The Pakistan cricket team has failed to show the same character and spirit during the Sri Lanka series that helped it lift the ICC World Twenty20 title. The series loss in both Tests and ODIs has once again forced the Pakistan team’s fervent followers to lose faith in the side’s ability and commitment.
Is it too early to call the T20 triumph a fluke? Does the Pakistan team deserve more international matches to regain its form in the longer versions of the game, or is it time to make some wholesale changes?
Presidential yoke and change – Long overdue at PCB
Domestic set up is flawed!
Recent statement by Younis Khan concerning the set up of cricket in the country but either it’s a case of late revelation to the chiding Pakistan captain or a rude awakening in the light of continuous defeats suffered in both tests and ODI’s during the team’s recent tour to Sri Lanka.
Pakistan cricket team and for that matter the whole country was basking in T20/twenty world cup glory barely six weeks from now. Such ripples and euphoria however, would continue to prove temporary in nature and dissipate quickly even in the near future if measures that are long overdue are not taken to put the overall PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) house in order.
In this regard, talk about the much needed overhaul of the system has been heard in the past and seen reverberating amongst the cricketing circles for some years but all such endeavors have yielded little as these pleas have fallen on deaf ears of the bureaucracy. Leading from the front have been cricketing legends of the past – notably Imran Khan, Miandad, Wasim Akram and of late other contemporaries who have joined the band wagon in good faith.
It has been identified that the role of the bureaucracy which finds its roots in the Presidency itself may have to be reduced and diminished to an extent that renders the process of democratic election throughout the working of this institution to evolve going forward. The PCB has been run on an ad-hoc basis for rather too long and the process of hand picked selections and nominations continue unabated with no end in sight.
Dr. Nasim Ashraf’s example is fresh in memory and lends a strong point in case. After Musharraf’s ouster from the Presidency, Dr. Ashraf resigned promptly. Why? If a change in Presidency is to have ill effects on the normal continued running of a sports body in the country such as the PCB – then, we need to de-link it from President’s office in its present form and shape. After the key administrator(s) of the game are hand picked and nominated by the Presidential office, the undesired precedence of this selection process continues, thereon.
Talking of remedy, first and foremost in this regard is the key demand that has been circulating in the media for a while and calls for ridding the PCB of this Presidential yoke.
The PCB needs to flourish as an institution so that it may provide focus on nurturing the game of cricket in the country that we all Pakistanis cherish. It’s time for a change!
Mohsin Malik
San Francisco Bay Area
Well, for starters we need to overhaul not only the domestic cricket structure but also the PCB management. A management that can handle all the challenges through an approach that reflects not only prudence but far-sightedness as well; at the national and the global level. Global being the priority, as the national issues should be handed over, to an extent, to the local (city or regional) associations. It is the responsibility of the PCB to ensure that Pakistan gets its fair share of Test matches, as this disappointing situation cannot just be blamed on the country’s security situation (the ICC’s FTP or Future Tours Program speaks for itself for the past few years or so, for the board’s failure in this regard).
Then we have the very crucial issue, unnecessarily dragged on for a long time, of the batting technique. Efficient solutions lie at the building of proper coaching academies, etc. (at all major centers across the country)for the aspiring young cricketers coming up. A batting coach with the national team might not just be the answer. Another issue that has come up time and again is mental toughness, at the test level in particular. Desperately need to cope with it. Last, but not the least, perhaps Younis Khan should be given the authority (with team selection and strategizing) the same as was enjoyed by former captain Imran Khan.
Give the Pak cricketers a break. They cannot win every tournament. No team can. The Indian team was lambasted for their T-20 performance because they failed to play a credible game. Not because they lost. They went on to win the West Indies tour and are almost on top of the rankings. Same with Pak or any other team. Good luck to them.
Need openers, and i think Misbah and Yousaf should retire from one day.
Hi i think all pakistan team need is that the captain himself accept failure rather then hurling it on the other team members, he should himself consider to be part of the whole team and lift the morale of the team as a whole this would once again give birth to unity in team…. otherwise pakistan as we all know is far superior than Sri Lankan cricket team…frankly speaking.
Self destruction has become a part of our society. We can blame on many things from good domestic infra to administration but the reality is that the present team has performed 100% below their potential. Constant shuffling of the players, wrong selection of playing 11, no batting coach, and temperant of our batsman are basics that we need to work on first. Our investment of multiple years in players like Sulman Butt, Sohail Tanvir, Misbah-ul-Haq, and others should be preserved. Throwing 3-4 new players in the team based on domestic stats is not going to resolve the situation. There must be proper evaluation of their technique and temperament before selecting them.
Time to make a wholesale change, again i would say it is time and very right time to make a wholesale change because we have to keep very important tournaments in mind which will be played in near including world cup which is not too far, it is very clean that the management including captain and coach performance including their plans either do not exist and if they do then they are not good enough at all for modern international cricket.
We need more clever and inteligent coach and a captain, we can make this decision only now cant make it days,weeks or few months before the world cup plus few more management and selection tactics needs to change in order to bring pakistan back on track.
Again i would say we have got a decent combination and less brains in terms of coach and captain you can see that clear on field if you are a regular follower of pakistan cricket, we need change now before it gets too late as our cricket team and reputation in international cricket is going down match by match, thanks to twenty20 world cup success apart from that we have not seen any joy as a pakistani cricket supporter.
Yep. A total fluke.
I simply believe that the Pakistan team simply lost because they did not choose the right team for all 3 of the ODIs. This is how the team should have been in my view:
1. Imran Nazir; proven match-winner for any Pak team.
2. Nasir Jamshed/Fawad Alam; Jamshed is a solid opener who has contributed 50s to Pakistan wins whilst Alam opened admirably in the Tests to conjure a superb century
3. Younis Khan; he is the captain and can hold the fire for a while if the openers collapse.
4. Umar Akmal; impressive youngster who can attack and defend as the situation dictates.
5. Mohammad Yousuf; adds solidity to the lineup as his average of over 40 in ODIs dictates.
6. Shahid Afridi; matchwinner and allrounder…would be in any Pak side.
7. Kamran Akmal; the only wicketkeeper in the squad. Will have to do until Pakistan find a keeper who can actually keep decently.
8. Abdul Razzaq/Shoaib Akhtar; useful allrounder to have but I would prefer having a specialist bowler rather than one who bowls part-time.
9. Umar Gul; proven matchwinner with the ball
10. Mohammad Aamer; the brightest young talent in Pakistan.
11. Saeed Ajmal; up and coming spinner who can keep one end tight in the middle overs.
This is the side which I think should have entered the series and if Mohammad Asif was fit I would have added him to my line-up too becuase he and Shoaib add the sizzle from the line-up that has been missing as of late.
We are very emotional people and cannot take defeat with the victory in sports. I think the problem is not with the team but with the PCB. The team was not provided to play test cricket for almost 2 years, due to bad planning of the board. Even now the board is not doing enough to arrange more and more international engagements to compensate for the non-availability of home series. We all know we have so much of talent in this team and so many others knocking at the door to dislodge the older players… Give them some time and more international exposer and they will deliver. If we analyze critically their performances, they have not done that badly. However, they lacked in finishing which needs mental strength and training and it all comes with the experience and more test cricket. Last but not least, do not forget that SL is one of the top teams in the world today, especially in their home conditions.
No international team want to travel to Pakistan to play and you want Pakistan team to excel in it? We are blaming the cricketers but not the real culprit.
When Pakistan team get more exposure- they will do much better and will play like a champion as they are- i have full faith on them.
Defeat extremism and corruption and then you can dream of excelling in Cricket as well as other fields….
Guy,
The real problem is not the lack of talent in the team or lack of international matches the team has not played nor it is overhauling of team or the selection of the players. The real problem is a lack of mental fortitude and predatory instincts among Pakistan players. The mental toughness and never say die attitude is very much a part of your upbringing and the background you come from. Most of the players in Pakistani team comes from small towns with meager education but with lot of talent. Bring that player with a small town mentality in international arena, although you will see lot of cussing and swearing and chest thumping from these guys but the calm steel nerves just melts when team is faced with a dire situation and they all capitulate. Agreed, that their talent plays a vital role in cricket but cricket is also a game of steel nerves and mental toughness which Pakistani team is seriously lacking. You can have a loads of raw talent but if you lack mental toughness during the critical hour of the game, even mediocre bowlers will look like speed demons. Pakistani youngsters have to be Psychologicaly groomed just like the army soldiers training at the boot camp. All the players in Pakistani team needs to be Psychologically profiled and where ever they lack they should be trained in mental toughness.
Cricket is a totally different game today than it was 10 years ago. It has turned out to be much more physiological and strategical game today Vs purely being physical back then. That was the main reason why West Indies won so many world cups however today I feel that Pakistan and West Indies are the only two teams that have not moved on to the new era of cricket. We are constantly over working our old methodologies, experiences and techniques to work in modern cricket.
If Pakistan cricket needs to be competitive in today’s world we need a complete change. We need to let go of Wasim, Waqar, Intikab Alaam, Javeed Mian Adad, Aqib Javid, Ramiz Raja and many more professors who are harming Pakistan cricket then doing good.
We need to invest in newer training facilities, International Coaches , Psychologist that can better mentally prepare our team from the next game .
Mistakes are made. every team goes through big problems to become a good team. look at south africa as an example at a time they were nothing, the whole team was destroyed still they faced the problem with courage and now they are the world’s best team. Pakistan just needs some time. there is no problem with younis khan or intekhab alam. more trouble comes from shoaib malik, misbah and muhammad yousaf who are not performing at all.
Its interesting to see how quickly Pakistan dropped their best performer Mohammad Yousuf who was only one to play two good inning in 3 test and scored at an avg abvoe 42 despite the fact that he was international cricket after a long time. But he was quickly dropped in one days after only 1 failure. Why Younis Khan is still in the team after a long history of failure ??? What has Kamran Akmal done beside dropping crucial catches behind the wicket ……… How about Shoaib Malik…. one inning in 3 test is enought to keep him in the side????? Why are we playing with 4 or 5 all rounders and just two or 3 specialist batsmen?
Winning the T20 WC was definitely not a fluke, because Pakistan is the only country in the world that reached the finals of T20 WC on both occasions, losing the first one with a narrow margin and winning the second WC. So, those who believe it was a fluke should think twice before saying nothing.
Talking about “making wholesale changes” in the team is very easy, emotional, impractical and highly disastrous. Pakistan has done this before after the 1999 WC i.e., after the betting scandal and suffered heavily. It took several years to re-establish a new team under Inzamam ul Haq. Therefore, induction of the new players and changes in the team must be slow and gradual.
However, making major changes in the PCB administration and to improve the domestic cricket structure in Pakistan is necessary and must be done with proper long term planning and deliberate thinking.
I think Younas Khan is sincere and trying to build the momentum in the other forms of the game as well. Its not his fault that nobody showed up at our door for cricket.
I think what he is plowing today will be fruitful tomorrow.
Go Team Pakistan. We are with you in the rainy days as well.
Better Batting coaching…
I agree with Taz, this team is about the best in a very long time. Individually they performed, but lack consistency.
The team needs to get into winning mindset, use proper batting techniques, to avoid collapses, which became a norm in last few weeks.
Massive change will cause instability which will take years to recover, just like when Waqar, Wasim and others were removed after the World cup.
AOA!
If team raises its performance profile, and it has few icons in bowling and batting, then, there is high probability that, it would be increasingly difficult to ignore pakistani team, and that will open up the international exposure and interest in it, as it used to be.
Speed either in bowling or batting is always thrilling and is life line of good cricket.
Go easy boys………. that’s our problem. One loss and we start bashing our players. Where is sportsmanship?
The losses were not from a wide margin which makes we believe we are on the right track ……… Need good/solid openers though.
There should be no room for underperformers……. Thank god we got rid of Salman Butt, butt what’s next
I do believe that old horses need to be get rid of Shoaib Malik, Misbah, Yousuf……and new blood needed.
I believe the major problem area concentrates around administration than the playing team. The admin lacks substantial thought process and planning – combination which eventually make any team gain professional grounds. Unfortunately, with Pakistan as a nation, we hardly see planning and vision in most fields – be it politics, sports, administration, etc. Perhaps instinct is what we dwell on and get success on and off but never get close to being consistent. As a result, all you find is rifts, from board to administration to team – how can you expect to do well in such an environment.
The captaincy have been below average. It make me think that Younis is a person with no ability to handle the crisis situations. It seems that he has no plan and just not taking the game serious and somebody should tell him stop smiling, it looks insane now.
He has no excuse now, he has all the power to select and make plan, if he is still failing this mean he cannot deliver more on it.
Winning & Losing does not matter? Oh well hello!!!, its not 1901, you are in 2009, it does matter to our nation. You are playing on an international level, not a street cricket. You got coaches for fielding, bowling, batting, you got facilities to shape your abilities, what else you need?
If we had not forgotten our main principles, Probably we would have been the best team for ever, Those three principles are, Unity, Faith and Discipline, and unfortunately our whole Cricket (board/officials/players) is lacking to follow these principles.
Just take out the politics from Cricket, and remind our players time to time that they are playing for PAKISTAN, and … everything will be set.
The captaincy have been below average. It make me think that Younis is a person with no ability to happen the crisis situations. It seens that he has no plan and just no taking the game serious and somebody should tell him stop smiling, it looks insane now.
He has no excuse now, he has all the power to select and make plan, if he is failing this is mean he cannot deliver more on it.
most of us keep blaming the players again and again, but if we look in the last 2 matches, alot of changes have been made, but still bad result. this means our old good for nothing burden on pcb management people like Ijaz Butt, Yawar Saeed, Intihab Alam and may be young but certainly old in performance Mr. Aqib Javeed. This coach if i remember was a burden on our team in his time of playing and now has become a burden on our management as a couch. Also I am sure that there was no role of any of these people in winning the worldcup. That was all cause of the prayers and a lil hard work by the players and players only.
I request the Honourable Prime Minister to please Sack all of these burdens from the PCB immediately and bring the Deserving people into business.