A few excerpts on Shoaib Malik as a captain, and the dilemma of coaches.
Mohammad Aamer is being rated highly by experts in Pakistan. He is only 16: would you pick him pick right away?
I would.
Is he that good?
He is quite talented.
Selection in Pakistan is highly politicised. Things work differently here, don’t they?
Of course they do. Fourteen boys went to the Kitply Cup; they won the tournament, but two have been dropped. They didn’t even play and are dropped. What they must be going through, I can only imagine.
That’s where Shoaib Malik has to be strong. As a leader and as a player he has to be positive. In the beginning I thought he had the skills; now I have my doubts. Against Zimbabwe he bowled ten overs in almost every match, against Bangladesh he bowled a little less. But in big matches he is not bowling. Do you think nobody notices? People do. Most of all, players notice how the leader is doing.
You had a lot of difficult players to handle when you were captain.
Man management is very important. You can’t just become a captain and have a group of your own. That’s the worst thing you can do as a captain. In cricket teams you have to be friendly with everyone. I had Aamer Sohail, Waqar Younis, Javed Miandad, Ramiz Raja, Saleem Malik, Ijaz Ahmed - they were all different characters, they were all difficult, but they were all match-winners. I learned to listen to them and back them up when they were not doing well. I knew as a captain that when they came back to form they would win me a match.
Shoaib Malik has to learn that. [Abdur] Rauf gets three wickets in one match, but doesn’t get to play in the next. This is the captain’s fault, not the selectors’. Now he says the XI is given by selectors, but I know that in Pakistan if you are a strong captain there is no way the selectors can do that to you. We have all been through this: me, Inzamam, Imran [Khan], Miandad, we all did that but we always had our XIs. Maybe in the 14-15 you can have a compromise…
Do you think there is a problem of over-coaching in today’s cricket?
It has become a bit too complicated. Bowling coach, batting coach, fielding coach… At this level you don’t need a coach. How will you coach [Mohammad] Yousuf? You can’t correct his back-lift. You can just give him confidence.
We have to go by culture. When the coaches come to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, they make sure they have meetings for two hours. They should know that the attention span in our part of the world is 14 minutes. If you get into the 15th minute, they will forget what you told them in the first 14. I went through this as a captain, and I realised that the shorter the meeting, and the more to the point it is, it stays in their minds for longer. Coaches now keep talking, players go to sleep. Doesn’t matter how experienced or how alert, inside they are asleep.
(For complete interview) Source: CricInfo
I believe what Wasim Akram has said in his interview on Shoaib Malik is true in every aspect. A captain has to come from the front and make a point against every opposition, big or small. Shoaib Malik is strong in some areas - his ODI batting, fielding - but has also come up short in other areas - his captaincy, which is what he is stamped in for until Dec’ 08, his rotation policy of his own bowling, which is inconsistent. So far, to me, he has not been the biggest disappointment, but he has to improve his image for the sake of holding onto captaincy.
Your thoughts/views/opinions on the above, or the interview in general?
