The former Australia paceman spoke in detail of his targets as Pakistan coach and how he plans to improve the team’s attitude to hard work and preparation.
Former Australia fast bowler Geoff Lawson, who played Test from 1981 to 1989, was one of the fastest bowlers of his era and led the attack along with Craig McDermott in the eighties. Now his challenge is to transform Pakistan’s fortunes and turn a talented side into a hard-working, disciplined and, ultimately, successful team. He spoke with Bigstarcricket.
Geoff, how would you review your first six months in the job? Had a good start at the Twenty20 but you’ve had a couple of tough Test series since.
For four months it’s been practice, play and travel. I think we only had two days off in that time. And one of those days was the day after the Twenty20 World Cup final. When you are preparing for games all the time you are not working on things like changing of attitudes and it doesn’t allow you to work on other sides of the game. I am trying to make Pakistan more consistent. We are not going to win every game but the reason why Australia play so well is that even if they are 4-0 up they are trying their hardest to make it 5-0. There is still a hunger to give their best.
How have you found the cultural and language difficulties?
I wouldn’t call them difficulties. There are many coaches in world football where their players speak all sorts of languages so I’m fortunate in that at least my team speaks one language and most have a decent grasp of English. There are all kinds of ways to get the message across. In terms of the culture I am learning to enjoy a different culture. It’s not as bad a place as is often made out by people who have never been there. The hospitality in the country is fantastic. As for the state of emergency, life goes on.
You toured Pakistan in 1982-83 as a player so how have your expectations about Pakistan changed in that time?
The country has changed quite a lot since then, when I played here. In those days it was a difficult place to come to, to play because hotels were not up to scratch and grounds and facilities were also poor. But now hotels are good and the grounds have great facilities. It’s now a much more comfortable place to play cricket. It’s a much more modern country now.
How would you describe your coaching style? I hear you are laid back and leave them to their own devices a lot, probably trusting them to do the right thing.
I’m laid back in that I don’t do much with them, I just don’t rate team talks and I am not one for giving big speeches. Although we have team meetings where players all have written themes to take away and work on, I prefer to speak to players individually. Different players have a different understanding of English also so it’s better to be clear that each player is sure of his job. The bottom line is that they are all adults, I am not their teacher. They need to be responsible and think for themselves and I expect mature responses. This is a long-term plan for them to produce consistently good performances.
Am I right in detecting that you feel not enough Pakistan players have the required motivation?
It’s not how I would go about my game or most Australians, it’s different. They need to be motivated on a long-term basis, not just for short spells. They need to know that everything they do as individuals has an impact on the team. They practice hard on days when they have to but if they want to be the best in the world and match Australia they have to improve these aspects of their game. Every practice session for Australia has a match-day intensity and this is reflected in games.
I suppose this mental attitude that you are trying to instil in the Pakistan team was one of the reasons why you were hired?
It’s called the Australian mentality but really it’s just a matter of being tough and doing the training and the hard work every day. Australian cricketers have been like this for the last ten to 15 years. That’s how I played the game and our captain Allan Border was the same, a man who led by example and would play with broken fingers. Any of the best teams in the world in any sport will have similar attitudes to hard work. If you change attitudes you change the way people go about training and their lives generally. If I am successful in doing this I will have players who are tough and competitive all the time. You are not going to win all the time but at least if you are tough and competitive you have a better chance of being successful.
Your trainer David Dwyer, a former Warratahs rugby trainer, claims he is trying to make the Pakistan team ‘rugby-fit’. That right?
Yeah, if they can become physically harder and can train by themselves and don’t have to be dragged to the gym, that’s a big part of it. If these guys can put up with pain and train very, very hard like they haven’t done before, we are getting somewhere. We can measure strength but what we can’t measure is their pain thresholds - how much they are willing to give for the cause?
Consider all the greats Pakistan has had over the last 20 years like Imran, Qadir, Miandad, Malik, Saeed Anwar, Wasim, Waqar, Saqlain, Mushtaq, Inzamam, Shoaib Akhtar etc, have they underachieved by not leading the world?
Well, they did win the World Cup in ’92 so I suppose in one-day cricket they led the world then. I would like to see the results in ten years time when we have had the chance to assess the progress after all the academies have been in operation. We might be saying then that Pakistan is leading the world. Time will tell. There is lots of talent bit talent alone is not enough. We need to have the drive, the motivation, the hard work and all these things where Australia set the standards, no matter how far they are in front. My contribution to making this happen will be measured further down the track.
What were you doing Geoff before the PCB approached you? I am aware of your media work but nothing to do with coaching.
I was on domestic television in Australia as well as doing radio and a bit of writing. I was also a specialised fast bowling coach (with who?), I’m on the board of the SCG Trust and University of New South Wales.
**How did the Pakistan job come about and why were you head-hunted by them? **
Someone on the Pakistan Cricket Board has contacts in Australia and came to know of the work I had done. I have worked at some point with most of the Australia fast bowlers like Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark and so on, from Under-17 level in some cases. My name was received as someone who is a little leftfield and who had a different view of the game to many coaches.
Finally, one of your star bowlers Mohammad Asif is recovering from elbow surgery. What is the latest there and how important will he be against Australia in March?
He was at my house before Christmas after his surgery in Australia. The injury has recovered but it might not be until February that he starts bowling again and we see how successful it has been. All being well he will be fit to play Australia; that is what we are hoping for at this stage. We haven’t seen the best of Mohammad Asif yet and hopefully the surgery will be successful so he will be able to get back to doing what he does best and show the world what an exciting talent he is.
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Re: Geoff Lawson Interview
Decent interview, overall. Not too thrilled, but not too overly depressed either.
They need to be responsible and think for themselves and I expect mature responses. This is a long-term plan for them to produce consistently good performances.
Right there, that is a pretty big statement, realizing that rarely we have been a part of a concept that is long-term planning. If it is not a fix for short-term, it is not a solution for correcting long-term measurements either. For Geoff Lawson's expectation of mature responses, under the captaincy of (largely passive) Shoaib Malik, the results might not come to fruition, with both the captain and coach taking a back-seat and "expecting mature responses". To me, this statement, out of all, defines the role of Lawson and how he complements (or rather doesn't) the skipper. With an inexperienced Shoaib Malik at our disposal until December, someone else would have been much better holding the reigns of captaincy. One individual constantly refuses to accept any responsibility time and again for who knows what reasons. This just doesn't sit well with the overall picture. To achieve results and positive growth, you cannot have two laid-back personalities sitting in the dressing room, one expecting mature responses and one drinking tea with discards such as the current wicket-keeper. One of them has to take charge.
Re: Geoff Lawson Interview
Its a very mature interview by Lawson. When he first came as a coach, he took names and relied on such personalities to win Pakistan games. Now, I guess, he has realized is that he needs to depend on results to retain his job and stay away from any media and over-zealous, passionate and irrational fans of Pakistan. We take captain coach relationship quite differently.
The only name he has mentioned is Mohammad Asif, which makes sense because he is the bowler Pakistan needs to win games on consistent basis.
Rest of the interview is to show that he has experience and has work with people and system to see and deliever result.
Re: Geoff Lawson Interview
I feel he is going to get the team to show some results...people need to be patient...He took the job at a critical time when no one not even the desi coaches wanted to coach the team perhaps so i guess he does have some vision. Secondly, Its not the coaches fault when we have arrogant brats in the team who are more concerned about acting in bollywood and singing songs :S