Shahid Afridi - silence. Umar Gul - silence again. And the same cold lull was heard nine more times in the ballroom of Mumbais elite hotel a couple of days back, when the names of Pakistani cricketers were announced for the IPL-III auction.
But as they say, a prolonged silence often signals a storm. A storm that is now alarmingly visible in the global cricketing fraternity, and everywhere in Pakistan - from government to politics and even in the religious circles.
Blame the Indian government, the BCCI and the IPL as much as you would like but keeping emotions aside, there is a need to look into another angle, which had its share in the snubbing of Pakistani players at the auction.
One can blame the poor security situation for investors reluctance in Pakistan or in crickets case, foreign teams gracing the local grounds. But when it is about exporting the local products or services, which in this particular case happen to be the cricketers, Pakistan has often lagged behind in successful lobbying. The failure to merchandize Pakistani cricketers to the Indian government and their cricket bodies is indeed one major reason, for what is now being termed a
ational insult.
But this failure in image building is in fact sheer mismanagement of affairs and Pakistan needs to sharpen up on this aspect of trade and business, if it has to survive in todays competitive market dynamics. There is no denying that politics was the biggest influence in the IPL auction, but it could have been managed better by the PCB and the Foreign Office through better efforts at higher levels.
The sad part is that it wasn even the case of creating the market or making the buyers realize the potential of services on offer by Pakistani cricketers, but the lack of follow-up with the Indian counterparts led to the demise.
The dent caused to the already cold relations between the two nuclear nations couldn have been worse, as cricket diplomacy has been tried and tested successfully in the past between the two sides and any failure here invariably leads to the failure elsewhere.
The first stone has already been laid as Pakistan has called off its planned parliamentary delegations visit to India, which was shortly due, citing the exclusion of Pakistan players from the IPL-III. Gone with it are the hopes of any revival in Indo-Pak relations anytime soon, which can cause severe damage to the trade talks that were proceeding smoothly up until now. So much for the over-hyped Aman Ki Asha!.
There is, nonetheless, something to cheer about for the passionate Pakistani fans, as it is not the case of Pakistans loss being Indias gain. The tournament is all set to lose a huge audience both in India and Pakistan given the proven star value of these players. This, however, could be a serious blow to the local broadcaster who will now suffer huge losses in its ratings and advertisement earnings - as not many cricket fans would now turn on their TV sets.
For those who see the glass half full, there is still light some light at the end of the tunnel. The snubbing of Pakistan players could provide domestic cricketing community an opportunity to stage its own league. Admittedly, and quite possibly, it won be of the same stature as that of IPL, but it can still draw large audience in the cricket-starved nation.
Not only will it provide sizeable economic activity on a regular scale it will also be used as a stepping stone to lure foreign cricketers to Pakistan gradually. There is another exciting prospect to the idea that a market potentially nearly as big as Pakistan is there for the taking i.e. Bangladesh. It should be noticed that no Bangladeshi player is a part of IPL either, which presents PCB with a great chance of having its own league with a large audience.
Certainly, the timings of this could not have been better as people here at home have big appetite of the shortest version of the game, and for sure, the broadcasters, the sponsors and the advertisers should not hesitate pouring money in such a league. Bring on the PPL!
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.