Ijaz Butt was a dependable batsman and more than capable wicketkeeper who made his Test debut against West Indies in 1958-59 as an opener, scoring 41 not out in a ten-wicket win…

This is how the current Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman's brief profile describes his career as a young and budding cricketer in the fifties.

Almost half a century later, things have changed drastically for Butt. He has been running Pakistan cricket since last October when President Asif Ali Zardai – the Board's chief patron – appointed him as the PCB chairman.

Ask ex-Senator Enver Baig – the PCB's chief critic – and he will tell you that "Butt is not running Pakistan cricket, he is ruining it. He is neither dependable nor capable and we would be big fools if he is allowed to continue as our cricket boss".

While Baig, who was an active member of the Senate's previous committee on sports, has a tendency of becoming harsh at times, not many would disagree with him over the fact that Butt doesn't seem to be the right man for the job.

Those who appointed him as the PCB chief believed that Butt has the credentials to run Pakistan cricket in a professional manner.

He is an ex-Test player who served as the secretary of the then Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan between 1984 and 1988. He was also the president of the Lahore City Cricket Association. Butt toured Australia in 1982-83 Pakistan's manager and served as the chief selector twice.

However, Butt has been unable to justify his appointment as Pakistan's cricket boss so far.

He has failed to prove himself as the sort of inspirational and imaginative leader, Pakistan cricket so desperately needs in the current circumstances.

'The News on Sunday' underlines ten reasons why Butt has failed as PCB chief.

Old is not gold,

at least not in his case

At the ripe old age of 71, Ijaz Butt doesn't seem to have the perfect physical and mental strength that is needed to deal with the tough challenges facing Pakistan cricket. It's an enormous task even for a person, who has all the qualities that makes one a great leader.

When his name was floating as a possible successor to Nasim Ashraf last fall, some of the ex-PCB officials predicted a complete disaster for Pakistan cricket if Butt was asked to take over. "The man has gone senile," one of the senior PCB officials told this correspondent at that time. "He will tell you something during a meeting and then flatly deny saying it a little later," the official had explained.

It later became clear that those comments weren't entirely untrue.

Times are tough and we need a 'wartime consiglieri'

In Godfather, Don Corleoni removed Tom Hagen as his chief adviser when it was time to battle against rival mafia gangs because he was not a 'wartime consiglieri'.

President Asif Zardari -- PCB's chief patron -- should also look for a competent individual who is capable of running Pakistan cricket in a professional manner. Butt may be an ex-cricketer, an experienced administrator and a well-connected man, but he is far from the sort of PCB chief Pakistan cricket needs at the moment. In the first seven months of his stint, he has failed on so many fronts to be allowed to continue.

What the PCB needs is a chief who has the will and qualities to pick up the pieces. He should have the sort of vision needed to rejuvenate Pakistan cricket because things cannot be allowed to go on like the way they are. Our cricket is going through a serious turmoil and with Butt at helm, the future seems to be bleaker.

Too much controversy is not a good thing

Soon after taking over as PCB chief, Butt has attracted one controversy after the other. He sacked lowly-paid PCB employees with the promise that he is trying to bring down ballooning costs to run Pakistan cricket. In the meantime, he continued to hire senior executive at fat salaries. Some of them were either friends or relatives.

When confronted by the Senate's sports committee on these issues, Butt was unable to come out with proper answers. He had a war of words with senators. He was later described by some of the committee members as an official who is incapable of running Pakistan cricket. Those members advised the government to sack Butt and bring about sweeping changes in the PCB.

Lack of consistency and

too many U-turns

Ijaz Butt has continued from where his predecessor -- Nasim Ashraf -- left as far as U-turns are concerned. Just days after taking over as PCB chief, Butt announced that he would like Geoff Lawson, the former Pakistan coach, to continue only to sack him a couple of days later.

He initially showed a soft corner for Pakistan's Indian Cricket League (ICL) rebels and then toughened his stance against them later.

Butt roped in Javed Miandad, the former Pakistan captain, as PCB's director-general and promised him to make his number two. Just weeks later Miandad decided to quit blaming that Butt was unwilling to share power. Butt, on the other hand, said that Miandad stepped down because the Board was unwilling to pay him the sort of salary asked by the legendary batsman. He ruled out the possibility of recalling Miandad only to hire him against as the Board's DG a few weeks later.

He got the job because of his political connections?

Almost everybody who knows a little about Pakistan cricket, suspects that Butt got the job because of his political connections and not without reason. People believe that a powerful minister in the cabinet, who happens to be Butt's relative, got him the job. It's true that most of the past PCB chiefs came to power because of their connections. But just because it has happened in the past doesn't make it right.

He doesn't have what it takes to help avert a crisis

Pakistan cricket is currently in neck-deep crisis. The PCB chief lacks the diplomatic skills needed to pull Pakistan out of the mess where it is currently stuck. What Pakistan cricket needs is intense lobbying and confidence-building measures. Pakistan has become the pariah of world cricket and though it's not entirely Butt's fault, the PCB boss has to take part of the blame. He has done little to bridge the gap between Pakistan and other major Test-playing nations. He has failed to even take everyone on board at home and remains a controversial figure in the national cricket community.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link

Similarly a leader is only as good as the weakest member of his team. Butt has many such weak links. Some might even argue that he himself is the weakest link of them all. PCB had already been turned into a white elephant before Butt took over but he has done little to achieve a turn-around. The team he has formed around him in the PCB hardly inspire any confidence. Most of them are aging men who have already played their innings or are not suitable for the job.

His failure to deal with criticism

When Ijaz Butt took over as the PCB chairman, he promised to keep everything in the Board completely transparent. Butt said that he and other senior PCB officials will hide nothing from the media or the public and will always be ready for any scrutiny. He has failed to keep that promise. The PCB, under him, has shown little tolerance for criticism and openness is nowadays one of the qualities it lacks completely.

He doesn't even have a proper game plan

When a team is down in a match, the only way that it can stage a comeback is by making and implementing an effective game plan. Has Ijaz Butt and his team devised any such plan? If there is any such thing then its the Board's most well-kept secret!

The PCB chief is taking our cricket nowhere

In the end one is compelled to state, and not without a lot of sadness, that under Ijaz Butt, Pakistan cricket seems to be going nowhere.

It is highly unlikely that any top team will visit Pakistan in the next couple of years because of the security situation.

The PCB may think that it has found an ideal solution in the form of neutral options like Dubai and Abu Dhabi -- the two venues for the ongoing one-day series between Pakistan and Australia. But there could be serious repercussions of such a move.

Already, a whispering campaign has started raising suspicions over the possibility of the menace of match-fixing rearing its ugly head in UAE. Sharjah was once labeled by many as the match-fixing capital of the cricket world and one would ask whether the PCB can give any guarantees that these problems will not resurface if it shifts its base to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The game of volleyball, originally called "mintonette", was invented in 1895 by William G Morgan, an American educator, four years after the invention of basketball. Morgan, a graduate of the Springfield College of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), designed the game to be a combination of basketball, baseball, tennis and handball.

However, the sport was brought to the sub-continent in 1900. In undivided India the game was included in the National Games held in Lahore in 1936.

After partition, Pakistan conducted its first National Games in Karachi in 1948 which were inaugurated by the founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Sindh emerged as the first national champions in volleyball. In 1955, Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) was shaped in a bid to look after the sprouting game in a professional manner. Pakistan had good proud days in early sixties and then from 1989 to 1993. In 1961, Pakistan won the three-nation Morgan International Volleyball tournament after they defeated Japan, the top team of that era in Asia, in the final with a 3-2 margin at Karachi. The other team in the tournament was Indonesia.

In 1962 Pakistan added another feather to its achievements when the Greenshirts returned from the fourth Asian Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia, with a bronze medal.

Then for the next 26 years Pakistan did not impress on the international circuit mainly because of the lack of planning from the authorities. The insufficient infrastructure also impeded Pakistanís growth in the field. The country was good in outdoor volleyball but it used to face problems in indoor competitions. Moreover, a steady growth of the countries in the Asian belt had made the things difficult for the Pakistani team which was deprived of concrete financial support from the government.

After almost two and a half decades of hibernation, suddenly the national team rose, and it was in 1989 when Pakistan finished fourth in the Asian Championship in Korea. The same year, the country also claimed its first gold medal in the third South Asian Games held in Islamabad. Then in the 1990's Beijing's Asian Games Pakistan once again remained impressive finishing fifth in the event. In 1993, Pakistan clinched the gold medal, their second one, in the sixth South Asian Games conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh. But after these few happy years, the decline began once again and it lasted till 2006-07.

The authorities received a massive jolt when after claiming bronze medal in the 10th South Asian Games held in Colombo in August 2006, the team was not allowed to feature in the 2006 Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar. In 2007, Pakistan brought in Bulgarian coach Stefan G Dimitrov, who had an impressive but brief stint with the team and though he was unable to bring the side onto the victory podium in the Asian Central Zone Volleyball Championship held in Islamabad in June 2007 the team finished fourth which created a hope for a bright future.

In July-August in Culcutta under Dimitrov Pakistan claimed third position in the Commonwealth Championship. During these days, Pakistan played a drawn eight-match series against India under the Bulgarian coach.

But Dimitrov left his job due to political instability in the country the same year and he was succeeded by the Iranian coach Ali Reza Moameri in March 2008.

Under him, Pakistan won the first ever bronze medal in the Asian Junior Volleyball Championship's 26-year history in Iran last year by beating countries like Australia and Japan with impressive margins.

In late January this year, Pakistan's senior team qualified for the second round of the 2010 FIVB World Menís Volleyball Championship Qualifiers after it topped the Group B competitions in Islamabad. Bangladesh, Maldives and Macau were the other teams in the group.

Now, Pakistan would face Iran, India and Saudi Arabia/Qatar in the second round to be held in Iran from May 25- 27. The coach is optimistic that his boys have enormous potential and there are sufficient chances that the team would make it to the third round which would be held in China and Japan.

"We are going to Thailand in the first week of May for a few matches which will help us prepare well ahead of the second round. The competitions in the second round would not be that easy but Pakistan has the potential to spring surprises. I have made special planning for India and if we defeat them in the opener then we will make our chances bright to advance," Moameri said.

Moameri is also impressed with the talent in Pakistan but wants a broad base and more international exposure for the senior team to achieve a respectable standing at the Asian level.

"In Iran a team is selected from a pool of 400 boys while in Pakistan we have to form the team from 30 players. Pakistan need to thicken its base and it could be done only through the involvement of educational institutions. If the boys from six to seven and 16 to 17 years of age are engaged in volleyball Pakistan would be able to build up a good nursery for the future and I believe that the country would turn out to be a force in Asia within five years," he said.

But a top official of the PVF depicts the current picture of volleyball in the country in a different way.

"Though we have not that broad a base which should be, still we have sufficient players on the bench and the situation is not that precarious. We are always fighting against economic crunch and whenever we get any financial support from the government we start producing good results. We have in our belt the teams like India and Iran who are spending exorbitant money on volleyball. In Iran a foreign coach is given around 7000 dollars and even their clubs have hired foreign coaches. The same is the case with India. But still our performance against them is not that weak," said PVF chairman Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob.

"Currently our standard is going up and we are in better position to bring medals at the Asian level but we need generous financial assistance from the government to realize our dreams. In order to overcome the weaknesses of the team it needs sufficient international exposure which could only be given through sufficient resources. I have told the federal sports minister that Pakistan are in better position to give breakthrough at the Asian level but it needs the governmentís support," he stressed.

"Through a talent hunt programme, we have got few very good young and tall players from different centres of the country and most of them are being given chances at international level and I am hopeful that Pakistan would one day emerge as a strong force in Asia," Yaqoob hoped.

Undoubtedly, Pakistan have great potential in volleyball but there is the need of long term and consistent planning to kiss the milestone in Asia. The players' weak points need to be corrected through qualified coaches when they are in their initial stages of their careers. We have around 60 qualified coaches but unfortunately majority of them donít have their own teams and that is why they lack practical experience. In order to broaden the base the authorities should establish academies at regional level and the foreign coach should be given the responsibility to run them with the coordination of home grown coaches.

Volleyball has been the most competitive game and unless we provide ample international exposure to our team we will not be able to produce encouraging results. Not 12 or 15 matches, but around 50 to 60 international matches in a calendar year would be required if the authorities want to raise the standard of the team.

Alam Zeb Safi is a staffer at

The News, Karachi

After giving a detailed story of the inaugural edition of the Asia Cup hockey tournament in our previous edition, we are back with the details of the next two editions of the biennial edition of the event. Pakistan won them both to complete a hat-trick of titles.

SECOND ASIA CUP 1985 AT DHAKA

At that time, Pakistan virtually ruled the world of hockey with all the major titles, the World Cup, the Olympics, the Asian Games and the Asia Cup in its possession. Led by Haneef Khan, after the retirement of Manzoor Hussain Jr, the Pakistan squad was more or less the same which had helped it to its third Olympic gold at Los Angeles in 1984.

Abdul Waheed Khan, the team manager in 1978, the Asian games and Champions Trophy, was assigned the job again.

Though Pakistan won all its pool matches but apart from its 16-0 demolition of minnows Iran, its performance was far from satisfactory. Pakistan defeated China and Japan by 2-0 apiece while hosts Bangladesh gave them a real fright, conceding the match by a solitary goal.

Hasan Sardar found form with five goals as Pakistan stepped up the gear in the semifinals, trouncing South Korea 7-0. On the other, the other finalists India had won all their games more convincingly, by a margin of at least three goals. In the semi-final also, India annihilated Japan 9-1.

So an epic battle was expected in the final and that is how it turned out to be. In an overflowing stadium which gave Pakistan vociferous support, the match was reminiscent of vintage Asian style hockey. After the stipulated 70 minutes, it was tied at 1-1, skipper Haneef being Pakistanís scorer.

During extra time, a titanic battle was witnessed. Pakistan went ahead through right-in Mushtaq Ahmad. It is pertinent to mention that the golden goals rule was not in vogue those days. India immediately equalized through a captivating combined move. Once again it fell to right-out Kalimullah to score the winning goal towards the fag end, as he had done against Germany in the final of the 1984 Olympics.

The Indian team vehemently protested against the goal, claiming Kaleemullah's stick had come from over the shoulder. A few of them got so infuriated that they physically beat up the Japanese umpire. The umpire eventually had to be carried on a stretcher.

As a result, five Indian players were banned initially for an indefinite period but later for varying periods of time while the Indian teamís manager and coach were banned for one year each.

Pakistanís top scorer was once again centre-forward Hasan Sardar (10 goals) but for once he was not the overall top scorer of the tournament. That honour went to Indian forward M Naeem with 12 goals.

Rankings: 1st Pakistan, 2nd India, 3rd South Korea, 4th Japan, 5th Malaysia, 6th Bangladesh, 7th China, 8th Sri Lanka, 9th Singapore, 10th Iran.

The Pakistan team:

Goalkeepers: Shahid Ali Khan and M.Anwar

Full-backs- Qasim Zia, Nasir Ali and Tauqueer Dar.

Half-backs- Rasheedul Hasan, Ayaz Ahmad, Naeem Akhtar and Ishtiaq Ahmad

Forwards- Kaleemullah Khan, Mushtaq Ahmad, Hasan Sardar, Haneef Khan, Khalid Hameed, Saleem Sherwani and Mahmood Hussain.

Captain: Haneef Khan

Manager: Abdul Waheed Khan

Pakistanís goal scorers: Hasan Sardar 10, Haneef Khan 8, Kaleemullah 5, Mushtaq Ahmad 5, Khalid Hameed, Rahseedul Hasan and Naeem Akhtar one each.

THIRD ASIA CUP 1989 AT NEW DELHI

After Pakistan and Bangladesh, it was yet another South Asian country which played host. When the previous version was held in 1985, Pakistan were the undisputed kings of the hockey world with all the titles in their bag. But by 1989, Pakistan had surrendered all those titles except the Asia Cup itself! So the retention of the Asia cup was of paramount importance to Pakistan. Not only to halt the giving in of the crowns but also to boost the image of the national team just before the 7th World Cup scheduled for Lahore in a couple of months time.

With only seven teams competing, Pakistan had to play just two matches prior to the semi-final: Japan was defeated 2-0 and Malaysia 4-1. In the semi-final against South Korea, Pakistan played irresponsible and clumsy hockey in the first half to let the opponent score two goals.

The Greenshirts however redeemed themselves in the second half and looked altogether a different side. Playing the possession game with vintage sub-continental short passing, they completely dominated the Koreans. Both the Korean goals were neutralized by penalty corner conversions from Khalid Basheer and (now late) Qazi Mohib.

The encounter entered extra-time and skipper Qazi Mohib scored another penalty corner goal to put Pakistan ahead for the first time. But the super-fit Koreans equalized to take the match into the nerve-wrecking penalty-strokes session.

Mansoor Ahmad, the Pakistani goalie who was not so impressive in the match, raised his game, stopping first four Korean penalty strokes to enable Pakistan to reach the final.

From the other corner, India had progressed to the final without conceding a single goal, easily overcoming Japan 3-0 in the semis.

Adding to the home advantage, the Indians had another psychological edge: they had destroyed the same South Koreans 5-0 in the pool game, who had given such a fright to Pakistan.

The not so big Shivaji stadium was bursting at the seams. The crowd was not only supporting India vociferously but also showed hostility to the Pakistan team. The match had to be stopped on a few occasions when Pakistani players were pelted with stones.

Regardless, the two giants of Asian hockey displayed a magnificent and competitive show.

Pakistan drew first blood when the greatest forward of that era, Shahbaz Ahmad scored with an angular carpet shot from the top of the Dee. In the second half, India got a golden opportunity to equalize when they were awarded a penalty stroke. RP Singh was able to deceive Mansoor, who dived the wrong way but Pakistan escaped as the ball hit the side pole! Centre-forward Arif Bhopali took the issue beyond India by doubling the lead through an opportunistic strike.

Hence Pakistan completed the hat-trick of lifting the Asia Cup by winning all the first three editions.

Rankings:

1st Pakistan, 2nd India, 3rd South Korea, 4th Japan, 5th China, 6th Malaysia, 7th Bangladesh.

Pakistan team:

Goalkeepers: Mansoor Ahmad and Shahid Ali Khan

Full-backs-Qazi Mohib, Khalid Basheer and Rana Mujahid

Half-backs- Anjum Saeed, Farhat Khan, K.M.Junaid and Naeem Amjad.

Forwards- Qamar Ibrahim, Tahir Zaman, Arif Bhopali, Shahbaz Ahmad, Waseem Feroze, Zahid Shareef and Qasim Khan.

Captain-Qazi Mohib

Manager-Islahuddin

Pakistanís goal scorers: Khalid Basheer 3, Qazi Mohib 2, Shahbaz Ahmad 2, Arif Bhopali 2, Qamar Ibrahim and Anjum Saeed one each.

Ijaz Chaudhry is a freelance sports journalist

ijaz62@hotmail.com