LAHORE: Announcing in clear terms that celebrations after the spectacular victory in the Champions Trophy were over and urging his players to focus on winning the 2019 World Cup, Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur on Thursday said there would absolutely be no compromise on performance and physical fitness.

“We are not going to compromise — at any cost — on fitness and performance for which we have set some standards for every player to meet. This policy will help our team improve in all departments of the game,” Arthur said while talking to reporters here on Thursday.

Recently, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) excluded flamboyant batsman Umar Akmal from the list of centrally-contracted players. The 34-year-old, who has featured in as many as 116 ODIs and 82 T20 Internationals since 2009 without attaining consistency and taking responsibility in big games, failed a fitness test prior to the June 1-18 Champions Trophy and was flown back home. He didn’t attend a high performance camp in Lahore and flew to England, saying he’s working on his rehabilitation.

Makes it clear no compromise on performance, physical fitness

“Umar Akmal failed several fitness tests, what do you want us to do?” Arthur said. “I would have thought if you’ve failed one or two [fitness tests] you would never put yourself in that position again. Well he’s had several opportunities and hasn’t passed one so that’s up to him.”

When asked about opener Ahmed Shehzad, the head coach said the 25-year-old right-hander had no fitness problem, but added “he needs to improve his batting and produce performance” to get back into the team.

Commenting on Wahab Riaz, who exited the national team after a string of poor showings in major international games in a disappointing manner during the Champions Trophy due to an injury, the head coach said the left-arm pacer would have to strive to make a comeback.

“Wahab is a good player but we have some nice youngsters in the team as well, so competition is very tough and Wahab really needs to work hard to stage comeback.”

Arthur, under whose coaching eighth-ranked Pakistan made a stunningly memorable comeback to clinch the Champions Trophy title in England for the first time, while hailing Sarfraz Ahmed-led squad emphasised the victory celebrations were over and now every player should focus on the team’s future assignments.

“I’m so proud of the way the team fought back in the Champions Trophy. Their commitment, their work ethic everything was outstanding. The victory celebrations were amazing, fans across whole Pakistan celebrated it in the best possible way.

“The triumphant players were really given tremendous welcome [by the Pakistani nation]. The players are still enjoying great respect and honour. For me, these three weeks [in June] were the best of my coaching career,” Arthur stated.

“However being a coach, for me it [celebrations] has ended and I have asked the players to forget about the Champions Trophy win and prepare for the training camp starting [in Lahore] on Aug 22.

“While taking the Champions Trophy victory as a start to a new journey, the players should now get back to hard work in order to get better and better for the upcoming assignments, and have to focus on winning the 2019 World Cup,” he underlined.

About the future of Pakistan team, the coach sounding optimistic said raising a strong squad for the 2019 World Cup and making the country achieve top ranking in the three formats were the primary targets.

“We are moving in the right direction and the ultimate goal is to prepare a [strong] team for the 2019 World Cup,” he maintained.

“Right now, our Test outfit is good while the ODI team has improved considerably. Though we lost [the ODI series] in England last year, the fantastic Champions Trophy victory enabled us to get better and I am really excited about the future of Pakistan team,” he added.

“We have to make Pakistan number one team. Definitely it will take time but hopefully with hard work, devotion and dedication we will achieve this goal.”

Giving his view on replacing stalwarts Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan, both of whom retired from Test cricket after the series in the West Indies held in May this year, the coach said there were a number of senior players as well as promising youngsters who could help the team replace the two great cricketers.

“In top order, we have Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam and Azhar Ali who must step up and take responsibility, while we have other youngsters who can help us make an ideal team combination,” the coach said.

“We have enough players in the form of seniors and youngsters who can fill the void. We have been developing

some better youngsters who will be provided with more opportunities so that they may become stars of Pakistan cricket in future.”

About the batting combination of Test team after the departure of Misbah and Younis, Arthur said, “For opening pair, we have Shan Masood and Sami Aslam, who is very good at this place. For number three and onward positions, we have Azhar, Babar and Asad. By utilising this combination wisely, we can produce better results.”

Responding to a query regarding the team’s fragile batting department, the coach said: “Our batting has started to step up. We need to start getting some younger batsmen into the system. And definitely, in terms of batting, we are getting better and better with every series,” the coach reckoned.

Asked whether he would want to extend his contract with the PCB till the 2019 World Cup, Arthur said he would think about it when the time came. “Nothing is safe in coaching. I have not talked to the PCB about this; when the time comes it will also be discussed.”

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2017