Way forward is through a blend of youth and experience
From Asif Iqbal
Former Pakistan and Kent cricket captain
LONDON: The thrashing that Pakistan received at the hands of Australia in the second and third Tests at Sharjah may have come as a surprise to some after the close fight given at Colombo. But those who really know the game would perhaps be less surprised by the dismal performance at Sharjah, for Pakistan did not appear to have learned a great deal from Colombo.
The close fight in Colombo was largely due to an extremely poor performance by Australia in the field with seven dropped catches, a performance that was not likely to be repeated. With the catches being held in Sharjah, the results were obviously very different.
One would have hoped that Pakistan’s batsmen would have come away from Colombo more aware of their fallibility outside the off stump and the need to do something about it, but that not being the case and the catches being offered with the same frequency, the writing was on the wall as Australia were unlikely to drop them again.
This weakness, coupled with the almost total inability to pick Warne’s flipper, lead to the two consecutive routs in Sharjah. One gets the feeling that we came away from Colombo with a confidence that was perhaps slightly inflated.
We had Shoaib Akhtar advising the Australians to be courageous and even after the drubbing in the second Test, when one would have been best advised to keep one’s head as low as possible, we had Pybus getting on the wrong side of Allan Border – when he really should have been concentrating on ironing out Pakistan’s obvious batting problems – and the new Pakistan manager saying that India did not want to play Pakistan for fear of losing.
The performance on the field simply did not merit such arrogance and it did not come across well. In fact, it appeared as if the Pakistanis on the field had been advised to be belligerent and aggressive and while aggression is fine, it cannot be something completely divorced from the state of the game.
Thus to find Danish Kaneria almost running up to Ricky Ponting and giving him a glare when Ponting was around 120 not out and Kaneria going for around four an over, was bordering on the comical.
Not that any of the debacle can be attributed to the new coach or manager. Pybus inherited a very poor batting line-up and one wonders what he can do about it given the fact that he himself was reluctant to take the job. Even if he had the highest cricketing credentials himself, which he does not, I do not see what a “foreign coach” can be expected to accomplish which a local coach cannot.
All of Pakistan’s great triumphs, including the victory in the 1992 World Cup, have been achieved without foreign aid. In this regard it would not be irrelevant to point out that all the foreign exchange spent in hiring coaches like Geoffrey Boycott and Trevor Chappell have obviously not produced much if one is to go by the performances over the past three months.
Even if part or all the expenses incurred on the hiring of these foreign coaches was sponsored, the sum could have been better utilised elsewhere. One feels that the desire for foreign coaches is a hangover from a historical past which was in evidence again as our commentators were seen asking for advice for the players from their Australian counterparts whose cricketing credentials were in no way superior to their own.
Certainly, Pybus is not in a position to be pointing out any of the many deficiencies in technique that so many Pakistani batsmen displayed time and over again, although it is moot point that even if there was someone who could, it may not have done all that much good.
The ultimate point here perhaps is that we have to learn to respect and recognise the value and capabilities of our own cricketers, both past and present, before we can expect others to respect them.
Yet, we can but play with the talent available and my advice to the PCB would be to persevere with some of the younger players while introducing the more experienced players back into the side, so that there is a blend of youth and experience and the experience can guide, support and encourage the youth.
That is how the rebuilding period should be approached, for let us make no mistake about it, we are going through a phase of reconstruction just as Australia had done immediately after the Packer years. To an extent, such a painful rebuilding process is the legacy of any truly successful side where most of the players select themselves and there are few places where new talent may be tried out and groomed.
One feels that in a few years, the Australians may well be at such a point themselves again. But for the time being it is Pakistan.
The return of Wasim Akram, Inzamam and Youhana will make a difference but with them I would suggest that Faisal Iqbal and Hasan Raza may be persevered with so that they may be able to pick up as they go along.
About Saeed Anwar’s long term future in the side I have my doubts but the best way these doubts can be answered is if he gets runs. I would be the happiest person to see that but I have a nagging feeling that good bowlers have caught on to his weakness outside the off stump and at this level, there is unlikely to be any letting up.
I do not see why the President of the Board resigned after Pakistan’s defeat in the second Test. The direct responsibility falls on the captain and the coach and after them on the selectors. None of them showed any signs of budging, so there was no reason for the General and Chishty Mujahid to take it all on themselves.
They would serve cricket better by ensuring that merit is the only criteria for selection and that teams – those who play on the field, those who manage them as well those who administer the game – once chosen are given the time to deliver what is expected of them instead of being made scapegoats and media cannon fodder.
The people chosen should be those who want to serve the game instead of those who are looking simply to project themselves. Now that the General has got a second innings he should be more aware of where his off stump is and allow all those to pass whose aims revolve around their personal egos.
Too much chopping and changing in any case only creates uncertainty and that has been one of the blights not just on cricket but on many other aspects of life in Pakistan as well. The move to change Mudassar and Yawar Saeed appeared to be entirely for media consumption and that sort of thing serves little purpose. The change brought in its wake one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of Pakistan cricket; so now what?
One of my abiding impressions of the debacle in Sharjah is of some of our players walking away after the third and final Test with the official T-shirt sporting the message ‘Proud to be Pakistani’. The body language did not suggest pride even remotely; the lesson to learn from that must be that pride has to come through performance on the field of play, not empty assertions and aggressive glares which are in no way backed by the scoreboard.
