So after all that talk about Youhana being too meek and humble to handle the captaincy seems to be not true after all. Looks like he wants to be top dog.
On a serious note, these guys really need to sort out their job descriptions. Youhana who should be in the nets practising playing swing bowling is instead trying to minimise chances of having to face it. Inzi who should be throwing his weight around as the team captain and supporting the coach is instead busy making cute faces and feel good statements in post-match interviews. And Miandad who should be worrying about the team responding to his training is instead happy at just being able to keep his job.
This last bit was the exact same reason why Pybus and Waqar had to be let go. They were too keen on continuing in their individual positions of authority rather than doing what was good for the team. Either way this situation is a nightmare in the making for Pak fans because we seem to be heading back to square one especially if one is to believe the parts I’ve highlighted and the performances seem to show that.
ps. I opened a new thread because I want to discuss how our team management have managed to muddle up the boundaries between different roles and its effect on the team’s performance rather this one pitch incident.
**Multan pitch mystery resolved **
From Waheed Khan
MULTAN: The mystery as to who was responsible for having all the grass shaved off the pitch here for the first Test against India has been resolved and it only highlights the growing problem of lack of communication and authority in the Pakistan dressing room.
‘The News’ has learnt that apparently the Pakistan vice captain Yousuf Youhana played a lead role in having the grass completely shaved off and also managed to convince some of his other teammates to support him in his arguments.
“The local curator Bashir Kardar had left plenty of grass on the pitch keeping in mind that Pakistan had a strong pace attack. But the foreign curator Andy Atkinson was not happy with so much grass and he received support in the form of Youhana,” a team source said.
According to him, as soon as the Pakistan team arrived at the ground on Friday and saw the grassy pitch, Youhana started moaning about the problems that could be faced by the batsmen and how the Indian seamers who were in form could trouble them if they won the toss.
“Youhana led the chorus for having the grass shaved off and having an even pitch for the match and managed to convince some of the other players to also support his idea despite the fact that coach Javed Miandad and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq kept on insisting the fast bowlers needed to be given a supportive track to bowl on,” the source said.
“And since Atkinson was also pushing to have the grass shaved off, Youhana eventually got his way and the result was a completely dry and bland surface on which the Indians have dominated,” the source added.
Youhana’s reluctance to play on a challenging pitch is understandable because he has not been in the best of form in recent times and struggled in the last four games of the one-day series with Irfan Pathan picking him twice with inswinging deliveries. “Unfortunately that is the way our senior players operate in the team. Their first priority is to ensure their places are safe in the team and the team’s performance comes second,” the source lamented.
The above facts make sense because Inzamam in fact, had complained a day before the start of the match that the authorities had not given him the sort of pitch he had asked for. “We want supportive and sporting tracks for the Test series. We can’t go in with a negative mind if we want to win the series,” he had said.
Javed Miandad also hinted when confronted on Sunday evening as to who was responsible for the lifeless pitch after all the claims of preparing sporting tracks for the Tests about the batsmen not being keen to play on grassy tracks. He also hinted he wanted a more sporting track for the match but the batsmen were not willing to support and take the risk.
**And it is no secret that since India arrived in Pakistan, he has been under a lot of pressure from different quarters. One has heard him complaining about players not listening to him on one hand and also about how some former players have been after his job with their constant criticism about how he had failed to deliver as coach and how there was no planning visible in the one-day series at all.
When Shoaib Akhtar, Muhammad Sami and Shabbir Ahmed in particular were struggling with their rhythm and with the problem of wides and no-balls in the one-day series, Miandad was targeted by his critics and he kept on insisting that he was doing his best but the bowlers had to listen to him and work like professionals to sort out their problems.
The point is that if Miandad is unhappy that he does not have complete authority in the team and if Inzamam is also not agreeing with him on everything, than the question is: why does he not step down or even make his feelings known to the public? What purpose is he serving by accepting to remain in a position where he has no final say.**
At the end of the day if the vice captain is so influential that he can over-ride the coach and captain, than it is time for the captain and coach to start thinking about the future or start asserting themselves completely.
Because cricket is not just a sport in Pakistan, it is more than that particularly when you are playing against India. As if losing the one-day series was not hard enough to accept for the local cricket fans in the last two days they have been subjected to utter humiliation in Multan as the Indian batsmen have ground the bowlers into the dust.
There is no doubt that the pitch has nothing in it for the bowlers but the Pakistan bowlers also just didn’t show the quality which has been the hallmark of other Pakistani pace bowlers. To add insult to injury, the fielding remained pathetic with at least four simple catches being dropped by the fielders at crucial stages.
So, Miandad and Inzamam need to rethink their roles in the team and a lot of other things need to be set right in the dressing room to prevent the Pakistani players from coming under further pressure.
, instead of opting to practice playing swing bowling, he opted to kill the swing “roots”. Howcome Inzi and Javed allowed the curator to follow him instead of them? Shouldn’t he be fired alongwith Javed? It was curator’s responsibility to follow captain and coach, and they shouldn’t have allowed him to astray from orders. I say axe them all.