Reforming the sporting structure.

A colleague of mine, who is still too young to have been jaded about Pakistan Cricket, was distraught after Pakistan's abysmal performance in the New Zealand series. In the throes of youthful idealism, he kept hoping for a cricketing miracle till the last ball had been bowled. All the prayers, the heartache, all of the energies spent screaming at the television screen, could not turn the fortunes around. His predicament reminded me of a story I heard some time back: A Priest and a Rabbi become friends, and decide to learn about each other. Together, they go to watch a boxing match where, just as the match was about to start, one of the boxers knelt in the corner, and made a cross on his chest to seek divine protection. The Rabbi turns to the Priest and asks, 'What does that mean?' The Priest replies, 'It doesn't mean a thing, if the young man doesn't know how to box!'

Pakistan's embarrassing performance in foreign cricketing tours has once again reminded us of the deplorable state of sports in our country. While other (first-rate) cricketing nations have moved on to modern methods of training, fitness and strategy, Pakistan is still trying to find a pair of batsmen who will stick around at the crease for the duration of the game.

It is easy to dismiss Pakistan's loss with oft-repeated notions of 'we have always had terrible batsmen', or 'bowling should have performed better', or 'just bad shot selection on the day'. Instead, let us all muster the courage to say (out loud) the truth that is apparent in our hearts: Pakistan Cricket suffers from a crisis of confidence, discipline and fitness. And none of these issues, i.e. 'confidence', 'discipline', and 'fitness', have anything to do with the amount of talent that a player has. Instead, these qualities emanate from lack of training, bad team management and abysmal domestic cricketing culture in Pakistan.

There was, back in the day, a time when 'raw talent' was enough to compete at the international level. And Pakistan-for all its follies-has produced dazzling cricketing talent in our past. But we no longer live in a time when talent alone, without proper training and management, can compete at the international stage. In the modern cricketing world, talent must be polished and disciplined, purposefully, through a rigorous domestic cricketing structure, before it can perform at the international level. And our domestic cricketing structure is in shambles.

To begin with, it is hard to explain...