Yousuf – a case of religious discrimination

Yet again, Muhammad Yousuf has been dropped. He has not been selected for the Twenty20 Tournament in Canada. And guess what Shoaib Akhtar has been included in the team in spite of the fact that he has refused to pay the fine imposed on him and generally his overall conduct has been despicable over past few years.

PCB is spineless and continues to prove that it is an institution which thrives on cronyism and favouritism. Although this blog feels sorry for how Shoaib Akhtar’s career has unravelled, he does not deserve any favours. But he will continue to be selected as he continues to enjoy excellent relationship with the country’s ruling junta and will continue to be above the discipline of PCB.

Now back to the topic. The reason given by the PCB officials for not selecting Yousuf is so odd that it warrants a big laugh.. i.e. Canadian authorities have refused Yousuf a visa….. as if there are no bearded Canadian muslims.

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/story/372804.html

I think it warrants a clarification from Canadian consulate …. it is becoming a habit of PCB to spin the story and blame others for what it does itself.

It is clear that since Yousuf broke the world record of Sir Vivian Richards in 2006 by scoring the most test runs in one calendar year, some PCB officials are running a campaign against him especially since he wears a beard. They have almost made sure he is “stamped” as a test cricketer not worthy of one-day or 20twenty cricket and they are trying their utmost that he eventually retires from cricket. This campaign probably led Yousuf to sign up to ICL.

PCB has anyway systematically destroyed cricket in Pakistan. First by rolling out a dictatotrial constitution and then ensuring that Pakistan does not play credible international cricket. Pakistan has not played a major cricketing nation this year which is at best shameful for the cricket board officials. However they have neither got honour nor any character.  Not sure what the new PCB chief is going to achieve with the current state-of-affairs, probably it will be more of the same.

Let’s again revisit the latest one-day record from Pakistani cricketers (top ten run getters) from Cricinfo(www.cricinfo.org) (courtesy Statsguru) for the last two years (to ensure we capture only their current form):

  

With the highest average and highest runs scored in one-day cricket Pakistan played in the last two years, it is clear that Yousuf should be an automatic selection.

We will not share with you his test record.. as it will be too embarrassing for the corrupt PCB officials.

Readers be the judge… fair or unfair!!!!

Tailpiece:  It seems the Canadian High Commission has probably inadvertantly colluded with the PCB to do the injustice to Yousuf. What good his visa is, if it is granted now…

Read this excellent piece by the Cricinfo Pakistan editor:

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/can2020/content/story/373939.html