Pakistan cricket: Time for reflection

Whenever something goes wrong with Pakistan cricket, there is an outcry for blood-letting and it's easiest to criticise people at the helm of affairs and our failed World Cup campaign has been no exception.

I'd however insist that observers first look at the composition of the side more constructively. We need to frankly admit we had it all wrong before the World Cup. But instead, there have been loud calls asking for the PCB chairman to be axed together with some senior players. However, I would like to review a few facts.

Since August 2002, it is a fact Pakistan's main problem has been the middle order batting being exposed to the new ball again and again. The concern was over the opening pair, but was it ever properly addressed by the selectors?

The answer is a simple no!

Ever since Saeed Anwar started sporting a long beard, selectors turned against him as it seemed his looks were not liked. Actually, he had suffered a broken wrist then his personal family tragedy forced him to find consolation in religion. But chief selector Wasim Bari is on record, raising questions about Anwar's commitment to cricket although repeatedly, Saeed publicly re-affirmed his desire to play cricket. He was left out of the ODI and Test series against Australia when these tournaments could have been ideal to help him find his form before the World Cup. More so, as he was suddenly selected for it, right out of the cold.

I fail to understand how Wasim Bari could judge someone's commitment to cricket? Bari had it so wrong all along, trying various openers who failed and then, just before the World Cup, he realised we didn't have experience at top of the order. Saeed Anwar came good and proved himself in a critical match but one can only wonder who should carry the blame here, surely the selectors?

There were some other mistakes made by the selectors and team management too.

One was the selection of Azhar Mahmood. Without taking into account his most recent performances for Pakistan instead, centuries scored about five years ago in South Africa formed a basis for his selection. But even if that is left aside, so unsure was the team management about his fitness, manager Shaharyar Khan indirectly pointed towards his fitness as the reason for not being given active consideration during the World Cup. If he was not to be part of the plans, then why was he part of the touring party?

Second, was team management's obsession with all-rounders. Contrary to general opinion, I have always maintained that one-day cricket is not entirely the all-rounders' game. Bits and pieces players are never successful and if that were the case England would have been the team to beat over last ten years.

Going by his recent reported statements on Shahid Afridi, I'm just glad that Wasim Akram has realised this, though only after Afridi has played 176 games!

Afridi either takes up the place of a specialist batsman or a specialist bowler. But why select someone when he cannot either bowl or bat a full 10 overs?

There has been an equal obsession with Abdul Razzaq in the longer version of the game. However, in one-day cricket he is a very decent cricketer who merits selection but lacks penetration to take wickets in test cricket. Even in one-day cricket, he needs someone to apply pressure from one end to be effective at the other, and when he had to bowl in tandem with Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis, he was brutally exposed during this World Cup. He could have been a completely different bowler had he bowled with Saqlain Mushtaq in the middle overs. But with Saqlain left out of most games, Waqar, Razzaq or Afridi were incapable of penetrating opposition's batting or even slowing the scoring rate. This badly exposed the very weakness of Pakistan's bowling. Saqlain therefore should have been a vital part of all plans but was not so and administration should not be blamed for this selection blunder.

And lastly, it was Waqar's leadership that also let us down. I firmly believe that Waqar needed to show more aggression. I fail to understand why he was always more concerned about completing the 50 over quota than trying to bowl the opposition out when he had them reeling early on. On several occasions he let the opposition off the hook by bringing on his second string bowlers to try and get the over-rate back up, after the pace attack had broken through.

Just as illustrations, let's review what happened in two important games.

At 5 wickets down for just over 100 runs against England, Waqar introduced Abdul Razzaq and continued with Afridi. Instead, he should have given Shoaib one more over to bowl or could even have brought Wasim back into the attack. Afridi and Razzaq did not offer any threat to batsmen, and even though Razzaq was economical, the two allowed the batsmen to settle down. At that point in time I just could not understand why he wanted to save Wasim Akram's overs till the end?

Similar was the case playing against Australia when he had them struggling at 5/146.

The Pakistan team is full of extroverts and needs a leader who is equally aggressive. I'm afraid Waqar has a very defensive mind-set. He should take a leaf or two out of Stephen Fleming's book. It seemed like he lacked faith in his team's abilities to bowl the opposition out or was unsure of his own place in the side and was therefore afraid of losing.

I also cannot understand reports that Imran Khan was so keen on sending Inzamam at number 3. With all the success Youhana has had batting at that position, why Pakistan is still looking for a number 3 batsman is beyond my imagination.

Well all that is history now and there is nothing one can do about it but to look to the future with hope. In doing so, I hope PCB Chairman Tauqir Zia does not get the axe as people start the hunt for a scapegoat.

I feel the only mistake he made was to give special treatment to Shoaib Akhtar that in all fairness, should make others upset, which it did. I just hope he learns from it but apart from that I would not consider the appointment of Waqar as captain to be a grave mistake, even though his appointment badly imbalanced the bowling line-up. Any decision to remove him should have been made long before the World Cup. And let us not go about placing all the blame on seniors for this debacle. Instead, we should look to strike an ideal balance of youth and experience to lead us to next major events and with a renewed possibility of a home series against India, that event might not be far away.

In my opinion, as we prepare a post World Cup side a few changes have to be made. I have always believed that Javed Miandad is an ideal candidate for the coaching role. He has never been sacked for cricketing reasons but only because of his differences with Wasim, Inzamam, Moin and others. So if he is appointed coach then Rashid Latif is left as the only choice as an interim captain. But his 'announced' retirement from test cricket means that this possibility is pretty much ruled out unless he changes his mind. Another candidate is Wasim Akram (again media reports quote him as wanting to carry on for a year after calling it quits earlier) who has the natural aggression to be a successful leader but who the board eventually prefers - Wasim or Miandad - will be an interesting decision.

There is also talk about Moin Khan being given the role. I think he does not deserve to be in the team either as 'keeper or captain. Rashid is way ahead of him with gloves while Moin's defensive mind-set (perhaps even worse than Waqar's) does not make him an ideal captain. This was clearly shown in the last test match in Karachi against England where he tried to stop the scoring rate instead of trying bowling them out, even after getting 4 quick wickets as England chased 140 to win.

My team would now be built around the following players with Javed Miandad as coach and Rashid Latif as captain.

Batsmen: Saeed-Bin-Nasir, Taufeeq Umar, Saeed Anwar, Saleem Elahi, Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Hasan Raza, Faisal Iqbal, Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir and Misbah-ul-Haq.
Bowlers: Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Zahid, Jaffar Nazir, Saqlain Mushtaq, Danish Kaneria and Abdul Razzaq.
Wicket-keepers: Rashid Latif and Kamran Akmal.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and not press the panic button yet!