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Obsession with conspiracies
Cricket can also be seen as a
reflection of Pakistan’s obsession
with conspiracy theories. Generally,
conspiracies are those that inhibit
the fringes of a discourse. In
Pakistan, aided by the media and a
large illiterate population, the
conspiracy theory has come to
inhibit the centre of political
discourse. Resultantly, the greater
concerns such as suicide bombings
emerge as conspiracies, a work of
India, Israel or the USA (sometimes
all three!). Such conspiracies aid in
diverting the burden of preventing
terrorist attacks away from the police and
anti-terrorist forces. Similar accusations
were made imediately after the attack on
rd
the Sri Lankan team in Lahore on 3
March 2009. Now, the anti- terrorist forces
have proudly announced the capture of the
mastermind responsible for the attach on
Sri Lankan players and the home-based
‘Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’.
Non-political cricketing issues, as well,
have followed this pattern. Poor umpiring,
ball tampering, match- and spot-fixing have
been firmly viewed as a grand conspiracy
against Pakistani cricket. Unfortunately this
opinion is deeply ingrained and spouted as
an interpretation by both the Englishspeaking business man and the selfemployed fruit-seller. A complete lack of
self-reflection and the inability to conduct
remedial measures is what this seige
mentality has led to.
Changes
Pakistan and Pakistani cricket did not
always hold such a reputation. In the early
years of its existence, the success of
Pakistan in the region was unexpected.
Pakistan made remarkable economic
progress from the 1960’s, was an ally of the
West and as well as China, and served as
an economic role model for other countries
such as South Korea and the UAE! It was
under General Zia’s dictatorial rule that the
economic and political condition drastically
started to change. Though for cricket the
decade was very positive owing to the its
glamourous cricket team, which included
the likes of Zaheer Abbas, Majid Khan and
Asif Iqbal and of course the influenc