Karachi's precarious position on the cricket map

Once the murmurs started, there seemed a creeping inevitability about Karachi again missing out on international cricket. The announcement that the city will not host a Test match - and looks unlikely to host an ODI as well - during the England tour is one more nail in its cricketing coffin. And for the parties responsible for this scenario - the ECB and the PCB, Karachi cricketers, administrators and residents - there should be nothing but scorn.

The ECB's concerns about sending their team to Karachi were, from the beginning, shamefully vague. They agreed that their cricketers were not under direct threat; they only worried that they might get caught in the crossfire of the violence that they perceive permeates through the city. Karachi is a violent city. Jamaica is too and so is Johannesburg (where incidentally a couple of Pakistan players were assaulted once).

Should the next team to tour the West Indies raise concerns about being caught in the crossfire of Jamaica's gang-related violence? You could argue, at a stretch, that the violence of Moss Side in Manchester could conceivably constitute a threat to touring cricketers, particularly if a team from the subcontinent decides to visit nearby Rusholme to eat at one of the many curry houses run by British Asians in the area. Or even that the IRA bomb in Manchester's city centre in June 1996, when both Pakistan and India were touring, could have been a threat.

No specific threat has been cited. ECB officials refused to comment to the press here and the PCB, while speaking to Cricinfo, repeated that "nothing specific was said about concerns regarding Karachi."

It gets worse. The PCB proposed, as an alternative, that England play two back-to-back ODIs in Karachi instead. According to the PCB, "this will require a stay of five days in Karachi," whereas a Test match would require a stay of eight days. Given that random violence generally isn't bound by time spans (what's in three days?) and that the ECB would, according to a PCB official, "prefer to stay there, if at all, for as short a time as possible," it is unlikely that this alternative will be taken up either. Although the ECB have said they will consider this proposal and make a decision in ten days time, Karachiites shouldn't hold their breath.

Forget the ECB for a moment. At least they can claim their Foreign Office still considers Karachi no-go. What excuse can Karachi administrators and the PCB put together for their abominable role in this fiasco?

The negative publicity the city attracts is only worsened by its own. A couple of weeks ago, the city nazim (mayor) outrageously predicted that upcoming local elections would be bloody and that army security was needed for them. He might as well hand out guns instead of trying to verbally incite them.

Furthermore, not a single local cricketer, past or present, has made any statement in previous weeks supporting Karachi's cause. The local cricket association - the KCCA - has been conspicuous only by its complete indifference to events. Undoubtedly the coming days will see belated public condemnations from all concerned but did no one think to say anything beforehand? But even the KCCA has an excuse. They can argue, with justification, that their influence over local cricket affairs has been dramatically clipped by the PCB.

The buck gets off here: there is no excusing the PCB's spineless incompetence on this matter. At no time, from the ECB first expressing concerns, did the PCB display any inclination to push the case for Karachi. No one was reminded that even India, more at risk than any other country, played an ODI here. Or that Sri Lanka played a Test here last year without so much as batting an eyelid.

The PCB never asked the ECB exactly what the nature of their concern was. They didn't pursue this matter with the ICC and argue that since no specific threat is being cited, it is incumbent upon England to play there as suggested in the original itinerary. Did it not occur to them that the Karachi situation deserved priority over their puritanical pursuit of neutral umpires for ODIs at the annual ICC meeting?

But nowhere was this lack of spine better crystallised than in comments before they even held the meeting with the ECB - that the PCB were willing to swap the Test for a couple of ODIs. Even before negotiations began, the PCB accepted defeat and offered an alternative. They might as well have never suggested Karachi as a venue for all the effort they put into saving it as one. Would any other board have bent over with as much acquiescence?

As it is, Karachi feels a perceptible sense of marginalisation. Despite being the country's financial nerve centre, there is a feeling that the city suffers, generally, from a Punjab bias. In cricket, much the same regional friction exists. Whether the concerns are real or imagined is moot; the PCB's non-attempts in fighting for Karachi will have done nothing to assuage them.

Now the PCB has set a dangerous precedent that threatens to undo the one they set last year by getting India and Sri Lanka to play at Karachi. Then, we thought Karachi might regain acceptance. But now, there is nothing to stop India from refusing to play in Karachi, particularly as they tour right after England; or Australia, or South Africa or West Indies (who have all refused once before).

When will Karachi be considered safe again? When Pakistan stops being a front line ally in a potentially unending war against terror? When all violence is eradicated completely? When Osama bin Laden is captured? Or just when the PCB pulls its finger out and realises that Karachi, as rich with cricket heritage as any centre in the country, needs saving from extinction?