The inertia afflicting the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) when it comes to seemingly simple decisions is nowhere more apparent than in the recent choice of expert help. It’s well known that PCB management, for reasons best known to themselves, is a little hesitant to make ground-breaking decisions regarding coaching appointments.

By Amir Husain (13 December 2012)

The inertia afflicting the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) when it comes to seemingly simple decisions is nowhere more apparent than in the recent choice of expert help. It’s well known that PCB management, for reasons best known to themselves, is a little hesitant to make ground-breaking decisions regarding coaching appointments.

Thus the job of Head Coach Dav Whatmore took almost three months to finalize. The subsequent appointment of Mohammed Akram as bowling coach was a protracted affair and the recent announcement of Inzamam-ul-Haq as batting consultant seems to be another example of a long-winded decision making process.

Make no mistake, all individuals eventually chosen by the PCB are worthy in their own rights but the journey to final selection is not ideal. For starters, the job spec is a little weak. For example, as in the case of Inzamam who has been appointed today for the India and South African series, it is not clear what he is expected to achieve in his role as a batting consultant. What is his remit and how will his success be measured?

Is it simply a case of Pakistan winning the series or are we looking for specific improvement in the skills of players? Will Inzamam be providing a specific program of training or a list of key areas of improvements for each player? Will he be analyzing videos of each bowler and providing input to the Pakistani batting order so that they can work out action plans against the Indian or South African bowling attack? Or will this simply be a case of him teaching batsman some of his own batting techniques – an attempt to replicate Inzamam?

As always, the clarity in such matters is as difficult to pick as one of Saeed Ajmal’s Doosras. The closest we have come to an exact description of Inzamam’s role is a statement from the Chairman of the PCB, Mr. Zaka Ashraf when he stated that "Inzamam will not travel to India, but will pass tips in the camp. However, he will tour South Africa with the team” and to further deepen the mystery of his exact role, we are told that “"Inzamam-ul-Haq has been appointed the batting consultant, not the batting coach.”

So from this, we gather that Inzamam is to step in from time to time and impart some tips to the batsmen. However, he is not the coach but performing more of an advisory role. This is hardly the idea of a coach or mentor that many of us were expecting. The fact is the Pakistani batting on a given day is unable to put up scores that challenge any top team. The fact that they have been able to win in Test matches may well be due to a few good performances by some batsmen or a result of the wizardry brought into play by the likes of Ajmal and Abdur Rehman – it does not indicate any real supremacy in the batting department. Pakistan needs to develop a solid opening partnership and a middle order which does not rely on one or two players. To do this will require hours of work in the nets with deeper analysis of the weaknesses of each player. This will not be achieved by Inzamam stepping in once in a while to show a few of his favourite strokes. There is, in summary, a need for a full time coach who will observe, understand and recommend carefully thought-out changes to a batsman’s technique.

As always in Pakistani cricket, many decisions are on an ad-hoc basis, made for the short term with no real long term thought put in to see the bigger picture. Thus the sports psychologist, Maqbool “Max” Babri, will suddenly appear for this tour and impart motivational speeches to players and apparently disappear into the sunset when this series is over! Without realizing that building the mental aspect of the game and motivating oneself is not a two-week assignment, but something that takes years to perfect, this would be another example of a high-profile low-yield exercise which will get PCB headlines but achieve little. A more long term view of this would be to install such a person with every major domestic team or at the very least, provide this facility as part of the NCA program.

Obviously, if Pakistan emerge as outright winners, all these issues will be brushed under the carpet and a state of perfection declared! This is exactly the type of short term relief that we need to watch out for. Of course, we must also appreciate that the PCB has given some thought to these matters and that Inzamam and Max Babri do represent expertise in their respective areas but a more well thought out plan for their skills would have been a better approach. That in itself will be a leap forward for the PCB.

Discuss