The
Cricket Column
After Working With King Kardar,
Others Look Like Slaves
By
Zafar Altaf
THE
ALL time great, Skipper Hafeez Kardar for his sheer abilities,
and these were not limited to cricket, left an indelible mark
on all that he survived and worked for.
A
tripos from Oxford he became Minister in ZAB’s government
in the province of Punjab. He was also the UNICEF chair of the
committee on racial discrimination and was to a great extent responsible
for the decency that emerged in cricket when South Africa and
Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, were made to give equal status
to cricketers irrespective of their color.
He
was also the Asst. Educational advisor to the Government of Pakistan
besides having done a stint in the education corp of the Pakistan
Air Force. He had also written books and later on organized group
82, which was a study group groping with issues pertinent to the
country. These were once a month seminars entirely organized and
funded by him. His unselfishness and his non-partisanship were
proverbial.
There
never was a case when you could have said that he favored his
own and did not give the deserving their due. Cricket was a prime
example of his true grit and I was fortunate to see it in him
as a cricketer, then as a colleague in the cricket board and later
as a fellow traveler as we were seeking the same objectives for
our country in our different roles, his political and mine bureaucratic.
His
arrogance was proverbial and one heard the statement oft repeated
by Englishmen ‘There that is Kardar’ and the other
would say but how do you know. The first one would reply ‘One
recognizes him by the tilt of his neck. I do not like him but
I respect him for what he has done for Pakistan cricket’.
His arrogance and his stance against authority had to be what
it was for he was a leader and this arrogance was born out of
leading the cricket team.
But
this was pure arrogance on issues not on egoism and personality
or shallow concepts of status. He believed, and rightly so, that
it is the mind that has to be superior. He was the first one in
the Punjab to resign his position as Minister of Industries because
he left the meeting called by Chief Minister Hanif Ramay after
waiting for 15 minutes for him. Ramay came very late and asked
Kardar as to why he did not wait. In reply Kardar stated that
his resignation is on the way. He always kept an undated one in
his pocket and all he did was give the date and send it to Ramay.
His
personality development as a cricketer was one aspect. His father
was known as Sain Baba for he was the only Muslim who believed
in and led the cooperative movement in Pakistan. With the sensitivities
developed in the family and the support of Mushtaq Ali the vice-captain
of the Indian Cricket Team to England, Kardar emerged as a singular
force. Mushtaq Ali was out of form and he suggested that he should
be left out of the test team and that this youngster Kardar should
be included. I asked Mushtaq Ali this in 1960 for we played Lala
Amarnath’s benefit match in Bombay. Mushtaq Ali confirmed
that he thought Kardar’s performance was outstanding and
that he should get a chance ahead of him even if he was the vice-captain
of the team.
Such
were the people manning and playing the game. Can you match this
for unselfish behavior? Whenever he came to see me and I was Deputy
Secretary at that time and he the Minister, he would roll his
flag and cover it. When some one asked him why he did this for
after all he was the Minister. He stated that he was visiting
a friend and that we stood on level ground. Try that on the current
egoistic lot. Try anything that I have stated so far on them.
Internalization
of the ethics of the game was one aspect. The other was the ability
to deal a fair deal to every one. To him a cricketer was supreme
and in that sense of the word. His letter and spirit were imbibed
from the game. When I mentioned to Sir Donald Bradman that Kardar
was coming to Australia to witness the test match he was excited.
He told me that on the 1948 tour [Bradman’s last] Kardar
played against the Australians for Warwickshire and that thanks
to the keeper who kept dropping him that he was able to survive
his attack.
Bradman
had a prodigious memory and in 1972 he could vividly recall the
events of 1948. My mind was filled with pride for here was the
doyen of cricket who could recall the President of the Pakistan
Cricket Board in such terms. We have fallen on bad times since
then.
What
does cricket create and what does it do to the personalities.
The evidence and analysis coming out of Kardar’s role is
that one has to be one’s own master and one has to do it
himself. It is a self reliant and a tenacious personality that
the game develops. It is not piggy bagging and that is why he
requested me to enquire from his son whether he wanted to play
cricket or go to Oxford. If Shahid chose Cricket he [Kardar] would
have no option but to step down.
Shahid
chose to go to Oxford in pursuit of higher education and what
a fine individual he has turned out to be. We are unashamed in
our parochial attitudes. Can any body say differently to a distant
relative what Skipper was able to do for his son? That is why
I have seen President Ayub run after him at the Australian match
for his ignorant remarks, that is why Fazlul Haq, Sher–i-Bengal,
sought forgiveness and that is why Gen. Zia could not cut any
ice with him.
His
mold was different and developed within a cricketing framework.
A framework that develops what it takes to be man. Imran Khan
is following the same route and one has extreme respect for his
talents and his ability. Where Imran has compromised is when he
sought the favors of the current lot. Skipper Kardar would never
compromise and never seek these favors. You could never tell him
to come no matter what the agenda unless he accepted the terms
that had to be on a level.
When
I was asked by him to take over the administrative position in
an honorary capacity I suggested that the board was bankrupt and
when we left eight years later every one was trying to get in
to the act. The desire of people to get to such positions, whether
they deserve it or not, is stupendous in this country and it is
visible in every aspect of the country’s life. I have status
and therefore I must be Socrates, Voltaire, Descartes, Einstein
and all the eminences that you can think of, all rolled in to
one and some capacity left over for something not conceived. That
is a national personality and it is visible by the din and the
noise that is being created.
What
was different between Kardar and the current lot is that he was
not only cricketing wise but also socially and mentally tuned
to the world. He had never had a cocooned life living in status.
To his cricketing exponential experience was added the knowledge
of and development of a nationalist spirit, visible from the evidence
that he was a member of all the conventions and conferences held
in England between 1946-7. Fiercely independent he sought independence
as fiercely and I have a document to that effect stating ‘Will
Pakistan survive’ dated 1946 and Skipper Kardar’s
note on it ‘Happy the nation that can call a few acres all
its own’.
From
these principles flowed his strength and his principles. He never
acquired any property outside and in fact lived out on extra income
that he earned from selling off ancestral property. His must be
a singular case of a man who went to the top in so many things
and yet ended up in a rented up stair house in Cavalry Ground.
Match that man. Fiercely Pakistani, fiercely independent, fiercely
a fighting man who believed in what he believed in. He gave you
the team that comprised of Islamia College, Government College
boys and he won against every country team that he played against.
His trust and tryst one with the players the other with the nation
was such.
Let’s
look at why our team is not doing just as well despite so much
of it. First the decisions are loaded. Cricket is a great leveler
and any one can remove the ‘C’ to understand that
one can get rickets if one does not behave. Secondly decisions
are to be removed from the self. Meaning thereby that the do not
bring in nepotism and favoritism for unintentional mistakes are
correctable loaded one’s are not. Thirdly believe in yourself.
If I was today handed over the charge, say hypothetically, of
a corp what would I do? I would lean heavily on others and I would
be as good or as bad as the part I am leaning on.
Now
that is indicative of what would happen to me. Throw well earned
money of the boys on your favorites, seek inferiority removal
through payment of huge sums to the racist white skins and look
who you got here-Tony Grieg where the PCB almost begged him for
advice and direction. Well Tiny [actually quite tall] Tony was
an ordinary player who changed loyalties for he loved the game
and we never thought much of him from the opposing side. One was
external to him the other was internal to him. Fair and square.
Then
we had Geoff Boycott, the Yorkshire man, whose ability to communicate
with his own team mates and his own near and dear one’s
was seen to be on the poor side. A great player and a perfectionist
but a loner. And his remarks about the sub-continent are still
with me. He stated amongst other things that he would not send
his mother-in-law to play in the sub-continent. He was asked to
coach Under-19 boys for 15 days for a hefty sum that I do not
know and maybe the board can clarify.
The
fault is not Geoff’s it is the decision maker and the heavies
that leaned on him that have to be questioned. Come to the World
Cup and see the spate of advice and see how the placation is taking
place. Pye-what becomes coach at a hefty sum and he carries on
from before. This must be some kind of a nasty joke played on
the country and the earning players. The banjar-qadeem
head had nothing on it and what is worse nothing inside. To him
football in the training session constituted fitness and in the
evening what is better than getting things going at the bar.
That
is his culture good and proper but why incite Pak boys into a
cultural conflict. Drinking was held out to be good for cricket
just as eye flashing exercises were started by him. Flash your
batch and the idiots who got you there. All that and much more
did not help. And all that music that was supposed to energize
the players into action -eyes closed- sort of a Buddha style meditation
Nirwana, was of no consequence.
I
tell you the decision of the board was what it was- words are
not enough. Here was a major tournament on and this was what was
being done. Fourthly the more the number of advisers the worse
the decisions. Why did they leave out Sami, Azhar Mahmood, in
all matches and Saqlain in crucial matches. Sami must have been
sent to press the trousers of the manager and the coach, Azhar
is a disaster for the story making the rounds is that the President
was unhappy with him because he was seen eating Paratthas
at Dubai. A parattha eater cannot be a cricketer. Just
as a muli-gajjar eater cannot be a cricketer but a Qila
Gujar Singh Dehi Bhalla man can be. The list is not exhausted.
Need
some more. But to get back to pulling wool over the eyes of the
public get the losing men to hold press conferences defending
the unholy acts and then get sacked. Remember the Manager’s
press conference and the captains, both before and after the world
cup. Both got unceremonious exit. So much for national service.
Look at the press statements of the minnows of the mind and see
their performance at the end of the tour. See the gaps between
them.
Come
back to the fierceness of Kardar and he was captaining us against
Richie Benaud’s all conquering team at Rawalpindi. The first
day at lunch time Sam Loxton [former Australian player manager-no
patch on the one’s we send] and, Richie Benaud and Neil
Harvey came to our dressing room [and that is a sacrosanct and
sacred place for the players] and said ‘Hafeez lets go for
Lunch’ and instead Hafeez let go at them. He was untying
his shoe laces and he looked around and said ‘who allowed
you into our dressing room can’t you see that I am busy
with my boys. I will eat with them’. You can imagine what
it did to the youngsters and all of us ranged between the ages
of 16 to 18 years. The white Gods could be told off. He was our
leader having impeccable faith in us. We gave the Australians
such a run for their money that they will remember all their lives.
That was what it took to play the game psychologically with sociological
tones.
Status
does not provide independent thought. Neither does servility and
knowledge acquisition on a shallow level. When the matters are
what they are it is better to leave and when one does not leave
it is because one has developed vested interests?
Has
the board developed vested interests? Are they afraid of the skeletons
that might emerge? Any one riding a high horse is to be questioned
these days and half gods have to go sooner or later. That is written
in the wind, my friend. It is as sure as night following the day.
In
the meantime the problems will keep on mounting. For complex situations
simplistic solutions do not work.
When
General Safdar Butt became President of the board he sent word
to me to become secretary of the board. My reply was simple ‘I
have worked with Skipper Kardar and you have no idea about the
game’. Later on I came to know him as a gentleman and he
kept reminding me of my response. But that did not help matters
because he was again advised by people who were as big a Satan,
the result conflict on the field and the stoppage of tours with
England [in the aftermath of the Gatting-Shakoor argument].
There
can be no let up for people who are fitted with a program that
is full of mens rea. Try putting in to the game rather than taking
things out of it and you might have a change of options. Paid
jobs do not make for passionate decisions? Try transcending thought
processes and doing something for the boys and the country and
not necessarily in that order. Try having a son and yet no son.
Try refusing your near and dear ones. Try the wisdom of the Orientals.
A slavery of the mind is much worse than the physical abuse we
had for over two centuries? And we continue with it despite 50
plus years of independence. Savvy.
The
writer, a former Test Cricketer of Pakistan, served as Chairman
Pakistan Cricket Board, Secretary Board, Chairman Selection Committee
and Manager Team
