KARACHI: Despite Pakistan’s shambolic performance on their recent tours of New Zealand and Australia, their high-profile head coach Mickey Arthur believes the national squad is moving in the right direction, barring the current levels of fitness and fielding.

In a candid interview with Dawn on Saturday, Arthur stressed upon creating a structure of excellence for the overall betterment of Pakistan cricket — a virtue he emphasized upon when he took over the job last May.

“I certainly believe that we as Team Pakistan are moving in the right direction. I said coming into this job that we needed to create a structure of excellence and we are certainly creating that. All the players that come into our squad now know exactly what the standards and requirements are to play at this level and to represent their country,” Arthur, the ex-coach of South Africa and Australia, said.

“These standards relate to behaviour, fitness levels and optimum mental and technical standards that relate to their roles within the team. The players are clear on this and, barring a few individuals, have met the standards required.

“That is not to say we have reached the crucible, we certainly have some way to go and I will definitely be driving that point home because that ultimately relates to a culture of excellence that we are striving for.

“I do believe that we have been consistent in our selection and [chairman of selectors] Inzamam-ul-Haq and his panel has played a big role in this. I believe the time is now right to assess the players over this last eight-month period and discuss a clear path going ahead in terms of players because we have some big tours coming up and need to be clear on the players who are going to take us forward, especially in the ODI area with a view to the 2019 World Cup.”

Terming his tenure thus far as exciting, Arthur — under whose charge Pakistan won four and lost eight of their 12 Tests while winning six and losing eight One-day Internationals and emerging victorious in all four Twenty20 Internationals so far — expressed his unstinted love of being the coach of probably the most unpredictable cricket nation in the world.

“I have to admit that I absolutely love every minute of the challenge of coaching Pakistan. I am very passionate about my job and Pakistan cricket and will not rest until we have the structures and players in place in order to produce sustained success at this level.”

“The support we receive is overwhelming at times and our supporters are so very passionate. There are many challenges that I have discussed with the PCB and we will endeavour [together] to create the structure leading up to the Pakistan national team after the PSL when I am back in Lahore.

“I will meet with all the respective first-class coaches and discuss our brand of cricket, expected standards in terms of physical, mental and technical abilities plus also the pitches and preparation of players in order for them to be able to perform at a standard that is required when they join our set up.

“We need to be polishing them at our level of course. We can’t expect them to be in super fit condition or making massive technical changes when they join us. We are starting to develop a very good relationship with the NCA and it is imperative that we work together in order to produce International players going forward.”

When asked to assess his overall time since joining Pakistan as coach, Arthur remarked: “My time as coach has been rewarding, tough and very challenging. But I really do believe that we have made some great strides. We started very well in England during the Test series and then I realised the amount of work we needed to do in the ODI format in order to compete with most teams.

“We then comfortably defeated the West Indies, which was rewarding, but were found wanting in New Zealand and Australia. It has to be placed into context that these are the toughest places for subcontinent teams to play and in our case we are not playing at home for sometime now.

“I thought that we batted well in Australia and it was great to see our players start trusting their techniques in foreign conditions and having some success. We, however, were never able to keep the Australian batting in check and they scored far too quickly. It was disappointing not to ever strike early against them and control the run-rate which is so important to be successful in Test cricket.

“The conditions also neutralised our biggest weapon, Yasir Shah who never got a pitch that offered him anything. Having said that, I know that all our players grew in stature and experience from the tough tours and will be better equipped next time, especially the younger players who definitely impressed.

“They say you never lose but either win or learn and I know that our players are all better for this experience gained in the past few months.”

However, Arthur was clearly unhappy with the fitness level and poor fielding standards that his charges showed up on the recent tours.

“The most disappointing aspect of our team at the moment is our basic fitness levels and fielding standards where we are way behind the rest of the teams. We have worked tirelessly at this discipline and are going to dedicate days at our training camp to just fielding and fitness,” he stressed.

“Our techniques for throwing, catching, stopping balls and sliding need to be taught as our players have never been taught this and their techniques are poor. Again there will be no compromise on fitness and all the players were given individual fitness standards that need to be met. We were at least 20 runs behind Australia in every game because of our fielding and that is not acceptable.”

A former first-class batsman during his domestic career in South Africa, the 48-year-old coach refused to give up on Pakistan. “During the PSL [where Arthur is head coach of Karachi Kings] and when I am back in Lahore afterwards, we will be looking at players that we think can make a difference to us moving forward.

“Our team is by no means a closed shop and we are keeping our eyes open for players with a skill set that can stand up to international cricket,” he pointed out. “This is one of the values of me working with Karachi in the PSL. It also provides me with the opportunity of coaching different players and seeing the best talent in Pakistan.”

Published in Dawn February 5th, 2017