27 October 2004	Wednesday	12 Ramazan 1425

Last week I wrote about Jason Gillespie who had come as night-watchman and had batted for four hours. This week I want to write about Dilhara Fernando who came into bat at number ten for Sri Lanka and stayed with Sanath Jayasuriya and the two of them put on 101 runs, Fernando's contribution was one run.

Then I want to write about Pakistan who went into the last day with six wickets in hand. Pakistan lasted 38.2 overs and added 102 runs to lose the Test match by a staggering margin of 201 runs. This was not a defeat. It turned out to be a rout.

Yet the Test match had started with a bang and Sri Lanka was 9 for 3. Shoaib Akhtar was on a rampage and Mohammad Sami too was smelling blood. This was the time for Pakistan to have gone for the jugular and attacked with a ring of close fielders and some earnest short pitch bowling. Pakistan proceeded as if it was business as usual. Still Pakistan was able to restrict Sri Lanka to 243.

On a near-perfect batting track and Sir Lanka without Muralitharan, one expected that Pakistan would pile on the runs, get an unassailable lead and romp home. All that the Pakistan batsmen needed was to stay at the wicket and play sensibly. It wasn't too big an ask.

There was no pressure on them and there was loads of time. But every Pakistan batsman wants to be an action-hero. In Test cricket an innings is built up, brick by brick. There has to be a batting plan and every batsman should know what is expected of him. If the is playing Test cricket, he should be able to read the game without having to be told.

I do not buy the argument that since Pakistan had not played a Test match since April, the team was still in a one-day mode. Incidentally, Pakistan lost the last Test match it played and the one-day record is not all that hot.

I am really at a loss for words to describe Pakistan' batting in this Test match which is just as well since this is a family newspaper and after the expletives had been deleted, very little would have been left.

We don't need excuses and the media does not have to be lectured that its criticism is demoralizing the players. What do the players expect? To be showered with rose petals for playing spineless cricket?

There is no requirement for Bob Woolmer to issue daily bulletins. Everyone accepts that is not the fault of the coach exclusively if the team is taking a battering. He is only one cog in the wheel. It is the captain who provides the leadership. He should be the one who should be demanding the dropping of players, no matter how senior, who are not pulling their weight.

The captain should be the one who should be seen to be helping new players and making them one of the family. He and Yousuf Youhana have fixed places in the batting order whether it is Test cricket or the one-day game. Every team in the world has its best batsmen at the top of the order.

Asim Kamal is a middle order batsman. Yet he went in to bat at number three in both the innings. Why? Because he was considered dispensable? Captaincy is about leadership and leadership is about taking on responsibility.

By the time this column appears, we will know what changes are being contemplated for the Karachi Test match. I am not certain whether changes in personnel will make too much of a difference. It is entirely possible that the team will do exceptionally well and Faisalabad will be both forgiven and forgotten.

But the team is not playing as a unit. There has to be a team plan and all players should be made a party to this team plan so that each player has to be made accountable. Each player should feel the shame of the fiasco at Faisalabad, not the captain and the coach alone.

I am a little mystified by the groin injury of Mohammad Sami. He pulled up lame and went off. We were told that he would not take further in the game and was a doubtful starter for the Karachi Test match. Then we were told that he would bat with a runner. He came in to bat, brimming in good health and walked with firm strides and batted without any discomfort. In fact he was run out sprinting a sharp single without a trace of a groin injury.

Were the commentators issuing health bulletins off their own bat or was someone feeding them the information? Talking of commentators, I would strongly advise the team management to listen in to Michael Holding as much as possible.

He is economic with praise and he is economic with criticism and even more economic with his words. But he knows the game, understands its nuances. If we want to know what went wrong at Faisalabad, he's the one to talk to.

I don't know him personally but I have seen him bowl and his dismissal of Tony Greig at the Oval deserved a calypso. I was at the Oval, having arrived from New York and gone straight from the airport to the ground. It is not so much that he is an expert but talks a lot of common sense. This not to take anything away from the others but Holding is faithful to the spirit of the game. I have that in common with him.