In an exclusive interview with PakPassion.net, Jalal-ud-din spoke of his general views on the significance of proper coaching in Pakistani and also expressed his frank views on PCB’s attempt to hire a professional bowling coach.

By Amir Husain (29th May, 2012)

 

In a country blessed with almost limitless natural talent amongst its cricket players, the topic of coaching and coaching standards in Pakistan has always been brushed under the carpet as a non-issue. The argument has been that it has been raw talent rather than formal coaching or coaching practices which has produced the likes of greats such Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. Thus, classed more as a nice to have, good coaching practices have never really been considered as prerequisites for the development of cricketers in Pakistan.

Today in Pakistan, amongst the handful of qualified practitioners in the field of cricket coaching, Jalal-ud-din’s name stands out head and shoulders above the rest. Well known in his relatively short career ( 6 Test matches 8 ODIS) as the first bowler to achieve a hattrick in ODI games, Jalal-ud-din is a highly qualified coach holding accreditation at both ECB and PCB level-3.

With the announcement by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) of its intention to employ a qualified bowling coach to work with the newly appointed Head Coach, Dav Whatmore, the topic of cricket coaching has acquired new importance. In an exclusive interview with PakPassion.net, Jalal-ud-din spoke of his general views on the significance of proper coaching in Pakistani and also expressed his frank views on PCB’s attempt to hire a professional bowling coach.

With the exception of the late Bob Woolmer and Geoff Lawson, Pakistani cricket has always preferred international match experience over actual coaching qualifications. Whether this has been a by product of traditional thinking or driven by the administration, Jalal-ud-din is of the opinion that proper qualifications are important in assisting the development of players.

“There are 2 schools of thoughts in Pakistan. There are cricketers who have played a lot of international cricket such as Miandad, Wasim Akram or more recently to some extent, Mohsin Khan who have had no formal training in coaching. In their view, only people who have played cricket extensively should be considered for the role of coach" stated Jalal-ud-din.

He added "In my view, it’s important to have that formal training under your belt as regardless of how many matches you have played as a cricketer and that can be a plus point on its own, there are things that only a qualified coach will be aware of. For example, analyzing a player’s game – whether a batsman or a bowler - via video equipment is a specialist task. Without training to perform this task, one can be shown a video of a player hundreds of times without one realizing the issue at hand. Through video analysis, we can identify the issues and flaws in technique can be rectified but only if you are trained to analyze this information thoroughly.”

Whilst formal coaching methods have been in use globally to enhance a player’s capabilities, there is a belief among many that “over coaching“ also has detrimental effects as is widely believed in the case of the talented all rounder Anwar Ali. This assertion makes no sense to Jalal-ud-din who firmly believes that the question of competence of coaches needs to be addressed before any judgement can be made on the idea of coaching players.

“In terms of over-coaching of individuals, this only happens when there are people who don’t fully understand the role of the coach as is the case with Anwar Ali! We need to stop over coaching in Pakistan and in my view, it’s not only enough to be qualified but you also have to be competent. Whenever a player goes to the National Cricket Academy, the people who work there immediately start focussing on improving the technique of the player. What they should be doing is to keep the natural talent of the player in the forefront.

This is the problem in Pakistan and this is what has happened with Anwar Ali. His action may have had issues but his natural swing was good and in trying to fix his action, they have destroyed that quality. If a player has good inswing, then we should work with that rather than trying to develop his outswing and losing whatever ability he has with him. In this regard, some of the coaches working in Pakistan cricket are incompetent and they are damaging the reputation of other coaches who have qualifications as well. Naturally ability should never be coached out of a cricketer.”

The PCB’s recent attempts at hiring a specialist bowling coach to augment the coaching team headed by Dav Whatmore has drawn mixed responses from observers. Whilst the idea behind the appointment of a professionally qualified coach is a noble one, the methods employed to hire such a person have drawn fire from many including Jalal-ud-din who was an applicant himself.

“The position of bowling coach has been advertised twice and I have also applied twice for that post. On both occasions, the PCB acknowledged my application and stated that they would let me know the status soon as well. I have yet to hear from them about whether I have been rejected or shortlisted or called for an interview. Now I hear that they are planning to advertise for the 3rd time with enhanced requirements etc. It looks to me that people who have been entrusted with this assignment are unable to perform their duties.”

Whilst media reports have indicated a variety of local and foreign applicants for the role of bowling coach for Pakistan, Jalal-ud-din is not inherently against the idea of a foreigner to take on this important role as long as it’s done in a transparent and consistent manner. However, Jalal-ud-din is understandably concerned about the final outcome and the real intentions of the administration as he states “The fact is that the coach can be Pakistani or foreign as long as they conform to the requirements set by the PCB. It seems that when the PCB wants to take an unqualified coach or if they have something in mind, they do so without worrying about anything else. Fact is that there is no logic or consistency and a lot of decisions appear to be pre planned.”