The Tragedy of Pakistan

With due apologies to the soul of Shakespeare "Something is rotten in the State of Pakistani Cricket"

Some absurdly shocking (even by Pakistani standards) developments have taken place. Almost all the senior players have been punished in some way or the other for the "activities" in the disastrous tour of Australia.

Younis Khan & Mohammed Yousuf: Banned from playing international cricket indefinetely

Shoaib Malik & Rana Naved-ul-Hasan: Banned for 1 year

Shahid Afridi, Akmal Brothers (Kamran & Umar): On 6 month probation + fines.

I cant recall such drastic action being taken against so many players at one go since the match-fixing scandal. Match-fixing was a very serious issue and the players definetely had to be punished. But this time around action seems to have been taken for the sake of taking action. The reasons have not been been spelt out clearly. Indiscipline, match-fixing, ball tampering, feigning injury, lowering team morale are all rumoured to be behind all this. The PCB & its chairman are under fire with most people wanting the removal of Ijaz Butt for his lousy running of the board. 

Pakistan cricket certainly did not need this. They seem to have got a knack of being in the headlines for the wrong reasons. And, every time they find ways to sink to new lows. However all may not be over yet. There would certainly be appeals and courts would also come into picture. 

But one thing is for sure. The maverick cricketers that they are, I wont rule out Pakistan bouncing back from this fiasco.