THE PCB must be given credit for at least being discreet about something. Of course I am referring to its latest choice for the national cricketing coach. There was not even a hint in the media about what the PCB was going to do in this regard even though there was much to suggest that my friend Javed Miandad was not having a particularly comfortable equation with the PCB. I congratulate PCB on avoiding pre-decision controversy by playing it professionally and letting their actions speak louder than the words.
Having given credit where due, now let us have a lok at what the action itself means. There can be little doubt that in the last year or so, a strategy vacuum was quite evident in the performance of the national team. If you might recall, I had pointed out strategy flaws even when the team was winning because those victories owed much more to individual unplanned brilliance than to a strategic approach towards pre-set target. So in that sense, something definitely needed to be done.
However, I have been a vocal critic of hiring foreign expertise, and I find no reason to change tracks. I believe that once the PCB had a two-year contract with Miandad, it should have stayed with him and tried to make him work more professionally. There is no point in settling the financial part of contractual obligations of one individual and paying another individual to do the job.
The way it has been done, the PCB would be paying an astronomical amount to two individuals for a job that could have been done for a quarter of those funds. After all, what needs to be done is to introduce the element of common sense within the team structure, to ensure that the bowlers bowl the right length, that the batsmen execute better shot selection. If one individual failed to do that, it does not suggest that a foreigner would come with a readymade solution to a problem that has more to it than mere cricket. It is more about understanding the social, familial and financial backgrounds from which most of our players come.
A foreigner, Bob Woolmer or anyone else, would struggle to understand such currents. Add to it the problems he would have in communication with the boys, and the magnitude of the problem becomes that much higher. It is only the fascination of some individual to rub shoulders with strategically placed foreigners that appears to have led to this decision.
Till the time of writing, media reports suggest that in addition to Englishman Woolmer, we are going to have Andy Gray, a South African physical trainer, and Darryl Foster, an Australian bowling coach. Besides we will have Australian Greg Chappel and South African Barry Richards as members of some kind of think tank. Isn’t it funny that all these foreigners would be practically saying the same thing; be fit, bowl the right length, make the right shot selection, and make effort in the field? It does sound funny to me.
If foreigners are so much better than the available local expertise, my humble suggestion is that the Chief Patron of Pakistan Cricket Board should seriously consider appointing some foreigner — better still a group of foreigners — to run the affairs of the cricket board. No, I am not saying it in jest or trying to be funny. I mean it. Professional management skills of foreigners are much more authentic than their cricketing and coaching skills. English, Australian and even Indian boards have an impressive record of conducting their affairs with great professional acumen. Perhaps it is time to invite some of these individuals to see how we can possibly rebuild the PCB management. This will only be a logical extension of current PCB policies.
THE PCB must be given credit for at least being discreet about something. Of course I am referring to its latest choice for the national cricketing coach. There was not even a hint in the media about what the PCB was going to do in this regard even though there was much to suggest that my friend Javed Miandad was not having a particularly comfortable equation with the PCB. I congratulate PCB on avoiding pre-decision controversy by playing it professionally and letting their actions speak louder than the words.
