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Pakistan cricket will overcome their latest tryst with controversy, thanks to their ‘forgiving’ nature

Growing up in Delhi, one phrase pretty much summed up our fatalistic way of life. Everything was koi baat nahin, a philosophy that basically says, life is a mess, but bash on regardless.

Koi baat nahin if you step on someone’s toes, drove over them, or split them wide open with an axe. Naturally, one grew up thinking that was how the world was. But a few visits in any direction proved also that this was a very north Indian trait.

Then I got to Pakistan, and realised that koi baat nahin isn’t just an Indian phenomenon. Here too, the phrase is licence for doing pretty much everything, starting from wrong bills at hotels to wrong hotels (thanks to the auto or taxi driver). Even in cricket, it is koi baat nahin.

Pakistan cricket has been wracked by controversies for as long as one can remember.

Between ball tampering and match-fixing, all Pakistani players worth their salt have sometime or the other been named suspects, and a few have been found guilty.

“Well, I can’t say if these players are actually guilty,” says a former India cricketer, on condition of anonymity. “But look at it this way — if you are approached by a bookie and told, bowl one no-ball, and you will be richer by £50,000. Then, a fellow cricketer, a senior in the team, who is present during the conversation, says ‘only one ball, nothing will happen to the match. Koi baat nahin.’ Now you tell me, isn’t this an offer you can’t refuse?”

Fair point, particularly when it comes to young players like Mohammad Aamer, especially if he has the ‘blessings’ of seniors like captain Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif.

Now, kids like Aamer are prime targets. For one, they are young, and their advisors are as mentioned above. Then, he is one of the best in the business, which is also good for the bookie business. Thirdly, he comes from a moderate background, and for him to succumb is almost inevitable.

“As you know, we in the sub-continent have always converted our dollars and pounds into local currency. So can you imagine how much £ 50,000, or any such figure, is in Pakistani rupees? It is mind-boggling. For one no-ball!”

But is that enough? Is there no fear of losing out on the best thing that happened to you? Not really, if you have the blessings of the board.

The Pakistan Cricket Board is a strange organisation. Players are caught consuming drugs on some beach in the West Indies, koi baat nahin; they are caught in fixing plots, again the same adage, with minor adjustments. Asif was held with drugs in the United Arab Emirates, and got away thanks to a lot of cricket diplomacy. But he is still playing, while he should have been in jail. Surely, some PCB official must have patted him on the shoulder after he was let off by the UAE authorities and said soothingly, “koi baat nahin”.

Even now, the PCB says there isn’t enough evidence to put some heat on the players, who are flashed over  every medium available, wearing broad smiles. Some officious bloke must have patted them on their shoulders again and said, “you will not be punished. Koi baat nahin.”

Apparently, Butt has invested Rs 3 crore in a house, courtesy his IPL deal with Kolkata Knight Riders, which fell through due to the political scramble. So now he needs money, and is also captain of the Pakistan Test side. There you have it, motive and opportunity. If Aamer has to bowl a no-ball on Ball X of Over Y, then he has to be bowling Over Y, correct? So who decides that? The captain.

But if PCB is to be believed, there isn’t enough evidence. Or maybe, like our own home-grown fixing investigations, there are way too big names involved for it to be either transparent or fair. Pakistan cricket will overcome this too. They have their own blase fashion of claiming that all is well. Aamer will play again, maybe even Asif. Butt on the other hand, may be in for some trouble. But he won’t be much of a loss to the team anyway. So all in all, koi baat nahin. n

[Jaideep Ghosh is a New Delhi-based freelance writer]