A starring role for Ramiz Raja, a special appearance by Shahid Afridi, sackings, accusations – there’s nothing else we’d rather watch
Alan Gardner16-Jan-2023Sometimes, people just want to turn on the TV/engage their multiplatform streaming service and watch the old stuff. The shows where they know what’s coming and can quote all the lines. Just look at the enduring popularity of the being one of the most-watched things on Netflix. Basically, if it ain’t woke, don’t fix it.Which brings us to long-running, and hugely popular, subcontinental soap opera . Once primus inter pares in the dysfunctional board stakes, Pakistan’s administration had gradually become more and more vanilla. This was understandable – when you’re trying to get international teams to tour again after a decade, the how-to-lose-friends-and-alienate-people approach is better off shelved.Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan were emollient, capable types, while Imran Khan lurked in the background, bringing a frankly uncalled-for level of gravitas to the production – even if his high-handed approach did fit the overall vibe.Related
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But there were signs in the return of Ramiz Raja that could get back to its former heights. Resurrecting a much-loved character can go either way, but Ramiz dived into the role with gusto, taking to his YouTube channel to drop truth bombs when New Zealand and England pulled out of touring in 2021, and getting increasingly “method” in his approach to the Pakistani-Test-pitches storyline. Rumours he had taken to conducting all his business from the groundsman’s shed at the Gaddafi Stadium remain as yet unfounded.And Ramiz was at the heart of things as the show found its sweet spot once again – this time with a comeback for another old-school boardroom big beast in Najam Sethi. Light Roller readers will doubtless remember fondly the early Sethi years, when he formed a comedy two-hander with Zaka Ashraf, in which the two of them swapped in and out of the role of chairman every few months, like rival schoolboy gangs competing to sit on the back seat of the bus.This time, all the old numbers were rolled out, as Ramiz decried “political interference”, the new PCB honchos threatened legal action, and Sethi set about restoring an old version of the constitution. Plus, they raided the special-effects budget, with Sethi tweeting a slickly Photoshopped graphic comparing his record with those of Mani and Ramiz – a gloriously petty document in which he only just stopped short of describing them both as bad lovers and pygmies of masculinity.
Take a look at this table! https://t.co/Ysku87tJvf
— Najam Sethi (@najamsethi) December 31, 2022