Ex-Pakistani fast bolwer and current coach of Bahrain talks exclusively to PakPassion.Net

by Pakpassion Staff

Speaking exclusively to PakPassion.Net; the ex-Pakistani fast bowler Mohsin Kamal said that he thought T20 would make cricket more accessible to a wider audience. He feels that the shorter and more aggressive nature of the game levels the playing field a bit more which is why teams like Holland, Ireland and Scotland have done so well in this World Cup.



Mohsin is currently the national coach of the Bahrain team and describes it as a very challenging job. The fact that his players have day jobs means that even for national camps the training is scheduled for 7pm to 10pm at night. The players arrive exhausted from their day jobs and then have to work hard on their cricket training before going straight home to bed so they can get up in time to go to work again in the morning.

Earlier this year he took Bahrain to the final of Division 7 of the World Cricket League in Guernsey where they beat the home team and earned promotion to division 6 next season. Mohsin is signed up for 2 years with the Bahrain side and he believes they have the talent to win division 6 too. Mohsin is also heavily involved in helping to develop Bahrain's domestic cricket structure which is only just being put together.

Mohsin holds a level 3 coaching certificate and has done several high performance coaching courses too. Previously he's coached the Bangladesh team for a year and has held several coaching positions in Pakistan. He describes his Bahrain team as having a lot of talented batsman and all-rounders with more promising youngsters gaining experience with the A team.

When asked about his impression of T20 he said it was fast game where fitness was paramount, he felt that test cricket had benefitted from T20 cricket. He said these days there are a lot more results in Test cricket because players are more aggressive and the pace of tests is a lot faster than ever before.

Mohsin believes that with Australia being knocked out in the first round it's impossible to say which team will win the cup because T20 cricket is too unpredictable. He believes Pakistan has as good a chance as anybody but only if they play to a plan and know their strengths and weaknesses.

He went on to say that players like Butt and Shahzad are better off looking to pierce the gaps than trying to loft the ball over the infielders. He said "If they can get the ball into a gap then in the first 6 overs it will almost always run away for a boundary. They need to play within their limitations and not try to overhit the ball and Shahzad especially needs to learn that you cant hit every ball over the infielders"

Mohsin thinks that another problem with the Pakistani batting plan is that they dont really set themselves a target or that they set themselves too high a target and end up giving up because they're too far short of it. He thinks that they should aim at 160 and then if they still have wickets in hand in the last quarter then they can really launch into the ball and try to maximise their total.

He doesn't think that there's anything wrong with playing in singles and doubles in the middle of the innings because that will give you between 6 to 12 runs per over. He thinks thats good enough as long as there is an attempt to get a boundary or two in each over as well. Moshin insists that there is no need to be trying to hit a boundary on every ball because you will only end up getting yourself out before the 20 overs.

But most of all Mohsin believes that if the team set themselves a reasonable total then most times they will end up exceeding it with some late order hitting and even when they dont, 160 is still defendable.