I wanted to create a thread where we can share and discuss articles about Pakistan’s early exit from the World Cup. Here’s one by Imran Khan:
Lowest point of Pakistan cricket
Imran Khan
Having come up with the poorest performance for any Pakistani team in any World Cup, this is the worst crisis to have hit Pakistan cricket. And this crisis should be an opportunity to bring about a change by which we can tap the immense talent available to Pakistan cricket.
The first change that I propose is that the president of the country should have nothing to do with selecting the Chairman PCB.
In the two World Cups during the Musharraf regime, the team did not make it to the top six in 2003 after having been the finalist in the previous version and now unless a miracle happens they would not make it to the Super Eight.
Therefore, immediately Pakistan cricket should have a constitution that should entail that all talent is concentrated in the six regional teams to play first class cricket. And the chairman PCB should be elected from these six elected associations. This is no rocket science, just following the Australian model that has made the Aussie team the most successful in cricketing history.
Secondly, it is about time we had a new selection committee with paid selectors, a new coach and a new captain.
Inzamam should be thanked for his services but we need a captain that leads from the front and a coach that can make an attacking strategy so that Pakistan can utilise fully the existing talent in the country.
The Ireland match again reflected the folly of our most inconsistent and thoughtless strategy and team selection.
Of all the bowlers Danish Kaneria should have been in the eleven against Ireland, knowing that the minnows find leg-spin hardest to face. Secondly, Sami clearly reminded us that as an attacking option he was sorely missed against the West Indies.
And thirdly, Inzamam’s reluctance to go up the order and prevent a crisis yet again exposed this timid policy of allowing technically and temperamentally ill-equipped batsmen to go up-front in difficult condition while arguably the best batsman was being shielded at number five.
And when the expected crisis came, for the second match in a row even Inzi could not handle the situation.
This is an infamy that has been brought on by cowardly leadership tactics.
Inzamam by now should have known that it is much easier to prevent a crisis than to play in one. And even the club quality Irish bowlers made the professional Pakistani batsmen buckle under the pressure of the World Cup.
There have been no lesson learnt in the last two years. Time and again the same defensive tactics have been backed, time and again the same mediocre bits and pieces cricketers have been given one chance after another. That while much more deserving specialists like Salman Butt and Yasir Hameed at the crucial opening position were shunted out at every opportunity. And medium pacers were preferred over strike bowlers like Sami and Kaneria in one-day cricket and an all rounder of exceptional ability like Azhar Mahmood was never given an opportunity.
Mushtaq, who is extremely likeable and was a great team man in the 1992 World Cup, was inducted as a bowling coach while there was only one spinner in the squad. This clearly was not on grounds of merit.
As for Woolmer, Inzamam himself spelt out his utility as helping him in fielding practice and keeping a good atmosphere in the team. It’s amazing that crores should be spent on a foreign for tasks that could have been done by any number of indigenous cricketers
If the proper lessons were learnt from the Saturday’s defeat, it could become the basis of renaissance of Pakistan cricket. However, going by the past experience of the Musharraf regime, the way every institution has been dismantled including the judiciary, I’m afraid the true structural changes to revive Pakistan cricket will have to wait till there is a proper democratic dispensation in the country.
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/mar-2007/19/sports1.php
I really hope some serious changes are made based on merit this time and not again based on personal likings.