Victory and defeat are two facets of the game. A victory brings laurels to the country, boosts up morale of the players, raises their fighting spirit and delights the cricket lovers. A defeat sinks all these emotions in the sea of disappointment. The defeat is acceptable if a team suffers it after a relentless, honourable fight but a defeat that appears to be abject surrender is intolerable. The Pakistan cricket teams defeat at Sydney was third in a row during the tour down under and we offered victory to the opponents on a platter. It is a matter of great concern for the whole nation that the present set up of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) headed by Mr Ijaz Butt has been unable to raise standards of the national team. There was a time when other cricket teams of the world were scared of Pakistan. No longer. The country is ranked a lowly sixth in the world now and hardly has an impact on international cricket. A glance at the conduct and performance under the present administrators would indicate that under their watch, the team has brought nothing but disgrace for the nation. The present holocaust of our cricket has been due to total apathy of the board management. They did not seem to realize the fact that their present day lot of players comes from lower or middle class strata with little education. Their faculties of mind need to be developed alongside the body. This is an important function of the PCB that it has failed to perform. The players are 'psychological wrecks that are not lacking in cricketing talent but somehow seem to lose mental balance whenever pitched in a crisis. Rather than picking up courage and fighting back, they start shivering in their pants when they find a defeat staring in the face. Similarly, they also lose nerve when they see an unexpected prospect of victory writ on the wall. Often clueless about the technique, they tend to grab at victory, offering easy chances to their opponents as a present. I say if PCBs 'worthy coaches are incapable of training the boys in holding out at the crease, let us invite the good old Hanif Muhammad or Sunil Gavaskar to teach them the same. -RAFI NASIM, Lahore, January 13.