The Pakistan Cricket Board has finally decided to organise a dinner in Rawalpindi on April 12 to honour former skipper Waqar Younis.
The Burewala Bomber is due to formally announce his retirement from the game before the third and final Test against India at Rawalpindi.
PCB media manager Sami-ul-Hasan told rediff.com today that the board had decided to honour the legendary pace bowler. Younis will address a press conference in Rawalpindi at 4pm. Four hours later, the PCB will host a dinner in his honour, which will be attended, among others, by the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams.
The 32 year-old quick bowler, easily the best exponent of reverse swing, will bid farewell to a glittering 15 year career that he kicked off in Karachi in 1989 in the same Test as Sachin Tendulkar, then a 16 year-old prodigy. Tendulkar, who suffered a bloody nose in that series thanks to Younis, will also be at the dinner party to wish him well.
There was confusion about the farewell until this evening when the PCB finally decided to host a dinner in Younis's honour instead of just a press conference.
A source told rediff.com that PCB chief executive officer Ramiz Raja had earlier informed Younis that the board would only organise a press conference for him on account of the limited time available.
The PCB was reluctant to host a dinner for Younis for fear that it would draw flak from other stars like Wasim Akram, Saeed Anwar, and Aamir Sohail, who also retired recently but got no such honour.
A disgruntled Younis then told Raja that he would hold the press conference on his own in his hometown Lahore rather than travel all the way to Rawalpindi just for that.
This morning, PCB chairman Shahryar Khan, who was unaware of Raja's decision, told rediff.com that a fitting farewell would be organised for Younis in Rawalpindi. "He has been a great servant for Pakistan cricket and we will make sure he gets the kind of farewell he deserves," Khan said. "The details need to be worked out."
A flurry of phone calls later, the PCB had decided that it would host a dinner to celebrate Younis's services to Pakistan cricket.
Younis told rediff.com, "I haven't heard anything from the PCB ever since I arrived in Pakistan. I am waiting for them to get in touch with me."
A close confidant of the former captain revealed that he was unhappy that his farewell could not be organised in his hometown. With the function being held in the evening of April 12, Younis will have to rush back to New Delhi where he is part of an expert panel on the India-Pak cricket series for a television news channel. The final Test starts on April 13.
Hopefully, Younis's case will become a precedent for other greats who call it a day. When compared with the grand farewell Australia gave their skipper Steve Waugh in Sydney in January, it appears as if the subcontinent does not care enough for its heroes.
For a man who has taken 789 international wickets, was the youngest to reach 200 Test wickets, and the quickest to 200 one-day wickets, the least that the PCB could do is give him a farewell he deserves.
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