Hafeez and Malik's recall clear sign of Misbah's confused mind.

Byline: Kamran Abbasi

I HEARD some news this week and I think I must be dreaming. As dreams go it isn't a happy one. I heard, now get this, that Pakistan just recalled Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik. For the national T20 team. In a World Cup year. I agree, this sounds utterly implausible. It can't be true. Finished, they were, in England last year. We heaved a hugely pleasant sigh of relief. We sniggered too, when our current commander in chief and past cricket captain, complained about railu kattas. That's it, we thought, railu kattas are done. Bye bye Mr Hafeez and Mr Malik.

But they aren't done, are they, these Houdinis of the selection process, these fat cats with ninety-nine lives, these non-first rank cricketers with first rank connections. Back to the bosom of their old captain, Misbah ul Haq, a man with the unprecedented double role of chairman of selectors and head coach, a double role that even Dilip Kumar would have turned down.

And that's the heart of the problem. You can't blame two blokes for being selected, even though they are never the type of cricketer Imran Khan would have chosen in his days as de facto chairman of selectors, even though their moribund international careers belong in a deep freeze, and even though they are thoroughly likeable. No, the blame lies with the chairman of selectors and the one man who might be able to dissuade him from this folly, in other words the head coach.

In the best dynamic, these two pivotal roles of chairman of selectors and head coach are filled by people with a common vision but who may see the world differently. Call it a creative tension. Call it two heads being better than one. Call it common sense, something both Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan are both known for.

But Pakistan cricket can do the strangest things to the most resolute of personalities. And it seems to have done just that with Mani and Khan. To blame Misbah for taking on two roles misses the point that the responsibility for that appointment sits squarely with the people who allowed it to happen.

Misbah may have overreached himself, misjudged the double role as badly as he misjudged his paddle sweep in the 2007 World T20 Final, but it was Khan's job to stop him. And if Khan got carried away, Mani had to step in. Neither man did. Instead of any creative tension, instead of Ram Aur Shyam, Misbah plays both parts the same way. Ram Aur Ram, as it were. Instead of two heads being better than one, Misbah is now the man with...