LAHORE, 1 June — With his gracefully graying temples, receding hairline, well-styled suit, Rolex gold watch and Havana cigar, he can easily pass off as the chairman of a highly successful trillion-dollar business enterprise.
Instead of being the quintessential military boss, Lt. Gen. Tauqir Zia, his handsome face bereft of the trademark mustache, is rather an anti-thesis of a corps commander in the Pakistan Army.
Yet he wears the beige army uniform with equal aplomb, and the tilted beret on his head and the firm gaze in his eyes give a clear indication that here is a man who means business.
His main business at the moment, apart from his army duties, is running the affairs of the Pakistan Cricket Board as its chairman.
He came to the helm of affairs at a crucial juncture in the PCB history when world cricket was in turmoil due to the match-fixing and bribery scandals. Pak cricketers were at the vortex of the storm, charged with allegations of taking and offering money to others to throw matches.
Gen. Zia also inherited an organization, which was very badly managed and required a total revamp.
In the year-and-a-half that he has been in-charge, he has tried to streamline matters and bring some army discipline and order into the running of the PCB. Chief Executive Gen. Pervez Musharraf was so impressed by his performance that he gave him a public pat on the back and said: “Well done.”
After talking to the general for five minutes, one gets the distinct impression that here is a man who is passionate about the game of cricket and has the best interests of Pak cricket at heart. The future of Pak cricket couldn’t be in safer hands.
Arab News interviewed Gen. Zia at his PCB office in the Qaddafi Stadium here recently. Here are excerpts from the interview:
What were your thoughts on being offered the chairmanship of the PCB ?
It came as a surprise. When they first contacted me, I suggested the name of Imran Khan for the position. But perhaps he was busy with his political activities, so they appointed Dr. Zafar Altaf. This time it came as a surprise but I accepted it since cricket has been a passion for me and I thought this would give me a chance to do something for the game. I had many thoughts and plans for cricket. The first person I contacted was Javed Miandad, (points to him), sitting here. I also met several other people. I had a plan in my mind which I have proposed as Vision 2005. Pakistan’s team should do well, cricket should flourish, and it must have values. This is my aim. How far I succeed in this, only time will tell.
Can you throw some light on Vision 2005?
In Vision 2005 which I proposed last year, there are both short- and long-term plans. In Pakistan cricket, there are many aspects which need to be improved. If you start at the school level, the standard in our time was much higher. Population was less and there were more grounds. With the increase in population and mushrooming of schools, schools’ cricket has vanished. Similarly in colleges, there used to be much keener competition and some matches were fought more like wars.
Club level cricket was quite good and we used to have summer league from which players used to emerge on the national scene. For all this we need an infrastructure. The district bodies or city associations which run cricket, which is an expensive game, do not have the resources to do a proper job. The PCB must have a role in that. There are too many cricketers; some are very good and some not so good. Some of them have good jobs whereas others don’t. The PCB is not utilizing their expertise.  Then there are others who are associated with the game like umpires. What are the facilities provided to them? Why is it that Pakistani umpires haven’t made a name for themselves in the world?
Now come to coaches. You look at any game and you find that we are dependent on foreign coaches. You should have a system whereby you have your own coaches trained at the top level so that other countries ask you for coaches rather than you asking them.
Then there is the problem of nutrition and physical fitness of the players all over Pakistan. Science has been making rapid progress. We have to find out whether we have kept pace with the latest developments since we have to compete with some of the most developed countries.
A big problem with the Pakistan team is injuries to players. It is not so bad with India even though they are like us in many ways. The facts tell their own story. In the last one year, Pakistani players left the field 287 times due to injury as compared to three Australians and four South Africans. This means there is a big difference between your physical fitness and theirs. This needs to be corrected.
There is a lot of money in cricket. I feel some of it should go to charity so that our poor brethren can benefit through the game.
What plans do you have to nurture talent and to groom potential players?
With the help of McDonald’s we want to start two nurseries - one in Lahore and one in Karachi. That will be for boys from seven to 12 years. Then we are going to establish five or six academies, regional academies and a national academy. The concept of the national academy is that it will have two teams. The first will be the Pakistan A team which will consist of players who can replace anyone in the Pakistan team. For every batsman and bowler, there will be two substitutes ready so that if anyone gets injured, we don’t have to go hunting for replacements.
The second team will have players under-19 and even younger so that their talent can be nurtured and groomed.
Regional academies will have the best available players in every region. Now these players can be interchanged. If someone is not doing well in the national academy, he can be sent back to the regional academy. Similarly someone performing well at a regional academy can be pushed up to the national academy.
Another aspect is that some of the players are not highly educated. We want to provide them with some basic training like how to eat, if there are ladies present then how to behave. We also want to teach some basic English, how to handle the media and how to deal with a lot of money and fame at a young age of 18 or 19 years.
All this is included in my Vision 2005 for short- and long-term planning. Work on this has already begun. How we implement this or those who come after us implement this, we have to give a system.
What kind of relationship have you had with the media?
I have discovered that handling the media depends mainly on how you handle it and on your personal relationship with people. I have seen in the last year and a quarter that my too much involvement with the media has been harmful. I suffered on a personal level and I have not been as successful as I had wanted. The handling of the media should be organized in such a way that everybody is happy. I am not saying that everybody should write good about you but what I am interested in is that everybody should write objectively about cricket.
What are your plans to generate revenue?
We are trying to rope in as many sponsors as we can so that not only the PCB but also the players benefit. In India, Tendulkar makes 100 million rupees. I want that our players should earn at least 10 million if not 100 million so that he will not indulge into any misdeeds.
You talked about talent in the country. Why is it that youngsters like Hassan Raza, Muhammad Waseem and others who do well and even score a century on debut, entirely vanish from the scene?
Let me clarify another point which is related with your question. It is about our pitches. First of all we don’t have any experts on pitches. What we have are basically groundsmen. None of them can be called a curator. We have invited an expert Kidson Bias so that he can prepare our pitches along the lines of those in Australia, England and South Africa.
When you play on home pitches, a batsman can score a century, spinners may take wickets and a fast bowler if he is very good, will be successful. When you go abroad you start having problems. These boys who do well at home, don’t succeed when given a second chance abroad. We, and perhaps the officials before us, are also to blame because we didn’t give enough opportunity to the players and removed them after just one failure. A player should be given at least 10 chances and even after that if a player does not do well, then you are justified in dropping him. If you have identified talent in Hassan Raza then he should be given a good number of chances. If he has potential then that potential should not be wasted. Apart from Raza, Waseem, Muhammad Akram, Shabbir Ahmad, Bazid Khan and Muhammad Zahid are some of the talented players with whom justice has not been done. But I have included them in the national academy and from here it is up to them to make a comeback.
As for talent in the country, 30,000 came for under-15 trials, 17,000 for the under-17 trials. But where is the quality? You cannot have quality unless you have technique, your pitches are sporting and the selection system in your associations and clubs is fair. When Geoffrey Boycott came here he was surprised at the poor technique of the players. We are 20 years behind others. If we have to improve, then we must assemble the potential players at a place for six months and keep correcting their technique by making videos and by showing them where they are making mistakes. We hope to do this at our academies but the results will not be immediate. We can achieve something only in the next four or five years. We are fortunate that people are hardworking and they want to play cricket.
What are your views on match-fixing?
It is a curse for the game. For someone like me, it generates hatred toward cricket. You don’t feel like watching the game even on TV. In the last year and a half, the CBI and Justice Qayyum reports and the Hansie Cronje affair, they all indicate that people are involved otherwise such reports would not have come. Paul Condon’s report says that match-fixing is still going on. Now how much truth is in all this? It is impossible to catch anyone since there is no proof. So we keep looking at our players suspiciously. If people have the moral courage, they should come out in the open and say that I have taken money and such and such other player has also taken so much money. Otherwise I personally feel that people should keep their mouth shut. Cricket is a game by chance and unexpected results come all the time. It depends how mentally strong you are. We have so many suggestions to combat this menace. We are looking at them. Things like take away their mobile phones, don’t allow any contacts and make them sign a bond etc etc. Now how much all this will be helpful, only time will tell. In spite of all this, if they say that bribery persists, then it means that you cannot eradicate this menace. If you can’t remove it, then live with it.
What is the problem of playing with India?
First of all, India should know what their problem is. We have no problem with playing against India from cricketing point of view. We have always supported exchange of cricketing visits. If their government does not allow the board to play against Pakistan, then they have their own reasons. I don’t want to go into that. As far as their board is concerned, I have been dealing with them for the last one and a half years, they definitely want to play cricket with Pakistan. There is no doubt about that. But the government is the supreme authority which will tell you against whom you can play or cannot play. Our stand has always been that cricket should not be mixed with politics. Especially when you are taking part in other games. Their volleyball team recently played in Pakistan. Also they play regularly against each other in hockey and squash.
Why is cricket being singled out? May be because there is greater involvement of people. There is a lot of money but anyway the fact remains that we want to play against India. Now if India does not want to play against Pakistan, then we are not going to go on our knees and beg that we do want to play against India. If they don’t want to play, then we also don’t want to play against them. It is as simple as that. But basically the decision has to come from the governments of Pakistan and India as to what has to be done.
Why have you hired coaches from abroad? Are there no coaches in Pakistan?
There are three qualified coaches in Pakistan. Shahid Mahboob, Wasim Hassan Raja and Khan Muhammad. They all reside in England. They are not ready to come to Pakistan. In Pakistan there is no level one qualified coaches. Level two coaches are there - Jalaluddin and Iqbal Sikandar. The PCB has sent them abroad at its expense to do an advanced course. We hired coaches like Javed Miandad in the past. They are not qualified but coach the team on the basis of their experience. We have many former cricketers who are untrained. If these cricketers do some coaching courses and become coaches, then they will be very useful. But there are some who are only former cricketers and are coaching teams. John Wright is one example. He is coaching India and has proved himself to be a successful coach. How that has happened and whether the home ground had anything to do with the success, we will have to see if India does well abroad. But in the short-term he has been successful.
How much freedom does your selection committee have in picking the national team?
The selection committee in my opinion has total freedom. Then I have an advisory council of three technocrats, people of high caliber, one of whom has played 124 Tests, another has played 67 Tests and so on. Now the selection committee comes here and discusses the team. The five people sitting there discuss the team. Since Moin Khan’s performance was not up to the mark, we are picking Rashid Latif or Atiquz Zaman or whoever. Now through discussion you have to sort this out. If they can’t come to a decision, then who has the veto power? It is the chairman of the PCB because ultimately he is overall responsible for the team’s performance.
Who is your all time favorite cricketer?
(Again points to him and says) Javed Miandad.
And favorite team, as a lover and follower of the game? Don’t say Pakistan since it is your own team.
Of course, Pakistan is my own team so it will always be my favorite. Otherwise, I would say the Australians are the best. I like the Australians. Their mental and physical approach to the game is fantastic. They are hard-core professionals.