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LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain Hanif Mohammad believes the team's Australian coach Dav Whatmore needs to learn Urdu if he is to succeed with the players.
Whatmore has come under fire after Pakistan suffered a 3-0 whitewash in the test series in South Africa, failing to take any of the matches into the fifth day.
“I don't want to lay entire blame on him but he needs to learn our common language Urdu if he wants to communicate properly with the players,” Hanif said.
“It is important that a coach is able to convey his sentiments, feelings, advice, commands properly to the players. They must be able to understand and feel what their coach is saying,” added the 78-year-old.
“I don't think this is happening in the team because how many of our players can communicate or speak English fluently?”
Hanif, who played 55 tests, felt a coach would never be able to convey his feelings or advice to a player through an interpreter or in a language not common to both.
“People don't realise how important a part of the coach's job is communicating properly with his players, who are then responsible for adapting and executing what they are told,” he added.
South Africa was Pakistan's second straight test series defeat since Whatmore took over as coach in March last year.
They were also beaten in Sri Lanka.
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Comments (24) Closed
Mar 01, 2013 02:24pm
Agree. Another fine example of us pakistanis going backwards. If the whole purpose it to teach an english coach urdu..why not just hire a coach who speaks urdu..hint hint W Akram is available now :)
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Mar 01, 2013 05:38pm
You cannot teach an old dog new tricks. And that is what is wrong with our cricket players. First, apart from a couple of players, they are mediocre at best, second they are set in their bad habits and will not learn from any coach, if they are not interested.
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Mar 01, 2013 05:36pm
And Pushtu to explain the finer points of bowling line and length to Umar Gul and defensive play to Afridi.
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Mar 01, 2013 03:23pm
I disagree with you totally.Mohsin did not bring Asad shafiq or Azhar Ali. They were part of the team which Waqar Younis constructed before Mohsin arrival. Mohsin benefitted from the good work waqar did and Mohsin real test never came.Becaause we were playing against England,Srilanka and minnows at UAE low bouncy wickets where spinners thrive.
So in essence mohsin did,nt bring much out.He actually was a big fan of misbahul-haq which most people want to throw off the captaincy
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Mar 01, 2013 03:29pm
No one needs to know english to represent at international level especially in early days of career. With time one can learn speaking good english like Waseem Akram did... Batting dept. needs lot of communication with coach and to built temperament in a young player. Inability to speak and understand english does hinder a player to groom in early days of his career. In Pakistan cricket young players don't get many chances to prove...So pls don't blame talented player's failure based on being URDU medium, PCB go and hire a URDU/English medium coach.
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Mar 01, 2013 03:47am
Mr. Hanif Mohammed is 100% correct. The question is why Whatamore hired when MOHSIN KHAN was going great as a coach. He built chemistry between players to play as a team and produced winning results. He was a hard worker and communicated well with players in Punjabi/Pashtoo/Urdu and made international media understand by speaking good angrazy. He was a very good batsman himself and brought decent Asad Shafiq and Azhar in the line up. He earned his respect in the team and also outside. I can bet if he still be our coach he would have established Umar Akmal's temperament for a test batsman also. But it is a dilemma in Pakistan cricket player/coach to keep respect for long period of time.. Either player/coach himself does some thing very wrong or we/media/PCB/politics/etc make sure that he goes out of the seen for Good. I hope not Misbah's turn now...
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Mar 01, 2013 02:57am
I think Hanif Muhammad has became very old and his brain is not working properly. Instead of giving wrong advice to mr. more, he may himself realize that Pakistani players, respresnting the country at international level, should be fluent in English.
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Mar 01, 2013 12:37am
I salute Hanif Mohammad, one of the the best test cricketers that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has produced since acquiring full ICC membership in the early 1950's, for calling spade a spade.
It is highly surprising and absolutely astonishing to know that those at the 'helm' of cricket affairs in the 'land of the pure' are in fact unable to either comprehend, understand or frankly admit the simple, truthful and common sense oriented statement of the 'little master.' All neutral and third party cricket academics, experts, players, umpires, organizers, sponsors, supporters and fans know very well that communication is the key between team players and the coach. If they are unable to communicate freely with each other, what do you expect? The same fiasco that we have seen in the team lately.
Hopefully, common sense, which unfortunately or fortunately is not so common, will prevail in the ranks of PCB and they will make immediate efforts to hire the services of a willing and able former Pakistani test player as coach of the its national cricket team.
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Feb 28, 2013 09:45pm
What about Bob Woolmer? In which language he used to communicate with Pakistan Players?.
Why Waqar Younus, Javed Miandad left as coach? The problem is somewhere else and everybody knows.
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Mar 01, 2013 12:34pm
Thank you Yaar!
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Feb 28, 2013 05:16pm
Whatmore must learn punjabi.....
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Feb 28, 2013 04:52pm
With all due respect to Great Hanif sahib, I think it should be other way around. The players who are representing Pakistan at international level should learn to speak good English as currently it is the only language which has no boundaries. I have observed many times, our players can not communicate well with umpires. In pre and post match interviews, when asked a question their replies are either a repetition of few words or it is entirely different what was asked to them on the first place. I also remember once Bob Woolmer was once asked, since he does not know Urdu how would he communicate? His answer was, I do not have problem communicating with players, why should outsiders have a problem with that?".
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Mar 01, 2013 08:12am
Players need to perform. They are professionals. Stop blaming the coach. Else Saudi Arabia would have been world champions in soccer by virtue of always hiring the best coaches.
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Mar 01, 2013 10:07am
Hanif sahib I have a lot of respect for you. My language is Urdu and English but I coach seamen in Portuguese here in Angola. If a guy is just average NO AMOUNT OF COACHING can help in any language. The problem is in the school COACHING, PARCHEES, CORRUPTION etc. Only Asad, Junaid and Ajmal can be coached in present team the rest are too old or have MEGA PARCHEES. Please start school coaching in all parts of Pakistan on different type of pitches in all major cities and leave a LEGACY behind, thanks.
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Mar 01, 2013 07:52pm
You are so correct. I wish every one of our muslim brother thinks like you. But unfortunately, we have a habit in Islam to say bad things good and good things bad. We are not used to own the responsibility of our thoughts and actions.
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Mar 01, 2013 07:54pm
Naach na jaane, aangan tedha.
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Mar 01, 2013 07:55pm
He should also learn Pashto, Balochi and Sindhi. Are we not paying him $50 Million US per year?
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Mar 01, 2013 07:58pm
But how can they learn english when they don't know how to even speak properly? Never mind Urdu or Punjabi or Sindhi.. English is way beyond their reach. But all of them know Arabi. SO I think that Whatmore should learn Arabi.
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Mar 01, 2013 08:42pm
Sorry Haneef Bhai. I disagree with you. Players must learn to understand their coach and not the other way around.
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Mar 01, 2013 09:56pm
Pakistan team must learn to play good cricket; like him learning Urdu will magically change the way we play.
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Mar 02, 2013 07:59am
This is a wierd suggestion. The suggesting person must bc sleeping when he proposed this. PCB should go to root sause of the matter. By the time WATMORE picks up some URDU, his contract will be expired. What a great mind, who proposed this ?????
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Mar 02, 2013 12:03pm
Its a good thing if players learn English but not necessary. When they represent Pakistan at national level they should give interviews in Urdu with interpreters if they are not fluent in English (like many europeans do in various sports). English is not our language nor should it be a requirement for a cricketer, after all they are hired to play good cricket and not speak English. But the coach does need to learn Urdu or have an excellent interpreter.
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Mar 02, 2013 02:54pm
Please bring back Mohsin Khan as a National Coach, and Abdul Razzaq as a ODI Captain...
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Mar 02, 2013 03:05pm
sory i disagree with sir hanif......... bcz he should not compare language in coachig
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