This is why education is so important
All educated answers, well supported by stats
**Misbah-ul-Haq on his fitness
“I try to maintain my intensity and continue to work hard. The older I’m getting, the harder I’m working to make sure I meet my fitness standards”
**Misbah on the influence of a captain
****“It’s just people’s perception - people think the captain is be-all and end-all but that is not the case. It’s teamwork; there are selection committees, the PCB, management, even the senior players in the team all get together and discuss the requirements for the team and plan accordingly. There are a lot of healthy discussions and only after those is a decision made”
“There has never been an occasion when I have had an idea and, without telling everybody, in confidence [secretly] tried to convince people that a player should be selected. This never happens, it’s merely due to people’s perceptions”
******On suggestions Misbah should “rest” after the recent 4-1 ODI series loss to South Africa in the UAE
******“Not at all. I give credit to management, the chairman [of the PCB], selection committee who showed confidence in me and provided me with the moral support I required at the time”
“There are many former players - Basit Ali, Rashid Latif, Amir Sohail – during a very difficult time after we lost the series, who gave me moral support and it gave me confidence. They told me these things happen. They said to me ‘If you are performing, you should have a positive frame of mind and when you play in such a way you can come back from losing’ and that helped me a lot [on the tour of South Africa]”
“It’s great for the team to fight back and turned things. It was a great achievement for the team. The intensity in the T20s and the fightback to turn the series [in ODIs] was a great achievement”
**Misbah on not showing emotions on the cricket field
********“Every person has their own nature. People say Misbah is lazy and it saddens me. How can a person be captaining Pakistan A, Departments for 12-13 years, someone who completed their education BSC double Maths and Physics, then did an MBA, all whilst playing cricket, then captaining the Pakistan national side. If a lazy person can do all that, then it’s fine to be lazy!”
“If players jump around and show undue emotions for the cameras, I don’t do that. It’s not in my nature”
“Whatever I wanted to achieve in my life, I’m doing”.
“If you look at run-outs by Pakistan players [fielders], you’ll probably see I’ve run out the most [opposition players] this year”
“Who are they to call me lazy? Those who have never done anything for Pakistan.”
“The Pakistani players and Pakistan team should be respected”
**********Misbah on whether his batting position is too low in ODIs
**********“Mike Hussey should have been opening the innings by that logic. The Australian team must have been stupid to have been playing such a good batsman down down the order, they should have gotten him to open or bat three! They played him in the position in which he was required, same with Michael Bevan”
“Whichever position a player performs best for the team, that is the position he should be batting”
“This is not a solution, to push a player batting well at number six up to open”
“Our top order are batting up there because they are capable of batting in those positions”
“If I get out batting up the order, someone will have to come and an perform the role I’m doing, and we don’t have the players to do that. - there aren’t the players who can do what I do down the order. For example in Sharjah, we were 165/4, needing 20 runs with six wickets in hand and we didnt’ achieve it. You need experienced players to finish the game”
“You should play the position that is most useful to the team”
“My contribution lower down the order is good and is best for the team”
**On not playing international cricket between 2001 and 2007
“People don’t ignore players for no reason. At the time there was Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-ul-Haq even Shoiab Malik and Abdul Razzaq and was a strong batting line-up. Afridi too as an all-rounder. It was very difficult to break into the team. That’s why I was in and out of the team”
**On Saeed Ajmal
**************“The plan is to use Saeed Ajmal effectively, so that he can take wickets. We place out field in such a way that he can bowl depending on match situation”
“We use him as a wicket-taker”
****************On the relationship with the media
****************“The media play a big role”
“Healthy criticism is important, but criticising somebody’s personality is unfair”
“If I’m bad and Shahid Afridi is bad, and so are all 15 players, then who will play?"
**Misbah on cricketing commentators
******************“At home, the ethics I was taught was to respect people. I will never make disrespectful comments about people”
“If people say things to me, you are not ruining my image, you are hurting the image of the Pakistani cricket captain, whether it’s me or someone else, you are hurting the country. I could return in comments in kind, I’m not afraid of anybody, but if I do that there will be no difference between them and me”
**On whether he focuses on records
********************“If you play for your country, do well and you will set records automatically. I have five more matches this year and I will do my best in each one of them.”
**On succession planning as Captain of the Pakistan team
**********************“There are players in the team who can handle the pressure and there should be proper planning as to who will be the next captain.”
“You should plan ahead and the respective regions and departments should allow international players to captain their sides so they learn how to handle the captaincy when they lead Pakistan”
“Pakistan do plan – Hafeez is the T20 captain. We do plan, but due to media and other pressures, performances can drop. It’s an inexperienced team – it takes five years to establish yourself”
“A player has to stabilize himself first and then think about captaincy.”
**On Afridi being used as an opener
“Shehzad and Nasir have done well in the opening slot, so it’s no point changing them. Sharjeel is another find. Shahid bhai is a better bowler and his job for me is to get wickets and bat lower down the order. Even his 30-40 run-a-ball runs would be useful."
**On returning to T20s
**************************“It was the requirement of the team that a youngster should have been played instead of me in T20Is. I have not retired yet, so only in a serious case, I can be called to play.”
“I have no ambitions to return, though I try to utilize every player, but when we lose, it seems, we didn’t execute our plans well.”
**On batting in ODIs
****************************“If your last six players can’t score 20 odd runs [in Sharjah], it cannot be justified. It can be said that we got relaxed.”
“In South Africa, we won unexpectedly but people were not accepting me in ODIs. The reason I see us that people like aggressive players. It’s essential to play 50 overs.”
“There is no harm in having two players who score at a strike rate of 70 if others can compensate.”
“No team has a better batting line-up than the Indians, so if they can collapse, anybody can. We have been lacking consistently for a long time.”
“We will continue to consider new players, just as we considered Anwar and Bilawal. Hopes are high and as we did well in South Africa, we hope to replicate the feat against Sri Lanka."
(courtesy of Pakpassion)