08 December 2004	Wednesday	25 Shawwal 1425

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Some mild tremors were felt when Pakistan lost its opening match against Western Australia Second X1. It seemed an inauspicious start to a long and demanding tour. But this was a practice match, an outing and the equivalent of a glorified net-session.

It would have remained that and there would have been no tremors but for the wholly gratuitous statement by Bob Woolmer, the team's coach. He called Pakistan an unpredictable team but said that Pakistan had taken some 'positives' from the game.

This statement gave this practice match an importance it did not deserve and needlessly set off some alarm bells. I don't know whether Woolmer's is the team's official spokesman.

Normally it is the manager or captain who speaks on behalf of the team and I don't recall reading any statements from say, John Wright, Duncan Fletcher or John Buchanan or any other coach on the performance of their team, one way or another.

Of course, Pakistan is an unpredictable team and we have known this for a long time and it was precisely this reason why a coach was hired to make the performance more consistent.

Woolmer himself says that he is new in the job. All the more reason for maintaining a low profile and concentrate on the main job which is to coach the team and get the best out of the players. He will be judged by results and not by blame or apologies.

Nobody says that the tour of Australia is going to be easy. Pakistan needs, first of all, to adjust to the extra bounce of the Perth wicket where the first test match will be played.

All visiting teams without exception find conditions in Perth difficult and apart from the extra bounce of the wicket, there is a strong wind and which is called the Freemantle Doctor, which can be disconcerting.

Having adjusted to Perth, the team must re-adjust when it goes to Melbourne and Sydney. The coach has his job cut out and so has the captain who must provide the leadership. Leadership is about communicating. apart from setting a high personal example.

Pakistan will be playing before partisan crowds who can be noisy as well as, sometimes, nasty. Once Pakistan starts to do well, which I am sure it will, the tone of the Australian media will change as well and the Australian media can be both rough and tough. But off the field, Australia is a wonderful country and I have many happy memories of it. I envy the Pakistan team's extended stay in Perth. I found Perth to be Australia's most beautiful city with Brisbane a close second and the ground where the Test match will be played spectator-friendly and one is close enough to smell the freshly mown grass.

I have a feeling that our batsmen will struggle more than our bowlers. Our batsmen have played too much one-day cricket and not enough of the longer version of the game.

The newer or younger players may be lacking in experience but surely not in common sense and all they have to understand is that in a Test match a house is built brick by brick unlike a pre-fabricated one.

There is no pressure of a deadline by way of limited overs. Pakistan needs too to get a settled batting order. I think the captain should have a pretty good idea of what his team will be for the first Test, practice matches are not meant to be trial matches and Pakistan must get the combination right and then stick to it.

Like Woolmer, Inzamam too is given to issuing statements and these sounds more like pep-talks to the cricket public in Pakistan. The cricket public has become pretty savvy and is not likely to be to buy into reassurances of a better or a wholehearted performance the next time.

The cricket public does not expect Pakistan to win every time it plays. What it expects and wants from its team is commitment. Playing for one's country is not only a high honour but also a great responsibility. Pakistan cricketers are now in the top income bracket and need to be sternly reminded that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

As I write this, there appears to be a hiccup in India's tour of Bangladesh brought about by the tiresomely familiar security fears. There is apparently a letter from a self-styled militant group.

An Indian security team is in Bangladesh to examine whether it is safe for the Indian team to tour Bangladesh. This seems to be making a meal out of a snack. There is no doubt that the world has become a dangerous place and security has become an issue.

But security is the responsibility of the host country. The Indians made a huge song and dance about security when touring Pakistan. But didn't do so when it's played in the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. The letter could well be a hoax and the response of the Indian cricket board or government should have been a more measured one and need I say it, a more mature one?

By delaying its departure the Indian cricket team has magnified what was just a blip. The Pakistan cricket team is touring Australia, leaving security to the hosts even though, if John Howard, the prime minister is to be believed, Australia is in dire danger from global terrorism and this would make it a dangerous country to visit.

The irony is that while Pakistan cricket team is touring Australia, the Australian hockey team refused to play in the Champions Trophy, which is in progress at Lahore-citing, you guessed it, security concerns!