Is it time to lower the life boats? Or prepare to bail out? To send an SOS? Well, the situation may not be so dire, but it is not too far from it!
The Pakistan cricket team is reeling from the hammering it has received from the once puny Bangladesh team. It had been expected that there would be a dip in our performance following the retirements of Misbahul Haq and Shahid Afridi and the absence of several key players. But the sheer extent of the losses, and the ease with which the Bangladesh batsman toyed with our attack, leaves room for serious concern.
A case can be made of the fact that this was a post-World Cup slump and that several key players were not there. Even so, it speaks volumes of the lack of depth in Pakistan’s domestic cricket setup and the yawning gap between our domestic cricket and the world cricketing standard. Why is it that Australia can develop players who come into their team and begin to perform immediately? It is because their domestic cricket is very close to the Test standard. This is a subject that our cricket board might choose to avoid at their peril.
A cricket board executive could be forgiven for thinking that development of domestic cricket is a thankless job. There is no publicity, no headlines. The fruit of his efforts would probably be eaten by the next administration. So stick to big media events like foreign tours, hiring super expensive coaching teams that have yet to deliver and going to high profile conferences at exorbitant costs. It should be remembered that when Majid Khan ran Pakistan cricket, the staff at the PCB totalled 13. Today, one could run a small military campaign with the number employed. The PCB’s resources are being squandered to the extent that the tail is wagging the dog.
There is no point reopening the wounds of the Bangladesh fiasco. What we need to do is to look to resurrecting our cricket from the depths that we have sunk to. The first thing that we need to accept is that the “doosra” is no more. The ball that could be bowled with a sharp straightening of the elbow is now history. This has turned Saeed Ajmal into a mere trundler who might pick up a wicket if a batsman lost concentration. His cricket career is effectively over as is that of all other doosra bowlers in domestic cricket. With spin bowlers, we have to return to the basics. Muttiah Muralitharan should count his blessings. The most extreme doosra bowler of all, he retired at the right time.
Our pace-men received their share of the stick. They could not bowl the line and length that the Bangladeshis did and were routed by batters who used their feet to change the length of the ball at will. How could they play with such abandon whereas it seemed our batting lineup was playing from memory? The answer may rest with the coaching staff. Even in the World Cup our batsmen were strangely hesitant, playing completely out of character, out of synch with their personalities. Perhaps that explains Shehzad’s strangely subdued performance and his reported dust up with the head coach. The time to change a batsman’s technique or playing style is when he is evolving as a player. When the die is cast and his game has progressed to where his performances earn him a place in the team, here is this coach who has to justify the outlandish salary that he is receiving by telling him what he is doing right or wrong. There is no time to think in batting. You think, you lose. Everything is a pre-programmed response. Tamper with it at your peril.
A batsman’s job might be one of the most stressful in sport. One mistake and you are out. The opportunity to make up for the mistake might come after hours of pondering one’s future. What a batsman needs is a mentor, a teammate, someone who understands his game, where it came from, where the slightest change in footwork might be beneficial. It’s the same with the bowlers. No one can help them more than their team mates on the ground, their captain, who should also be their mentor.
So then, are we saying that coaching is unnecessary? Not entirely. A good coach can pinpoint one point in a player’s game, which, if changed can take the player to the next level. A great coach can help him change it without affecting other parts of his game. The best coach is the one who is aware of his limitations. Intekhab Alam was that type of coach, more a father figure, a good listener, easy to get along with. Intekhab, one feels, was not one to change techniques just before a major event. In 1992 he was fortunate in having Imran as captain, someone who understood technique better than most. The result, coupled with a lot of luck, was spectacular. This team is not even half as good.
What the Pakistan team definitely needs is a full time sports psychologist or regular access to one who can talk to the players, mentor them and teach them to think in the present. They can do this in person or over any internet video chat. The results will be immediate. In other sports like tennis, there are experts who will analyse videos over the internet, in real time with the concerned player and with the help of specialized software can advise on the smallest changes in technique. Surely this could be done in cricket at very negligible cost.
A certain amount of confusion seems to be in evidence at the PCB. It’s functioning as a bureaucracy. Everyone seems to be covering his own rear. No one will be admitting to any shortcomings. But the results are evident. And they are grimly forbidding for the future. We are not seeing the forest for the trees. Pakistan cricket needs a leader who is not afraid of taking cricketing decisions, who the players respect.
The Pakistan cricket team is reeling from the hammering it has received from the once puny Bangladesh team. It had been expected that there would be a dip in our performance following the retirements of Misbahul Haq and Shahid Afridi and the absence of several key players. But the sheer extent of the losses, and the ease with which the Bangladesh batsman toyed with our attack, leaves room for serious concern.
A case can be made of the fact that this was a post-World Cup slump and that several key players were not there. Even so, it speaks volumes of the lack of depth in Pakistan’s domestic cricket setup and the yawning gap between our domestic cricket and the world cricketing standard. Why is it that Australia can develop players who come into their team and begin to perform immediately? It is because their domestic cricket is very close to the Test standard. This is a subject that our cricket board might choose to avoid at their peril.
Pakistan team definitely needs a full time sports psychologist
A cricket board executive could be forgiven for thinking that development of domestic cricket is a thankless job. There is no publicity, no headlines. The fruit of his efforts would probably be eaten by the next administration. So stick to big media events like foreign tours, hiring super expensive coaching teams that have yet to deliver and going to high profile conferences at exorbitant costs. It should be remembered that when Majid Khan ran Pakistan cricket, the staff at the PCB totalled 13. Today, one could run a small military campaign with the number employed. The PCB’s resources are being squandered to the extent that the tail is wagging the dog.
There is no point reopening the wounds of the Bangladesh fiasco. What we need to do is to look to resurrecting our cricket from the depths that we have sunk to. The first thing that we need to accept is that the “doosra” is no more. The ball that could be bowled with a sharp straightening of the elbow is now history. This has turned Saeed Ajmal into a mere trundler who might pick up a wicket if a batsman lost concentration. His cricket career is effectively over as is that of all other doosra bowlers in domestic cricket. With spin bowlers, we have to return to the basics. Muttiah Muralitharan should count his blessings. The most extreme doosra bowler of all, he retired at the right time.
Saeed Ajmal's cricket career is effectively over
Our pace-men received their share of the stick. They could not bowl the line and length that the Bangladeshis did and were routed by batters who used their feet to change the length of the ball at will. How could they play with such abandon whereas it seemed our batting lineup was playing from memory? The answer may rest with the coaching staff. Even in the World Cup our batsmen were strangely hesitant, playing completely out of character, out of synch with their personalities. Perhaps that explains Shehzad’s strangely subdued performance and his reported dust up with the head coach. The time to change a batsman’s technique or playing style is when he is evolving as a player. When the die is cast and his game has progressed to where his performances earn him a place in the team, here is this coach who has to justify the outlandish salary that he is receiving by telling him what he is doing right or wrong. There is no time to think in batting. You think, you lose. Everything is a pre-programmed response. Tamper with it at your peril.
A batsman’s job might be one of the most stressful in sport. One mistake and you are out. The opportunity to make up for the mistake might come after hours of pondering one’s future. What a batsman needs is a mentor, a teammate, someone who understands his game, where it came from, where the slightest change in footwork might be beneficial. It’s the same with the bowlers. No one can help them more than their team mates on the ground, their captain, who should also be their mentor.
Our pace-men received their share of stick
So then, are we saying that coaching is unnecessary? Not entirely. A good coach can pinpoint one point in a player’s game, which, if changed can take the player to the next level. A great coach can help him change it without affecting other parts of his game. The best coach is the one who is aware of his limitations. Intekhab Alam was that type of coach, more a father figure, a good listener, easy to get along with. Intekhab, one feels, was not one to change techniques just before a major event. In 1992 he was fortunate in having Imran as captain, someone who understood technique better than most. The result, coupled with a lot of luck, was spectacular. This team is not even half as good.
What the Pakistan team definitely needs is a full time sports psychologist or regular access to one who can talk to the players, mentor them and teach them to think in the present. They can do this in person or over any internet video chat. The results will be immediate. In other sports like tennis, there are experts who will analyse videos over the internet, in real time with the concerned player and with the help of specialized software can advise on the smallest changes in technique. Surely this could be done in cricket at very negligible cost.
A certain amount of confusion seems to be in evidence at the PCB. It’s functioning as a bureaucracy. Everyone seems to be covering his own rear. No one will be admitting to any shortcomings. But the results are evident. And they are grimly forbidding for the future. We are not seeing the forest for the trees. Pakistan cricket needs a leader who is not afraid of taking cricketing decisions, who the players respect.