Just like a Twenty20 match the play Stumped! lasted 80 minutes. In an hour and twenty minutes a T20 match explodes into action, the crash, bang and wallop format often provides some spellbinding action. Similarly, Stumped! started off at a breakneck speed, just like two informed openers trying to make the most of the power play overs, but soon tapered off like those boring middle overs of a One-Day International.
The start of the play was slightly misleading, the captain of the Qabristan team was seen to be focusing on a big day ahead, visualising his batting technique, shadow practising his stroke play. However, within minutes, without any transition he became a corrupt leader of the team who had fixed the World Cup final.
The captain tried to lure his rookie fast bowler towards match-fixing and explained to him how his team is set to lose on the big day against their arch-rivals. A cricket fan could see the shades of four former captains who were all sent packing from the game for the same offence; the character hovered around Hansie Cronje, Mohammad Azharuddin, Saleem Malik and Salman Butt.
All match-fixing investigations over the years have revealed the nexus between the captain and senior players, the highly promising fast bowler Sam was close to the description of Mohammad Aamir, who was at the peak of his prowess before the harrowing Lords fixing scandal emerged.
The captain we are told by the senior player Fani was struggling to score runs, Butt was in wretched form in the infamous England series in 2010 and perhaps the writer wanted to draw a parallel.
In the second half of the play, the Qabristan team emerged as winners of the World Cup. The young sensation Sam won his team the tournament with a six-wicket haul in the big match. The captain was exasperated at the results and after some antics he somehow realised that the opposition had also fixed the match hence his team coasted to a win (how he learns that we don’t know).
Sam who was rejoicing on his match-winning heroics slumps into despair at the realisation, and throughout the play the youngster is portrayed as an innocent character who is a mere pawn on the chess board. The character seems to be close to the general perception of Aamir; Pakistani cricket writers, journalists, former cricketers and fans at large have often sympathised with Aamir ever since the scandal brought his blooming career to a grinding halt.
The general consensus is that his seniors roped him in their ugly plans. Another interesting aspect of the otherwise drab presentation is exploring the threats that many cricketers face from the mafia that controls the betting markets around the world.
The play showed how in the past some leading cricketers from Pakistan and around the world received threats for apparent refusal to ‘cooperate’ with the mafia, the captain warned both the young and the senior player of dire consequences if they shun the script given by the fixers. In the years gone by, family members of some players were either abducted or harassed by the goons that are a part of various influential groups. The play met an unexpected end as the captain and the senior player addressed a press conference where they spoke about Sam’s mysterious death and how the loss crushed their spirit.
While the plot is gripping, the execution seems half-hearted. Stumped! tried hard to cover the malice of fixing in 80 minutes yet at times even the 80 minutes seem long and dragged. Many important details are skipped and the viewer is suddenly thrown into a new situation without a proper transition.
The play, originally written in English by Yusuf, has perhaps lost its sting in translation to Urdu, and it remains to be seen how it will be received in Kolkata’s drama festival that is set to take place soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 12th, 2014.
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