KARACHI, Feb 25: Former Pakistan skippers Imran Khan and Zaheer Abbas have lashed out at Bob Woolmer for his utter failure in devising a winning strategy for the Pakistan team during his tenure as coach.

Giving their candid opinions during a television show ‘Sach To Yeh Hai’ on Sunday, the two players insisted that former England batsman has neither been able to improve the techniques of Pakistan batsman nor has he given a match-winning strategy to skipper Inzamam, which has hurt the home side on challenging overseas tours of England and South Africa.

“I was the manager of the Pakistan team on the tour to England last year and was thoroughly disappointed at the laid back, unimpressive coaching style of Woolmer,” said Zaheer, known as the Asian Bradman for his prolific scoring during the ‘70s and the ‘80s.

“I think any local coach can do a better, more dedicated job than him because he has nothing new to tell our boys, neither does he have any control over the players.”

Zaheer recalled how he had taken the initiative to give some batting tips to the struggling Pakistan openers in England but was discouraged by the attitude of both Inzamam and Woolmer who, apparently, felt uncomfortable by his sincere move. “I was clearly made to feel like an outsider by them as they went around making sarcastic remarks about me exceeding my powers as manager,” said Zaheer bitterly. “But the fact of the matter is that all I was trying to do was to help our players because Mr Woolmer was making no effort to boost the sinking morale of the side.”

Endorsing his former colleague’s point of view, Imran said it was beyond his comprehension why the Pakistan Cricket Board was paying over 10 million rupees to Woolmer annually for merely arranging the fielding sessions and giving a few pep talk sessions to the players. “Is there any special service that he is providing to our players for that kind of money?” asked Imran. “If on the eve of the World Cup, the coach is saying that Pakistan batsmen lack mental toughness, he should be taken to task for it because that was just the thing he was employed to do. And even if you talk about fielding, the falling standards are for everyone to see.”

National selector Ehteshamuddin, one of the two other participants in the discussion alongwith former PCB chief Tauqir Zia, said Inzamam was not a natural leader of men and should have got more strategic support from others which, unfortunately, was not seen on the tours. “We also realise that Inzamam is no wizard when it comes to captaincy but if he had some able advisors in the ranks, things would have been different today,” said the former pacer.

He laid the blame squarely on Inzamam for the rank bad decision of calling over an unfit Shabbir Ahmed to South Africa. “The selectors had clearly informed Inzi about Shabbir’s inability to sustain the five-day contest but he made still insisted upon the lanky pacer’s availability in SA and we had no choice but to comply,” said Ehtesham.

Defending Danish Kaneria’s omission from the one-day series in South Africa, Ehtesham said the leg-spinner was really tiring after a gruelling Test series and the selectors decided to give him some rest before the mega event. “He had carried the brunt of bowling alongwith Asif during the Tests and we decided to call him back to give him some rest before the World Cup.”

Imran, however, dismissing the argument, asked Ehtesham if Inzamam had any faith in his best leg-spinner to take wickets in the limited overs medium. “I don’t buy this argument of Kaneria being too tired. The poor chap is himself pleading his case that he can do as well in the ODIs as in the Test matches if given the chance but sadly no one is backing the lad,” said Imran.

Ehtesham later conceded that it took a lot of convincing from the selectors before Inzamam agreed to include Kaneria in the Cup squad.