After crossing the first hurdle of accumulating the fragmented pieces of Pakistan Cricket following the disastrous show in the world cup, the second hurdle of assembling a team for a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi was also “amicably” overcome.

After going through the team combination it was quite obvious that the new writers (selectors) have written an old script, as some nine members of the World Cup squad were retained in the Abu Dhabi bound squad, and only two new faces emerged in the first ever squad announcement after the World Cup. Fawad Alam, the young Karachi all-rounder, and Najaf Shah, the left-arm fast medium bowler from Rawalpindi were picked.

The 39 probable announced for the Abu Dhabi series on April 22nd included only 15 new faces. Surely the motive of the Pakistan cricket administration was to focus on the 2011 world cup as well as the major assignments down the road, then why more young players were not included in the bunch of 39 players, although, it does not seem likely that Misbah-ul-Haq aged 32, Asim Kamal aged 31, Naveed Latif aged 31, Shabbir Ahmed aged 31 and Shahid Nazir aged 29 could make it to the next World Cup, therefore more young players could have been included in the camp at the expense of these players.

Moreover, it was high time to bring in the rotation policy with good effect, by resting the players who have been tried and tested many a times to incorporate new players. Players like Muhammad Yousuf, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Kamran Akmal etc could have been replaced with new faces because it will only benefit the Pakistan cricket by securing its future.

The new Pakistan captain, Shoaib Malik has no doubt a huge task ahead as he is young and the past experiences of revolts against junior captains would certainly be at the back of his mind. The appointment of 25-year old Shoaib Malik is seen as a bold step however the outcome is yet to be seen, therefore keep your fingers crossed, and hope for the best.

Shifting away from the skipper and coming to Mohammad Asif who was appointed vice captain, he is no doubt a good choice, but he would be better off under the wings of an experienced leader, but this is not the question of concern right now, there is another dilemma encircling Asif after the doping episode. Although, the Pakistan Cricket Board has cleared both Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar, but the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) was unhappy with the decision and was set to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland. The ICC also supported the WADA appeal adding, that it was committed to a dope free game. How this issue would be tackled if raised by the ICC or WADA in the future?

Interestingly, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Asif have one thing in common, before their appointments for their respective positions, both were surrounded by controversies. Shoaib had admitted throwing away a 20Twenty match deliberately, and Asif had the doping scar. Since, Shoaib’s case was resolved prior to his appointment as captain therefore it is believed that the PCB had at least consulted with the WADA and ICC to relax the nerves of young Mohammad Asif.

Finally coming to another important post, the coach for the national side. The PCB had already given an advertisement with a heavy-duty criterion, and Chairman Nasim Ashraf said that they would wait till May 15 for more coaches to file for the job before taking a final decision. Earlier, many former greats urged PCB to form a technical committee like the Indian cricket board to select the coach. Countering the demand, PCB Chairman said in a May 07 press conference that Mudassar Nazar, Zakir Khan and Imtiaz Ahmed will choose the best coach from the applicants.

Apart from Mudassar Nazar who has played 76 test matches and also has considerable amount of coaching experience under his belt, neither Zakir Khan nor Imtiaz Ahmed has an impressive record with two and 41 test matches to their credit respectively. For the all important committee, an out of the box solution should have been found by also considering people outside the PCB setup. Many believe that a foreign coach will not be suitable for our team and the past experiences prove this opinion right, because under two foreign coaches (Richard Pybus and Bob Woolmer), Pakistan were knocked out of the first rounds of 2003 and 2007 world cups respectively. On the other hand, another school of thought, suggests that a local coach would get involved in politics, they quoted the example of Javed Miandad, who has served as coach for three separate terms and left after unpleasant events every time. In such a situation, what should be done?

The question that I would like to ask is that do we really need specialist coaches for every department of the game? What a coach can do with people having played over one hundred matches yet faulty in their techniques. We should look for some other options to overcome the problems being faced by the Pakistan cricket.

In my opinion, just before the final stage of representing the national squad, a penultimate phase should be introduced. A young player should be selected for the stage and then get trained under qualified coaches. For this stage I believe, qualified (foreign or local) coaches should be hired. The coaches for the bunch should be assigned a duty to grade a player on the basis of his ability, and performance during the course of his training.

If a coach is assigned to grade players after every three months or any other span of time, then the boys will be motivated to do well, and the end result will definitely be in Pakistan’s favour.

The proposed scheme would act as a filtration plant at the very last end, which would provide the national team with a refined product in the form of a trained individual who can replace any injured or an out-of-form player. Moreover, the rotation policy will also be effective with this liberty of having a large group of trained players, and by doing so we will have more than eleven players ready to represent the team at the top level, and situation like the current World Cup could be avoided when we had no one to replace Shoaib Akhtar, Muhammad Asif, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq or Kamran Akmal. It will also keep the playing eleven on its toes.

The question arises that do I want to say that the national team should be left alone with nobody to guide them through? What I believe is that there would be no need of a heavy-duty coach for the national team as the boys coming into the team would be properly groomed by the time of their debuts. Yes, a strategist would be needed to chalk out the approach to a match accordingly, and a physical trainer would be required to keep an eye on the fitness level of every individual and to take endeavours to fix any problem in this all important aspect of the game.

To initiate the practice the players of the under-19 team, which won the world cup competition along with upcoming youngsters from the domestic circuit should be picked for the penultimate pool and provide them with the best of coaches so that their imperfections can be rectified before the final stage of representing the nation.

It is indeed a good move by the PCB to engage legendry Wasim Akram for a few weeks to train youngsters. Now this exercise should be stretched further, and other people like Javed Miandad, Rashid Latif, Aaqib Javed, Abdul Qadir, Intikhab Alam etc. should be engaged to train the youngsters in the earlier proposed setup.

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