WHAT IT TAKES TO BE COACH OF THE PAKISTAN CRICKET TEAM

Javed Miandad was undoubtedly one of the finest batsmen of his era. Tenacious, fiercely competitive with a tomcat like survival instinct he was, along with Sunil Gavaskar, the very finest Pre-Tendulkar batsmen the subcontinent had produced. However, when it comes to coaching cricket, he is a total fiasco and a laughing stock.

In years gone by it was taken for granted that the most successful cricketers would naturally make the most successful coaches. This long adhered to theory has recently been obliterated by a succession of world class, even revolutionary coaches whose cricketing careers had been mediocre at very best. No disrespect to Bob Woolmer of South Africa and England who was a “bread and butter” cricketer for years at Kent, performing admirably with the ball as a pedestrian medium pacer who wobbled the ball a bit and an increasingly dogged and determined batsman who slowly found himself being elevated up the order until he finally reached the very top of the order. Woolmer was a very useful “bits and pieces” cricketer who made the most of his abilities and ended up playing Test cricket for England and If I recall correctly he even scored (a painfully slow) 149 against the old Enemy when they boasted Lillie, Thomson and Walker.

Though he didn’t exactly set the world of Test Cricket on fire as a player he truly made his presence felt years later when he began his stint of coaching the South African cricket team that had been in international wilderness due to Apartheid. Woolmer brought a scientific, modern approach to coaching that literally revolutionized the way cricket was coached all over the world (except Pakistan).

Dav Whatmore was the next coach who had a rather less than memorable career as a player. He took Sri Lanka from being the typically talented yet temperamental and volatile side to becoming One Day World Champions even though they had very limited bowling resources. The Lankan team underwent a total transformation under Whatmore’s instruction – their fielding alone improved at least ten fold and they were unrecognisable from the talented yet utterly inconsistent outfit they had previously been.

Recently we have seen Australia become a cricketing superpower, setting standards at every aspect of the game leaving the rest playing catch up. Their side was not exactly a pushover when John Buchanan was selected as Coach. John who? was most people’s reaction as the man hadn’t even played Test cricket and was pretty much a mediocrity as a first class cricketer. Australia has flourished under Buchanan’s tutelage and clearly he is the man who has followed Bob Woolmer’s lead and refined those strategies and techniques to an art.

Meanwhile another first class mediocrity Duncan Fletcher has managed to turn the corner with his England team and despite the fact that England just doesn’t possess the natural talent (at the present time) that some other countries enjoy. Here is yet another example of a team beginning to perform admirably despite its inherent limitations. England hasn’t had a match winning spin bowler a la Shane Warne since the days of Laker and Lock and haven’t really produced the quicks at the rate they would like to either. Yet, with their limited resources they have managed to put together some pretty decent results of late.

Finally the Indian team has undergone quite a transformation in the last couple of years and much of the credit must go to John Wright who has instilled a discipline and a work ethic and a hunger to improve that has translated into brilliant results. The current Indian team is unrecognizable from the team that used to take defeat as a way of life under captains such as Mohammad Azharuddin. The combination of John Wright who has brought disciple and intelligence as well as a modern, scientific approach to coaching has merged perfectly with Saurav Ganguly’s attempts at firing the team with some aggression.

While all these teams have been taking huge and very tangible strides in improving their cricket, Pakistan has remained rigidly in a rut, still employing coaches on the basis of how many runs of wickets they took at the highest level with no regard to whether they are in any way QUALIFIED to be coaching sport of any nature. The sole criteria for being selected into a position in the PCB appear to be that a candidate must have served as a commentator on TV. In recent years Rameez Raja has been commentating on Star/ESPN and his fluent phrases and clever observations clearly made an impression on the powers that be at home because it wasn’t long before he was appointed to a very important post in the PCB. You will recall that last year during the World Cup in South Africa, the commentary team on Ten Sports was Javed Miandad and Haroon Rashid. Well guess what? The two of them obviously prattled on impressively enough to be immediately appointed as Coach and manager of the national cricket team. Oh, and the man who clearly made the biggest impression and was also a commentator was Aamir Sohail. His long winded phrases clearly made an impact as he was drafted in as Chief Selector! So, clearly it seems that in order to land an important post at the PCB all you need to have done is to spew some clever sounding mumbo jumbo commentating on TV. Even Geoff Boycott was drafted in as a ten day batting coach due to his admittedly sharp observations while commentating and there are rumours that the Board has been heeding the words of Dean Jones and Ian Healy (qualified coaches?) – Both of whom are currently commentating on the India – Pakistan series enhancing their “coaching credentials” with their commentary.

Meanwhile we stuck with having a total embarrassment as the coach of the national cricket team. A man who was a unquestionably a brilliant batsman but who sadly hasn’t a clue as a coach. Watching him gesticulating like a moron from the balcony after every single ball was the most memorable moment of the One Day series as it perfectly exemplified our demented approach to coaching. Zaheer Abbas might have been a great batsman and Imran Khan a brilliant bowler but unless they have got the qualifications (from a coaching institute) and the requisite degrees – they shouldn’t even be considered for the coaching job. Yes, they can be regularly asked to give tips and pointers but certainly not to occupy the main coaching position which has to be in totally specialized hands. There is no dearth of cricketing talent in this country but professionalism is the need of the hour and that means non professionals such as Javed Miandad cannot continue to perform jobs that must be held by QUALIFIED personnel.

The sooner the PCB divests themselves of the services of their current coach the better off they will be. Let him earn some more pots of gold teaching the Sultan of Brunei’s son’s how to hit a six over mid wicket on the penultimate ball of the match! This is no time to delve in past glories…….time to move with the times and adapt, or expect to fall by the wayside. No point counting on bows and arrows, supreme archery skills and the blessings of The Mighty One when the rest of the world has moved onto inch perfect guided missiles!