That was a time of the old Sharjah days – when each match would be attended by throngs – where hysteric crowds would cheer every shot, every ball from Pakistani players! That was also the time when every institution or businessman worth their salt would queue up to sponsor or reward our players. The post match ceremonies would resound with announcements such as “Falan Sahib kee taraf say Wa

That was a time of the old Sharjah days – when each match would be attended by throngs – where hysteric crowds would cheer every shot, every ball from Pakistani players!

That was also the time when every institution or businessman worth their salt would queue up to sponsor or reward our players.

The post match ceremonies would resound with announcements such as “Falan Sahib kee taraf say Wasim Akran kay liyay 2 Lakh ka inaam” - where sponsors would be major corporations vying with each other to appear one with Pakistani cricketers.

It was also a time when a trip to Sharjah for our cricketers meant a chance to make more money than they could imagine, to be famous.

There used to be a buzz in the city when the Pakistani team touched down at the airport.

That was then.

This is now.

The sponsor for the series in May against Australia was a company called “Chappel” and the current series between Pakistan and New Zealand is sponsored by “Cool and Cool” (and Bank Al Falah)! Anyone who is watching these games on TenSports in the MiddleEast would find it difficult for a team that has boasted the likes of Imran, Wasim Waqar to be associated with the sub standard ads for a company that makes hand sanitizers !

I am in no way ridiculing the contributions of these 2 sponsors – after all its their own money and many thanks to these benefactor of Pakistani cricket.

I am simply lamenting the downfall in worth of our cricketers in the eye of sponsors as marketable items. I would have wanted to see some of the major Pakistani corporates stepping up, not a small “mom and pop” type company who drew the short straw!

And it doesn’t stop there.

The pathetic nature of the prize giving ceremony where even our OWN players couldn’t be bothered to show up was an eye opener to me as well. However, what really got me was the amount of prize money.

For a “blah-dee-blah” shot to hit a board, Pakistans premier all rounder was presented with a large cheque of, guess what? 1000 Dirhams – That is 162 pounds or 272 US Dollars! I am not being silly here but in local terms, they would have been better off giving voucher for a nights stay at the Atlantis with Breakfast ! Do you now see why Pakistani players would love to make chai for Sharukh Khan in India than stand in front of Mr. Cool&Cool to receive 1000 Dirhams and a few hand sanitizers?

Also judging by the attendances of the game so far, even our crowds don’t feel the need to spend their hard earned money on tickets or to take time off for these games – they have better places to spend money and their vacation days.

So whats gone wrong and who is to blame?

In my view, the main culprits are the people who we entrust with guarding the gates, as it were, of our cricket grounds – the PCB.

I would have expected PCB to have flooded the airways with hype for this series but what did we see? Locally speaking, on this forum, we had a thread running about where to get tickets for these games. The responses to this thread were, “Oh Yeah, you can get it from this Pakistani restaurant or store” – no radio ads, no TV ads – not even on PCBs own Website ! No special offers from travel agents offering to take Pakistani fans to see their “home series” – NADA! Stunned silence as we all looked at each other and for PCB to tell us who would draw the short straw to sponsor the Pakistani Team !

If PCB are to organize these "home tours', they need to do better than that - just sitting on sponsor money from TV rights is not what this organization is meant to do. Its job is to nurture, safeguard and promote cricket - to do that it needs to think about not only its own pockets but the actual people of Pakistan who support this game and its players.

I leave you with this thought and something to ponder upon – what would have happened if Team India were playing in UAE?