KARACHI: Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore has come under severe criticism from former players and fans after the team’s successive defeats in the Test series in South Africa, with some in the cricket fraternity holding him responsible for the debacle.

Whatmore, a former Australian Test player who took charge of the Pakistan team in March last year, is being blamed for not being assertive with the players and for failing to devise an effective strategy to counter the South African fast bowling attack.

The Australian, who enjoys a good reputation as a professional cricket coach, did wonders with the Sri Lankan and Bangladesh national teams during his earlier tenures as coach few years ago.

“Reports coming in from South Africa confirm that Whatmore has not been able to assert himself on the players despite the poor show in Tests and has not done much to prepare the players for a possible comeback in the third Test.

“When a team performs as badly as Pakistan has in SA, the coach needs to be very strict and straight-forward with the players but neither Whatmore nor bowling coach Mohammad Akram or fielding coach Julian Fountain have been tough with the players.

Former Test players including Rashid Latif, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohsin Khan have dubbed Whatmore as a ‘big disappointment’ during his stint with the Pakistan team so far.

“The problem clearly appears to be that Whatmore is not willing to rub the Test and T20 captains or some other senior players in the team the wrong way by playing tough. He is not willing to take a stand on some key issues or the selection matters which is harming the team’s performance,” a team source said.

“This is not the Whatmore everybody use to talk about in the past,” said another source close to the team.

“Even when Misbah and Hafeez are making wrong calls, Whatmore is not taking a stand or telling them that they are wrong.”

Cricket analysts believe that unless the team turns around its performance in the last Test and in the one-dayers and T20s in South Africa, Whatmore could face some hard questions from the board chairman.—Agencies