Pakistan lost to Australia at Lord's by 150 runs. Shahid Afridi, picked by Mr Ijaz Butt as the saving grace, a captain with fortitude, resilience, leadership qualities and an epitome of conviction surrendered tamely, quitting Test cricket, leaving his battalion unattended and hapless amidst a pitched battle. To some of the erudite critiques, Afridi's decision in the present environment, having been coerced into accepting Test team's captaincy is rational, and they also preach that it is the wisest thing he has done in his fourteen years as an international cricketer.

Equally disgraceful has been the wagon wheel of team's captains, six in two years, showing the growing instability and anachronism of the Chairman of the PCB and his age-long friend Yawar Saeed, the self-imposed champion of management. As reports emanate from the United Kingdom, to save their burning fingers and the blackened torsos, often ill-advised or self-advised Mr. Butt is contemplating recalling now the retired Mohammad Yousuf to the fray. Such turnabouts, retractions and rebuttals have become the disreputable trademarks of Mr. Butt. The shamelessness and lack of remorse now make us believe that after Salman Butt we are only left with Kamran Akmal to replace him by the time we reach the middle of the four match Test series against England?

I am afraid not only the brazenness and Pakistan's paucity of taking home the advantage at Lord's also reflects poorly on Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed, as coaches they aren't really worthy of imbibing in their top-order batsmen the 'fragmentation or dividing theory' of chasing huge totals. With Pakistan at one stage 152-2 and 186-3 likes of Salman Butt, Umar Amin, Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal should have realized that Pakistan required 254 runs more to win in over five sessions of play left in the Test. Why couldn't they plan 45 to 50 runs per session and particularly where the pitch being not a minefield and Australia's bowling was just sedentary? Why couldn't they play scoring two to three runs an over rather than to be holing in the deep at mid-wicket or directing one to slips or being unbalanced on legs to be stumped off a part timer Marcus North. Simply, barring Salman Butt, rest of the lot presumably didn't have the attitude and ability to execute unerring and perfect defence.

What's wrong with Pakistan Cricket? Self-interest, inability, incapacity, inadequacy, lack of planning and sincerity, double-standards, hypocrisy, resistance to change and the ineptness to evolve reasonable bench-strength plus intellectual dishonesty are the few factors that impede the Pakistani game? There have been chairmen running the PCB having tremendous respect for theory, theories farfetched and made by arm chair conceptualisers, articulate but academically not so sound lacking the pragmatism of creativity and methodisation.

I have been writing on cricket for twenty years and as part of the Pakistan team, the PCB and also as a freelance correspondent I have seen cricket practically all over the world and I have been witness to it growing, reaching heights, reigning supreme, slipping to mediocrity and picking up, recuperating more often. Ironically, with Butt in power, it has swirled into a bottomless pit and has been truly trounced and hatchet into a billion smithereens. It hasn't reached a low rather it has ended; it is dead. I feel pity on the successor of Mr. Butt, whosoever he would be, and I think he wouldn't be able to decipher the incapacity and unwillingness of his predecessor, lack of vision and policymaking to add some balance to the already deadened cricket structure, productivity and its development.

I wonder often as to why we are unable to strive for equity and egalitarian premises in policy. Pakistan, at the moment has massive paucity of sensible administrators and it is the policy makers that are blind and deaf. They do not see and they do not listen. They are unable to understand the implications of plans or decisions initiated at the behest of the tyrannical one-man shows likes of Butt. Butt, due to his insensate decisions not only mocked but has also seen a jump in destruction of Pakistan cricket unstinted by any of his acts. His has been a selfish tenure. There are no exceptions, if Pakistan cricket has to resurge then the Patron of the PCB Mr Asif Ali Zardari has to counter the quickly diminishing cricket, its integrity and the periled future.

The only remedy at the moment is to immediately replace Butt with someone who has the energy, panache, courage, dedication, futuristic mindset, capacity to absorb the changing demands, a man with diplomatic skills, communicative and the one who understands the mechanics and intriguingly intricate politics of the Pakistani game. Cricket in Pakistan has been badly mauled. The solutions are no longer simple. Pakistan has lost many opportunities because of the kind of priorities people like Butt have propounded.

The philosophy of Butt has been very simple, joyriding and preserving self-interest, controlling power brutally and also the ablest of this 72-year-old gentleman has served the power base and has refused to argue what to speak of taking up cudgels with the power block. It has been a life in servility for those who have only nodded their heads and refused to take up the battle for the game, in its real essence. To him, life of comfortable servitude is enough. Foreign visits are preferred to local work and tours to the hinterland. Can Pakistan cricket get out of the morass? Why not comes to mind? The resources of the PCB are enough for this purpose, if Mr. Butt's incomprehensible budgetary does not continue? There is a need for getting suspicious characters out of the way in policy and implementation matters. They talk too much and deliver nothing. They are also articulate and believe in intrigue and servile manoeuvres. The collective psyche of the PCB and its allied institutions has gone a bit wild.

Ijaz Butt's rhetoric that Pakistan cricket is progressing and that there wasn't much validity in the criticism against him is just a fast track defenceless defence that the nosedive which cricket has taken and by not only the manifestations but also the mean and capricious behaviour of his regime. PCB's current top tier shouldn't be taken seriously and is a farce and ideally most of them should be hauled up for intellectual corruption and if they say they aren't wrong they should be sent to the asylum?

When Mohsin Khan was appointed as a chief selector, one was very delighted because in his first press-conference as a selection head, he assured that there would be no unfair selections and that he would not be biased, pressurised or influenced by anybody while picking the national team.

However, taking a look into selection affairs now, there is a growing disbelief at how simple it was for him to lie, to convince the nation that he was the man who will at last stand up for top performers on the domestic circuit.

That has not happened since the chief selector has been dreadful in his selection of both the Pakistan team for their lengthy tour of England and the 'A' side's sojourn of Sri Lanka.

First, he excluded seasoned middle-order batsman Faisal Iqbal, leading fast bowler Mohammad Sami, wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed and opener Khurram Manzoor from the Pakistan team for no reason at all. While, both Naved Yaseen and Asad Shafiq were not even considered in spite of scoring more than 1250 runs each in the recently concluded domestic season, another talented batsman Aamer Sajjad was also ignored.

It was expected that both Faisal and Sarfaraz would at least be a part of the 'A' team but they were snubbed there as well. Several questions arise on the credibility of selection as frontline players are left in wilderness without any clarification by the board or the selectors.

Mohammad Sami made an excellent comeback to Test cricket when he was recalled on the tour of Australia. He rocked the Australian top-order and would have been an asset in English conditions but selectors thought otherwise.

Moreover, energetic wicket-keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who has been a reliable deputy to Kamran Akmal, has been overlooked by the selectors for both the senior and the 'A' team tours.

Rashid Latif, possibly one of the best wicketkeepers to play the game proposed Sarfaraz's name to PCB, when he conducted a coaching programme to assess the best stumper in the country at the first-class level. Even Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist have tipped Sarfaraz as a bright star for the future.

Sarfaraz was the best wicketkeeper in the premier Pentangular Cup and averages 44 in first-class cricket. But he was still not good enough for the national selectors.

Kamran Akmal, in the meantime, remains pretty erratic. Ask Danish Kaneria and he will tell you that he could have had at least seventy more wickets than his present number of scalps had Kamran not been behind the stumps.

In addition to that, Faisal Iqbal who has always had limited opportunities throughout his career, too was banished from the team.

Khurram Manzoor, meanwhile, scored a defiant 77 in his last innings against the Aussies in Hobart. Only Salman Butt was able to score more than 77 at Lord's and yet Khurram was deemed not good enough!

While Umar Amin and Azhar Ali were both below-par in the domestic season, scoring 512 and 445 runs respectively, Asad Shafiq and Naved Yaseen had both scored much more.

To save his blushes, Mohsin named Naved Yaseen, Asad Shafiq and Khurram Manzoor in Pakistan 'A' which is merely a consolation for players who should have been there in England instead of Azhar Ali and Umar Amin.

Moving onto the 'A' team, players like Ahmed Said, Umair Khan, Mohammad Ayub, Anwar Ali and Javed Mansoor found themselves out of the tour of Sri Lanka in spite of performing exceptionally in the first-class season.

In spite of having two Test players and a One-day International player in the A team, the Pakistan under-19 team captain was given the job of leading the team.

Naeem Anjum was selected ahead of Ahmed Said who finished as best wicketkeeper respective in domestic season while Javed Mansoor was not far behind.

Talented all-rounder Anwar Ali, a winning member of the 2006 under-19 World Cup, was also left out in cold.

Umair Khan and Mohammad Ayub both scored 950 runs in the domestic season and yet, instead of them, Azeem Ghumman and Abid Ali were rewarded for scoring 332 and 794 runs.

The reason for putting all the blame on the shoulders of the chief selector is that other selection committee members are being treated as dummy selectors which include Mohammad Ilyas, Azhar Khan, Saleem Jaffar, Asif Baloch and Farrukh Zaman.

And just like many others, Mohsin Khan comes acoss as a weak gentleman as he hardly looks to have any power of his own. If he had been a man of real character and courage, he would never have compromised on selection for the sake of his job and meeting of selection committee should have been in his room rather than Yawar Saeed's room. It's time that Mohsin stop taking dictation from Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman. If he can't do that, then the former Test batsman should resign from the post. He isn't doing much justice with it.