Re: After Woolmer…
Well we hope that Bob Woolmer continues after the 2007 World cup.
One thing to remember is that the cricket board in Pakistan is often associated with the ruling government. If we take the political climate and culture into account and if there is a new government than the chances are that new board will be appointed with their own chosen people. Whether they will continue with Bob Woolmer or replace him time will tell.
Pakistan was lucky to get someone of the calibre of Bob Woolmer to coach its cricket team. A lot of the foreign coaches have in the past been reluctant to take full time coaching assignment due to the instability and job security reasons.
There will be a time when the PCB will eventually need to replace him with another coach. It will not be easy task to replace him especially with some of his calibre and experience.
Don’t forget that PCB advertised for coaching positions for the National Cricket Academy and set out the requirements for these posts. I think they were not successful in their search. Therefore finding the right candidate as a coach of the national team will not be easy and not cheap either.
If we are to compete with the top cricketing nations than obviously we will need the right people and there are not many local coaches who have the experience and qualifications for such a position. Therefore the alternative is to look outside and obviously these foreign coach’s demand high salaries and if you want success than this will not come cheap.
Recently I posted another thread on Englands bowling coach requirements. Below are criteria set by the ECB for the post of England bowling coach:
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high-level fast bowlingcoaching experience
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a good knowledge of first-class and international cricket
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a minimum coaching qualification of ECB Level III international equivalent
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extensive experience of performance-analysis systems
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a detailed knowledge of bowling biomechanics
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/4643342.stm
The above are the requirements for one of the leading test playing nations. When people talk about bowling coach for Pakistanfor example - the names of Wasim & Waqar automatically come up? In order to compete with the likes of England and to keep pace with others - do any of the ex- Pakistani players meet any of the above requirements?
Mushtaq Ahmed is currently the bowling coach of Pakistan - I wonder if he was to apply for the England job - would he be considered??? More than likely No.
Here we are talking about bowling requirements and obviously the requirements of a head coach would be even higher.
There are plenty of critics of foreign coaches in Pakistan notably the likes of Javed Mianad and Aamir Sohail.
If we want local coaches than they should have the experience and qualifications and at present there are not many. The only Pakistani who has all the coaching qualifications is Wasim Raja and possibly Mushtaq Mohammed.
It is the responsibility of the PCB to take such initiates and plan for the future to ensure that we have the right and qualified people for the job .i.e. send them to England or Australia for coaching qualifications.
Its not about how good a player someone has been in the past that will necessarily make a good coach. Sports coaching is changing all the time with advent of latest coaching methods, training regimes, nutrition & diet understanding, introduction of psychology etc. We will need someone who has all round abilities and keeps pace with the new developments if we are to keep pace with the rest of major playing nations.
If we for any reason we do not get the right people for coaching positions than we may end up with people like Javed Miandad dancing and waving in the balcony. We certainly DO NOT need someone like him again in charge as a coach.
. That is the most important thing in Pak cricket, handling the politics. Next is people management skills, look at the difference of how our home grown local coaches have utilized players like Akhtar, Afridi Malik and how Woolmer has handled them. I don’t see many communication problems.