Imran's take on the captaincy issue

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PESHAWAR: Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan has said that current captain Rashid Latif could not run the team as captain much longer and that PCB should groom a new, dynamic skipper for the future.

Talking to mediamen during his short visit to the on-going Pepsi-Imran-PCB clinic here at Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium on Wednesday, Imran suggested that “the next captain should be a bowler or an all rounder who could understand how to field a bowler during the tough matches because placing of batsmen is obvious.”

Commenting on the team’s defeat against England, he said Pakistan was at par with Australia as far as cricketing talent was concerned but lacked proper infrastructure for polishing the skills of these players

“We need to have a man who knows how to field the bowlers during the tough matches. The approach of the captain must be aggressive. He has to accept every challenge and should take bold decisions and should go all out for victory. The fighting and challenging approach is a key factor in crucial encounters,” he maintained.

“I accept the qualities of Rashid Latif as a wicket-keeper but as captain, he can not run the team for longer duration,” Imran said.

“I still don’t know the logic behind Sami’s exclusion from the World Cup matches despite the fact that he was included in the squad. Had Sami been in the World Cup matches, the situation would have been different,” he pointed out.

“Cricket is now the game of pacers”, the cricket legend said, adding that if a captain had thorough understanding about the fielding and changing of bowlers during the match, his team would certainly emerge victorious.

To a question about performance of the cricket team during recently concluded one-day series against England, Imran Khan said Pakistani team under-performed against England because of the defensive strategy. “The team did not go all out against England while poor fielding, lack of commitment marred Pakistan’s over all performance during the series,” he added.

“Pakistan team was definitely better than England but careless fielding and dropped catches cost them dearly,” Imran added.

“The strategy must be developed now for new captain if PCB intends to raise a strong team for the 2007 World Cup,” he added.

He said that since Bangladesh, South Africa and New Zealand are due to visit Pakistan in August-November this year, it would provide a fine opportunity to the officials of the team to consolidate the cricket re-building process.

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Point well made... But I would have really appreciated had he identified some one as the future captain. I do not see some one with captaincy material and specially one who is a bowling all rounder.

Abdul Razzaq is calm and composed and relaxed but then maybe a bit passive...
Azhar Mehmood has yet to make his place in the ODI Team...
Suggestions... who else ? Please no Younis Khan...

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Right now sticking with Rashid Latif, but in the future Azhar Mahmood, i have always believed that he could play as a regular batsman in the side at # 3 Position if given regular chances. so he would be my call for Captaincy in future.

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I agree with Imran, Pakistan's approach in the Natwest Challenge was way defensive, mainly due to Javed's coaching. There should always be a little agressiveness, both Yasir Hameed and Imran Nazir look to be agressive batsman but they were always holding back.
Rashid should stay for 6 or 8 months, and the perfect choice for captaincy in non other than Razzaq.
Like Imran said, the captain should be a bowler or an allrounder, Razzaq is the perfect choice.

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Razzaq is certainly a good bowler/batsmen, but he's not a very intelligent cricketer. He couldn't captain a county team, forget a national side. The same goes foe most of the players in the team. Both Youhana and Younis Khan are not captain material, they are not sharp enough...

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Yeah i want to discus javed's coaching too. throagh out the series one of the trends that i noticed was being a touch too defensive, i dont mind it as far as this series is concern since its first sereis of many youngster's in englnad excluding Imran Nazir(but he one the other hand seems like a hopeless case to me now.), and being it their first series in English conditions i think it was wise for minadad to advise them to play a little Grafing innings.
2) secondly and most importantly what i noticed that our batsman were trying to imrovise alot, and i mean alot. Take the example of Latif and Mahmood's dismissal in second game. both were just trying to to play unarthodox shots when they got out, specially considering the situation they were in those shots were unappropriate.. in the 3rd game Youhana was trying to run the ball down to 3rdman.
i also remember rashid giving a statement that tema needs to Bat like Javed used to bat in his days. at that point i couldn't stop thinking that these might be the instructions by javed to players to improvise. as this is the way he used to play all the times. he was good enogh to do that for 20 years, but may be he was asking for alittle too much a little too early from these players.

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Although I have the utmost respect for Khan sahab's cricketing abilities -physical and mental both but the more I read his Monday Morning Quarter-back (after-the-fact) comments, the less I respect him. Why doesn't he give such interviews and comments BEFORE the series?. You know hindsight is 20/20 and it's very easy for anyone to say what SHOULD'VE been done.

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pAkistAn cAptAin

i think if u have to choose from a balling allrounder, or a bowler u don't have much choice

most of our attack is inexperienced, apart from abdul razzak or shoaib akhtar and i am sure shoaib akhtar is definitly not captaincy material, u cannot have some one like him as he is not responsible enough, aprt from that i don't see many choices, so i think they have to stick to the same for atleast a year but even then it wud all come down to abdul razzak or younis khan again, wheather u like it or not

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Why not Shoaib Akhtar. I think that would be the best option if PCB continues playing him in the team. They say that if you want someone to become responsible, give him the position.

PS. I still don't like Shoaib Akhtar and firmly believe Pakistani team will be MUCH better off without him.

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then who will b the captain which rashid will not b:konfused:

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pAkistAn cAptAin

funguy
Nikamma Kaamchor

Why not Shoaib Akhtar. I think that would be the best option if PCB continues playing him in the team. They say that if you want someone to become responsible, give him the position.

PS. I still don't like Shoaib Akhtar and firmly believe Pakistani team will be MUCH better off without him.

i agreee wid u, i seriously dont want him to be a part of the team, but if he can learn to be responsible i think it wud be very good for pakistani cricket

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I think Rashid is doing a perfectly fine job as a captain of the team right now.

I don't agree with Imran that the captain must be an allrounder or bowler. Ricky Ponting, captain of Austrlia, is a batsmen and is doing a perfectly fine job. Marvan Attapatu, captain of Sri Lanka, doing a fine job. Michael Vaughn, captain of England, jus got the job and is doing ok. Stephen Flemming, captain of Zew Zealand, doing a fine job. It is not neccessary for a captain to be a bowler or all-rounder, the captain just needs to have a good cricketing mind.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by funguy: *
Although I have the utmost respect for Khan sahab's cricketing abilities -physical and mental both but the more I read his Monday Morning Quarter-back (after-the-fact) comments, the less I respect him. Why doesn't he give such interviews and comments BEFORE the series?. You know hindsight is 20/20 and it's very easy for anyone to say what SHOULD'VE been done.
[/QUOTE]

I totally agree with you. He is yet to come up with a good solution before the outcome of the game.General Zia raised a valid point that Imran considered the WC team as the best ever but right after the WC Imran started complaining about the whole structure of domestic cricket ,PCB's policies and what not.

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Imran is great ,alwasy talks precise and what is the best.Azhar Mahmood is certainly a good option.He should be the future captain.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by undefined: *
Imran is great ,alwasy talks precise and what is the best.Azhar Mahmood is certainly a good option.He should be the future captain.
[/QUOTE]

huh.. guy cant even get a permanent place in team and you wana make him captain.

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Azhar Mahmood and captain :smack: Allah Maaf Karay.

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Azhar Mahmood is only good at County Cricket…
I think Rashid is doing a good Job as Captain but PCB must find his replacement with in a year. Younis Khan will be the perfect recipient of the Captaincy since both Yohanna & Abdul Razzaq are not consistent and other players are too young to be Captain.
Shaib Akthar is no Captain material…He needs to shut his mouth and play inteligent circuit.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by fair_&_balance: *

huh.. guy cant even get a permanent place in team and you wana make him captain.
[/QUOTE]

ahemm.. do you know of a fellow name Micheal Vaughan?

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Bring back Moin!!!

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Why ? Did we give him enough chances since Razzaq got into the side.Agreed he missed out couple of oppurtunties but he surely is very unlucky, the way he gets out.He hits a perfect shot and gets caught and like that.Just go thru his career stats and see what kind of match winner he is.He has done a lot and then he is a very wise cricketer.Though his bowling is not the same what it used to be but as someone wrote he can be avery good no4 or 5 like Imran Khan used to be.Who do u think is a better batsm,an on fast bowling than Azhar in the presenmt team?He is much better than all so he deserves to become the captain.