Cricketfiles.com

After a dismal performance of Pakistan team in NewZealand and Australia the fans demanded wholesale changes in the team and the PCB set up. An inquiry committee was set to investigate the reasons for the team’s poor performance and to recommend changes for the forthcoming T20 WC.

Almost one month has passed but the the inquiry committee’s report although it has been submitted to the Chairman but it has not been made public, as regards the changes historically, the support staff and the chief selector have always been soft targets and always become the first casuality after every loss. This time also things are progressing in the same manner, Iqbal Qasim knowing that he will be relieved of his duties resigned like his predecessor. Intikhab Alam and Abdul Raqueeb were not going to resign themselves therefore they were fired. But the top PCB management again survived, the main culprits the core group of senior players who underperformed are almost certain to survive, PCB might fine Kamran Akmal and Afridi but they are not going to take any further action.

Pakistan’s outgoing coach in past has held a key position with the team mangement whenever the team got embroiled in match fixing controversies, he was too old for the job in the first place why a controversial person was handed over the job in the first place and why we appointed two cricketers with tainted past in his place.

Nobody can deny Waqar’s and Ejaz Ahmad’s credentials but nobody can also deny that right now the team needed people in the support staff with a squeaky clean record.

Waqar in his previous stint as assistant coach was surprisingly banned from touring with the team on foreign tours and Waqar in protest resigned from the post, later on Mushtaq Ahmad was appointed as his replacement who was allowed to travel with the team, why he was stopped to travel with the team and his successor was allowed ? we don’t know. But it for sure creates some doubts about him.

After the Australian tour Waqar issued a statement in the press that he was going to tell everything that went on in Australia to the Senate’s sports committee, but later on back tracked on his statement and said that he will submit his report to the inquiry committee. Did he got this job as a result of blackmailing? He didn’t produce any results as a bowling coach in Australia in fact the performance of Pakistan’s bowlers became from bad to worse as the series progressed. With the exception of Asif and Sami no other bowler performed decently.

Waqar can certainly help Aamer and Umar Gul to a certain extent but if Pakistan needs a bowling coach he should have been appointed at the Academy so that budding fast bowlers like Aizaz Cheema, Sohail Khan, Mohammad Talha and Wahab Riaz could benefit from him there was no need to appoint a bowler as a head coach as Pakistan’s main worry is their batting and fielding about which Waqar is clueless. Ejaz Ahmad will take care of fielding and batting but he too has a tainted past and it seems that the old mafia is gradually taking over Pakistan’s cricket team, instead of doing an operation clean up the corrupt administrators have reinforced their position by appointing like minded people at every key post.

Is Ejaz Ahmed good enough to coach Mohammad Yousaf? can he change the mentality of Imran Nazir or Shahid Afridi? The current core group of players have at least 8-15 years of experience nobody can improve them. What we really needed was a Video analyst who could devise strategy by studying the opposition and who could identify the flaws in techniques of our own players, I don’t think that either Waqar or Ejaz has any experience in Video analysis.

The changes made are just for the sake of maintaining status-quo as far as the control over the team by a certain group is concerned.

A selector usually is a person who is deeply involved in domestic cricket, Mohsin hasn’t been involved in domestic cricket for quite a while, I doubt if he even knows about all the upcoming young players.

He said that he was interested in the coaching job but PCB made him the Chief selector, apparently he is just another jobless ex cricketer desperate to get any job. He is not strong enough to bring about the required changes he will just be used as a rubber stamp. Out of all the new appointments his was the most meaningless and less likely to produce any positive results.

Why we change the Chief selector after every series and retain all the under performing players?

We dropped Yawar Saeed for a reason after SriLanka series why he has been brought back?

There is no continuity in any of the PCB’s policies except that they will do anything to retain the underperforming players and after every lost series they will change the support staff to look busy and satisfy the angry fans.

The purpose of the inquiry committee is only to buy some time for the under performing players to perform domestically and confuse the fans. After the RBS T20 cup no fan will ask for the ouster of Rana, Akmal, Farhat, Faisal and a few others.

The young and upcoming players who are being ignored since several years will be again ignored, the RBS cup has been rigged by making a few  teams too strong as a result all the semi finalist teams will consist of Key National players.

We have tested and tried these players for too long same players will produce same results, this is the key point Mohsin Khan & co should realize and they should show some balls to make the required changes.