and there is so much pressure from the public.
Mudassar Nazar didn’t know why he was called back?
The code of conduct is to be enforced by the manager and the coach. I haven’t heard that my players were at bars or casinos or pubs. I don’t know about it but if they have been then it is the job of the manager and the coach to discipline them. And if they haven’t then they haven’t performed their duties well. Yes, I did not tell Mudassar why he was called back.
The reason is that the Pakistan team is not coming back to Pakistan until after the World Cup, but I want to know the reason for defeat in Morocco and Nairobi. Either I come here or ask Mudassar Nazar to come to Pakistan. I asked him to come and explain the reason for the debacle. I asked him to put everything on paper so I could check on the players who were unfit and put them in for a fitness camp. He thinks that some senior players should go.
What was the Yousuf Youhana incident about?
Youhana has been suffering with a shoulder problem. It has been exposed. When you say you have a shoulder problem but you run around and do all other jobs, it means you are dodging.
One day he went to the team doctor, Dr Riaz, and told him that he had a problem. The team doctor probably did not attend to him the way he had expected. The doctor supposedly took some time before attending to him. This 'great star' could not wait, thinking he is a VVIP, and spoke in a high tone.
When they went out for the nets, he was doing his own training with the doctor on the side. The captain [Waqar Younis] came up to him and told him to join the nets. The first time he did not listen; the second time he said he had a problem. There was a bit of a tiff. As a leader, the captain said 'you join the nets'. We have a tour discipline committee, headed by the manager, the coach, the skipper and the vice-captain. They all thought that Youhana's attitude over the past few days was not good towards the senior players, and particularly to the captain and team doctor.
They decided to send him back to discipline him and send the message down to the younger members of the team.
The day Youhana returned, he met me and explained the entire situation. I felt that the situation was blown out of proportion and sent him back. But when he rejoined the team his injury was exposed. His MRI was taken in Colombo and the doctor said he would have to undergo surgery to remove the cyst from his shoulder.
Earlier interview:
'The ICC will have to promise me that they will either keep a stand-by team or compensate me'
Interviews
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