Cricket mania

Many consider cricket less of a sport and more of an event that wastes public time and interferes with everyday life. Commuters face a rough time. Traffic remains jammed for hours. In Lahore, one side of the Mall Road remains blocked for ordinary traffic with police guarding every road turn to ensure the safety of the team. Is it a sport or a test case for the patience of citizens who have no interest in this whatsoever?

The residents living in the neighbourhood of the stadium are forced to remain confined to their homes because of the road barricades.

Cricket has a large management – call it a bureaucratic setup, with its chairman enjoying the grandeur and importance.

As time passed, new names were given to the cricket teams within the country – part of the Pakistan Super League. When Multan Sultans is facing Lahore Qalandars in the Gaddafi Stadium, the roads leading to the stadium are blocked. With the stadium located in the middle of the city, the residents living nearby suffer the most when the Sultans and the Qalandars take a joyride from their luxury hotel to the stadium and back. Even the ambulances with hooting sirens suffer.

Some weeks ago, returning after seeing a doctor, I had to wait for an hour on Ferozepur Road as the teams were on their way to the stadium. If a main traffic artery is blocked, traffic jams occur on adjoining roads. Good luck to the Sultans and Qalandars!

The national cricket team has been suffering from lacklustre performance. The most embarrassing moment arrived when it lost to the American cricket team, even though the US had never been known for having a reliable cricket team. The Pakistani team lost to the US in the T20 World Cup match held in Texas. There were many comments. One such comment was passed by a former PCB chairman who took to X and wrote: 'Aik aur American saazish kaamyaab! Wasn’t calling the humiliating defeat saazish a conspiracy by itself?'

Despite the poor performance of the national cricket team, its salaries are unbelievable. The team enjoys different tiers of salaries. For instance, it is rumoured that the superstars in the top tier take home salaries amounting to Rs4.5 million. Add to it the boost from the International Cricket Council and the total salary would come up to a lot. Life couldn’t be any better for this group of men who have little performance to be proud of.

But why ignore other sports – hockey, for instance? For many years, it had been our national sport and Pakistan established its name in the international arena in this sport. Holding hockey or football matches is far cheaper than cricket matches. Almost the same number of players are involved more actively in hockey and football than in cricket. In cricket, two players of one team occupy the pitch for batting while the rest of them sit and wait outside for their turn. Comparatively, in hockey and football, all 22 players are equally involved in the sport, as the excited spectators sit and watch them.

It would be a good idea to relocate the cricketing stadium at a distance from the city, along with living accommodation for the teams. Cricket enthusiasts would not mind traveling to watch the event. It would also help set up a new city that could be named after a cricket hero. Al least, those not interested in the game would then be spared the traffic chaos and commotion.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore. He can be reached at: pinecity@gmail.com