Pakistan left the cricketing world stunned with their 72-run win over England in the second Test match at Abu Dhabi. As the team erupted in celebrations at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, one of the prominent scenes was that of stand-in coach Mohsin Hasan Khan being thrown in jubilation by his team.
Much of Pakistan’s recent success has been (rightly) credited to the captaincy of Misbah-ul-Haq and his team’s newfound work ethic. Pakistan have now won all of their last four Test series, three of which have been played under the former chief selector, Khan, who took over the coaching reigns after the departure of Waqar Younis.
While Khan has been acting as the national team’s coach, the Pakistan Cricket Board has been looking to hire a permanent replacement for Younis. In former Sri Lanka and Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore, the board seems to have found the replacement but no official announcement has been made so far.
All this while, Khan has made no secret of his desire to continue with the job and has made a serious case for himself with the team’s recent success. However, with Whatmore being reportedly given the nod, Khan’s days as coach seem counted.
The PCB faces the dilemma of removing a coach who has not lost a series since he took charge, with a man who last coached a national side without much success.
Should the board go ahead and hire Whatmore as the permanent coach? Or should Khan’s tenure be extended?
If the coach is, indeed, changed, will it affect the team’s performance?
Dawn.com invites its readers to give their views and suggestions.
1. Why tinker with something that is working well.
2. Winning is about game plan, skills, dedication and patriotism. The latter cannot be expected of a foreign coach.
Mohsin Khan is and will be one our hero.
Lets not drag him into politics, let them work things out for the best by people who know best.
Our focus and demands must be on the right choice of people @ PCB level where political motivated appointments of the officials make mockery of our great players and Heros, it is here that the moral of our players and teams is degraded
Mohsin Khan has been an aggressive opening batsman during his time. He brings this attitude to his coaching also.He has played under great Imran Khan and knows how to use his boys.During his time the atmosphere in the dressing room is extremely friendly.Another major point is that most of the players of the team do not speak english therefore they have difficulty in communicating with the coach.Finance is another important issue.Instead of paying ten crore rupees to a foreign coach, same money can be spent on the promotion of cricket in Pakistan. You can build more than one stadium in the remote areas of the country.This could be very usefull for future of cricket.I would think that a Pakistani coach should be continued instead of bringing in a foreign coach.I therefore favor Mohsin Khan.
I just fail to understand as why we are too emotional about (possible) replacement of Mohsin Khan by Whatmore. The former was a great player and latter has a proven track record of coaching. Our batting is actually sucks, its the bowling which is winning matches for us, but for how long…its a million dollar question. We must not forget waqar younus’s contribution as coach if it had not been Afridi’s immaturity then waqar would have continued with us.
While rejoicing this success we must not forget that its still a long way to go and for that we need a professional coach.
Moshin has done a gr8 job that was not possible by their previous coaches. I would say that all the previous coaches have failed to unify pak team. Under Moshin, Pak is playing like a unit,there is absolutely no need to change or replace Moshin,may be Pak can use D Whatmore’s experience to improve its domestic circuit.
Mohsin is a pakistani if we win a major event in international arena if we have a foreigner as a coach some what our mouth taste is sour like there is something is missing in our success that is our coaching if a team win it is winning of entire team with his coach if a coach is foreigner the team winning is pakistani and winner coach is australian the victory is mixing not complete if a team represent a country it should be represent fully every member belong from this country.mohsin in this context a good choice
Where one player may play better than the other on the day, it may also be said that winning combination is always and I must emphasis always is a team effort.
Lets not make the same mistakes we always do praise the star players on the day and ignore winning contribution by others.
They are all expected to perform well! With this performance no team in the world can beat them
We were always let down by high and mighty. Without corruption we always had the best in the world!
Proud of all the players, I congratulate everyone involved with the present team. Very well done!
I don’t think PCB or Zaka Ashraf is creasy to hire a coach from abroad while Mohsin Khan is performing his coaching assignment with excellence. I was born and bread in India living in New York, watching whole night cricket matches played between England vs Pakistan.
I dont think Mohsin Khan is behind these victories, its the captain and the players who are gelling together and playing with honesty, the fixers are out of the team, hence the results. Mohsin just happens to be there at the right time in the right place.
I would like Dav WHatmore to be given the reigns of this team for moving forward in positive direction. Dav has proven track-record that speaks for itself, Mohsin Khan can be used as a batting coach,
The simple fact is Moshin has a far better record than Whatmore. At the end of the day, results matter. A coach for the national team needs special skills. India had excellent results with Wright & Kirsten as coaches but pathetic results with Chappel & Fletcher, even though the core of the team remained constant through the changes. Just as it is important to continue iwth a successful captain, it is important to continue with successful coaches.
Why do we have gora complex? We have enough talent to run a world class team. Mohsin must be given a longer term contract. He was a good player and proved to be a good coach.
Our batting is a real concern. We have failed to score more than 350 in any innings on dead tracks in UAE. BATTING NEEDS A RETHINK A FRESH STRATEGY. WHATMORE CAN DO IT.
Agree with Mr Kaleem’s comments entirely!!! Let’s not get too josheela about this all. Mohsin has done well, and credit due, but we shouldn’t forget that most of today’s success is also because of Waqar and Aaqib. However, we shouldn’t for a second believe we are ready for overseas tests, and our batsmen and team are in dire need of playing at a higher level, with much higher technical ability. Dave Whatmore would be a great addition. Mohsin Khan is a great uncle to have around, and all that works ok, but he is not a world class coach and Pakistan needs one. I don’t know why we get so concerned about winning streaks….a coach is needed for grooming talent, finding younger stars, working with existing ones. I don’t think Mohsin is capable of all that. Perhaps keep Mohsin as deputy coach to Whatmore who can run more than just a coaching job and also look at Pakistan Cricket as a whole in terms of scouting structure–clearly people at PCB have no clue about that!
I totally agree with mr . kaleem…..
Replacing Mohsin Khan might threaten the existing culture of Pakistan Cricket Team, which seems to be doing very well unders the leadership of Misbah and guidance of Mohsin Khan, it has the cutlute which is built aroung key values of ‘strving for the best, perform to earn respect, commitment to learning and built the image through team unity’- Why changing the Coach would threaten the culture ? beacuse if you replace the best performing coach that too an inspiring Pakistani coach then the players might take more time to accept a foreign coach, and if during the early days of the new coach Team starts losing, then it would highlight the ‘decision as blunder; and migh trigger negative events– Not good for Pakistan Cricket. BUT who would take the bold decision in the board to KEEP Mohsin Khan, a cultured man with right spirit, intentions and knowledge to serve pakistan cricket. Lets stand with Mohsin and praise our team which is performing so well! Keep it up green shirts, You bring smile to otherwise dejected people of Pakistan….Keep it up.
Mohsin himself a blessed fighter cricketer has been closed to Imran and played brilliantlly under his captaincy, is now acting coach and within months he has proven his mettle by transforming loosers into fighting winners…does he still need to go down against a foreign coach ?? can’t you see jubiliation in team and how they respect theoir coach….if even this is not a signal for PCB, they need to leave job (cheif of Board) Plz.
Keep Mohsin Khan. Give him a bonus, promise him more if he wins more matches!
I fully agree with Farhan Khan (Jan. 30) and further add that Pakistan Cricket in Pakistan do not lack any talent in any department of Cricket. What really Pakistan Sports need is honesty, sincerity and a long lasting vision. More over it all depends on the hard work of players and the captain.
And at the end of the day if the team looses, it will blame herself only.
The decisions always made on “Vision” rather on “Situation”. If PCB has decided few months ago that it has to go on foreign and qualified coach, then definitely the task for the coach has been identified earlier and it was also decided that qualified coach is required to carryout these tasks.
What happen if Pakistan lost next couple of series? Shall we remove coach? This is not a professional manner of working. You decide and stick on it despite the result if you know my decision is right and well planned then it will pay off, just wait.
Also, the decision shall be made on worst case basis. Worst case may be Pakistan start losing, players start struggling and bad patch occur, bowlers need technical tuning, Mohsin has no idea.
If PCB decided earlier about MOhsin, I may not have any issue but if the decision is because team wins the I am against this situational decisions.
What is wrong with PCB. If Mohsin gave even a slight hint of staying as Pakistan coach, I would give him the job in a hearbeat with no second thougth. I heard the Zaka Ashraf who replaced Ijaz Butt what he said infront of the media that Mohsin is not a professional coach, I just could not beleive what I was hearing. Mohsin Khan and Misbah are the two best things that happened to Pakistan cricket and Pakistan in general in the sports arena since Imran Khan won the World Cup in 1992. The problem is the selection of Zaka Ashraf himself as the chairman of the cricket board; this is what happens when someone is selected based on not what he knows about the game but who he knows. If I was in any way incharge I would fire Zaka Ashraf on the spot for just making that statement infront of the media.
Credit goes to Mohsin Khan in formation of winning combination of Pakistan,s cricket squad.The team is politics and difference free at this juncture.There is complete harmony among the players.Every player is performing and playing with true spirit.Mohsin Khan deserves applaud and encouragement so PCB should allow him to continue his services as a coach and not look towards abroad to hire services of a coach for the team.
Mohsin Khan is senceable, experienced and intelectual person, I belive that PCB should retail him as a coach for long tenure. We have already experienced multiple time the foreign intructors in different field and they failed. while we know that we have world class experienced cricketers who can do that job professionaly. It always draw back for us that we don`t respect our heroes as they deserved. While if they offer their services to other countries then we are one who blame them. think about ……
do we always need a white men as a coach. although not very fond of Mohsin, I believe he has done a good job and should continue as a coach of Pakistan team.
The greatest achievement of Mohsin has been to keep the team united. This is because of the simple reason that he has kept himself above the petty issues of caste and creed. The same we observed during his chief selector job as well. He should continue as coach.
Pakistan needs to find at least one wicket taking match winner pace bowler. Also we need to have good batting coach to train young talent.
If england can have separate batting, spin bowling coach, why not pakistan? Inzimam can b a good batting coach under mohsin khan.
I agree with Kaleem on this matter….Mohsin Khan sure produced some results but u cannot say that that was his fruit….he cannot take credit for what Waqar Younis built….yes Waqar was the man who rose the team from the depths of scandals and injuries…plus not to forget khan is a quitter himself…so what makes him so capable to be long term with literary no experience in coaching…our bowling was great lets face it our batting has gone worse in the last few years i mean its been like decades since a