Of cricket and other demons
Is Pakistan winning this year’s Twenty20 a symptom of the receding influence of the Tableeghi Jammat in the team, asks Nadeem F. Paracha.
In 1996 when the underdog Sri Lankan cricket team created one upset after another to finally win that year’s prestigious Cricket World Cup, the then decade long Civil War on the island between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the Tamil Tigers took a subtle but definitive turn. [1]
Not that this major cricketing triumph ended the strife in the war-torn island. It is, however, believed that the decisive process towards the victory of the Sri Lankan Army against the Tamil Tigers this year [2] began when the Sri Lankan people saw themselves galvanizing towards forming a firm and united consensus against terrorism and internal warfare after their cricket team brought home the cherished cricket trophy. [3]
Many Pakistanis are now looking at the Pakistan cricket team’s magnificent success in the finals of the recently concluded Twenty-Twenty Cricket World Cup in England to work as some kind of a psychological catalyst that will trigger unity between the people and politics to once and for all overcome the violent challenges Pakistan has been facing for the last many years. [4]
Of course, this is easier wished than done – especially in a country in which, even when large sections of political parties and the people are finally approaching a workable consensus on the issue of supporting armed confrontation against the barbaric contingents of Islamists in the mountains of Swat and Waziristan [5] – there are still certain influential politicians and media personalities who are stubbornly frozen in the chaotic and highly emotional narratives of the immediate post-9/11 period that saw a bulk of Pakistanis actually believing that extremists like Osama Bin Laden and Mulla Omar were expressions of anti-American imperialism and ‘true Islam.’ [6]; [7]
The recent victory of the Pakistan cricket team in a major event can do wonders for a state and government who are now trying to unite a people who seem to be divided on the issue of the Taliban and the Army operation on the basis of sects and ethnicity.
Starting in the late 1970s, an anti-pluralistic process was initiated by the Zia-ul-Haq dictatorship that soon spiralled beyond mere posturing and sloganeering.
With the ‘Afghan jihad’ raging against the former Soviet Union, Zia, his intelligence agencies, and parties like Jamat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam started embracing a narrow and highly political version of Islam.
This was done to radicalise large sections of the Pakistani Muslims who had historically been part of a more apolitical and lenient strains of the faith —the kind that over the centuries had evolved within the highly pluralistic milieu of the subcontinent.
Most Pakistanis were historically related to the mazaar and sufi traditions of the subcontinent, and thus, were least suitable to fight a ‘jihad’ that Zia was planning to peddle in Afghanistan.
Their beliefs were not compatible at all with Zia or for that matter, with late Abul Ala Maududi and Syed Qutb’s versions of Political Islam. [8]
To compensate this ideological ‘deficiency’, the Zia regime sprang up indoctrination centres in the shape of thousands of madrassas.
Almost all of them were handed over to radical puritans. These were preachers and ‘scholars’ who had become critical of the strains of faith most Pakistanis adhered to. Accusing these strains of being ‘adulterated’, they fell instead for the assertive charms of the Political Islam.
When doves cried
On the social front, and especially after the anti-Soviet ‘Afghan jihad’ came to a sudden halt in 1989-90, the tensed up Islamisation process and related indoctrination that had largely remained within the four walls of madressas during the awkward Zia era, suddenly burst its banks and started to rapidly flow back inwards from the Afghan border.
This not only saw the Salafiyya groups (patronized by Zia) becoming more active than ever within the country [9], but a more evangelical side of this trend too appeared to cater to the fall-out of Zia’s Islamisation process that now entered the drawing rooms of middle-class and the petty-bourgeois Pakistanis.
Starting with the charismatic South African Muslim speaker, Ahmed Deedat, in the mid and late 1980s, his video cassettes became prized possessions in lavish middle-class drawing rooms, setting off a trend that then saw the likes of Ferhat Hashmi, Babar Chawdry and Dr. Israr Ahmed becoming household names.
Their biggest prize were well to do middle and upper middle-class Pakistanis who ever since the 1980s had been gradually moving away from their largely Berelvi heritage.
Following on the footsteps of the above-mentioned Islamic evangelists, arrived the likes of Zakir Naik and the hyperbolic conspiracy theorist, Zaid Hamid. These too gathered their share of urban middle-class followers.
However, the trend in this respect really kicked off when after the mid-1990s, organisations boasting such evangelists started to bag sporting and show-biz celebrities as ardent followers. [10]; [11]
Uneasy of remaining apolitical and statement-less in the rapidly unfolding post-Cold-War and post-Afghan-War era in Pakistan, and stung by episodes of chaotic and cut-throat democracy manhandled by the Pakistani state in the 1990s, sections of the urban middle-classes and many of their celebrities decided to lend a receptive ear to the non-militant version of modern conservative Islam being peddled by the neo-Islamic-evangelists.
Having little or no intellectual linkage with the political left – and growing up as part of a generation under the Zia regime that through Orwellian doctoring of the secular aspects of Pakistan’s political and cultural history [12] attempted to wipe out any memories of a more secular and liberal Pakistan – these celebrities became easy prey for the more ‘educated’ trend of Islamic obscurantism and myopia that started to cut through the urban middle-classes in the 1990s.
That said, it was however, a somewhat more populist organisation in this respect that rose the most in prominence in this period of urban Pakistani middle-class reflection and its eventual submission to modern Islamic evangelicalism.
This organization was the Tableeghi Jamaat.
Selective bashing
Formed in 1926 as a pacifist Islamic movement, the Tableeghi Jamaat had always been an important part of Pakistan’s myriad Islamic milieu, largely catering to a more conservative clientele among the country’s rural and working classes. [13]
During the 1980s when many sections of the Pakistani middle-classes started to shift away from their ancestral Berelvi heritage and bypassed most secular-progressive trends of the time to arrive at a non-militant strain of modern Islamic conservatism, it was in this period that many among this class started to show an interest in the ways of the (highly ritualistic) Tableeghi Jamaat.
Starting with members of the petty-bourgeois trader classes who were the first major urbanites to join the Tableeghi Jamaat in large numbers, these were soon followed by experimental middle-class folks who’d been dangling uneasily between Salafiyya militancy and Muslim secularism in the 1980s.
At the eruption of an unsettling period of political uncertainty after the violent demise of Ziaul Haq and his dictatorship, the Pakistani middle-classes found themselves in the midst of a raging political and cultural conflict between the prominent remnants of Zia’s ‘Islamic state,’ and the renewed forces of populist democracy. [14]; [15]
In this turmoil, large sections of the Pakistani bourgeois and petty-bourgeois continued to nostalgically hark upon the memories of the superficial ‘stability’ of the Zia years, becoming an applauding part of the post-Ziaist state’s various smear campaigns against populist democrats like Benazir Bhutto (and later Nawaz Sharif).
The state too was hanging on to the ways and memories of Zia. [16]
As the bulk of urban middle-class Pakistan slipped between Salafiyya militancy of the Zia years and the populist democracy of the 1990s, the Tableeghi Jamaat suddenly shot to prominence like never before when a photograph (in 2000) appeared in an English daily showing some retired and playing Pakistani cricketers and a former pop star visiting the Jamaat’s annual gathering in Raiwind near Lahore.
Pakistani cricketers (until 1999), always came out seeming liberal and cosmopolitan.
Many of them stayed for long periods of time in England where they played county and league cricket and were also known for leading modern city lives.
Teams under Mushtaq Muhammad (1976-79) and Imran Khan (1982-92), were packed with both veteran and young individuals who were well versed in the ways of western lifestyles, a reality that only became an issue whenever the team would not do well.
If one goes through former Pakistan cricket captain, Mushataq Muhammad’s autobiography, ‘Inside Out,’ one can clearly deduce that celebrating victories with champagne was not uncommon in the dressing room until about 1979; and (also) even until the late 1990s, many players would go clubbing or to a bar after the game. [17]
After Zia’s Islamisation process started to kick in by 1979, the champagne vanished from the dressing room but the post-match night-life and drinking on tours continued.
But as mentioned before, this only became an issue when the team would lose – as was apparent after the 1979 Pakistan team’s tour of India under Asif Iqbal.
The team lost the six test series, 2-0, and soon the country’s Urdu press was full of reports on the cricketers’ sexual and drunken escapades in the night clubs of Bombay and Delhi.
Those attacked the most in this context were Imran Khan, Asif Iqbal, Zaheer Abbas and the flamboyant Wasim Raja (brother of Rameez Raja and a ‘Shahid Afridi’ of his time).
It was conveniently forgotten that the same team with the same ‘playboys’ and ‘drunkards’ had comprehensively defeated India and New Zealand only a year before and pulled off a miraculous test victory against the Australians the same year. [18]
In a comedy of errors, soon after the 1978 Test match in Melbourne that the Pakistan cricket team won thanks to an extraordinary spell of seam bowling by Sarfraz Nawaz, the tall bowler while talking to an Australian TV interviewer announced that the team will be celebrating the victory by having drinks.
However, after realizing that his country was now under an Islamist Military dictatorship, and that the interview was being beamed live on Pakistan Television, Nawaz at once added: ‘I mean, soft drinks!’
But since Pakistan had pulled off an incredible victory, the conservative press either ignored the statement, or only dealt with it in a light-hearted manner.
This remained to be the trend throughout the 1980s and much of 1990s. The cricketers were able to keep their non-cricketing exploits on tours out of the press as long as they performed well, and stories of clubbing, drinking and ‘womanising’ only appeared when the team was in the doldrums.
For example, Imran Khan was lucky to have his team and himself perform exceptionally well between 1987 and 1992, because these were also the years in which two disgruntled Pakistani players, Qasim Omar and Yunus Ahmed, accused the Pakistani captain and his team of indulging in heavy drinking and smoking hashish in the dressing room. Omar claimed that the team was also involved with call girls. [19]
The attitude of most Pakistani cricketers up until the late 1990s was that as long as they were playing good cricket, nobody had any right to question what they did with their private time.
This arrangement between the players, the press and the public worked well, but started to break down when initial reports and rumours of match-fixing started to appear sometime in 1989.
The rumours grew so strong that when alluded to (by a cricketer), some of the Pakistan team players had fallen prey to the charms of certain Indian and Sharjah based bookmakers during a 1990 tournament in Sharjah, skipper Imran Khan and vice-captain Javed Miandad had to get all the players to swear on the Qu’ran that they had not been involved in match fixing. [20]
Though said to be a parasite born and bred in the cash-rich and amoral atmosphere of the cricket tournaments of Sharjah, the match-fixing aspect of the game truly went international after the 1992.
In spite the fact that the players (of all countries) kept denying its existence and the ICC only superficially looked into the matter, rumours of players (especially from Pakistan, Australia, India and South Africa), kept appearing.
Already under the creeping shadows of these rumours, the Pakistan cricket team touring the West Indies in 1993 got itself entangled in an embarrassing drug scandal.
The team had been performing well ever since the late 1980s, keeping the conservative press at bay about their extra-circular activities on tours, when some Pakistani players were caught by the Granada police for smoking cannabis on a public beach during a tour of the West Indies. [21]
Incredibly, since the Pakistan team had done well in the One day series, the same Urdu press that had been haunting the players ever since the Zia regime for indulging in drinking, clubbing and call girls, now turned around and accused the West Indians for ‘masterminding the operation’ and ‘trapping’ the Pakistani players, who were now set to win the Test series!
The team continued to perform in stunning spurts of brilliance foiled by inexplicable downfalls till the 1999 World Cup in England, when the cricket boards around the world and the ICC finally decided to investigate the stubborn match-fixing allegations against a number of players from various teams.
Pakistan under Wasim Akram performed remarkably well in the 1999 World Cup, reaching the finals only to lose badly to a rampaging Australian team.
This happened almost on the eve of an unprecedented series of verdicts handed down by Pakistani, Indian, Australian and South African boards on the match-fixing issue.
By 2000, Pakistani players, Salim Malik and Attaur Rheman, South Africans Hershel Gibbs (for two years), and skipper Hanse Cronje, and Indian stars Azharuddin, Menoj Parbhakar and Ajit Jadeja were all banned for life for indulging in gambling and match-fixing. [22]; [23]
Heavy fines for not co-operating with the boards and ignoring to report match-fixing incidents were levied against Australians, Mark Waugh and Shane Warne, and Pakistani players such as Wasim Akram, Waqar Yunus, Mushataq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar and Inzimamul Haq.
The bans, the fines and the consequent embarrassment that the team faced, seemed to have plunged many senior players into a discomforting existential crisis.
Wasim quit as captain and was replaced by his fast bowling colleague, Waqar Yunus. The Pakistan cricket team was now on the edge of becoming something nobody could have even vaguely predicted.
Islam’s Poster Boys
The so-called (and unprecedented) ‘Islamisation of the Pakistan cricket team’ that peaked during stylish batsman, Inzimamul Haq’s captainship, was not a sudden happening.
With the accusations, bans and fines, also came stories of heavy drinking, drug intake and womanising that had been sidelined due to a spat of good performances by the team under Wasim Akram.
The Pakistani players now found themselves feeling exposed and excuseless. Wasim’s fast bowling partner, Waqar Yunus, seemed determined to stamp his own style as a captain, and if need be, change the nature of the Pakistan cricket team’s culture.
Following the movement of the team was former Pakistani batsman, Saeed Ahmed.
Though known for his cricketing exploits in the early 1970s and a penchant for London’s night-life, he hadn’t been heard or seen in cricketing circles ever since the 1980s.
Then suddenly, during a Pakistan team’s tour of Sharjah in 2000, Saeed Ahmed was seen in the players’ dressing room. He had changed. He was no more the stylish, flamboyant party animal of the 1970s, but now had a long beard, a skull cap and was clad in shalwar-kameez.
Noting his presence, Saeed’s former county cricket colleague, friend and commentator, Tony Greg, approached him for an interview, not believing it was the same Saeed Ahmed he had played with many years ago.
In the interview Saeed explained how he had joined the Tableeghi Jamaat and was on the ground to help the Pakistan cricket team get through the crisis it was in after the match-fixing scandal exploded.
Both Waqar and the tour management did not mind Saeed’s presence in the dressing room. Waqar explained this by saying Saeed was only there to give the boys some pep talk.
According to a 2006 televised interview that former Pakistani leg-spinner, Mushtaq Ahmed, gave to Wasim Akram on the ESPN-Star Sports Channel, Saeed Ahmed handed Pakistani players a few audio cassettes of recorded lectures of some of the Tableeghi Jamaat’s leading speakers.
Mushtaq explained that throughout that season, many of the players listened to these recordings (mostly in their car stereos).
First to be ‘won over’ in this respect was brilliant left-handed opener, Saeed Anwar, who was also suffering the death of his new-born child. He at once joined the Tableeghi Jamaat and agreed to follow the strict dress code and rituals that the Jamaat prescribes to its members.
Anwar was first seen with a long beard and pensive expression, quietly reading the Qu’ran in the dressing room during Pakistan’s matches against South Africa in Morocco in 2001.
According to an article by well-known Pakistani journalist, Khalid Ahmed, it was Anwar who then started to regularly invite various Tableeghi Jamaat members in the dressing room, and since all Jamaat members are also supposed to preach and ‘invite’ as many people as possible to join the Jamaat [30], Anwar started delivering lectures to his team mates.
All the while Waqar allowed this, believing that a turn towards religion by the players might as well help him find the unity that had been alluding Pakistani cricket teams ever since (ironically), he (along with Wasim Akram) led a revolt against Javed Miandad’s captaincy in 1993. [24]
When Pakistan was bludgeoned out of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, a number of senior players retired, including Waqar and Wasim. The captainship briefly went to wicketkeeper Rashid Latif and was then handed over to Inzimamul Haq.
Though Saeed Anwar was retired too, by now he had managed to convince Mushtaq Ahmed and innovative off-spinner, Saqlain Mushtaq to join the Tableeghi Jamaat.
In turn both began their own recruiting regime in the team, and helped by Anwar and former-pop-star-turned-tableeghi, Junaid Jamshed, they managed to induct Yasser Hamid and Shoaib Malik into the fold as well.
The Jamaat’s biggest catch however, was the new skipper himself, Inzimamul Haq. [25]
Even though Pakistan had experienced a humiliating exit from the 2003 World Cup under Waqar, Inizimam seemed to have been impressed by how Waqar had tried to pacify the volatile Pakistan cricket team’s culture by allowing Tableeghi Jamaat members a free reign in the dressing room.
According to a former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official, like Inzimam, the PCB too saw the ‘Islamisation of the cricket team’ as an effective way to remould the culture of the dressing room.
The culture that was to be remoulded was the one built during the captaincies of Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram. That was a culture of flamboyance and combativeness, and of volatile personalities but which, by the late ’90s, had spiralled out of control, getting tainted by greed, political intrigues and groupings.
A PCB media adviser agrees with the theory that Inzimam actually used religion to control the explosive tendencies of the culture prevailing in the team.
Apparently, the late coach Bob Woolmer had little or no problem with the team’s re-born-Muslim status as well and his reasons were attached to what Inzimam was gaining from his Tableeghi regime, i.e. discipline and submission from the cricketers.
However, this discipline was not exactly based on a wilful belief in the importance of professional order, but rather a grudgingly submitted fear gained from the players by dangling the ever-useful Islamic card and a strict code of conduct and ethics based squarely on the Tableeghi Jammat ideals of Islam. [26]
Just before the 2007 World Cup, during a talk show hosted by former Pakistani cricket captain Rameez Raja, Inzimamul Haq, when asked what his message would be for the youth, insistently suggested that along with worldly knowledge, they should also get religious education.
This said two things. First of all, it suggested that ever since Inzimam’s stint as captain, more and more Pakistani cricketers had started using the formulaic language used by Tableeghi Jamaat members.
Secondly, and as some PCB officials and cricketers later claimed, most Pakistani cricketers, if they had to be in the good books of the captain, had to tamely submit to his Tableeghi regime in the dressing room. [27]
Like Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar and Saqlain Mushtaq before him, (and celebrities like Junaid Jamshed), Inzimam had willingly let himself be turned into a poster-boy for the Jamaat, which in the last many years has also been accused by some quarters of preying on the insecurities of known personalities in the showbiz and cricketing circles. [28]
During the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy in India, Inzimam was taken to task by the former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Naseem Ashraf, for insisting on holding joint prayers with his team on the ground where they were having a training session. [29]
Critics asked whether the Indian team could ever be allowed to pray to Ganesh or Hanuman on a Pakistani ground, or an English team hold a mass at the Gaddafi Stadium?
No was the obvious answer. But veteran sports journalist, Waheed Khan summed it up by suggesting that this is an irrelevant question because these teams were far too professional to ever use a cricket field to exhibit their religious beliefs.
It is no secret that players like Shoaib Akhtar were an awkward anomaly in Inzimam’s team.
The reason behind Shoaib’s falling out with Inzimam had certainly to do with things more than just pulled hamstrings and tantrums.
Shoaib was said to be appalled by the nature of Inzimam’s supposedly ‘manipulative,’ religion-driven ways of gaining loyalty from his players, and it was natural that a personality like Shoaib was bound to feel isolated and persecuted in the new-found religious make-up and psyche of the Inzimam-led Pakistani cricket team.
After much of Inzimam’s team had been ‘converted,’ the only ones deciding not to toe the line in this respect were Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Yunus Khan, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq and, of course, Danish Kaneria (who is Hindu).
Even Yusuf Yuhanna, a Christian, converted to Islam (and became Mohammad Yusuf). Even though he insisted that there was no pressure from Inzimam for him to change his faith, insiders and press reports suggested that much of Yusuf’s own family members thought otherwise. [29]
However, by early 2006, Shahid Afridi too finally became a member of Inzimam’s religious clique and a Tableeghi Jamaat member, leaving only Shoaib Akhtar, Abdul Razzaq and Yunus Khan to face the music.
Though non-Tableeghi members like Razzaq, Yunus, Akmal and Salman Butt decided to remain diplomatic, Akhtar continued to challenge the Jamaat’s presence in the team. He was a throw-back of the volatile and fiery Pakistani cricketers of the ‘70s, 80s and much of the ‘90s.
Inzimam’s Raiwind regime may have turned the Pakistan cricket team into a (seemingly) well-knit unit, but its many critics accused the captain of operating at the expense of ostracising talent that refused to bend to the religious dictates of his regime. [30]
Many also believe that Inzi’s religious zeal actually softened the team’s innovative and competitive nature, a nature that was rigorously nourished and encouraged by the likes of former captains like Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram.
The new attitude had left them looking and behaving more like cricketing ambassadors of the Tableeghi Jammat, with an on-field outlook that smacked of a lacklustre approach towards competitive cricket.
Inzimam’s team made an embarrassing exit from the 2007 World Cup, an event that also saw the sudden and unfortunate death of coach Bob Woolmer.
Pakistan’s media manager on that tour, P J. Mir, was highly critical of the way the team behaved, saying that Inzimam and his boys were more interested in preaching, than in playing cricket.
On the same tour, while travelling between cities on the plane, Inzimam ordered all the players to stand up and say their prayers in the aisle of the jet, even when asked by the stewardesses to remain sitting. [31]
But what now?
A PCB official told this writer after new captain Shaoib Malik replaced Inzimam as captain(in 2007), that silently but surely, the culture of the team is being remoulded again, making it ‘more competitive and secular.’
He said the board had absolutely no problem in how any player wanted to conduct his religious business, but the sort of religious fanfare exhibited during Inzimam’s reign as captain is being discouraged.
One can understand that it will take some time for the new board to rectify the Tableeghi culture that was so systematically invested in the psyche of the team.
This became apparent when after losing the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup final to India, Shoaib Malik apologized to ‘all Muslims of the world’.
Some observers considered it to be a somewhat racist comment, since there are Christians and Hindu Pakistanis as well who were supporting the team, and, of course, most Indian Muslims were rather happy that Pakistan lost!
‘It will take time,’ says a PCB official. ‘The cricketers were encouraged to wear their religious beliefs on there sleeves, and they got used to it. But this will change, once the cricketers realise that one doesn’t have to exhibit one’s religious commitment to prove one’s patriotism,’ he added.
Now that the team is under Younus Khan, who never did join the Tableeghi Jamaat, it is reported that the Jamaat’s influence is by and large a receding reality in the team.
In fact, only the dynamic Shahid Khan Afridi seems to have retained strong links with the Jamaat.
But that was never the problem, as such. The issue was psychological. What was used as a tool to discipline a volatile batch of cricketers became a heavy stone around the team’s neck.
It pulled the team’s natural and bashful instincts too close to the ground, consequently leaving it seeming slow and sluggish in attitude, and more interested in using the cricketing platform to advertise the credentials of the Tableeghi Jamaat.
Pakistan had reached four World Cup semi-finals and two World Cup finals between 1979 and 1999; whereas it was chucked out from the very first round of the two World Cups it competed in between 2000 and 2007.
So perhaps Pakistan reaching the finals of the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup, and winning this year’s tournament is a symptom of the receding influence of the Tableeghi Jammat in the team?
Whatever the case, it is important that if Pakistan’s recent triumph is to be used in any way to tackle the polluted air of religious fundamentalism choking the culture and politics of Pakistan, then it is vital that the cricket team presents itself as thoroughly professional lot of Pakistanis who do not hold sympathy for any particular brand of Islam. The culture of unprovoked religious exhibitionism in this respect must come to an intelligent halt.
References
[1] The Culture of Sport: Gamal Abdel Shehid
[2] Tamil Tigers admit defeat: (Washington Post)
[3] Sri Lanka’s Crowning Glory: (Cricinfo)
[4] Younus Dedicates Win to Troubled Nation: (DAWN)
[5] Consensus against violent groups: Rasul Bakhsh Rais
[6] Muslims like Osama -2004 survey: (DAWN)
[7] Support for Osama Waning – 2008 survey: (DAWN)
http://www.schoolchoices.org/roo/Coulson_Cato_PA-511.pdf
[8] The Trial of Political Islam: Giles Kepel
[9] Sectarian Conflicts in Pakistan: Moonis Ahmar
[10] Pop Protest Chic: Fasi Zaka
[11] Najam Sheraz/Junaid Jamshed Naats: (Video Clips)
[12] Re-writing the history of Pakistan: Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy
[13] The Many Faces of Political Islam– (Pages: 135-136): Mohammad Ayub
[14] Democracy in Pakistan -Value Change & Institute Building: S. Shafqat
[15] What Generals Must Apologize For: Najam Sethi
[16] The Idea of Pakistan (Pages 173-175): Stephen P. Cohen
[17] The Translocation of Culture: Pnina Werbner
[18] Inside Out (Review): Andrew Miller
[19] Aus Vs. Pak (Scorecard):
[20] Call Girls to be Questioned in Cricket Scandal: (Guardian)
[21] Who is telling the truth?: (Court statements by Pakistani Cricketers)
[22] The Fall Guys: (Reddif News)
[23] Corruption in Cricket: (BBC Report)
[24] Malik Guilty of Match Fixing: (BBC News)
[25] Fundamentalism’s Observed: R. Scott
[26]Justice Qayyum Report: (PCB)
[27] Not Bowled Over By The Tableeghi Jammat: Dominic Whiteman
[28] Tableeghi Jamaat-All That You Don’t Know: Khalid Ahmed
[29] The Fluttering of Jihad (Review): Amir Mir
[30] Pakistan Cricket Should Worry About This: Khalid Ahmed
[31] Pakistan players asked to avoid overt religious display: (Reuters)
[32] Pakistan’s faith sparks unholy row: (The Independent)
[33] Pakistan’s faith sparks unholy row: (The Independent)
[34] Cricketers more focused on religion: (Reuters)
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September 8th, 2009 at 18:31
I don’t agree with most of the stuff the author has said regarding the Tablighi Jamaat. How could you not let Tablighi Jamaat reach the cricketers when they have reached the whole world. There are Tablighi Markaz all over the world and people from different backgrounds are taking part in this very noble effort. It is because of the tablighi jamaat, many cricketers, actors (e.g. Irfan Hashmi), celebritities (Junaid Jamshaid) have changed there lives and are living a very peaceful life. The author as well as others need to spend time with the Tablighi Jamaat to get a better understanding.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:24
LOL! This article turned out really stupid. Full marks for trying to make something out of nothing. Commendable effort.
July 9th, 2009 at 14:01
Piracha u have very unsuccessfully try to relate religion , secularism , cricket , success and defeat.
I simply dont agree with ur version. Try to be more persuasive.
Better luck next time!
July 7th, 2009 at 18:40
Guess who returned to the side: Mohamd. Yusuf and look what happened!
In this piece Paracha is only attempting to study that period in Pakistan’s cricket in which the Tableeghi Jamaat gate-crashed in the ways of Pakistan cricket. Nothing more,nothing less.
What’s more, it is not really Islam he is talking about. He is talking about the Islam preached by the Tableeghi Jamat.
July 7th, 2009 at 17:06
MR. Paracha, Pakistan today lost a Test Match they should have won hands down.
Whose’s fault is it? Religion? No. Secularism? No.
Or Pakistan’s inept batting and brilliant Sri Lankan bowling? YES.
July 5th, 2009 at 18:54
I wonder what NFPs stand be if the secular side starts losing as they have won T20 only & the WC is yet to be played?
July 5th, 2009 at 16:50
Hi,
I just wanted to point out that your assumption here a Casual assumption that Tablegi jamat had an adverse effect on cricket in my humble opinion is extreme.
Many people say that it was the PCB chief who had absolute control over the selection and maintaing of the team who was in fact a close aide of mushraf.. and therefore could not be questioned.
So kindly, when you write something don’t dont make absolute and incomplete assumptions!..
thanks.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:57
aqeel said:
” … If someone thinks that success can be achieved through drinking and being western they should ask forgiveness from AZAAB OF ALLAH.”
It sure looks you have absolutely no idea whatsoever what the article is saying. Exactly where does the author say that being western and drinking makes a good cricketer??
All the author is suggesting is that religion and sports should not mix. So open up your myopic mind a bit Aqeel and read this piece as an article.
Give your opinion, not a fatwah!!
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:31
I must tell you that under the influence of tableegi jamat, Pakistani team got united? The essence of your article is that religion should be stayed away from cricket. How can that be possible? It is just like someone says that Islam is good to practice but I don’t apply it in my job or any other department of life. You tell me if the practice session is going on, and Moazzan is calling for prayers, what should a player do? Should he carry on with practice? This is shame full. We all are Muslims and what tableegi jamat’s objective is, that Allah’s orders and the Sunnah of Hazor (S A W) reflects in every single Muslim. The team is Muslim and they have all the right of the world to offer their prayers and preach.
Let me tell you what it is obligatory for every Muslim to preach just as Namaz is Farz, preaching is Farz too. Open up Quran and recite it with eyes wide open, you will get the answer. Who can teach better professionalism than Islam itself.
July 1st, 2009 at 22:18
Captaincy had a positive effect on Inzamam’s batting, often leading by example in pressure situations, averaging greater as a captain (52) than without (50). In ODI’s Inzamam used to have the highest average as captain[22] and is currently second on that list behind Ricky Ponting. After early failures in Australia, he took a depleted Pakistan side to India in 2005 and was important in securing a draw, winning the final test match from an unlikely position with 184*. He subsequently lead his side to an ODI success against West Indies (away), England (home) and Sri Lanka (away) as well as Test Series victories against England (home), India (home), Sri Lanka (away). Inzamam had seemed to have united the Pakistan side and victories lead them to 2nd place in the ICC Test Rankings and 3rd place in the ICC ODI Ranking.
Offering 5 prayes takes less then an hour in total of 24, and gives you peace of mind. Mushtaq Ahmed has become a legend in English county since he joined Tablighi Jamat as ALLAH helped him to be a key part in the championship titles for Sussex and now he is the bowling coach of England’s national team. Please dont under estimate the Islamic life style.
July 1st, 2009 at 21:54
Can I ask the people who are agree with Mr. Paracha’s views in this article about negative impact of Tablighi Jamat that Pakistan beat India under Inzi’s captaincy in India in 2005. They beat England in Pakistan in 2006 after England won the Ashes. Pakistan was one of the top 3 teams in the world ranking at that time. They perform brilliantly in Australia in 2004/05 although they could not win. They were about to win the Oval test match in 2006 but umpire blamed them of ball tempering which was proven wrong later. There are many other victories so why these positive thing were not mentioned and only ponting out Islam and world cup exit in 2007?? If someone thinks that success can be achieved through drinking and being western they should ask forgiveness from AZAAB OF ALLAH.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:58
Nadeem Piracha, I doubt you are a Pakistani. Why you want mix up religious and religious activities with game. Take the game as game, dont mess our society. We are religious too, we are capable to do everything, dont underestimate our massess, they are super. Are you a Pakistani?
July 1st, 2009 at 1:02
we have no right to interfer into anybody personal life.they have right to spend their life in accordance with their wishes. personal life should not be involved with their cricket.
June 30th, 2009 at 19:49
In our business this is called Analysis Paralysis. It’s a game stupid!!! Whichever team has a more disciplined training program, better coaching, technology, strategy will win the game.
What they do in their spare time is their business. Only a comprehensive training and grooming program, will make a better performing team in the long run. We need professional cricket players, who are determined, confident of their abilities and the abilities of their team members.
I like the article and historic perspective of different Islamic movements in Pakistan. My Personal opinion is our “professional” cricket team would perform better if they lean towards Islam which will give them mental peace and tranquility. Of course, without the blessing of Allah and dua of millions of followers their victory was not possible. Pakistan Zindabad.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:26
Well I dont agree with every word but its a good work by you.
Carry on NFP…………and dont let the looser stop you. They will keep on moaning.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:58
Pakistan winning the T20 is just a flash in the pan. After all, its just a days play – the team that doesn’t have its day loses and that’s what happened with South Africa & Sri Lanka against Pakistan. I can bet my bottom dollar that Pakistan won’t win the Champion Trophy or any other major event in this calander year, simply because bad days cannot endure for other teams. The reason why Pakistan will not win any other major contest is not due to dearth of talent – Pakistan, man to man, is as good as any other international team composition, if not better. The problem is gross mismanagement, mercurial temper of players, insecurity, mixing of religion and the recent isolation of Pakistan by the global cricket fraternity. I feel, this recent T20 victory should not gee up Pakistanis to the extent that they start living in a fools paradise.
June 29th, 2009 at 22:59
NFP
You the man! You stole the words and thoughts right out of my mind. Bro, me and countless others thank you for giving us a voice and a platform to finally eradicate this exhibitionist cancer from our society.
For the proponents of such an overt exhibition of Islam for reasons only known to God, Islam has been on the receiving of endless ridicule from all and sundry. Probably unknown to your kind but every thing in life has its time and place. Much to your dismay post-match presentations on the cricket ground are not impromptu platforms set up for tableegh. Moreover, you just can’t hammer in Islam with mere rituals and words. It’s a sweet religion. It’s contagious because of one’s actions and deeds.
June 29th, 2009 at 21:28
Excellent article Mr. Nadeem ! I’m at a loss to express my words. All these fanatical organizations have done more damage to Islam then any persuasion or coercion from outside. Who needs enemies if you have friends like Tablighis. We have a ‘Urs’ of Khwaja Moin-ud-Din at Ajmer and I wish all these fanatical out-fits who have taken the ‘Islam on contact basis’ should be send there and let them watch for themselves what is the true message of Islam. How the followers of all religions flock to the shrine to pay their respects and love. It was the message of love, respect and peaceful coexistence among all faiths that had brought the followers of different religions to the fold of Islam. It was the fanatical obscurantist philosophy and SWORD of Aourangzeb which destroyed the Liberal Moghul Empire and brought the social, cultural and economic catastrophe for the Muslims masses. We are not yet able to wriggle out of the mess those so-called reformist and Aourangzeb had left behind.
We need more articles and authors like Mr. Nadeem.
June 29th, 2009 at 17:14
I think it is necessary debate.
Simple is that it is first time our team played as a united team under the courageous and brave captain, so got the result which made all the nation happy and pleased.
So just say PAKISTAN ZINDABAD and let the boys focus on their next battle field Sri-Lanka and conquere Test N One day Series there.
June 29th, 2009 at 14:44
Brother Imran Yousuf wrote:
Guess what would the author say if Aisam Ul Haq manages to win the doubles title at the ongoing Wimbledon this year?
The answer is:
“Aisam has won wimbledon ONLY because his partner (Amritraj) was Non-Muslim !!!!!
You’ve nailed it, Imran Yousuf. I mean, Aisam should’ve lost, repented, joined the Tableeghi Jammat, and said: “Thanks to Almighty, I don’t care if I win or lose, as long as my get-up and antics help turn more Pakistani sportsmen towerds Islam and make them stay away from Non-Muslim parners.
Oh, how I wish Paracha too sees the light.
See you in Raiwind.
June 29th, 2009 at 7:31
A T20 win leads to an article of such a length where the writer seems to be placing all blames on TJ.Let the team prove itself further and then we might conclude that the secular team is better.
Victory hides your mistakes,if the team loses in future should we conclude that the end of tablighi influence displeased Allah.
What a wasted effort to write such an article…
June 28th, 2009 at 6:09
Excellent article by NFP, he has brought to its readers attention how some Pakistani cricketers were trying to change sportsmanship into a cover or blanket of Tableeghi jamats own version of Islam, which would let poor performances go into ; Allah ko yahee manzoor tha”I totally disagree with some bloggers who say the writer is blaming Islam for Pakistan cricket teams failure , in fact he stresses on available evidence and proof of some cricketers who were thinking game of cricket is a war between Islam and Nonmuslims,and in their disturb thinking they became less and less focus on individual performances, i will end my blog with the fact Allah doesent change any bodys fate until and unless he strives for it.
June 27th, 2009 at 20:08
Guess what would the author say if Aisam Ul Haq manages to win the doubles title at the ongoing Wimbledon this year?
The answer is:
“Aisam has won wimbledon ONLY because his partner (Amritraj) was Non-Muslim !!!!!
June 27th, 2009 at 19:16
We are Pakistanis first and then a muslim/hindu/christian/sikh.
Our great Quaid-e-Azam said it best on 11th August 1947 :
“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State….Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”
These were the principles on which our great nation was founded upon. In our troubled history any time we have digressed from this tradition we have been knocked into submission and have faced perpetual failure.
Religion has nothing to do with affairs of our state — or cricket for that matter. Let’s swallow this bitter pill yet again and learn our lesson.
Pakistan Zindabad.
June 27th, 2009 at 16:43
why is prayer considered as a religious exhibitionism even by people who consider themselves muslims. it is the main piller of muslim faith… n it is obliatory for every muslim.. the Quran says there should be a group among you who preaches the teaching to others.. so if you cant be a part of that group.. y criticise them.. there is good n bad in all groups of people.. but we shudnt criticise the whole institution. n what will u say next time the team is beaten convinsingly…
June 27th, 2009 at 15:30
I think we should stop dragging Islam to explain every evil that happened in the country. Islam may be irrelevant for someone but it is definitely a most revered aspect of many people’s life, who are neither evil doers nor detractors. Religion had been used by people on both sides of the aisle to attain their goals. If religion is being appropriated by so-called Taliban for their purpose, that does not obscure the fact a bit that most humanitarian practices in the world today are also one way or the other inspired by religions and especially by Islam.
June 27th, 2009 at 14:58
The article incorrectly implies two completely gross assumptions: 1) before Diobundi movement everyone was Barelvi in the subcontinent(“ancestral Berelvi heritage”) and, 2) that the majority of Pakistanis are Barelvi (“Most Pakistanis were historically related to the mazaar and sufi traditions of the subcontinent”). None of these are supported by any census or by books of Islamic tradition written in pre-colonial Muslim era. No doubt, there always been two strains of Islam in the Sub-continent, but assuming which followed which or which one is majority is simply fictitious at large.
Ahmad Raza Khan who founded the Barelvi movement was born in 1856. The Barelvi ulema following his interpretation of Islam began to join ranks after the establishment of the Jamia Manzare Islam in Bareilly. It did not precede but followed the Diobundi movement which began in 1866 with the establishment of Darul Uloom Deoband by Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi when Ahmed Raza Khan was still a child. In fact he was trained in Dars-i-Nizami, the foundation of curriculum at the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary. It clearly reflects the common strain of his ancestral beliefs with Ulama at Deobund.
Deobandi movement follows the maslak of Mansur Maturidi in the fiqh of Imam Abu Hanifa, in contrast, Barelvi maslack lacks any distinctive following of main stream Islamic traditions. It rather reflects leniency towards pagan practices of sacrificial nature such as offerings of a material substances to saints (niaz, nazar, charrhava) which parallels Prasad in Hinduism. It also relaxes the tenets of Islam for common people by providing specialized services of dedicated pirs and faquirs, which in principal parallels pundits or priests in other religions.
Recently it has become a common practice to dub anyone one who wavers in the practice of the tenets of Islam as Berelvi which is not correct. Majority of Pakistani people are uneducated and may be ignorant about their religion, true, but that does not automatically make them Barelvi. Majority of these people may not even tell the difference between Barelvi and Diobundi maslak, they even can not tell the difference between a Muslim and an Atheist.
June 27th, 2009 at 10:36
AOA
Beautifully written. A lot of efforts have been put across in writing the article. But I feel it leads us to believe that religion has been the main hurdle in the success which I don’t agree because:-
1) At personal level, NFP has also agreed that it is not such an issue, you’ll agree when you see the only Tableeghi person left in team is giving match winning performances and star performer yousuf.
2) As far as overall environment is concerned, if an element of religion stops the players from performing than how come under the Inzimam’s lead, ‘Lahore Badshah’ winning ICL Trophy, remember they were in the same stage as Pakistan team were in the start of the tournament but then they fought back and went to the top.
3) If spending nights in night clubs and drinking champaign has no effect on team’s performance then how preaching has? Obviously, if they do it in their spare time, not when they should be training and practicing.
So I think the problem was there, but considering this element as the only responsible for poor performances is not very justified, its not the Religion that should be considered responsible, rather than its understanding and interpretation, if I during my office work listen to Scholars and read Holy Quran, then its not my religious commandant, which obviously wants me to take full interest in my work, and try to earn halaal rizq, the same rule applies to the cricket team whose profession is Cricket so they should be giving their best.
However, so the real test for our team will be in Champions Trophy, because in 20-20 we can win on the basis of a few individual performances, which certainly is not that easy in full match.
And one more thing, About the statements the players give in beginning, I don’t think it’s that much issue, after winning, everyone thanks and appreciates to the one who he thinks has helped for the victory, his team mates, coach, crowd, so if a religious person whose ultimate believe is that ALLAH is the real Doer, thanks to HIM first than what’s wrong in it. In fact that belief is good in many ways, a non-religious person go for corruption more quicker than a religious person (if he is really one) because of the same as he will believe that I’d receive the money that is in my fate, so why select the wrong way for obtaining it.
June 27th, 2009 at 8:20
Bob Knight, famous college basketball coach
discouraged his players when they wanted to pray as a group before the match.
” God is not interested in the basketball” Bob used to say. Why should He be interested in cricket !!
June 27th, 2009 at 6:42
I still can’t get my head around the fact as to how inzi lead prayers on a jet aisle.
Which perverted form of Islam are TJ zealots preaching to these young impressionable lads? The serene Islam I have been following allows for lax in prayers when travelling. This certainly smacks of insecurity and rigidness on part of this mutated version of Islam.
Imagine the shock and horror on part of the crew and other passengers to see lined-up grown men blocking all passages to safety in case of an emergency. I for one certainly would have objected to this act from the get go. Infact I would have pressed charges against the entire lot for infringing upon my safety. Truly insane.
June 27th, 2009 at 3:53
the only thing we can question our players is that how they perform when they are on field. to follow or not to follow religion should be entirely upto them. everyone should be given the space. we own no write to intervene in their private matters.
as per me i think that there’s no problem in saying INSHALLAH and MASHALLAH. we never raised an eyebrow when an englishman received a bottle of champagne for his performance, then why should our players be held responsible for this? but when representing the whole nation they should avoid making comments which address only muslims.
June 26th, 2009 at 19:25
Atta, boy, malick. See you in Raiwind.
June 26th, 2009 at 19:18
NFP
Great article brother. About time us silent majority whip out our swords and pens to sterilize our nation from this infestation.
Plain and simple: Religion and Cricket don’t mix…period. The naysayers will continue rambling on even when facts are blatantly flashed in front of their eyes. Debacle of WC ‘07 under the leadership of a certain captain mullah should suffice.
One more thing: we are a diverse nation with regards to ethnicity and religion. Let’s not alienate non-muslim patriotic Pakistanis with on-the-ground stuttering proclamations in broken english of ‘Thanks to Allah’ and ‘All muslims should rejoice now’ when our beloved team registers a win.
Like Iraq and Afghanistan we might find these compatriots on the other side of the battle field when a foreign nation applies the rather efficient ‘divide-and-conquer’ policy to defeat us. Peace to all.
June 26th, 2009 at 17:53
Where should we put the blame when Pakistan cricket team loses in the days to come? Secularism. When Pakistan did not win anything in 70s despite having superstars, whose fault was it?
I demand that Inzi should be tried for bringing in the Tableghi influence, for his 11,000 runs in one-dayers, 8829 runs in Test Cricket and his wins in test cricket and one-dayers as captain.
June 26th, 2009 at 17:34
malik saab writes
[[This loose cannon article also suggests with its references that from now onwards only “secular” players should be selected. It means that Mohmmad Yousaf has no place in the team, but to the horror of Mr Paracha, Yousaf is part of the team to Sri Lanka (he should better prepare another such article on the horrors of having Yousaf in the team).]]
Nowhere does Paracha “suggest” or even hint at what you are going on about, Malik saheb. He simply asked a question and tried answering it. Bottomline of his piece is simple: Religious exhibitionism and sport should not mix.
Why are some people here taking it as a grave offence?
This a is a fantastic article that tries to investigate what happened to Pakistani cricket between 1990 and 2007. So take it as that, instead of looking at it as some kind of ploy by Paracha to get religious folks out of the team.
It you who are making suggestions, not him.
June 26th, 2009 at 15:56
Thought provoking article. Islam does not stop us from thinking. Question is why didn’t Bob stop this? Why do we think that only secular team can win? If for instance, Inzi had won the world cup, would that mean that Tableeghi Jammaat has a correct stance. I think we are confusing a person’s ineptitude with his religious attachment. So while not criticizing his lack of training etc, we are looking at the wrong side of the picture.
June 26th, 2009 at 15:56
I think tableeghi jamaat of Pakistan has lagely been problematic regardless of this article.
June 26th, 2009 at 15:07
Nadeem again great article, don’t be afraid from writing fair because Pakistan desperately needs people like you.
Agree religious elements should be kept out from games and politics. So many problems are in Pakistan due to so much interference by gangs of religious enforcers in personal lives of people. We can follow the western model by keeping intact our culture and traditional values by treating religion as a personal matter and use more common sense attribute…. such change is always difficult but not impossible and surely Islam and it’s teaching would be more beneficiary of this change in real sense of spirituality
June 26th, 2009 at 14:32
Religion should NEVER be part of a game. This stands true to our Pakistani team as well.
It does’nt impress me to see Inzimam and Saeed Anwar with full length beards nor it impresses me to see Yousuf Youhana changing his faith from Christianity to Islam.
I love Islam..it’s my dear religion & I am willing to die for it but…
…I wont give them credit for being more Islamic. They were in team to play, not to display their faith.
Some of Indians have posted their comments cirticizing Pakistani team. Frankly Indians no better in their affairs than us.
June 26th, 2009 at 13:32
“”"”if you read all the articles of this writer, it feels as if the objective of him is to make Islam responsible at every cost for every bad act, defeat or any negative thing. It is also interesting to note that he himself creates the situation/discussion in the articles and then linked with religion.”"”"
Well said TIPU.
June 26th, 2009 at 13:32
Christina Lamb very aptly named her book on Pakistan “Waiting for Allah”. This title embodies the psyche of the nation who expect divine intervention in everything instead of trying to achieve their goals with professionalism, hard work and dedication. It doesn’t matter if someone is religious or otherwise, he should do his job with pride and dedication. This goes for everything and not just cricket.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:48
Nadeem, you have your own axe to grind and that’s what this article is about. This artcile is nothing but creating conspiracy out of nothing.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:13
Futile Article!
Author trying to preach Westernization and nothing else.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:51
About don’t mix religion with everywalk of life is rather good idea while living in a global village. May be it can hurt someone in general and a country; now almost every country where diverse/multi religions are existing is painful in particular. We should keep aside religious commitments if possible; particularly in sports where it can bridge-out among many religions and cultures. Such attitude can seiz its globality and popularity. A player while playing in a match should exibit his supereme talent to win it not a symbol of a single intity or representation. Religion belongs to an individuals faith and a mean to link with God! It is not a healthy trend which is followed by our players.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:31
In retrospect all Pakistani institutions have been either destroyed or in the process of being ground into dust whenever and wherever these jihadi types have come to pass. Spewing monotonous verbal diarrhea they have destroyed the entire social fabric of this great Pakistani society.
Likes of uneducated and uninitiated foot soldiers like inzamaum have turned islam into a religion of rituals and ostentation. For some reason this particular Zia-baby felt the need to thank Allah for our 2007 WC loss to Ireland in the post-match presentation ceremony.
All these Zia-wannabes have accomplished is intolerance. This sums it up rather nicely:
“Critics asked whether the Indian team could ever be allowed to pray to Ganesh or Hanuman on a Pakistani ground, or an English team hold a mass at the Gaddafi Stadium?
No was the obvious answer.”
June 26th, 2009 at 11:22
Excellent article. Very well researched article. Shows the effort and pain which the writer has put in in compiling the facts.
It is true that religion is personal matter and should be practiced as such. Also, even the religion guides that focus on job and having good work ethics is part of being a good muslim.
Fully agree with the writer’s views. Congrats on putting together all the facts and analysis in a logical way.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:16
Assalaam o Elehkum,
I would have digested this blogpost, if it was posted by an English or Australian sports writer. I wish it was from one of them. However, I will agree that an outwardly verbal expression of one’s faith at any international forum (on mic) does appear exhibitionist. Small words like Insha-Allah or others, are part of Islamic mannerism of speech and no one really minds, rather many in Western countries have come to realize this fact to their liking. Almost all converted Muslims in US use such words in their regular speech and they feel good and confident about it. What’s gone wrong with Pakistanis? Is this subconscious submissiveness?
If tablighi style (“preaching”) brought some coherency in Pakistani cricket team, is this something to feel good or bad about? Should it be curtailed or put to a halt? Can you? Joining hearts is the intrinsic paradigm of Islamic faith.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:07
if you read all the articles of this writer, it feels as if the objective of him is to make Islam responsible at every cost for every bad act, defeat or any negative thing. It is also interesting to note that he himself creates the situation/discussion in the articles and then linked with religion.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:31
What on earth do you want to tell us here.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:10
While the author makes some interesting points about the failures of Pakistan’s cricket team plus media, he does so in biased manner. Lets just begin by lookting at the the title: “Of Cricket and other DEMONS” (emphasis added). Cleary, that is a broad over-generalization. Lets first get the fact straight that some of articles of our cricket’s team exploits in the past were celebrated with clearly deploarable acts (ie. drinking, “call girls”) might either be true or not true. Pakistani Media is notriosuly under-developed, and the only good articles/stories are ones that are well documented with viable proof (not some commentary from another site/place). Also, the author’s subtle attempts to malign the Tabilghi Jammaat should be noted. Does anyone not see the bias? I understand the author has a secularist world view (as seen in his previous posts) but that does mean one can project one’s characterization on to another person. If this was a OP-ED piece, then I might be less stingy about the biases in this piece.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:00
Lost focus due to length of the blog. Mr.Peracha, blogs are meant to be shorter than what you’ve just written.
I dis-agree and agree with few points, well written. Try to keep it short.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:43
well said and a very intresting observation by the writer. I believe the intent of introducing religion and religiuos behavior was to change the post game culture and personal activites of players. (match fixing and partying etc.)It definitely did get carried away to an extent that it started to effect the professionalism and fighting spirit of a national player. There is no harm in saying bismillah or inshallah but if seniors in the team or the ones part of tableegh expect this as a practicing belief from every player and uses it as a unifying bond then he is missing his first duty as a national player and that is too play cricket at its best. One is representing a cricket playing country not a religiuos group. Its a personal action to keep beards and pray and follow the sunnah of out beloved prophet mohammad(pbuh), no one is questioning that but one should not forget why there here in the first place.
I hope we as pakistanis muslims look at our religion as THE way of life and set an example not consider this the only way of life around us and consider everything else and everyone else worthless.
with Respect,
N khan
June 26th, 2009 at 9:19
LOL! I mean the writer is attributing the 2007 exit on religion! i mean give me a break!if alcohol/clubbing and flamboyant nature cud win u cups then england or WI/NZ auusies wud have won cups. england has won nothing,NZ too!
Islam bashing has become a fashion today! I dont find any difference of opinion in this article and talibans attitude. the only difference is one sits at North pole and other at south and think they are right!
If Inzi used religion to unite team, Imran used his cancer hospital as a rallying thing plus his autocracy! The same autocracy Inzi used on Shoiab Actor!
Dont mix and pick stuff and make a poutpouri to make a point. They are cricketers!
June 26th, 2009 at 8:57
To be frank, I did not like some of the articles by you initially. But, now I think, if only, Pakistan, nah the whole world was filled with thinkers like you, this world would be a better place to live in.
It’s strange that I often read a lot of things about Islam from Muslims like “Islam is a complete religion”, “Islam is a complete way of life”, “Muhammad was the perfect man”.
What muslims don’t understand is what is explained in Islam is practiced by the people of other religions by common sense.
When cricketers try to say “Inshah Allah”, “Mashah Allah” on the field, in front of mics, they think they’re being messengers of god and making a political/religious statement. But for non muslims and even liberal muslims, it sounds silly. Because they don’t say “Inshah Allah we lost”. “Mashah Allah, I scored a DUCK”. “Jazak Allah, we are out of the tournament”.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:52
Many corrupt elements, after making lot of money, join Tableeghi Jama’t. This is a very common trend….
Thirty forty years ago there were few Tableeghi members. Now they are in millions, but over all character of the nation has gone from bad to worst level.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:46
Very interesting. Hope writer did justice to the facts. Players should focus on just playing cricket when they are on assignments (yes playing cricket is their assignment). If this is not on their priority list then they should quit and make way for others who are anxiously waiting for their turns.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:35
The article would have been nicer if the author had not used such a ‘lets be progressive muslims and adopt western culture’ tone.
You will never see some Christian person discouraging a young woman from becoming a nun and wearing the habit but in most cases when a woman wears a burqa she faces criticism, if not from her family then definetely from her society, even if the society is an ‘islamic’ one.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:29
Excellent article. It is debatable whether religion helps with discipline or not but one thing is very clear. Under Inzi the Pakistani team lost it natural hunting instinct which was the main asset of Pakistani team. During Indian tours the Indian players, spectators and fans were surprised to see a very un-Pakistani character of the team. Indians, Australian and many other teams cherished Pak team’s aggressiveness. Indian even called Ganguli aggressive as Pakistani suggests that even arch rival admired those qualities and they ran over Pakistani team that lacked those fundamental qualities. Finally, we saw some of those qualities coming back in the recent T20. I hope Pak team will go back to Imran and Wasim, engaging tactics
June 26th, 2009 at 7:07
Lets try to keep religion out of sports and politics. My be that wehere our solution to the problems lie.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:56
Brilliant analysis but probably went over the head of most of our compatriats. Its true: get the fanatics out of our nation and cricket team, it’s time to reclaim what’s lost!
June 26th, 2009 at 6:43
I think the author doesn’t understand the importance of religion as an individual and/or a group. We as muslims are ambassadors of Islam wherever we go. Otherwise what is a difference between a muslim and a non-muslim.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:16
Good Article, Religion is b/w a man and his GOD and thts it. but we pakistanis r soo much caught up in this religion thing tht we forgot the basics like honesty, tolerance open minded etc etc! if today is there anything thts killing us is this blind obsession w/ religion not india,US or israel.
i really wish pakistanis come out of this non seance and open their eyes.
June 26th, 2009 at 5:21
Yes you are correct. I wonder who let Tableeghes to preach to cricket team? Youhan’s performance deteriorated much after that . Also I wonder why our players thank God by doing “Sajdas” on ground?
June 26th, 2009 at 5:07
Of late Nadeem Farooq Paracha has been so casually expressing himself in the columns as a religio-political analyst trying to give his version of history to a country where the educational system has already failed to teach the youth much world history. I would strongly protest against him writing on subjects he has no authority on. He may continue to write on music and the associated lifestyle since that is what he is most comfortable with.
June 26th, 2009 at 4:40
so what Mr Paracha trying to say is we should all be drinking champagne, going to night clubs…having girl friend/boy friend relationship like western… because it seems like this is the right way according to him. Who told him Tablighis don’t know how to live modern life style…. I live in west and see many many tablighis who are western (converted to Islam)./..even people from Pakistan well educated ….
this article is portraying Islam as backward….
June 26th, 2009 at 4:21
It is so funny to see how people tend to relate outcomes of certain situations to how they feel about a totally seperate and a general issue.
Its clear that the writer possesses a strong belief supporting sucalrism to a great extent and accordingly moulding the reader’s thought to it by connecting favourable and unfavourable outcomes of Pakistani Cricket to Islam.
As ofcourse for example superstitious people relate the flapping of a butterfly’s wings to a hurricane on the other side of the world. As opposed to a mere logical and scientific approach to the same issue and yeilding a rational and definite ’cause and effect’ answer to the question.
It is absolute absurdity to link one’s religous practises to his ‘apparent’ failure in Cricket. Is this article trying to imply that drinking, clubbing and indulging in the infamous nightlife is actually beneficial to players rather than offering a regular and punctual five times a day prayers ?
June 26th, 2009 at 4:12
Islam teaches unity, descipline and honesty besides many other good things, Pakistan cricket team, after the world cup win and retirement of Imran fell apart. they were not united, not playing as a team, they became arrogant and few became greedy, world cup 1999 seemed like we gave away the cup to Aussies, 2007 we did not even fight and lost to ireland and was knocked out in the first round. All these captains and some players were trying to do is to unite the team and have some descipline and perform honestly for Pakistan and they had no other means but lean towards religion. Shoaib Akhtar is a very good player but he is beyond any rules which costs Pakistan on many occasions. He should have been removed from the team after the 2003 SA world cup or given one warning only. Games are not played with one man but the whole team performs to be a winner. Its unfortunate that we just make one or two idols and rest is ignored. we have not come out of personality worship.
Its sense-less that the writer is trying to prove that prayer and saying Inshallah and Mashallah was the cause of our failure. Indeed an illogical approach!
Monim
USA
June 26th, 2009 at 3:18
Woo, great article, story writing is superb.A long history in just few paragraph, amazing.
June 26th, 2009 at 3:08
Very fine note. Religion deciplines one,s life and conduct. Religious morality should be the guiding factor. But when we bring religion into every thing including sports and begin to rely it more than field work, one gets problems.
Does it mean Australians or Lankans come via Mecca when they beat us and others. No, they simply work hard. Our team won because it just played a fine game and the nation All pakistanis and not muslims alone) prayed for them.
June 26th, 2009 at 2:45
Asalam o Alaikum brothers,
HERES MY RESPONCE TO THE ARTICLE.
Is Pakistan winning this year’s Twenty20 a symptom of the receding influence of the Tableeghi Jammat in the team?
The answer is given by the author him self in the last paragraph of the article.
“Whatever the case, it is important that if Pakistan’s recent triumph is to be used in ANY WAY to tackle the polluted air of religious fundamentalism choking the culture and politics of Pakistan, ….. in this respect must come to an intelligent halt.”
The author has played his part in full filling this “secular” agenda. “Linking our victory to receding influence of Jammat.” Intelligent or not I leave this question for you guys to answer.
June 26th, 2009 at 2:30
Wonderful article!! Now that Shahid Afridi will be the captain of Pak T20, I hope he will reform. Religon is a belief and it should be in ones heart and should not be publicized. Pak team should learn that what radicalization has done to the country.
June 26th, 2009 at 2:08
A futile attempt to discredit a movement which has mended hundreds of thousands of lives not only back home but overseas.. there is immense love for cricket and pakistani star cricketers within the religious fraternity.. thousands especially in the ‘west’ – are embracing this peaceful struggle and inshaALLAH this movement does not need cricket to survive….In the end Kudos to Pakistani cricketers who bowed their head to almighty at Lords on 21st June for thankgiving…
June 26th, 2009 at 2:07
A great piece of journalism, NFP. Cricket is just another part of the Pakistani psyche that’s been polluted by fake religiousity over the past 30 years.
Lets hope this victory heralds a new age of reason in the team and the country.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:32
Seems to me like a conspiracy theory denier trying to expose a conspiracy.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:26
I feel that as a Muslim one should never hold any secular ideology but i agree to be successful in sports you have to be very mature and professional and don’t let the fate of game get decided by other than you
June 26th, 2009 at 1:26
Please leave Islam out of cricket..If god had anything to do with cricket..we should all turn to chirstainity as the most sucessful team recently has been mostly christain..but who cares..our players job is to be professional, they represent us, so they should better train rather than pray, pray and preach…
Good Article!
June 26th, 2009 at 1:23
In my opinion anyone quoting pj mir to substantiate their thesis have already lost credibility.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:19
While I agree with Nadeem about the influence of “forced ideology” be it religious or secular, I do not think that was the only reason of the team’s decline in the late 90′ and early 2000s. We did go through a changing of the guard so to speak, a lot of the key players who had carried the team in the 80s and 90s retired, and there was a lack of talent in the newer crop of players. If Nadeem’s argument about the superiority of “westernized” player culture is true, then how do you explain the tepid performances of Pakistani sides in the 60’s and early 70’s? Those blokes played county and league and were pretty well versed in the Western ways and the dark shadow of religious exclusiveness had not tainted our society at that time.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:05
Great article. Lets get religion out of our systems and start living, propering and achieving.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:00
“The culture of unprovoked religious exhibitionism in this respect must come to an intelligent halt.”
Brilliant. Paracha Sahib, you nailed it.
June 26th, 2009 at 0:59
I appreciate the writer on elaborating on such an important issue. The team culture should be such that everyone may follow whatever his way of life is. The caption, senior players and officials, rather than becoming religious preachers, should do what they are supposed to do. As far as players’ ‘good’ conduct is concerned, PCB’s code of conduct can take care of that.
June 26th, 2009 at 0:58
Lack of focus… I really had to work hard at trying to finish the article. In the end, the argument was weak and the author failed to establish a correlation between the facts he provided and his concluding thesis.
June 26th, 2009 at 0:56
You seem to write very well. I am impressed. It was exhausitve and I love it. More to expect from your side on other burning issues. Keep posting. good luck!
June 26th, 2009 at 0:51
yes , pakistan can be a prosperous and revered nation among the league of the nations , if all the mollas are eliminated from every chunk of society . e.g the recent triumph of the pak cricket team signifies this fact as after a whole lot mollas influence decreased pak team geared for victory .
June 26th, 2009 at 0:41
Brilliant, Mr. Paracha, simply brilliant! Keep up the good work.
June 25th, 2009 at 23:32
I highly commend you for writing this eye opener. Our nation has seemed to forget the true teachings of religion and are instead in pursuit of a personality (Prophet Mohammed)instead of an entity (Allah.
Sure one can keep their religion and practise any way shape or form but one cannot impose their own version onto others.
True being muslim means to submit yourself. But in order to submit you have to commit. Same goes for the sports. The point author is making is that human beings flourish when they are comfortable in their own skin. In order to be patriot you do no thave to be religious. Or in the case of Pakistan a muslim.
June 25th, 2009 at 23:30
There is time to play & time to pray.Don’t
take religion with you while playing. I do not think God is interested in cricket, for that matter in any sport.
June 25th, 2009 at 23:27
Dear Nadeem;
I don’t believe the wish of removing religion from the realm of Pakistan cricket professionals is possible or even conducive as it goes against an important identity of this nation (those who seek a western secular model for Pakistan should really realize that they need to work with the reality of a religious identity of the majority.) Besides, why do we need to be defensive or simply try to mold ourselves to existing definitions of Professionalism? Leaders define their own paths. Couldn’t we be a little more visionary than simply rejecting religion completely given some legitimate issues you raise. Couldn’t we talk about how the strength of our character could raise the bar of professionalism and be exemplary to the world. Look at the global financial world – the darling of business professionalism – the Wall Street Firms have the rugs pulled under their feat. Islamic Finance is infact now getting global appreciation for its principled approach.
I will agree that we must first learn and be proud of an identity that is supposed to be a model for all. At the end this gets back to the core struggle of our identity crisis.
Islam is a beautiful religion that we need to take back in this country as it is not the domain of the half-baked religious scholars. We the educated class should at least familiarize ourselves with the one, authentic source – The Quran. At the minimum, this is what a professional approach to your question would expect!
May God’s Peace, mercy and blessings be upon you and this nation.
June 25th, 2009 at 23:18
Pakistani cricketers need to manifest professionalism- and I don’t care what route they take to conform to this as long as they keep it to the confines of their homes!
June 25th, 2009 at 22:48
Shahid Afridi prays five times a day, along with other members of the cricket team. Some of the head honcho’s of the cricket team have beards. Furthermore, Pakistan won this world cup WITHOUT Shoaib Akhtar, I believe that speaks volumes.
June 25th, 2009 at 22:31
Nadeem the only thing worth READING in this whole history was how militant Islam was organized against the Soviets and is now backfiring- plus that no organization religious or political should use the cricket team as its recruitment banner-the rest about how good players were when they were partying and secular and how bad when they were religious-ILLOGICAL!!!
June 25th, 2009 at 21:59
this is just illogical, attributing a win at a world cup to “receding influence of the jamaati’s”. What kind of message is the author trying to send out here? That it’s okay for cricketers to drink, womanize, and they’ll win the cup?
I don’t know if you people have realized yet, but the most of the Pakistani cricket team STILL prays five times a day! They do things most Pakistani’s are too lazy to do. Shahid Afridi still hasn’t shaved his small beard, he prays five times a day and his family is still very much conservative.
I do not see him with women or at parties. Neither do I see any of the other cricket players going overboard. furthermore, the Pakistani cricket team won this world cup without Shoaib Akhtar! That speaks volumes about what’s right and what it proves.
June 25th, 2009 at 21:32
What an interesting perspective! I am amazed at some of the comments here criticizing you for blaming religious exhibitionism for the Pakistani players’ dismal performance in the last decade. But that is exactly what the problem is. Let’s hope that there is a change in this trend and Pakistan is able to achieve its glory of the bygone days.
June 25th, 2009 at 21:26
Nadeem,
As always, I am in complete agreement. I was a big fan of Inzamam as a player but his over-display of religion was not right. Most people seem to forget that our country was founded as a secular country with a muslim majority where minority has equal rights. It is appalling to see what our country has turned into.
June 25th, 2009 at 20:57
Interesting conspiracy theory but badly put and full of inaccuracies. I would call this ‘misuse’ of data by the writer.
For example, YK being the captain ICC Champions Trophy instead of Inzimam (who was banned for forfeiting the Lord’s Test Match), He also failed to take into account how Shoaib and Muhammad Asif (the new bread of the flamboyant Pakistani cricketers club)were thrown out of the team after testing positive for drug test.
To keep things short and simple; drinking, clubbing and performing other rituals of ‘being secular’ doesn’t make you play good cricket, in fact it may cause a ‘Shoaib Akhtar’, focusing on being cool rather then working hard on your game.
Inzamam played good cricket and lead by example. A lot of cricketers who played under him are a part of the winning, seemingly ’secular’, cricket team.
June 25th, 2009 at 18:22
Excellent piece. This is so true in every sphere of the society not only cricket in Pakistan. Every organisation is plagued with this curse (extremism and fundamentalism).
June 25th, 2009 at 18:13
Professionalism is to find ethical or disciplined ways to serve an objective, and religion gives its own finesse … pecisely its application should SHOW in our professionalism.
I believe a true religiously pious person will be more focused, and virtuous of the objective given to him. Unfortunately, this bashing is because of how the muslims today comtemplate it.
We will drink liquor, but will not eat pork… We wouldn’t go to a brothel, but it is fine for them to marry an underage… We go begging to the world for aid, but spend 5000 bucks a night on our stay… Preach the audience to be carefull about energy spend, but tell our driver to switch on the A/C of an Audi Q7, 15 minutes prior to reaching it … We are poor and we need money, but we will have a large entourage of resources on PCBs board
.
Cheers to all these double standards which is causing our downfall in every field. It is the confusion within us which is now looking for dissections, NOT knowing who to actually blame … so we blame religion.
How about a female working as a CEO of a Western Company, and wearing a Head Scarf. Does that change the capabilities of that person? just so that it doesnt appease the others? But, if that same CEO is wearing a Mini Skirt, it is certainly professional???
My apologies to all other readers, but this difference is because of the confusion caused within our own mindset, and no cares about it in the West … they laugh at us!
June 25th, 2009 at 18:09
The author seems confused. He thinks drinking etc are the only routes to cricketing success. What irony that he is subscribing to the same kind of conspiracy theories (in reverse though) that he accuses the Islamists of fabricating.
However, I do agree that cricket and religion should be kept separate. It is offensive dishonest to mention God and religion in post-match ceremonies. Dishonest because no one really takes God into account when devising a match strategy. Imagine the Muslim response if the Indian team started mentioning Ram and Vishnu, or if the Australian team starting thanking Christ the “Son of God” at the post-match ceremonies.
June 25th, 2009 at 18:09
Let’s go along with the arguments Mr Paracha presents, and we have “secular, forwarding looking” heroes like Shoaib Akhter, Naseem Ashraf and PJ Mir.
Shoaib Akhter everybody knows was never a team man. Please see the statement of Geoff Lawson.
It was never a fight between a fundamentalist and a supposedly looking fast bowler. It was because captain’s insistence that Mr. Akhter should perform as team man and not as show man, and he should not choose when he will bowl and when he will not.
One hopes that Pakistani cricket has put the case of Mr. Akhter in the cold storage so that the Rawalpindi Express (that went nowhere) should take better care of his self.
Inzi played for Pakistan. When Inzi scored Pakistan won. Out of his 25 test centuries, Pakistan won 17 times. No other Pakistani cricketer has such mammoth contribution.
This loose cannon article also suggests with its references that from now onwards only “secular” players should be selected. It means that Mohmmad Yousaf has no place in the team, but to the horror of Mr Paracha, Yousaf is part of the team to Sri Lanka (he should better prepare another such article on the horrors of having Yousaf in the team).
June 25th, 2009 at 18:06
A terrible misinterpretation of the situation.The writer chooses to suggest that religion and religious paths led to the poor performances of Pakistan…. if anything Shahid Afridi who is the most religious and the most “Tablighi” was the star of Pakistan…. before religion the Pakistan cricketers were a bunch of clubbers and drunkards, still suffering from the hangover on the field…if anything religion made them focused !!!South Africa’s Hashim Amla is a brilliant example of this… your facts are definitely inaccurate.
June 25th, 2009 at 18:05
The article by NFP is well written . Sports and religion are two different things and an individual sportsman[crickter] must pracice religious duties if he is muslim but should not to do/utter things in public .While being a practising Muslim is one`s personal matter which he should continue nowever it should be not be a source of personal publicity. Will Pakistani public accept if Dhoni starts reciting ”hare ram hare krishna” while giving interview to a Pakistan chanhnel?
June 25th, 2009 at 17:59
Excellent article. it is true that Inzi´s era was more devastating where players were more moulvis than cricketers. In Inzi´s era players like Rana Naveed, Imran Farhat and Shoaib Malik etc also grew beards to remain in the team and now they are again clean shaved which is a proof that they were afraid of their place in team if they don´t involve in religious activities. To say prayer in the ground or in plane is more a show or Dikhawa than a prayer. They can easily say prayer in their rooms. But still likes of Kamran Akmal or Afridi following Inzi start talking with ´´Bismillah first of all thanks to Allah´´ in the post match ceremony. I want to ask how many times in their daily life they start talking with bismillah when they are talking to their friends or family members? Is it not just show or dikhawa told to do by thier tablighi moulvis. I remember yousuf after converting to Islam, once in the post match ceremony when he broke the record of Vivian Richards in 2006 said ´´because I say prayer five times that´s why I am making runs´´. Truly they were more focussed on preaching, but at least now we have a captain who is focussing only on cricket and keeping religion to every one´s personal matter.
June 25th, 2009 at 17:59
Good work. There should be a short version.
June 25th, 2009 at 17:56
Congrats to writer to take on this topic however I do not agree with approach taken by him. The issue as always is Islam is a relegion or way of life. If it is way of life then it should be part of cricket as well. Yes to determine how it is part of life in cricketer can be discussed but I can assure you that I would be ashamed of myself as Pakistani Muslim if I find my crickets drinking, clubbing.
June 25th, 2009 at 17:47
First MR Paracha should get his facts right. He says: “During the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy in India, Inzimam was taken to task by the former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Naseem Ashraf, for insisting on holding joint prayers with his team on the ground where they were having a training session. [29]” In 2006 Pakistani team in that tournament was led by Younus Khan, and not Inzimam.
June 25th, 2009 at 17:47
First MR Paracha should get his facts right. He says: “During the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy in India, Inzimam was taken to task by the former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Naseem Ashraf, for insisting on holding joint prayers with his team on the ground where they were having a training session. [29]” In 2006 Pakistani team was led by Younus Khan, and not Inzimam.
June 25th, 2009 at 17:42
Also, Samir continues …
\\During interview one of the interview with Imran Khan, he was asked whether religion was the main cause. He dimissed this idea as ludicrous. He said at one point when Pakistan used to win, religion was considered primarily cause. In the end he said people should stop blaming religious conservatism.//
This was a 55-yr-old, non-cricketing Imran talking, who had become a born-again. And we all know how awfully sucsseful he has been as a politician ever since. People of Pakistan are believers, but they aren’t stupid. A fact lost on Inzi too forgot.
June 25th, 2009 at 17:37
Samir says:
\\I guess probably match fixing started because of “lack of religion”\\
Samir Mian, If lack of religion was the reason for something bad, then an overdose of religion was something even worse: Exploitation, distortion, hippocracy and myopia.
Both Haqs, Ziual and Inzimaul are fine examples.
An accurate and insightful piece this, NFP. You’re on a roll.
June 25th, 2009 at 17:18
lengthy but good!
but one cant blame religion for what happened to the team. a person can take both things together at the same time. as mentioned by the author about shahid afridi’s links with the tablighi jamaat or whatsoever, but i guess he was the best performer all the way long in the team infact he was boasting up the morale of the team the whole time. I’m not in favour of the tablighi influence in the team nor am i against it. as long as a person is doing his job as a player and proving his worth, he has a place in the team regardless of faith and believes.
as to the post by Kash Hussain, i don’t see any harm in Inzimzm’s comment in thanking Allah in the first place!…infact it was a good act!…
June 25th, 2009 at 17:04
Yes it was Islamization that not only destroyed team but gave us bad image in the world.
NFP thanks for your service to the country.
June 25th, 2009 at 17:02
Interesting article, though it does make a number of generalisations such as equating all versions of Islamic display to radicalism. I do agree, however, that the team and the players had gone too far in exhibitionary behaviour of their religiousity. That should have been kept in the background and should not have been left to interfere with their professional conduct on the field.
On the other hand it should also be mentioned that players that had not seen anything outside of their own neighbourhood and / or village were suddenly exposed to the influence of western life styles after having been thrown in to the world of international cricket and many were unable to judge for themselves the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. Thus the allegations of rape, bribery and drug use against some players and reports of late night partying just before crucial games which destroyed their field performances and gave Pakistan a bad name.
One good thing to note in the new team is that they all look fit and well-kempt, whereas previously some players would not bother to shave or put up a neat appearance and some players were quite over weight. Another thing to note is that there is less focus on individuals and more on the team. We need more of this, the team is more important than the individuals.
The team also needs a language coach so that at least the captain can stand in front of the world and confidently explain his thinking or strategy in English instead of painfully stumbling through interviews. I do agree that English is not our mother tongue but Sri Lankans and Indians seem to do much better than us in this respect, which might suggest a generally better standard of education in those countries. It is ofcourse very important for the image of the team and of the country to have a confident person standing out there facing the press. We should be utilising these golden opportunities in front of the world media to present an image of the country different from the one we constantly see on our screens.
June 25th, 2009 at 16:58
I do agree with many of the points of this article, I don’t believe religion should be rammed down people’s throat or displayed to openly in a non-Muslim country, it certainly seemed that way in the cricket team under Inzaman. However the fact is the liberal Pakistani press felt more comfortable with the playboy cricketers of the pre-Inzaman era then the religious players. Look how this article refers to secularism as a progressive trend (’secular-progressive trends’) I bet the liberals cringed everytime the captain said ‘thanks to Allah’. I cringed too but only because Inzaman’s accent was heavy and he went on a bit before talking about the cricket. In the U.S. another openly religious country, sports personalities and tv stars regularly thank god and ‘Jesus’ for their success. The same liberal press were dismayed when their poster boy for a ’secular Pakistani team’ Yousaf Youhana became a Muslim. At the end of of the day I don’t need religious extremists telling me how to practice my religion but I don’t need the liberals sneering at me for being ‘backwards’ for practicing me religion.
June 25th, 2009 at 16:34
Good article indeed. Religion must be kept separate from professionalism, religion is part of one’s private life and need not put up as a poster!
June 25th, 2009 at 16:32
A useless article indeed. Is the writer suggesting that “western lifestyle, night life and drinking” were less of a distraction than “tablighi lifestyle”? Did the writer forget the good work done by Pakistani team under Inzamam esp. in the India and England series. Atleast we did not have infighting in the team that plagued us for so many years. The writer is promulgating a ’secular’ agenda, which does not prove that a team will perform better if it is more ’secular’ than religious.
June 25th, 2009 at 16:05
The author confuses Westernisation with development, modernisation with Western liberalism, and is generally confused.
He thinks liberalism can only be defined by the West, thus liberalism too is a monolith.
Such a confused and crass argument is one of the reasons for the intellectual paralysis we have in the Muslim World.
Its either, ” Let’s do everything the West does and more!”, or its, ”Let’s be against the West no matter what”.
Both are extremes and both are absolutely incoherent and to be frank utter rubbish.
June 25th, 2009 at 16:04
LOL! It is surprising author deride the conspiracy theorist like Zaid Hamid, but on other hand, he seem to be another irrational conspiracy theorist on another end. Blaming the bad performance on religion. I guess probably match fixing started because of “lack of religion” I wonder what is the rationale for it or probably author does not want to come out of his cocoon. I wonder what author say about Pakistan player using word like Inshallah and thank to Allah during the current T20 world cup or probably he even have a explanation about it.
During interview one of the interview with Imran Khan, he was asked whether religion was the main cause. He dimissed this idea as ludicrous. He said at one point when Pakistan used to win, religion was considered primarily cause. In the end he said people should stop blaming religious conservatism.
June 25th, 2009 at 16:03
Fabulous article.
I always loved your articles but a piece on my first love Cricket : It was just too good.
I am bowled over by the language and intensity of Pakistani cricket journalists like Osman Samiuddin . If I had words to correctly describe my emotions I would be writing myself.
June 25th, 2009 at 16:01
Finally, an insightful article that touches on unnecessary distractions caused due to political and religious leanings.
The aborted test match at Lord’s accelerated the decline and now we are witnessing the much needed correction and alignment to reality.
June 25th, 2009 at 15:52
In fact the most successful captain and the finest leader of men Pakistan cricket team has ever had Imran Khan was also the most flamboyant.
This not to advocate the playboy culture but to reinforce the point that religion should not be mixed with sports in fact religion shouldn’t be mixed with anything it makes for a dangerous cocktail.
Religion or faith should be practiced as an individual.
Shoaib Malik looked like a fool when he spoke those words “all the muslims across the world” , the indian team that day had Irfan and Yusuf Pathan playing what was he implying that deep in their hearts Irfan and Yusuf were feeling sorry for Pakistan.
English,Indian and South Africa all have Muslim players playing for them doesn’t that statement imply or question the integrity of these players when playing against Pakistan.
and What about Bangaldesh ??
June 25th, 2009 at 15:42
Very well written article by Mr. Paracha. From a cricketing prespective, it gives an idea that how the development of our cricket team was affected in this period. This “extremism” approach has become a part of our lives for some time now. So everyone of us has to try and eliminate this approach. Islam should be intrepreted in its true form….which is not forcing anyone in submission. We have to make our belief stronger rather than making others believe it…forcefully. If we can do this….I am sure that extremists hiding in Swat valley and Northern area will be defeated by our own people.
June 25th, 2009 at 15:31
Certainly not. It is foolish to link success or failure with TJ. I resolutely believe that a great success as in T20 2009 or a dismal failure of 2007 results from none other than team’s collective performance. The same time in 2007, India handed their match to the minnows, Bangladesh.If NFP is right always, then it would be wise for BCCI to decode Dhoni men’s failure with some evil hindu spirit maligning Indian cricket!
June 25th, 2009 at 15:09
I think this is an excellent article and sums up wonderfully what has happened in Pak cricket in the last 10 years. This over the top religiousity in post match comments is frankly absurd as I dont ever recall Mushtaq, Imran, Javed, Zaheer, Asif or Waseem ever starting a sentence “first of all thanks to allah”. It looks very contrived and trying to portray oneself as more religious than anyone else. I dont ever hear Ricky Ponting, MS Dhoni, or Ashraful ( a muslim) making so much a virtue of his speech mentioning God. IF WE ARE MUSLIMS WHY IS IT THAT WE HAVE TO TRY AND PROVE IT TO THE WHOLE WORLD WE ARE – FRANKLY NO ONE CARES
June 25th, 2009 at 14:26
wow..An excellent article!!!!
ive always felt that the team during inzamamz reign was falling victim to the creeping influence of fatalism induced by religion.
June 25th, 2009 at 14:07
The blog seems to loose focus due to its length !
June 25th, 2009 at 12:53
Brilliantly put, NFP. I agree that the team seemed lukewarm and distracted under Inzimaamul Haq and his Tablighi cohorts.
It was a huge mistake letting the Tablighis enter and get hold of the team.
And NFP has done well to reach the core of the problem that is directly linked to what was and is happening in the society. Didin’t know that Waqar too had a part to play in the drama. A drama I hope is as good as over.
A fantastic piece, NFP.