Mohsin Khan - A defensive minded coach?

What I saw last Saturday is something I never want associated with Pakistan cricket, and neither is it something I would want to see in sport in general, or in any contest for that matter. To not even try, however small the chance of victory, defies the purpose of playing any sport.

As the Pakistan batsmen came out to bat needing 170 off 21 overs in the final innings of the first Test against Sri Lanka, their fans around the world sat riveted to their TV screens, anticipating an enthralling run chase. But as ball after ball was blocked, it was obvious that going for the win was not what was discussed amongst the Pakistan team management in the interval.

When asked after the game, interim coach Mohsin Khan’s response was “…we felt we didn’t want to make a mess of things…We decided that given the field set, we would opt to bat out time”. Now this is in stark contrast to what the coach was saying just a few days earlier. When speaking of the ‘successful risk’ the Pakistan selectors had taken in picking a young squad for the recent tour of Zimbabwe, Khan said “To achieve a big goal, you have to take risks…As a selector, or now a coach, I won’t be afraid of taking a risk”. Easier said than done, right Mohsin?

170 runs off 21 overs works out at just over 8 runs an over. Now had Pakistan – with 10 wickets in hand, on a docile track – scored 60 off the first 5 overs for example, it would have left them with around 6 and a half runs per over from there on. Suddenly, things don’t seem that impossible do they? Even if Pakistan had lost 2-3 wickets trying to chase the win, they could have still then reined themselves in and started blocking. Sri Lanka would have realised in just a few overs that a draw was on the cards and the captains would have shook hands early, meaning Pakistan wouldn’t have needed to bat out the full 21 overs to then save the game anyway.

While there is an inherent risk of losing wickets whilst playing attacking cricket, there is no guarantee that you won’t lose wickets playing defensively, as Taufiq Umar demonstrated. Now he could quite easily have gone down fighting, losing his wicket whilst attacking rather than the good for nothing manner in which he did. At least we would have then been closer to having some idea of whether a win was possible.

There was an argument that Sri Lanka had no field restrictions and it would have been difficult to score boundaries, yet 2s and 3s could have been picked up relatively comfortably, and would have caused Dilshan to make a few enforced field changes, bringing some players in. As mentioned in Cricinfo’s text commentary, it was a relatively large outfield too.

Many have placed the blame of not attacking squarely on captain Misbah’s head. Yet for me, this would have been a decision influenced by the team management and coach in particular. Another thing that points to this is that former coach Waqar Younis said himself on commentary that he’d have been trying for a win i.e. giving us some insight into the psyche of the Pakistan decision making machine pre-Mohsin Khan. And of course, far from being a yes man, Misbah is not the type to cause discord hence would have gone with the coach’s suggestion. The power dynamic within the Pakistan camp would dictate that a coach would be able to enforce his decision on a captain, rather than a captain on a coach, meaning that even if Misbah would have wanted to go for the chase, he wouldn’t have been able to.

I cannot, for one second, imagine the Australians not going for a win had they been in a similar situation. The attitude Pakistan displayed was not the attitude of winners. If we do not test ourselves, we will never know how good we can become. While drawn Test matches may suit our neighbours over the border, this cautiousness and lack of adventurousness is not the Pakistan way – cornered tigers are braver than that.

Those fans that wanted Pakistan to attack on that last day came in for some harsh criticism with suggestions that a t20 mentality had overtaken them. Yet this is nothing to do with t20 cricket – Pakistan should have at least attempted to go for the 8 an over target regardless. If anything, it is the Test match mentality that has done Test cricket harm here. You don’t play Test cricket to draw. Test cricket is still about the contest, still about trying to win. It is called ‘Test’ cricket after all.

Sport is a test of human endeavour. Great things are achieved, records are broken by people that try, by people that TEST themselves. Having been so far ahead in the game and having dropped so many catches, Pakistan should have wanted to come out and try and win the game to make up for their complacency. They should have felt this urge.

If the thrill of the chase, the courage needed to test oneself is too much for them, then why play at all? Why not just quit cricket altogether, marry an Indian actress, move to Bombay and become an Indian film actor. They certainly have the perfect coach to show them how to do that.

Tabrez Ali Janjua also writes at www.khelopakistan.com

Free bets free bet placed in favour of Pakistan progressing beyond the group stage would have been scarce beforehand given their previous record at the tournament, but given their performances so far, they may now be backed to go all the way.

Pakistan sealed their passage through to the quarter finals with a seven wicket win over Zimbabwe earlier in the week with a game to spare, but the former fast bowler has moved to quell the excitement, and insists the team are not looking beyond their final group game against Australia on Saturday.

“Right now we are thinking of only Australia,” he said. “If you win that game, then your morale will be such that you won’t worry about any team you play.”

Australia will provide a stern test for Pakistan, and are currently unbeaten at the World Cup since the 1999 tournament, a sequence stretching back 34 games. While Pakistan have guaranteed their qualification from the group they could still finish anywhere in the top four which would mean a more difficult quarter final tie, and Waqar is wary of letting the standard of cricket drop.

You have an option (whereby) you could play the No. 4 team (from  group B) whose morale will be down,” Waqar said.

“But momentum is very important and necessary. Australia are such a big team, world champions, and they haven’t lost for ages. That is an opportunity. If you beat them, you leave a mark. You can look at the next matches and teams will think twice about playing against you.”

The form book suggests Pakistan will struggle against the powerful Australians having lost nine of their last eleven meetings in the shorter form of the game, and Ricky Ponting’s side have been installed as firm free bet favourites.

By Pete South, guest poster.

Pakistan street cricket - Waiting for a bat and a bowl

Yet the introduction of youngsters has seen some fielding improvements in the national side, but that is just mostly through athletic ability rather than good fielding technique. Some of the youngsters are still found wanting every game. There are signs that they are trying though. In the recent One Day series’ in England, we saw Umar Akmal take the field in football boots in a bid to get that little bit of extra traction to help him in the field. Football studs would be more conducive to good grip on grass than cricket spikes, helping the fielder to be quicker off the mark and run faster. I’m not entirely sure who first thought of the idea of bringing the football boot on to the cricket pitch but one of the first players I saw do so was Herschelle Gibbs, one of the best fielders in world cricket. So it’s good to see the likes of Akmal looking to improve and searching for that bit extra, and Gibbs is certainly not a bad fielder to try and emulate.

Umar Akmal uses football boots for extra traction in the field

But will Pakistan’s fielding ever improve to a standard demonstrated by the likes of Australia, England and South Africa? Well it will take a generation at least. The whole attitude to fielding within Pakistan will have to change. There are a number of reasons why fielding has never been of great importance to the Pakistanis. Growing up and playing in the streets or the parks, all anyone wants to do is either have a bowl or a bat. Fielding has only one purpose, and that is to retrieve the ball so the next ball can be bowled and the next shot played. Then there’s the space issue and the hard grounds. Played in the streets, there is not much room hence no need for fielders. And where there is space in the fields, the ground is generally made up of hard, dried mud, which is not exactly the best surface to practice diving on.

Watching Pakistan over the years, I can confidently say that no other side has given away as many runs through poor fielding as Pakistan have. The fact that we have done reasonable well in world cricket has been purely down to our reliance on the natural talent to dig us out of the holes we create through our indiscipline and shortcomings in the field. But as other teams begin to counter natural talent with pure hard graft, Pakistan need to catch up too and look at areas where they can improve. I’m not sure we’ll see much improvement in our fielding through the coaching at the top level, so the effort should be concentrated on to those youngsters on the production line. One place to start would be for the PCB to make it compulsory for every domestic side to employ a professional fielding coach. Then we may see things beginning to change for the better.

The only evidence of ball tampering in the fourth ODI at Lord's as Paul Collingwood uses the wrong ball (his own) to knock off the bails

So what’s the next accusation the English media have in store for Pakistan? Whilst they’ve broke three match fixing stories, the next one will probably be about how Umar Gul was able to reverse swing the ball so much in engineering England’s downfall in both the last two ODIs.

In both matches, there was a sense of inevitability as Umar Gul and Shaoib Akhtar  began to reverse swing the ball as English wickets tumbled. It was as if the hand of God was guiding the ball down the wicket and giving it a little sideways nudge at the end. It was signature Pakistan. No other bowling attack in the world could ever attest to showing such quality swing bowling in cleaning up a batting line up.

As the whiter ball came into play in the 35th over of the fourth ODI, you could see the cameras starting to zoom in on the Pakistan players’ hands to check if there was anything untoward going on. There was even a comment by one of the commentators at how remarkable it is that a newish second ball can begin to reverse in and around the 42nd over, just 7 overs after it had been taken.

The ball tampering accusations were hurled at us in 1992 with Waqar and Wasim and it may happen again, but as Geoffrey Boycott said back then, “they could have bowled England out with an orange”.

No Shahid, it's not your fingers that are the problem, it's your brain

Pakistan have come full circle. From being the best team in international Twenty20 to looking like an amateur, disjointed club side as they surrendered to defeat in their second Twenty20 against a well drilled England. Bowled out for 89, their lowest Twenty20 total yet, Pakistan continued with their batting woes that were so evident in the recent Tests. The wrong team selection and lack of planning and execution in addition to the batting troubles, means the upcoming five match ODI series doesn’t look as if it will be much of a contest.

Whilst they added Mohammad Hafeez to the team, persisting with Fawad Alam meant that the team selection was still wrong. Fawad’s shot on dismissal showed that he had learnt nothing from two days ago. No balance, no technique, simply awful. Since they aren’t bowling Fawad, they could have gone in with Azhar Ali, a proper batsman, with the added benefit of him getting a sighter of the white ball before he is thrust into the in the ODIs, first of which is this Friday.

Today, much hinged on captain Shaihd Afridi’s innings as he came in with Pakistan three down for 20, with plenty of overs left (16) to recover and set a decent target. Yet Afridi failed to recognise the importance of his wicket and played an utterly foolish shot. The look on coach Waqar Younis’ face on Afridi’s dismissal said it all. You cannot be a captain of an international side and play as carelessly as that. It’s becoming more and more evident that he will not be the one to lead Pakistan cricket out of this mess on the field. I wouldn’t be surprised if he leaves the One Day fold as abruptly and selfishly as he did the Test one.

The thing that most irritated me about Afridi today was his response to one of Ian Ward’s questions after the game. Ward asked: “What do you say to those Pakistani supporters who are so disappointed because it means so much to them?”, Afridi replied: “They are supporters so they should support us”. Really Shahid? What reason have you given for us to support you recently? We have some of the most loyal fans in cricket who have suffered a lot of heartbreak that such a unpredictable side on the pitch, and inept board off it, gives, yet that is his view on us? Even today, when an embarrassing defeat was a certainty, the Pakistan fans in the crowd, on this wet windy day, many of them fasting, could still be heard shouting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. Yes it’s our job to support Shahid, but when will you start doing your job?

Untouchables of Pakistan cricket: Innocent when proven guilty

With all that has come out of the inquiry and various player statements, it is clear that Shoaib Malik was one of the worst culprits. Unfortunately, with Malik still around, I can’t see Yousuf changing his mind and returning to the side. I know who I’d rather have back if I had a choice between Malik and Yousuf.

In some ways, the return of the players is evidence of the dearth in Pakistan talent with hardly anyone from the domestic game being trusted to be able to step up into the international side and keep these criminals out.  Many would say that this is something the punished players know and have been taking advantage of for some time. It is why, for most of the seven, it was important that the punishments were upheld, if not entirely, at least to some worthwhile degree. Right now the players must be inwardly laughing at the administration which governs and disciplines them. Ijaz Butt has denied that this will make the PCB seem like a soft touch to the players, but if everyone else thinks that is how it is looking then I’m certain the players are thinking likewise.

Butt’s excuse for the reinstatement of the players was that a constitutional process was simply followed and the players appealed and thus won their appeals. Yet this simply demonstrates the ineptness of those that handed out the punishments to the players, punishments which the appeals panel found were not deserved. So who are these inept people Ijaz? Hmmm. Until we have a change in the Presidency of the country, we will continue to suffer from this ‘jobs for the boys’ policy our Patron for the board and President of the country employs.

Will marriage have helped Malik to grow up?

So will everyone in the team now carry on as if nothing has happened? The recent leaked inquiry video will only add to the bad feeling between the players. With Shoaib Akhtar also returning along with the likes of Malik, we have almost all the ingredients for a recipe for disaster. Maybe there are not enough personality clashes in our trouble-maker’s XI already, so why not bring in Javed Miandad, Salim Malik, Abdul Qadir and Rashid Latif in as part of the backroom staff and really get the party started.

With captain Shahid Afridi recently stating that no politics in the team will be tolerated, it looks like his and coach Waqar Younis’ biggest test will be off the pitch in keeping things together. Shame, that.

In general, Pakistan did not deserve to retain the World Cup even if they had squeezed into the semi-finals. Every team had either stayed at the same level from last time or improved, apart from us and maybe India. A major part of this was the loss to injury of Umar Gul before the tournament, leaving the pace department really weak. The performances of Abdul Razzaq with the ball, and Mohammed Sami did nothing to soften the blow from the loss of Gul. Razzaq started off the short and slow six balls from the beginning of the innings and was frustratingly poor, ending up giving 22 runs of just two overs. I think it is time up for both him and Sami.

With their run of defeats against the Australians, and the manner of the latest defeat, Pakistan will be left mentally scarred for some time to come. But they must show the positiveness they showed in their semi-final batting, and not fear the Australians but emulate them.

Hats off to Hussey, Mr Bevan+

Michael Hussey: Six machine

And now to give credit where it’s due: if there ever was a batsman in an innings who looked like he could do what ever he wanted, it was Hussey in the semi-final. Each time it got critical and he needed a six, he got it. His batting manner very much reminds me of Michael Bevan, though Bevan didn’t hit as many big boundaries. Credit must also go to Cameron White. Without his innings, Hussey’s improbable task would have been made an impossible one. White dragged Australia back into the game and Hussey duly finished it off as Mr Cricket showed us that he was also Mr Six-at-will.

Shane Watson’s Woes
By now you may be getting the impression that I don’t like this guy, and you’d be right. His swearing, and constant moaning at the umpires when he himself was bowling wides was really irritating. Watson has a history of behaving like a petulant child of course. How people see him as an all-rounder I do not know. His bowling was found out, quite beautifully, by England in the final, and soon, his batting will be too. The most pleasing thing was when he was knocked over by Haddin when they both went for the same catch. Forget picking him up, Haddin did not even look back at him so it just proves that not even his team mates like him. Watson needs to appreciate how fortunate he is. People like him need to be called to account so that the game does not slowly slip towards one where officials and players are pressured, abused and disrespected.

Result! My stock’s risen and I didn't even play!

As Pakistan supporters, we’re all frustrated and upset by the meek manner in which our team has surrendered to an Australian side that runs more on mental toughness than it does cricketing skill. Yet, to blame Mohammad Yousuf’s captaincy for the situation our team currently finds itself in is quite unfair. Dr Abbasi has been an outspoken supporter of Younis Khan as captain in the past and maybe his overly harsh criticism of Yousuf this time has something to do with this.

Yousuf has taken over at a difficult time with very little captaincy experience. We mustn’t forget that it was Younis who chickened out of the tours to New Zealand and Australia. Maybe he knew that staying in the background while Pakistan lose in Australia would make him look a better captain. Sadly, through the eyes of some it has.

It is extremely difficult to set fields or captain when your players cannot do the basics in the field or their job with the bat. A captain is only as good as his players. Until the last innings, Ponting hadn’t done much, he even made the mistake of batting first in the 2nd Test, but he’s soon going to find himself as the winning captain in a 3-0 series whitewash. Why? Because he could rely on his players. Yousuf, on the other hand, had nothing to fall back on. Nobody questioned Yousuf’s captaincy in New Zealand. Nobody questioned Yousuf’s captaincy in the 1st innings of the second Test. The difference was that the players were performing to some degree. Yet what of the roles of the coaching staff in this? Any blame Yousuf is deserving of must surely be shared by Intikhab Alam and Waqar Younis who don’t strike me as the finest examples of human intelligence.

For Dr Abbasi to say “nothing has been more dismal than the captaincy of Mohammad Yousuf” is blatantly incorrect. If any are to blame more than Yousuf, then it’s those that have dropped catches, Dr Abbasi’s namesake in particular, and those that haven’t scored well. It isn’t Yousuf’s captaincy that has played Ponting’s batsmen into “glorious form” as Dr Abbasi says, it’s those men. Had we taken just our catches, Yousuf would look a genius right now. But what does a captain do when he’s captaining a bunch of clowns?

Mohammad Yousuf: Took over in difficult circumstances & let down by team

Dr Abbasi was also critical of Yousuf for the fields our bowlers bowled to and the manner in which they bowled. Don’t our bowlers have a mind of their own? Don’t they know where to bowl? Bowlers can demand changes to fields, you see others teams bowlers doing it so why couldn’t ours? A simple question to ask is if we were to take Yousuf out of the side and put in another captain would we have been in a much better position right now? Well, the manner in which we batted and fielded, I doubt it. How can anyone attribute most blame to Yousuf’s captaincy then?

I think what fuelled Dr Abbasi’s disgust even more was listening to the Australian commentators such as Shane Warne, Richi Benaud and Mark Taylor; men that Dr Abbasi refers to as “some of the greatest Australian minds”. I did speak about the dangers of listening to these commentators on a previous post as their blatant biasness would leave many Pakistan supporters’ judgment skewed and end up filing them with rage. Mark Taylor isn’t the best friend of Pakistan as anyone who had listened to him in the wake of Bob Woolmer’s death and the Lahore attacks would know. Richie Benaud is someone who makes sly and cocky statements and really should tone down his cockiness in his old age as it is not a way to go for someone who doesn’t have long to go. As for the great Shane Warne, is it his womanising, match fixing or illegal substance taking greatness which makes his opinion so valid? Also, there were reasons why he was never made Australian captain.

Many people may still believe that Younis is a better captain than Yousuf, and in some ways, I’ll probably agree. But to criticise him this much for our current situation is very unfair. But whatever his downfalls, at least Yousuf hasn’t run off yet like a certain someone. Mohammad Yousuf may not be the greatest captain in the world, but this decent man certainly doesn’t deserve to be shamed like this.

Last chance for a talent unfulfilled

So why Sami and not anyone from our contracted players? We have Rana Naved, though not an out and out pace bowler, he has many strings to his bow. Rana is quite expensive though and this is probably the reason why he has never been favoured in Tests. Then there’s Sohail Tanvir and Yasir Arafat, both of whom can bat a bit and would have added strength to an already fragile batting line up. We also have Sohail Khan, a young raw talent who’s played just the one Test, against Sri Lanka earlier this year in which he failed to take any wickets and went for more than 6 runs per over. Also, there have been better performing fast bowlers on the domestic circuit, yet because of the poor quality of our domestic league, we cannot really use those performances as the be all and end all argument, whether it’s for or against the selection of any player.

I do not want to be too critical of Sami’s inclusion as I just have the sneaky feeling that if he does play, he will do quite well. After all, if Sami ever wanted an incentive to succeed, here it is. Having been in the wilderness since 2007 and now almost 29 years of age, with the emergence of the likes of Mohammad Aamer, even Sami would not have imagined he’d get an opportunity like this.

What seems to have worked in Sami’s favour is his experience at the top level and the fact that he has played in Australia before. In December 2004, Sami took 5 wickets in two Tests, having bowled 68 overs at almost 4.5 runs an over. Another advantage is the fact that Waqar Younis, who Sami has played and worked with before, will be with the team as bowling coach. Considering the above, his inclusion does seem to be a reasonable decision. Looking at it from Sami’s point of view, it is a great chance for him to get back in the team and go some way to fulfilling his obvious potential.