Chairman: We do not have to press panic buttons' by Pakistan Cricket Board

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Player:

JL Langer, Inzamam-ul-Haq

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DateLine: 23rd December 2004

 

What is your reaction to the Perth debacle?
I was shell-shocked. We had bowled well on the first day and, but for Justin Langer, we could have dominated Australia. The batting collapses in both innings were not so much failures of technique but of mental strength. We were overawed and it showed.

 

What were the reasons for this breakdown?
We have played Australia twice since September and came close to beating them. If we had shown the composure that we did in Kolkata, we could have won both matches in Amsterdam and at Lord's. It is true that Australia are world champions but we had shown that Pakistan could take them on. In my opinion, there were three reasons for the failure of nerve. First we have not played enough Test cricket over the past year and too much one-day cricket. In a Test match, the pressures are greater and unrelenting. Secondly, the reputation of Perth's fast tracks led to a mental freeze-up and thirdly, Inzamam-ul-Haq's illness had a demoralising effect. He is not only our outstanding batsman but a captain whose cricketing acumen and deep reserves of mental strength are important for team morale. Inzamam is not a demonstrative leader but he is greatly respected by the players. For the skipper to be injured and off the field for much of the time was demoralising.

 

What are the remedies?
We do not have to press panic buttons but remedial measures - short term and long term - are necessary. I have spoken to Imran Khan, Wasim Bari, Bob Woolmer and Inzamam and many others including Pakistan's leading sports psychologist. In the short term, it is up to the players to deliver by breaking out of their defensive mindsets and here seniors must show the way. They have done it before and will do it again. They must believe in themselves and realise that before Perth, out of 16 internationals, they had won 12 - losing two narrowly against Australia. Secondly, in order to avoid complacency, we are building up a core of around 40-50 players from our Pakistan A and Under-19 squads by arranging tours so that they can be tried in testing conditions. Two trial matches - one North v South and the other Pakistan v The Rest will be held in February. Thereafter a Pakistan A team will tour Sri Lanka in March, Namibia and Zimbabwe in April, and the West Indies A team will visit Pakistan in June. Bob Woolmer will accompany the Pakistan A team for part of the Africa tour.
By the end of the season in June 2005, we should have a clearer idea of the capabilities and mental strengths of our players. I give heavy weightage to mental strengths. For example, England's highest scorers in the past decade, Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash do not find a place in the national team. In contrast, the Australian selectors chose Michael Clarke primarily for his temperament - his batting average in first-class cricket was in the 30s.

 

This leads me to longer-term solutions. Our first-class cricket is not testing enough to produce mentally strong cricketers. Mediocre bowlers get loads of wickets and average batsmen get heaps of runs in our first-class cricket only to be exposed as inadequate at the national level.

 

The Pakistan Cricket Board has taken steps to regionalise cricket which now has a sponsor and regular television coverage but further work is necessary. I am holding wrap-up meetings in Lahore and Karachi with captains, referees and umpires to analyse the results of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and, if necessary, we may have to adjust our first-class programme further. These wrap-up meetings will be followed by an Advisory Board meeting. I am also considering having cricketing 'Think Tanks' comprising senior cricketers - modern and old - to give their opinions on all cricketing issues.

 

A second long-term issue is to redress the huge imbalance in Pakistan between traditional and limited-overs cricket. Our batsmen, especially, grow up with one-day mindsets and play one-day shots in Test cricket. This was so obvious in our recent Test matches as our batsmen do not have the mindset to occupy the crease. On the contrary, other teams have shown this grit against us. The best example is when at the recent Faisalabad Test, Sri Lanka were 10 for 3 in their first innings. A young lad on the fringe of the team - Samaraweera - played a classic match-winning innings. It was so evident that this lad had been groomed at school to play classical, traditional cricket. 95% of our cricket is played on a limited-over basis. We have recently taken steps for our schools, clubs and universities to play traditional cricket but its effect will obviously take time. The objective is to put down a structure for cricket in Pakistan that provides a base for our first-class cricket and our traditional nurseries - clubs, universities, schools - to be revived.

 

We are also trying to inculcate a high degree of professionalism in the team vis-à-vis fitness and training. This new work ethic is essential and must supplement the natural talent of our boys.

 

Our pitches are partly to blame for this and we must ensure pitches that lead to bowlers and batsmen earning their wickets and runs.

 

What about the controversy regarding foreign coaches?
I am very clear in my mind that Pakistan requires the best available coach whether he is foreign or Pakistani. As the saying goes, it does not matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice. Secondly, modern cricket requires a coach to have the basic credentials for the science of coaching. Merely being a famous Test cricketer does not provide a coach with those credentials. After all, Gary Sobers, Viv Richards and Kapil Dev were not successful coaches. On the other hand, the most successful current coaches John Buchanan (Australia) and Duncan Fletcher (England) have hardly played first-class cricket let alone Test cricket. A majority of the Test playing countries employ foreign coaches - including all four Asian countries - plus England, West Indies, and until recently, New Zealand. I believe that for the future health of Pakistan cricket, we need to invest in modern coaching methods and give them a chance to bear fruit. I don't believe that Pakistan is the only team that cannot respond positively to these methods. This is a regressive view. I also know that there is no communication gap as all our boys understand English sufficiently even though they may not be fluent in the language.

 

Pakistan currently has a huge shortage of qualified coaches with appropriate coaching credentials, hence the selection of Bob Woolmer and his team. Woolmer is recognized as one of the top coaches in the world with a proven record of success. We would not have looked abroad if we had our own qualified coaches.

 

Woolmer must be given time to train his team. After all, it took Bob Simpson seven years to get Australia out of the rut. Similarly, Duncan Fletcher had huge disasters with England for over four years but his team is now ready to challenge Australia. India, under John Wright, have similarly taken 4 years - therefore, to condemn Woolmer at this point is immature and inconsistent. Pakistan cricket needs stability and continuity. Burning effigies by obviously hired 'supporters' at the instance of vested interests cannot be seen as helpful to the team and is even unpatriotic.

 

Woolmer's salary is the same as what Javed Miandad was being paid. He does have the incentive of bonuses but only if he delivers consistently. Incidentally, Woolmer's salary is much lower than what a coach of his proven record would have demanded on the international market.

 

The Perth debacle was a failure of nerve. We are capable of better as we have shown earlier. We must fight back. We must not overestimate our team's strengths and put unnecessary pressures on them. Above all, we need to calmly correct our failures and shortcomings and not to rush to judgements.

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Pakistan Cricket Board)